Universe size comparisons with the Silk Road

[Adam Dray]

For fun, I did some basic research on the Silk Road. (Okay, I looked it up in Wikipedia.)

It's about 6,000 km long. Regarding the Persian Royal Road, which was 2,857 km long, Wikipedia says:

"By having fresh horses and riders ready at each relay, royal couriers could carry messages the entire distance in nine days, while normal travellers took about three months."

So I imagine that a journey across the entire thing was about 24 weeks long, but the royal couriers could do it in 3 weeks.

In Traveller terms, I'm imagine that the royal couriers are X-boats, naturally, but they're making 8-parsec jumps, and that the "normal travellers" are taking their time with 1-parsec jumps, or perhaps going a bit faster but taking a little extra time in each system.

That would make the distance covered by the Silk Road comparable to a 24-parsec swath of space in Traveller. That's about two sectors long.

Traveller space is big.

 

[aramis]

In Traveller terms, I'm imagine that the royal couriers are X-boats, naturally, but they're making 8-parsec jumps, and that the "normal travellers" are taking their time with 1-parsec jumps, or perhaps going a bit faster but taking a little extra time in each system.

X-boats average J3.3 per 9 days, while the data averages J3.3 per 8.5 or so, assuming relay availability is 100%.
Merchant shipping averages J1 per 14
Liner service averages about J2.5 per 14.

Which gives a rough, per 28 day month, of
X-mail 10.9 Pc
Merchant 2 Pc
Liner 5Pc.

Not quite the same multiplier as X-mail.

 

[Timerover51]

If you assume that the average X-boat communication rate is 2.6 parsecs a week, in three months or 13 weeks you cover 33.8 or 34 parsecs. I would assume that a 6 month communication lag is about the most that could occur to maintain some authority on the fringes of an empire. Therefore, in My Traveller Universe, the maximum size of an empire are those star systems with about 34 or so parsecs of the capitol.

If you look at the MegaTraveller Referee Guide, which I do occasionally when the fit takes me, I view the maximum size of an empire at about the size of the Terran Confederation on the back cover.

 

[rancke]

X-boats average J3.3 per 9 days, while the data averages J3.3 per 8.5 or so, assuming relay availability is 100%.
Merchant shipping averages J1 per 14
Liner service averages about J2.5 per 14.

Information going by regular merchant shipping ought to average J3 per 8 days (assuming the information is transferred to ships that are about to jump out not too long after a ship arrives at a destination. J4 liners would average J4 per 8 days.

Which gives a rough, per 28 day month, of
X-mail 10.9 Pc
Merchant 2 Pc
Liner 5Pc.

Which overlooks the fastest means of information distribution available, J6 couriers, roughly 6 parsecs per week.

By using multiple couriers for each link you can even get the information speed up to 6 parsecs in a few hours less than a week, though that would arguably be prohibitively expensive.


Hans

 

[Timerover51]

Has anyone ever figured out the travel time from the Imperial Capitol to Regina or Terra using the standard X-boat rate of 2.6 parsecs a week?

 

[aramis]

Information going by regular merchant shipping ought to average J3 per 8 days (assuming the information is transferred to ships that are about to jump out not too long after a ship arrives at a destination. J4 liners would average J4 per 8 days.


Which overlooks the fastest means of information distribution available, J6 couriers, roughly 6 parsecs per week.

By using multiple couriers for each link you can even get the information speed up to 6 parsecs in a few hours less than a week, though that would arguably be prohibitively expensive.


Hans

Per 8 days, and about 5.3 Pc.... for about 16:1 over J1 merchant...
And it requires both a larger drive and a larger minimum hull...
Bk 2-77: 400Td+, vs 100Td, simply to get the crew needed into the hull. 200 if you yank the MD and PP. And TL10 vs TL9.
Bk2-81: 800Td vs 100Td, no MD. But you also go to TL15 instead of TL 10, as well.

Bk5-'80/T20: 200Td, J6 P6 M1... vs 100Td J4 P4 M1. Both having a handful of cargo tons and a turret. At TL15. The TL13 J4 has the same perfomance.

