X-Boats of the Other Races

[Golan2072]

By the way, was any Solomani news agency (the equivalent of TNS) mentioned in Cannon?

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Don't remember one. I use Confederation News Network - CNN

 

[Redcap]

Just to re-open this ball of wool, any further ideas on how the Aslan "X-Boat" system (or whatever they call it) decides on how it routes itself?

I ask this, as the Traveller Map, the source of all stellar mappy goodness, purged what was considered non-canon material a short while ago (including a LOT of DGP material, dammit), meaning that I had to go find the Sunbane data for Yahehwe Sector (thankfully, a version of it's on the Traveller Wiki), and rebuild the map for it, so I could continue working on my alien module for the H'Hnaarouhw, which will eventually be a client race of the Aslan Heirate.

However, the original data on the Traveller Map, to the best of my recollection, included express communications (X-Boat) routes of some form, which don't, of course, appear in the Yahehwe Sunbane data.

So, any ideas on the requirements/specifications to be met for an Aslan X-Boat route?

 

[inexorabletash]

I ask this, as the Traveller Map, the source of all stellar mappy goodness, purged what was considered non-canon material a short while ago (including a LOT of DGP material, dammit), meaning that I had to go find the Sunbane data for Yahehwe Sector (thankfully, a version of it's on the Traveller Wiki), and rebuild the map for it, so I could continue working on my alien module for the H'Hnaarouhw, which will eventually be a client race of the Aslan Heirate.

However, the original data on the Traveller Map, to the best of my recollection, included express communications (X-Boat) routes of some form, which don't, of course, appear in the Yahehwe Sunbane data.

This isn't accurate.

Some sectors had updated data per the T5SS process. Metadata (routes, borders) have only been tweaked as necessary. Unofficial data, where not in conflict, has been left untouched.

The exception is for sectors in Aslan space that had never - to my knowledge - been detailed beyond dotmaps in S&A. Originally I generated completely random, uninspected, and generally sketchy data just to be placeholders. Once I added true UWP placeholder support (???????-?) I replaced the random UWP data. Borders remained untouched, and those sectors never had routes.

If Sunbane had data for that sector I was never aware of it or used it.

 

[inexorabletash]

I should add that if you want to adopt the sector and give some or all of it actually reasonable data then by all means go for it!

I don't know the providence of the wiki data. It could be the random placeholders I generated. I can check (the full history of TM is under version control, although not all of it is public)

EDIT:
Yeah, per http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Yahehwe_Sector/data it's the data I randomly generated.

 

[Redcap]

OK, well it's handy to know where the data actually comes from, I thought it had been a DGP dataset!

I don't know about 'adopting' it; not at all sure I'd have the time to do it justice beyond the few small worlds I want to play with a little bit

Still and all, while this answers how the data came to be, it doesn't answer the question on how the Aslan go about deciding how their "X-boat" routes are worked out, though And that's something I'd like to know, to have any chance at all of doing the job even half decently o:

 

[inexorabletash]

Still and all, while this answers how the data came to be, it doesn't answer the question on how the Aslan go about deciding how their "X-boat" routes are worked out, though

Travellers Digest #15 has its routes page marked "Xboat Routes of Daibei Sector"

Travellers Digest #16's equivalent map for Reavers' Deep records that the routes are Xboat routes for the Imperium but trade routes beyond.

Travellers Digest #17's map is labelled "Trade Routes of the Dark Nebula Sector"

So the routes on TM are ostensibly trade routes, although it is likely they were selected to "look good" rather than necessarily follow the most likely trading routes as identified by the rules.

 

[Redcap]

Travellers Digest #15 has its routes page marked "Xboat Routes of Daibei Sector"

Travellers Digest #16's equivalent map for Reavers' Deep records that the routes are Xboat routes for the Imperium but trade routes beyond.

Travellers Digest #17's map is labelled "Trade Routes of the Dark Nebula Sector"

So the routes on TM are ostensibly trade routes, although it is likely they were selected to "look good" rather than necessarily follow the most likely trading routes as identified by the rules.

Ah. My copies of those are in storage. I'll have to dig 'em out. Thanks for the references

 

[Nathan Brazil]

The latest word on the Aslan is this:

Travel and Trade Routes
The Hierate has nothing to correspond to the Imperial x-boat network and no travel routes are plotted on Hierate subsector maps. Major trade routes connecting high population worlds are often established by clans and clan trade routes may be plotted; they connect worlds with population 9 +, usually calling at established A and B starports along the way.

Individual clans maintain high-speed couriers that relay news and information much like an x-boat but there is no coordination or central authority. News travels across the Hierate as far and as fast as someone is willing to pay for it. - pg 153 Alien Module 1: Aslan (Mongnose Publishing)

 

[Redcap]

Excellent, thanks for that, Nathan

 

[boomslang]

Also, do not forget regular old Mail service.

The Xboat system has always struck me as a weird quirk of the 3I inasmuch as -- at least for intrasubsector purposes -- Mail can often be faster between worlds not on the Xboat routes, and of course Imperillines is covertly there to do the heavy lifting of the truly important stuff.

And if you do the math, 400-dton, J-5, self-maneuvering starships plying better-thought-out network routes would be significantly more cost-effective than J-4 Xboats and their Type XT Tenders randomly snaking around the various sectors.

As I see it, the Xboat network exists primarily as a holdover from the early days when the 3I was a fledgling trade alliance, and now primarily functions as a misdirect away from Imperiallines and as a budget item to let the IISS hide the true cost of its IB operations.

One of the things Trav lost as far back as the second edition of CT were the tables for calculating the likelihood of scheduled traffic between any two starports based on distance and starport rating. Using those tables would quickly produce a very logical, and often surprisingly complex, web of subsector-spanning traffic which inevitably made more practical sense than the relatively random Xboat -- and therefore "major trade" -- routes.

I note that each and every Alien Module back in CT featured some variation of a 200-dton, J-3 "Courier" implicitly available for loan/purchase/theft as the low-end, PC-adventuring-friendly starter starship in lieu of the IISS-surplus Type S.

Given that as per the original rules, Mail contracts are typically only awarded to 600-or-more-dton subsidized vessels (sorry, Type R operators), I suspect that non-Imperial space will be lousy with government-surplus 200-dton Couriers once used to support off-route and/or underserved planets' Mail service, now sitting around ready and available for repurposing.

 

[whulorigan]

. . .
As I see it, the Xboat network exists primarily as a holdover from the early days when the 3I was a fledgling trade alliance, . . .

Except that the X-Boat network was established by Empress Arbellatra in the 600's after the first two Frontier Wars and the Civil War, using for-the-time state-of-the-art TL13 Jump 4 technology.

It has probably become obsolescent as a result of the system being tied to the established bases and waypoints of the network, which are likely cost-prohibitive to be moved/rebuilt at new locations to support a J5 or J6 network all across the Imperium.

 

[boomslang]

Except that the X-Boat network was established by Empress Arbellatra in the 600's after the first two Frontier Wars and the Civil War, using for-the-time state-of-the-art TL13 Jump 4 technology.

To my thinking, right after the Civil War is still "the early days" -- being half a millennium or so back in history.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

IIRC During The New Era, wasn't there something about a secret J6 xBoat system existing simultaneously with the J4 system before/during Rebellion and Virus?