Who uses big ships?

[robject]

So what does [Marc] think a spaceport on a world with a population of twenty billion would look like?

When I asked him specifically about Mora, he seemed to lump it in with the "Big and Bustling" category, which would mean on the order of tens of thousands of passengers (he batted around numbers like 10,000 and 25,000) arriving and leaving per week. 1,000 ships arriving per week, 1,000 ships leaving per week, and appx 5,000 ships berthed at any given moment.

For your example of a 20-billion-person world, it's literally one in a million people who travel in space per week.

Of course using CT you can't boil it down any further than those generalities. On the other hand, for the purposes of playing the game, you need go no further in that direction.

I'm starting another thread to muse on this.

 

[Anthony]

When I asked him specifically about Mora, he seemed to lump it in with the "Big and Bustling" category, which would mean on the order of tens of thousands of passengers (he batted around numbers like 10,000 and 25,000) arriving and leaving per week. 1,000 ships arriving per week, 1,000 ships leaving per week, and appx 5,000 ships berthed at any given moment.

That's not necessarily that out of line, depending on how big those ships are. In Far Trader, Mora has trade of a few million dtons cargo per week, so if the average main route trader is 10,000 dtons, you're down to similar in/out numbers (though what's with 5,000 ships berthed? 500-1000 ships is more likely).

 

[G. Kashkanun Anderson]

That would also depend on what Mora's actual neighbors are, too. Even a world of 20 billion people might not see much traffic offworld if there isn't much of anywhere to go anywhere else in the subsector.

Mora, I think, probably has a good mix of neighbors to insure strong shipping and passenger traffic, even though I'm too lazy to look it up right now. Elsewhere, such as around the Solomani Rim or Core Sectors, enough high-pop, economically interdependent worlds should be mixed into close proximity to each other to insure that trade and travel volumes are significantly higher than they are even for Mora.

 

[dean]

When I asked him specifically about Mora, he seemed to lump it in with the "Big and Bustling" category, which would mean on the order of tens of thousands of passengers (he batted around numbers like 10,000 and 25,000) arriving and leaving per week. 1,000 ships arriving per week, 1,000 ships leaving per week, and appx 5,000 ships berthed at any given moment.

For your example of a 20-billion-person world, it's literally one in a million people who travel in space per week.

Of course using CT you can't boil it down any further than those generalities. On the other hand, for the purposes of playing the game, you need go no further in that direction.

I'm starting another thread to muse on this.

The busiest airport in the world is the US Atlanta international. It averaged 245,00 passengers per DAY in 2007.

The 30th busiest airport in the world (also in US) is the Charlotte Intl. It did 91,500 passengers per DAY in 2007.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_busiest_airports_by_passenger_traffic

I know that the grocery warehouse I work at does ten million cases of groceries per month, serving about 25% of the market in Arizona, Las Vegas NV, and New Mexico. Average case weight is like 18 lbs, 180 million lbs per month (82 million Kg). So we have access to maybe 6% of the US population, tops, and only supply 25% (tops) total food and drug needs of that segment.

Mora's "Big and Bustling" starport doesn't seem to big, nor bustling.

 

[robject]

[...]
The 30th busiest airport in the world (also in US) is the Charlotte Intl. It did 91,500 passengers per DAY in 2007.

I know that the grocery warehouse I work at does ten million cases of groceries per month [...] (82 million Kg). [...]

Mora's "Big and Bustling" starport doesn't seem to big, nor bustling.

Exactly. Compared to our world, there's effectively nothing going on between Mora and its neighbors, whether or not you use GURPS to calculate numbers.

 

[Icosahedron]

By Marc's own admission, apparently, he doesn't spend too much time thinking about large-scale trade. Small wonder, then, that the figures don't add up.

As I see it, there are two options:

A - do as Marc does and don't worry too much about the realism of the figures.
B - figure out a trade model that makes logical sense for the whole OTU.

As long as neither camp seeks to impose their favoured solution on the other, there's no harm done, but reconciliation of the two camps just isn't going to happen - the 'canon' figures weren't written by an economist.

 

[robject]

By Marc's own admission, apparently, he doesn't spend too much time thinking about large-scale trade. Small wonder, then, that the figures don't add up.

As I see it, there are two options:

A - do as Marc does and don't worry too much about the realism of the figures.
B - figure out a trade model that makes logical sense for the whole OTU.

As long as neither camp seeks to impose their favoured solution on the other, there's no harm done, but reconciliation of the two camps just isn't going to happen - the 'canon' figures weren't written by an economist.

Well, first off, you're right - the game was written by a few non-economists (GDW), and it shows, but if anything the game was never intended to be simulation, or correlation -- or even consistent.

So, I think there's a better way to state your options.

1. When Marc thinks about traffic he states what he "sees" in his mind. It's nearly as real as jumpspace, or bay weapons that can hit targets at a hundred thousand kilometers.

2. I say nearly because he hasn't come out and printed something that explicitly nails it down, thereby leaving us with wiggle room to scale things to suit us. Also, he has been known to accept suggestions and even modifications, when they align with his view of things.

3. And so, in the spirit of that second point, you'll be pleased to know that applying Earthian economics to the OTU has already been done for us in GURPS: Far Trader, written by economists. If you prefer that the OTU be like Earth economics-wise, then their product is recommended as best of breed. It depicts a busy Imperium indeed.

 

[Jame]

When I asked him specifically about Mora, he seemed to lump it in with the "Big and Bustling" category, which would mean on the order of tens of thousands of passengers (he batted around numbers like 10,000 and 25,000) arriving and leaving per week. 1,000 ships arriving per week, 1,000 ships leaving per week, and appx 5,000 ships berthed at any given moment.

For your example of a 20-billion-person world, it's literally one in a million people who travel in space per week.

Of course using CT you can't boil it down any further than those generalities. On the other hand, for the purposes of playing the game, you need go no further in that direction.

I'm starting another thread to muse on this.

Maybe this refers to 1000 to 5000 small, free-trader sized vessels between 100 and 1ktons.

 

[bryteone]

Not entirely so, Robject.

I've had some games where the PC's were command crew on BIG ships... 100KTd+...

Very much a star trek variant feel.

I totally agree. I have played in an ongoing campaign where the story revolves around the lives of the "7th Fleet". All but 3 of the characters were not direct command crew of the Flagship, but played integral parts to the fleet.
We all would rotate with several different characters for different stories/campaigns.
Now we have retired that entire part of the campaign and started a new one that revolves around a 1000td ship and it's crew. It's definitely more cozy.