Good point and I obviously agree with you since, as I describe using a resupply shuttle, I explictly mention a replacement crew.
Have fun
Selandia
X-Boat Launch Stations
- Thread starter Patron Zero
- Start date
Good point and I obviously agree with you since, as I describe using a resupply shuttle, I explictly mention a replacement crew.
Have fun
Selandia
Because you didn't ride your link at night if it could be helped.
Exactly. Jump's temporal variation means you can't schedule arrivals so departure times gets the job. If the inbound boat is late, it's messages will still leave within 24 hours.
Good to know, and it even further reduces the pressure to get a boat readied for the next scheduled departure. If system checks red-line the specific boat for whatever reason, there are 3 back-ups plus the boat due for arrival which can be readied instead.
Again, a 1gee tender can cross the 4 parsec, 12,000km diameter, arrival variation, sphere in roughly 38 minutes and links involving shorter jumps will have smaller arrival variation spheres.
And again, the newly arrived x-boat is not the x-boat which will depart next. The departing x-boat is one which has already been prepped, staged, and manned to await it's load of messages from the arriving boat.
And again again, if VIP passengers and parcels need to be transferred from one boat to the other, the tender can do so in less than 90 minutes.
There is no need for a shuttle.
Still a nice number. One already staged, one being prepped, two undergoing checks/maintenance, and one due to arrive.
If any one boat red-lines, you've plenty of back-ups on hand.
It is not the "only" logical way, it is one logical way which you prefer for your stated reasons. I, OTOH, see it -- compared to a "best effort" unscheduled model -- as inefficient from a systems management viewpoint, not to mention being counter-canonical from a practical one.
By way of example, I used to have satellite internet service, and (distance to geosync orbit and back notwithstanding) the ping times were atrocious due to the many-millisecond scheduling delay built into the transmitters. My ping times were routinely nearly two seconds long, only about half of which was actual travel time up to and down from the "bird" in orbit. The rest was from packets sitting in a buffer in a transmitter, waiting to go out on a schedule, and seeing if any more packets might arrive before then, that they could all go together, or otherwise leaving without them and letting them show up late and have to loiter in the buffer until the next scheduled "squirt" time rolled around.
Extending beyond this issue to the matter of unscheduled arrivals, my point is that you cannot schedule the departures without slowing down the throughput if a packet is late in arriving -- which will either happen about half the time due to Jump uncertainties, or else you make each Jump leg average 7.5+ days long instead of 7, since with the scheduling you are using, a late-arriving Xboat sends its throughmail on down the line on the next scheduled departure tomorrow (and the Xboat that left on its daily departure schedule a few hours ago might well be running empty except for any local data uploaded from the mainworld and headed on down the line), but this extra half a day on average adds a transmission delay to the whole system -- especially over long, multilink routes, and the packets are not "always moving at top speed" as per canon.
And that is what this hinges on: for data to move down the Xboat line as fast as possible it needs to spend as little time as possible sitting in the data banks of an Xboat that has not Jumped yet. Otherwise, that data is as idle as the Xboat carrying it, waiting on an arbitrarily-chosen point in time to roll around before it starts moving again.
The operational model of the original Pony Express is cited in canon only inasmuch as waiting-horses-and-riders who galloped off the moment the courier bag had been handed off is put forward as being exactly analogous to the way Xboats operate. The details of how horses and riders were accommodated at the stations and other practical operational parameters of historical significance make up a separate and non-germane issue from how the service and its couriers were operationally employed. It is -- if you will pardon the metaphor -- a dead horse that we do not have to beat here. We can take it as read that XTs are kept busy processing Xboats and pilots to get them turned around for the next departure, and that this process is time-consuming and results in a lot of logistical juggling involving numerous personnel and vessels (including all the Type S hulls being dispatched for off-route deliveries and pickups), even for a quiet, two-link-only hub node, or a one-link-only leaf node. There is obviously a good reason that Xboat hub nodes rarely have more that three links/routes converging, and almost never have more than four -- the local operational logistics would resemble a punishment detail. Your basic numbers for assets-in-system seem about right to me, as per Orr above.
