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When did the Imperium rech TL15?

I want equip my players with a reclaimed Corsair, having been taken forcibly from the pirates they buy it at a public auction complete with bullet holes. All that's been done is a quick hose down of the blood stains & the removal of all the illegal stuff & crews posessions.
The players have an extensive refit to pay for.

Naturally once done sometimes people will need convincing that the ship is now legally operated.

The ship will be unreliable and OLD. Now without going into whether pirates could have a TL15 ship specially built (IMTU it's just a largish merchant ship that's been adapted) How old can it be? How long ago did the Imperium reach TL15?

I really can't be bothered to design an TL13 or 14 version & draw up deck plans when there are TL15 ones readily available.
 
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The Imperium reached TL 15 in 1000. That's canon. But IIRC canon doesn't specifiy exactly what that means.

If you interpret that to mean that the Imperium reached a certain number of worlds with TL 15 and had TL15 ships in general use by then, rather than the date jump-6 was invented (1000 is a suspiciously even number, as are 300 and 700, the dates fro when the Imperium reached TL 13 and 14), then some older ships are possible. Obsolete navy ships, perhaps (I have a theory that the Imperial Navy kept jump-5 and jump-6 a military secret for as long as they could, so an obsolete ship sold out of the navy and refitted for commercial service might be from 1050 or thereabouts).


Hans
 
If the setting is the Spinward Marches just make it an old, really really really old, Darrian ship from when they were briefly TL16, about Imperial Year -924 (yes, that's a minus, as in about 2000 years before the Classic Era). Lost for millenia in deep space before it finally (recently) drifted into a system, was taken by pirates, used for their nefarious schemes, captured, etc.

Nobody really knows where the ship is from, but it looks so old and antiquated that nobody sees the real treasure of it. A functional museum piece with unlocked secrets and tech from an age of glory long past. Of course none of the crew (PCs) reads or speaks ancient Darrian do they? Hmm, interfacing with the computer and actually flying the ship could be difficult without a translator (why do you think the Pirates failed so miserably and were captured so easily with such a high tech wonder).
 
Well MT has a number (> 10 IIRC) of TL16 worlds (real not "old tech still running") in the 3I but the 3I itself is not considered TL16 when Dulinor does the right thing. So a rather high density seems to be needed to make the jump between TL's.
 
Well MT has a number (> 10 IIRC) of TL16 worlds (real not "old tech still running") in the 3I but the 3I itself is not considered TL16 when Dulinor does the right thing. So a rather high density seems to be needed to make the jump between TL's.
Dulinor does the right thing?!

You got to be kidding, Dulinor is treasonous scum and a coward, who in the end is so unsure of his acts that he doesn't wait around and get the Moot to Proclaim him...

Dulinor, bah!
 
Well MT has a number (> 10 IIRC) of TL16 worlds (real not "old tech still running") in the 3I but the 3I itself is not considered TL16 when Dulinor does the right thing. So a rather high density seems to be needed to make the jump between TL's.
Actually, that's another issue that's decidedly murky. CT sources states quite clearly that TL15 is the highest available in the Imperium, which would not really be the case if even a single Imperial world were functionally TL16. The only two TL16 worlds mentioned in CT sources[*] are Darrian and Sabmiqys. Darrian, it turns out, is not really TL16 (it just has some TL16 relics available) and Sabmiqys is... let us say, off limits to Imperial trade ;).


[*] At least, I think they're the only two; please correct me if I'm wrong.


Random world generation would seem to throw up about one TL16 world per sector (I've never actually figured out the exact odds). Vincennes were probably an honest "mistake" (mistake in the sense that whoever rolled up Vincennes should have reduced its TL to the Imperial maximum or come up with an explanation that made Vincennes 'not really TL16 after all'). But DGP introduced 24 high-population TL16 worlds in Massilia Sector!! That would be enough to outfit a lot of Imperial units with TL16 equipment, but funnily enough that doesn't seem to have happened. At least, there's no evidence of it. (There's a mention of experimental TL16 spinal mounts, but that's all).

There's some wiggle room in the 10-15 years between the CT material and the MT material, but to have 24 worlds go from high-end TL15 to fully TL16 in 15 years (and all of them in the same sector) seems rather unlikely.

My suggestion would be to consider all those so-called TL16 worlds to be borderline TL16 in one single technological area apiece. Even if it means having to retcon the very nice writeup of Vincennes in MTJ#1.


Hans
 
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Dulinor does the right thing?!

You got to be kidding, Dulinor is treasonous scum and a coward, who in the end is so unsure of his acts that he doesn't wait around and get the Moot to Proclaim him...

Dulinor, bah!





In GURPS TRAV he was kind enough to explode!
 
Fifth Frontier War has a Tech 16 Mercenary unit

I don't believe it's identified as to it's home but Tech 16 equipment must be available
 
Fifth Frontier War has a Tech 16 Mercenary unit.
Are you sure? What are its detail?

I don't believe it's identified as to it's home but Tech 16 equipment must be available
It would be evidence that sufficient material is available to outfit at least one unit of whatever size the unit has. Which has some fascinating implications (Presumably the state that sells TL16 weapons to mercenaries would also outfit its own military with TL16 stuff). But it's not proof that the equipment came from an Imperial world, and it's certainly not proof that the Imperium has 25+ high-population TL16 worlds.


Hans
 
IMTU NB. not the OTU ;)

I have a few TL16 worlds, but although they are sufficient to provide some experimental hardware to a few elite units in the local subsector, the logistics nightmare of repair and maintenence is sufficiently daunting that the Imperium as a whole cannot claim to be TL16.

I imagine the same would be true for the OTU. You need to be able to sustain a technology in order to claim it as your Imperial Maximum. I'm thinking at least one planet per sector would need to have this level available in order to service the technology. Otherwise, high tech items are merely unsustainable artifacts and curiosities.
 
A Vargr unit, battalion size. Not an Imperial unit, nor a big one. Maybe a field test of some experimental equipment? ISTR a TL16 world in Gvurrdon, but IIRC it has a population of 2.

Anyway, not proof, or even evidence, that the Imperium's highest available TL is 16 rather than 15.


Hans


Sounds like a good place to go barking mad.
 
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