Liam Devlin
SOC-14 5K
GREAT Shtuff MB! fantastic! 
Starports
- Thread starter atpollard
- Start date
mbrinkhues
SOC-14 1K
Non-technical installations to find on/near a Starport:
Side note: The Imperial Starport is Imperial Territory under Imperial Jurisdiction.
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The equivalent to a regional airport services at most by a prop plane. It will have
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Now we go in the region of secondary airports. We get additional stuff like:
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Side note: The Imperial Starport is Imperial Territory under Imperial Jurisdiction.
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- A criminal that escapes there is technically beyond the reach of planetary law. In reality there are most likely extradiction laws, if there is a port authority</font>
- Any cargo that is handled on the port, including transfer between traders is not subject to taxes. Only if it leaves port proper in anything past a ship to another imperial port can local taxes apply</font>
- Sometimes the port will have an independent power supply because either the locals have no power grid, charge extrem prices or are generally unfriendly to the port</font>
- The extrality fence is getting stronger by the difference in law levels between 3I and world as well as by the difference in personal freedom between the two.</font>
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- A number of border posts, a fence or a similar demarcation that designates the "Imperial Free-Trade Zone" that is part of the Imperial Starport.</font>
- If telefones exist, most likely a telefone to contact local customs/the next town major etc. On lower tech ports this might be replaced by a bell or signal flares</font>
- A small hut with port electronics (beacon) and maybe a power source for them</font>
- Unless the planet has a high xenophobia travelling kitchens, traders, cabbies and guides will appear just past the extrality line shortly after a ship lands</font>
- If the starport sees regular visits local customs likely has a keeper/taxman/customs guy settled or stationed nearby, just past the extrality line. This may be a post similar to the Lighthouse-Keepers of Scotland, guy with a family living there, maybe the job has been "in the family" for generations</font>
The equivalent to a regional airport services at most by a prop plane. It will have
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- A basic tower. This may very well be a trailer with a pair of good binoculars and a radio</font>
- A small building for the basic electronics and maybe a power supply</font>
- A low-grade restaurant. This can be a corner fast food shop with three plastic tables, a bald Aslan cook and an overweight Vagr waitress or a decend family style restaurant(1)</font>
- Some storage shacks, little more than weather protection</font>
- A small customs/immigrations building on the other side of the fence. In a lower tech setting this may very well be a barrack for the troops quartered here</font>
- If the locals don't like the 3I or have steep taxes, a few small shops selling bare essentials (basic cloth, basic food, likely only one of each) and a small motel (4-12 legged co-inhabitants free of charge)</font>
- A blackboard with the contact information for freight agents</font>
- Any repairs are likely a guy with a mid-sized truck coming to your ship and doing the job there</font>
Now we go in the region of secondary airports. We get additional stuff like:
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- Travell agency with a permanent booth</font>
- Fright agents with an on-port office</font>
- Secure storage warehouses</font>
- If the natives are resonably there will be a link to the local transportation networks just past customs. Customs might actually BE the entrance.</font>
- There will be a set of shops and a motel/hotel even IF the natives are friendly since transfer passengers might not want to go through customs while having a 6-36hours (depending on jump) layover</font>
- There is likely a hiring hall where spacers seek jobs or employees</font>
- Honest Han's used starships might have an office here</font>
- Lawyers will be present</font>
Arthur Denger
SOC-12
Nice work, Michael and Daniel!
Liam Devlin
SOC-14 5K
Berg, Arthur hault-Denger, ravs:
Thank you for the kind words. Our aim, is precisely as ravs quoted me. We aim to achieve a systemless (user-friendly, drop into any Trav game) guidebook to help folks better unwrap/ unravel the hexadecimal UWP puzzle, without a lot of dice rolling (Some division/ multiplication will be involved).
If you've schlepped a cargo of 5x 4dton ctns of raw Shemdur fertilizer, and busted off the portside cargo ramp on your Type A1 ship getting it off, you know where to go to get that fixed, right?
When you're looking at monthly maintenance, you know which port you're going to for a ship your size right?
When time is money, and refueling on refined fuel for your ship is needed, which port has it cheapest?
When its time to do annual overhaul, and the crew gets shoreleave for 15-30 days, you know which port you're doing it at, right?
if you don't, you'll like our book.
If you already know the answers, why didn't you volunteer to help me & the team sooner?
Thank you for the kind words. Our aim, is precisely as ravs quoted me. We aim to achieve a systemless (user-friendly, drop into any Trav game) guidebook to help folks better unwrap/ unravel the hexadecimal UWP puzzle, without a lot of dice rolling (Some division/ multiplication will be involved).
if you don't, you'll like our book.
If you already know the answers, why didn't you volunteer to help me & the team sooner?
One note sirs,
In the USA today, Air Traffic is "tracked" by the IFF transponders carried on the air craft. Radars are only used for final approach and or landings.
I am all too familiar with this due during my service to the USN, my ship had a new radar system installed in Long Beach Naval Shipyard along with a new IFF system.
Seems for two weeks we "jammed" out LAX's IFF and radar system. It only took them two weeks to locate us tied to a pier. True we were not "Active" all the time but....