I'd usually agree with you, but, being the XT (or so I understand) a mission built ship just thought for this job, I'd call bad design if the hangar space is not optimized for the XBs (something I must agree does not match with the XT deck plans I've seen :CoW
.I have not read TNE:Regency book. If you mean the routes, I took them from travellermap.com, as it is the most available source when I'm logged it.
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
Part of my charm is I don't as much as possible.
More importantly, the more 'functional' a ship design is with specific doodads that say 'I do this' and I know why and can convey it to players in function, flavor text and plot point, the more immersive and 'real' and 'hawt darn we really is in space' the experience is.
I had thought about bringing up the need for the 'big message laser' but decided that was a 'bridge' too far given that airlocks are causing such a hubbub.
I'd usually agree with you, but, being the XT (or so I understand) a mission built ship just thought for this job, I'd call bad design if the hangar space is not optimized for the XBs (something I must agree does not match with the XT deck plans I've seen :CoW
Sadly, deckplans have always been a problem. Both they and the designs they represent rarely seem as well thought-out or as optimized as designs used for centuries (and even millennia) should be.
Still, as Aramis pointed out, the physical dimensions involved mean that the XT can store up 4 x-boats. It just can't do anything to those 4 x-boats once they're stored.
The high minded "mission statement" behind the Regency's xWeb system is something like: "Every world gets a daily message boat from every other world within 6 parsecs." (It's impossible to achieve of course.)
A "fanon" wrinkle to the canonical x-boat system employs a watered down version of the Regency's xWeb. It has every world with an x-boat link sending daily/twice daily/four times daily/whatever daily boats to every world with an x-boat link within 4 parsecs.
Using Glisten as an example because none of the "xWeb-lite" links leave that subsector, Glisten would send daily/twice daily/four times daily/whatever daily boats to Egypt, Overnale, New Rome, Horosho, Romar, Bendor, and Ffudn because all those worlds have 1) x-boat links and 2) are within 4 parsecs of Glisten instead of Glisten sending daily/twice daily/four times daily/whatever daily boats to Overnale, New Rome, Horosho, and Bendor because those worlds are the next link in the system.
It's a nice idea. It's even logical if you want to believe that the x-boat system is meant for communications rather than control. It's also not what canon regularly implies and, in the case of the communication table in TTA, specifically states.
Still, it's a great idea for someone's ATU. The comm branch of the IISS would be so huge in this case that it really should be it's own organization.
Which ironically, is my secret explanation: at TL10, you use a "quantum-tunneling modem" to transmit two "quantum bits" (one carries the quantum wave function of all the stored data in the source data banks, and the other is of course a check bit to make sure there is no error in the first bit), and upon receipt, these bits are sent to the target data banks, which instantaneously flip themselves into an exact replica of the source data, and then spend 5 minutes error-checking over the modem link.
Technobabble Level: Guardians of the Galaxy.
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Let's put that out for people to see:
PLOTTING COMMUNICATIONS
Every message originates somewhere. Once it begins, it progresses to nearly every location that wants to hear it, although at a relatively slow pace.
Messages travel on whatever ships are available at the jump rate of the carrying ship. A message is likely to travel farther in a week from an A starport than from an E starport. Each week, consult the message transmission table for each message. A message will move from the world it
is on to all worlds up to the distance specified on the table for that combinatlon of origin end destination starport types.
| Origin System | A | B | C | D | E | X | Chance of Transmission |
| A | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | - | 4+ |
| B | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 5+ |
| C | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 6+ |
| D | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | S+ |
| E | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 8+ |
| X | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 9+ |
If a message has no way to leave a world by normal
means, the referee should roll to see if it is carried
somewhere anyway, using the chance of transmission roll
given for the type of starport on the table. Possible destinations
are all worlds at up to twice the distance given on the
table (4 parsecs maximum). Roll once for each world (in any
order), stopping at the first successful transmission or when
all worlds have been rolled for.
[...]
Xboat Transmissions: Once messages reach a world on the xboat route, they move at jump-4 to all worlds on the route, and are retransmitted elsewhere according to the table. Dhian and L'Oeul d'Dieu are connected by a roundabout xboat link: when a mesaage arrives at one, it will be carried to the other in four weeks' time.
