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Traders and Gunboats

ThunderChilde

ThunderChilde

SOC-13
I picked Traders and Gunboats last night and had a chance to look it through a bit today.

I like what I see, by and large. It addresses the questions about what kinds of things drones might be built to do amoung other things. Dunno if I agree with the logic of the countermeasures drone being only effective at short range, and useless at longer ranges. The closer you are the more powerful and sensitive your sensors will be, so it seems to me. Countermeaures Drone is for jamming at short range. Meh, long range obfuscation would seem to be a better function to me.

Aside from that it looks to be a fine broad view of what is in service in various places and tech levels.

It also details a number of both pirate and anti-pirate ships.
 
It sounds good. I didn't even know it was coming out. Have to look for it

ThunderChilde said:
I picked Traders and Gunboats last night and had a chance to look it through a bit today.

I like what I see, by and large. It addresses the questions about what kinds of things drones might be built to do amoung other things. Dunno if I agree with the logic of the countermeasures drone being only effective at short range, and useless at longer ranges. The closer you are the more powerful and sensitive your sensors will be, so it seems to me. Countermeaures Drone is for jamming at short range. Meh, long range obfuscation would seem to be a better function to me.

Aside from that it looks to be a fine broad view of what is in service in various places and tech levels.

It also details a number of both pirate and anti-pirate ships.
Click to expand...
 
I enjoyed it. I think it missed the production errors of HG and added a lot of new ships to the MGT universe.

Mike
 
There are some old familiar favourites in there, tucked away. At first glance you may not recognise them from the deckplans or artwork, but once you actually refresh your memory by checking with the CT T&GBs, the lightbulb of enlightment clicks on..... :D
 
This book does have its share of laffers, head scratchers, and "what?" bits, though.

No modules for the Modular Skiff.

The Kinunir analog is mighty flat, with most of its 1200 dtons on *one* deck.

The Large Freighter lacks a picture of the starship. The picture for that section appears to be the Large Freighter's *shuttle*.

The number of flying phalli is significantly above zero, and the number of subcraft with long, slim artwork and stubby deckplans doesn't help.

Also, what is up with all the asymmetric hulls? Based on that alone, the cover of the book spelled "IISS Ship Files" wrong.
 
I found that to be true. I had to force myself to watch season 1, but since I was watching it on video, it wasn't too difficult to slog my way through. Once you get into the end of season 2 and into 3, I was downing those episodes faster than a table full of gamers facing on solitary bag of chips.

As for T&G... I'm impressed. I flipped through a copy yesterday and I really liked what I saw. If I had the spare cash in hand, I would've picked it up no questions asked.
 
GypsyComet said:
The number of flying phalli is significantly above zero, and the number of subcraft with long, slim artwork and stubby deckplans doesn't help.
Click to expand...
This one always has me wondering. Is it that ingrained in our psyches? Is it just easier to draw them that way? Do they make sense? Does a sphere make better sense? yada yada yada...
 
spinwardpirate said:
This one always has me wondering. Is it that ingrained in our psyches? Is it just easier to draw them that way? Do they make sense? Does a sphere make better sense? yada yada yada...
Click to expand...

When I designed my original MTU I specifically set the rules to prefer Doc Smith style spherical ships.

But yeah, V-2 style ships are easy to draw, and they look good because it looks like they've already got motion lines when they're long and lean. Of course, if you're doing streamlined ships you can justify an aspect ratio of 4:1 or greater as drag reduction.
 
spinwardpirate said:
This one always has me wondering. Is it that ingrained in our psyches? Is it just easier to draw them that way? Do they make sense? Does a sphere make better sense? yada yada yada...
Click to expand...
When I started science fiction roleplaying the Traveller starships seemed out-
right ridiculous to me, because I was coming from the Perry Rhodan science
fiction series, where almost all major human ships were (and, more than forty
years later, still are) spherical. :D
 
spinwardpirate said:
This one always has me wondering. Is it that ingrained in our psyches? Is it just easier to draw them that way? Do they make sense? Does a sphere make better sense? yada yada yada...
Click to expand...
It depends on how they operate to a large degree, how the drive system works.

When Miguel Alcubierra's paper came out on warp drive, I noted that the shape of the warp bubble would restrict ship geometry to flattened disks. Such shapes would fill the resulting warp bubble, without touchiing the bubble walls, which would be bad due to the extreme curvature. So my ships tend to be flying saucers. In space, they fly along their central axis, or 'vertically' rather than horizontally like an aircraft. But that is because of the chosen technology, and it is not strictly Traveller.

With Lantheium (-2sp) grids, in theory it does not matter what shape the ship is, from a functional or drive aspect. You would have to worry about the jump space enviroment, which shapes would better slip through it. (Is there such a thing as Jump Space Drag?)
 
Drakon said:
...(Is there such a thing as Jump Space Drag?)
Click to expand...

Not canonically, or my memory is fuzzy on it. I've often pondered such, and invented a rule for Navigator skill being applied throughout the jump* to keep the ship "in the bubble". The smoother Nav can ease the ship into the bubble and keep it balanced there, the smoother, quicker, more precise and predictable the ride is. Of course in MTU you know, with a very large degree of certainty to a very fine degree of accuracy, exactly how long a jump will take and where it will put you. For as long ahead of the actual jump as you desire. If everything is properly plotted and accounted for ;)

* to keep the Navigator busy and earning that salary
 
far-trader said:
Not canonically, or my memory is fuzzy on it. I've often pondered such, and invented a rule for Navigator skill being applied throughout the jump* to keep the ship "in the bubble". The smoother Nav can ease the ship into the bubble and keep it balanced there, the smoother, quicker, more precise and predictable the ride is. Of course in MTU you know, with a very large degree of certainty to a very fine degree of accuracy, exactly how long a jump will take and where it will put you. For as long ahead of the actual jump as you desire. If everything is properly plotted and accounted for ;)

* to keep the Navigator busy and earning that salary
Click to expand...
First off, as long as the jump machinery is inside the hull, then staying inside the bubble should be fairly doable. Now, how this bubble moves through jump space, what eddies and currents exist that bounce the bubble around, well...:evil grin

The length of time spent in jump space would naturally determine fuel efficiency, so maybe we can work out some rules for that. Closer to exact points means that less fuel is used, which means more profit for your PCs.
 
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