In the USA today, Air Traffic is "tracked" by the IFF transponders carried on the air craft. Radars are only used for final approach and or landings.
I am all too familiar with this due during my service to the USN, my ship had a new radar system installed in Long Beach Naval Shipyard along with a new IFF system.
Seems for two weeks we "jammed" out LAX's IFF and radar system. It only took them two weeks to locate us tied to a pier. True we were not "Active" all the time but....
I found the following data and thought it might help provide some color as the project progresses:
I found it interesting that a Class C port could build a small craft of up to 10 MCr and TL 8 with local resources (that means vehicles up to the size of a launch).
Could the 10 MCr limit represent a dividing line between needing a “repair” at a Class C port and needing a “rebuild” at a Class B port?
I thought that Class B ports handling a lot of starship customization was a nice piece of color.
I found it interesting that a Class C port could build a small craft of up to 10 MCr and TL 8 with local resources (that means vehicles up to the size of a launch).
Could the 10 MCr limit represent a dividing line between needing a “repair” at a Class C port and needing a “rebuild” at a Class B port?
Liam Devlin
SOC-14 5K
Originally posted by atpollard:
I found the following data and thought it might help provide some color as the project progresses:
Yes, its a nice bit of chroming to the issue at hand--Good find, I'd missed that atpollard!
It also presents the facts that:
even C-class ports (which formerly housed Imperial Naval bases in the MT era outset) have shipbuilding capability--
and if one can build there, then this places a C-class port, TL8 world as a Hard Times era-and later periods for establishing an operational Orbital port (albeit much smaller growing than the downside one ravs has been showing.).
Earlier rulings (CT & JTAS) on population set at UWP 6 added to this come close to to the Pocket empire rules for world-members of D-class, TL8, Pop 5 or better for inclusion along J-1 Mains.
This of course changes in the Post-Collapse period, as seen by examples of the Reformation Coalition, and the lower pop worlds (4-0) are treated as colonies/ outposts in membership, and boast even an E-class port as a minimum.
mbrinkhues
SOC-14 1K
- So ... would this bring the concept of sanctuary in to the mix - like the medieval churches. Criminals can still be extradited, but subject to Imperial law rather than local law.
</font>[/QUOTE]Yes, basically an Imperial Starport would work as a sanctuary. And raises a couple of questions:</font>
- Say you have just shot the Kings Deer and the Sheriffs man are after you with a nice hemp collar. You have commited theft by Imperial Law so they might extradict you. OTOH the resulting punishment is way out of proportion to the crime. So will they do it?</font>
- How does Sanctuary work on a Class E port since that is likely unmanned most of the time? I can see lots of special rulings and customs evolving</font>
- Imagin you are "Opressive Dictatorship 4711/0815" and your citizens must commit public suicide once an implanted "lifemeter" runs out. Some instead decide to become "Walkers" and refuse to do so. How do you prevent them from walking to the starport?</font>
- Imagin the opposite, a world where the system is a collectiv anarchy (Similar to Nagasaki Divide or Visitors from Yesteryear). How do you protect the poor Imperials from your society?</font>
mbrinkhues
SOC-14 1K
Another issue: Time/Measurement keeping
The 3I uses a rather artificial calendar with equal length month, no leap year etc. This works nice for a high tech, interstellar civilisation (let's assume they can keep the time in sync) but will not work for a TL4- agricultural world(1).
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(1)One of the reasons for the lost days when switching to Gregorian Dates was to bring calendar dates and seasonal cycle back into sync
(2)In most versions strangely related to the metric system. A switch to Imperial system was the reason Dulinor missed Strephon in GT, he mixed the "90 feet range" of his pistol with "90 meters"
The 3I uses a rather artificial calendar with equal length month, no leap year etc. This works nice for a high tech, interstellar civilisation (let's assume they can keep the time in sync) but will not work for a TL4- agricultural world(1).
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- What time system is used on an Imperial Port? Do they run on SMT (Sylean Mean Time)</font>
- Same question for a Starship</font>
- The 3I (hopefully) uses a standard set of weights and measurements(2). But planets have home rule. What do they use?</font>
(1)One of the reasons for the lost days when switching to Gregorian Dates was to bring calendar dates and seasonal cycle back into sync
(2)In most versions strangely related to the metric system. A switch to Imperial system was the reason Dulinor missed Strephon in GT, he mixed the "90 feet range" of his pistol with "90 meters"
User Input
This may have been brought up in other replies but....
I would like to see the Citizens have a chance at input. Something like a
NOW LEASING sign hung out so that members of COTI could offer their own shots at the shops, restaurants, etc. that could be found in a starport.
Some would be typical; restaurants, bars, clothing shops. But there might be a few exotic ideas that would not be so far-fetched that they wouldn't be worth publishing.
Just my CR .02 worth.
This may have been brought up in other replies but....
I would like to see the Citizens have a chance at input. Something like a
NOW LEASING sign hung out so that members of COTI could offer their own shots at the shops, restaurants, etc. that could be found in a starport.
Some would be typical; restaurants, bars, clothing shops. But there might be a few exotic ideas that would not be so far-fetched that they wouldn't be worth publishing.
Just my CR .02 worth.