Bk2-77	Bk2-81	Bk5-80
400 Hull 020 Bridge 240 Fuel-Jump 010 Fuel-PP/MD 065 JD M=6 003 MD B=1 007 PP B=1 024 Crew SR PNEEEM 004 Model/4 027 Cargo	600 Hull 020 Bridge 480 Fuel-Jump 060 Fuel-PP 115 JD X=6 007 MD D=1 067 PP D=1 036 Crew SR PN(6E)M 007 Model 6 008 Cargo	200 Hull 020 Bridge 120 JFuel 012 PFuel 014 JD 6 006 MD 1 006 PP 6 012 Crew SR PNE 007 Model 6 003 Cargo
100 Hull 020 Bridge 040 JFuel 010 PFuel* 015 JD B=4 001 MD A=2* 004 PP A=2* 004 SR x1 C(e+p) 003 Model 3 003 cargo * 14 days only	200 Hull 020 Bridge 080 JFuel 040 PFuel 025 JD D=4 001 MD A=1 013 PP D=4 016 SR PNEM 004 Model 4	100 Hull 020 Bridge 040 JFuel 004 PFuel 005 JD 4 003 MD 1 008 PP-12 4 004 Model 4 008 Crew SR PE 008 Cargo

Mongoose looks much like Bk2-81. I've not run the numbers recently. It may be possible to squeak a J6 into 600 Td.

T20 looks almost identical to Bk5-81, while HT looks exactly like Bk5-81.

 

[salochin999]

For fun, I did some basic research on the Silk Road. (Okay, I looked it up in Wikipedia.)

It's about 6,000 km long. Regarding the Persian Royal Road, which was 2,857 km long, Wikipedia says:

"By having fresh horses and riders ready at each relay, royal couriers could carry messages the entire distance in nine days, while normal travellers took about three months."

So I imagine that a journey across the entire thing was about 24 weeks long, but the royal couriers could do it in 3 weeks.

In Traveller terms, I'm imagine that the royal couriers are X-boats, naturally, but they're making 8-parsec jumps, and that the "normal travellers" are taking their time with 1-parsec jumps, or perhaps going a bit faster but taking a little extra time in each system.

That would make the distance covered by the Silk Road comparable to a 24-parsec swath of space in Traveller. That's about two sectors long.

Traveller space is big.

Interesting idea to compare the times.

 

[Blue Ghost]

For fun, I did some basic research on the Silk Road. (Okay, I looked it up in Wikipedia.)

It's about 6,000 km long. Regarding the Persian Royal Road, which was 2,857 km long, Wikipedia says:

"By having fresh horses and riders ready at each relay, royal couriers could carry messages the entire distance in nine days, while normal travellers took about three months."

So I imagine that a journey across the entire thing was about 24 weeks long, but the royal couriers could do it in 3 weeks.

In Traveller terms, I'm imagine that the royal couriers are X-boats, naturally, but they're making 8-parsec jumps, and that the "normal travellers" are taking their time with 1-parsec jumps, or perhaps going a bit faster but taking a little extra time in each system.

That would make the distance covered by the Silk Road comparable to a 24-parsec swath of space in Traveller. That's about two sectors long.

Traveller space is big.

Towards the end of my 2nd gaming group, the guys decided to head back to Earth after tearing up the Marches. Assuming no layovers, the fastest you could get to Terra from Regina (as the X-boat flies) would be just under two years.

Take that for what it's worth.

 

[Timerover51]

Towards the end of my 2nd gaming group, the guys decided to head back to Earth after tearing up the Marches. Assuming no layovers, the fastest you could get to Terra from Regina (as the X-boat flies) would be just under two years.

Take that for what it's worth.

That is about what I was thinking, so in practical terms, you could take three years or so one way.

 

[Meeko100]

Towards the end of my 2nd gaming group, the guys decided to head back to Earth after tearing up the Marches. Assuming no layovers, the fastest you could get to Terra from Regina (as the X-boat flies) would be just under two years.

Take that for what it's worth.

Yeah...

That's part of my reason for splintering the imperium into smaller states. I left the Aslan and vargr alone ( the aslan fight among themselves routinely even though they still could band together if they had too, and the vargr already splintered themselves for me!). The hivers... In not going to look over there. They can leave their baby larvae lying around however big a space they want. The Solomani Confederation works fine, as there is plenty of local autonomy (more then the imperium it seems from my cursory research... The Confed seems more like NATO then the Roman Empire), so I left it alone, other then toning down the racism a good whack. They still have a disdain for non-humans, but they are ok with other human races leading government and the like. Vargr and Aslan never manage to get there anyway really. The zhodani have telepathic leadership, so I just have them being all telepathic with each other, and getting the news and other orders out that way. They've spent a good whack of time colonizing uninhabited systems, find thebits where the imperium was to be a bit too resistive to telepathic folks coming and subjugating them.

Hmmm. Too much ramble...