Winged Cat
SOC-10
T5.10 suggests that maximum Importance is +5. However, using the rules as written, you can get up to +7 if you have a starport A or B. TL-G or better, trade codes Ag Ri or Hi In (no other combination is possible - e.g., Ag is mutually exclusive with Hi or In), a naval base, a scout base, and a waystation. That is:
I believe a waystation is supposed to be an upgraded scout base, so you shouldn't be able to have a waystation and a scout base. This would limit maximum importance to +6 (since no system could have the "naval and scout" bonus and the "waystation" bonus). Perhaps T5.11 (and/or T5.10 errata) should address the possibility of +6 Importance (in expected trade volume, and the few other places maximum Importance comes up). Alternately, the Importance generation table could note that any Importance of +6 gets capped to +5.
Looking at Traveller map iconography (the symbols in the hexes, e.g. on TravellerMap), it looks like the map assumes a maximum of three bases: one naval-type (such as code N or K) which gets a symbol in the upper left, one military/scout-type (such as M, S, or V) which gets a symbol in the lower left, and one economic-type (as represented by a trade code, such as Rs or Px) which gets a symbol in the middle left.
So, I wonder if the base generation rules in T5 should be rewritten to allow at most one base of each of the three types. While a world might have multiple bases of a given type, only the most prominent of each type gets listed in the world's record. For instance, if you have a scout waystation, it doesn't matter much that you also have a military base, so that military base would only appear in longer descriptions of the world. Then, change the rule on Importance from bases to be "+1 if you have a naval-type base and a military/scout-type base, or if you have just one of them but it is important by itself in your setting, such as a waystation in a setting where trade and logistics are emphasized" (if we wish to avoid saying "in the OTU" in T5).
EDIT: After discussion on the Discord server, it turns out that something like what I suggest above is what was intended. I have updated https://wiki.travellerrpg.com/T5_Second_Survey to note that this is a problem that the OTU runs into when trying to implement T5 rules, because the OTU uses multiple different codes (in sector listing data) to mean the same sort of thing from T5's perspective. (Best example: S means an Imperial scout base and V means a non-Imperial scout base, but both S and V are a "scout base" from T5's perspective.) Having the potential for +1 for a waystation in addition to +1 from other bases was apparently not intended for T5, and thus needs correction (as suggested above), as does clarification about whether +6 Importance can exist and if so what the expected traffic is.
- +1 for starport A or B
- +2 for TL (if you're TL-G or better, you're also TL-A or better)
- +2 for the right trade codes
- +1 for naval & scout bases
- +1 for a waystation
I believe a waystation is supposed to be an upgraded scout base, so you shouldn't be able to have a waystation and a scout base. This would limit maximum importance to +6 (since no system could have the "naval and scout" bonus and the "waystation" bonus). Perhaps T5.11 (and/or T5.10 errata) should address the possibility of +6 Importance (in expected trade volume, and the few other places maximum Importance comes up). Alternately, the Importance generation table could note that any Importance of +6 gets capped to +5.
Looking at Traveller map iconography (the symbols in the hexes, e.g. on TravellerMap), it looks like the map assumes a maximum of three bases: one naval-type (such as code N or K) which gets a symbol in the upper left, one military/scout-type (such as M, S, or V) which gets a symbol in the lower left, and one economic-type (as represented by a trade code, such as Rs or Px) which gets a symbol in the middle left.
So, I wonder if the base generation rules in T5 should be rewritten to allow at most one base of each of the three types. While a world might have multiple bases of a given type, only the most prominent of each type gets listed in the world's record. For instance, if you have a scout waystation, it doesn't matter much that you also have a military base, so that military base would only appear in longer descriptions of the world. Then, change the rule on Importance from bases to be "+1 if you have a naval-type base and a military/scout-type base, or if you have just one of them but it is important by itself in your setting, such as a waystation in a setting where trade and logistics are emphasized" (if we wish to avoid saying "in the OTU" in T5).
EDIT: After discussion on the Discord server, it turns out that something like what I suggest above is what was intended. I have updated https://wiki.travellerrpg.com/T5_Second_Survey to note that this is a problem that the OTU runs into when trying to implement T5 rules, because the OTU uses multiple different codes (in sector listing data) to mean the same sort of thing from T5's perspective. (Best example: S means an Imperial scout base and V means a non-Imperial scout base, but both S and V are a "scout base" from T5's perspective.) Having the potential for +1 for a waystation in addition to +1 from other bases was apparently not intended for T5, and thus needs correction (as suggested above), as does clarification about whether +6 Importance can exist and if so what the expected traffic is.
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