Originally posted by Spaceman Spiff:
think you missed the point Doc .. CT needs a real revision (better than t4 i gather though I never sunk money into it.) I am hoping the T5 version comes out someday. Computers , robots and ship design can definatly be upgraded. I can also imagine the Combat systems are in need of revision as well.
The problem is that CT is stuck firmly in the stone age with some of its tech assumptions (especially on computers, robotics, networked communications, and genetic engineering). I think TNE actually went to some effort to update the technology (see "Fire Fusion and Steel 1/e") but that's probably got lost in all the general anti-TNE sentiment. For reasons unknown to me, some people actually *like* this anachronistic tech. So if these are upgraded, the CT fans that like the 70's scifi feel of the setting will complain. If they're not updated, then other people will compain that it's too old-fashioned.
Thing is, Traveller is a game that's available (or been available) in a total of six different versions - CT, MT, TNE, T4, G:T, and T20. If you want upgraded Robots and technology, take a look at TNE or G:T! We should be spoiled by the sheer volume of Traveller information that is out there. And yet people
still aren't satisfied and want to see a "T5". I strongly doubt that everyone will be satisfied if this mythical game is ever produced anyway, given what we've seen so far. As far as I'm concerned, we've GOT a new version of Traveller - it's called T20.
Heck, maybe if people gave new versions of Traveller like G:T and T:20 half a chance, there'll be less of a perceived need for a T5!
Who is it that wants a T5 anyway? From what I've seen, it's only CT fans who still want this. I doubt if it means anything at all to people who first got into Traveller through TNE or GURPS or T20.
Another thing - there is surely enough information spread out over all the books that are out there for people to have made their own ideal versions of Traveller over the years. Would everyone abandon their systems that they've been using for years if a T5 ever comes out? I doubt it. It'll please some people maybe, but there'll always be those who aren't happy.
Call me cynical, but I am absolutely certain that T5 - whatever form it may take, and assuming it ever happens (and I strongly doubt that it will) - will not satisfy everyone. There'll always be people wishing it had been different, or saying "oh, it's not really T5", or wanting a "properly done T6". It's like some RPG version of Utopia I think - everyone wishes it was here and looks forward to it, but it'll never happen.
Sorry if that came across as a rant - I just can't imagine that this sort of talk about T5 makes the people who have worked on Traveller in the past - especially someone who worked on T20 - feel particularly good. The Traveller designers have put a lot of work into the game over the past quarter-century, and it can't be very nice to see people still hankering over some idyllic new "improved" version of it that'll "fix" everything that they've just written - or that will just plain ignore everything they've done. It just sounds... ungrateful to keep wanting something "better" when there's so much good stuff - more than any other game apart from D&D probably - already out there.
Fine for those who want that sort of thing, but seems excessive to me. YMMV.
Having said that there is some excellent material in there regarding the setting which I have been re-reading (whilst waiting to get hold of T20). 