(TTA 110-111)
Note that the system measures in weeks, but presumes/implies daily travel, since you simply add a week to the date of origination. Further, we see that ALL news travels automatically weekly once it hits the X-boat route, and that X-boat news origination and arrival dates can be any day of the week.
I stand by my extrapolation of daily X-boats as being consistent with both TTA and other canon.
Given the time lags, daily, perhaps even twice a day is justifiable and not even all that expensive.
Note also: if the spare mentioned is present, and an important command/control message comes through, it's likely to trigger a near immediate jump outside the normal schedule. The costs of the XMail system, however, are not all that high.
Roughly GCr2 per link, assuming daily transmissions. Roughly 100 links per sector. GCr200 is under Cr0.5 per imperial citizen. (In the Marches, 85 links, IIRC, not counting D268. GCR 200 can be absorbed at Cr1 per person in the Jewell and Regina subsectors alone... before adding user fees.)
And so it would be, except that there's not the slightest chance that it would work as described. There's no denying that the J4 nature of the X-boats is described as being a control measure. The whole story of how Norris got advance notice of Strephon's death depends on him getting the news by J6 courier and everybody else, including every one of his fellow dukes, every one of the sector and fleet admirals, every one of the megacorporate sector and subsector managers, and every planetary government, not getting the news ahead of the X-boat delivery. That's just not credible. And it's so incredible that I'll state it as a fact and not just my opinion.
Even if you disregard the possibility of J5 and J6 passenger liners and regular corporate couriers, it boils down to one simple fact: If advance news is valuable, people who can afford to will circumvent any Imperial measure to gain and retain that advantage for Imperium. And there are a LOT of people who can afford to have a handful of J6 couriers, overt or covert as the case may be. Quite apart from that, we know for a fact that the Imperial Navy's couriers are J6. That's 34 fleet admirals and several sector admirals Behind the Claw who get the news pretty much the same time as Norris. And I don't for a moment believe that all of these admirals will choose not to inform the dukes of their respective subsectors. For that matter, just who is the 'Imperium' who gains that advantage in the first place? Why, it's the dukes. Possibly lower ranking nobles too, but certainly the dukes. There's no point in having such an advantage if you don't take advantage of it. So Norris should have been getting the news through his regular J6 information channel (whatever that may be) at about the same time the Imperialines courier reached him.
No, whatever the reason for the Xboats staying at J4, it's not to prevent the masses from getting the news by J6. Because there's no way to prevent that.
Hans
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They would be cheaper than the 400T J6 couriers already in employment, but part of the saving would be lost again on the infrastructure cost.
Apart from that, no practical difference.
Hans
Patron Zero
SOC-13
If there is to be a consideration for J6-capable express boats, then upgrading the venerable but most vitally important part of the network should include a few additional features.
A basic maneuver drive, if such limited to limited-short duration range, for self-sufficient taxiing to launch-recovery points.
Not expected to be a standard feature on all X-boats but a strong consideration for those ships operating on the frontier or less-traveled routes might be the inclusion of a fuel-processor and hull modification for fuel-scoops.
Were express boats be able to independently, that could extend the length of legs along the major routes and those off the main-lines.
A basic maneuver drive, if such limited to limited-short duration range, for self-sufficient taxiing to launch-recovery points.
Not expected to be a standard feature on all X-boats but a strong consideration for those ships operating on the frontier or less-traveled routes might be the inclusion of a fuel-processor and hull modification for fuel-scoops.
Were express boats be able to independently, that could extend the length of legs along the major routes and those off the main-lines.
All such changes will cost money and the funds allocated to the X-Boat Service are already earmarked for more important purposes, such as bribes and rakeoffs.
Expect the J6 X-boats to be used to get a budget increase and then bog down in experimental designs and feasibility studies.[Not canon, but IMO canon-compatible.]
Hans
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Worlds on the existing x-boat network will not take kindly to being bypassed by a newer network.
The venerable jump 4 x-network already displays a considerable lack of clear design intent since it doesn't make the most of the jump 4 capability.
The venerable jump 4 x-network already displays a considerable lack of clear design intent since it doesn't make the most of the jump 4 capability.
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