[TML] Technological advancement

[Richard Aiken]

On 8/27/07, Jerry W Barrington <jursamaj at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> On 8/27/07 12:17 PM, "tml-request at travellercentral.com"
> [Richard Aiken - raikenclw] wrote:
>
> > Research it, yes.  Get away with it, no.  At least, not in my new TU.
> >
> > I'm using stargates, not standard jump drives.  If my Imperium doesn't
> like
> > something a member world is doing, the stargates make Red Zones easy to
> > enforce.  Ships can simply be denied entry into or exit from applicable
> > stargates.
>
> My point about getting away with it was that it would be secret.  By the
> time the Imperium knows, it's not limited to that system anymore.  And
> once
> the knowledge is out, you can't stuff it back in the bottle.


Hmm.  Not sure how secret the research and development could be.
Essentially, the world would be attempting bootstrap itself up to the next
tech level, without letting this attempt become public knowledge.  If the
Imperium had reason to suspect a particular world might perform such
research, it's probably possible to watch for it, such as by spying upon
particular researchers in applicable fields.  And the knowledge is only
"out" if other systems are willing to risk implimenting it.  With something
as risky as nanotech, I'm fairly sure that the Imperium could arrange a
"gray goo" incident - for the protection of the rest of the Imperium (in
their view) - if one didn't happen on its own.  NOTE: The adventure
potentials here are rather obvious.

  Plus, since you use J Drive as well as Stargates, the gates are no limit.


Actually, they are.  My jump drives only work from inside a stargate.  Basic
use of a stargate involves entering one side and coming out the other - in
the next door system - one week later.  But if your ship has a jump drive,
you can engage it after entering a gate and instead emerge from any gate
(along the same straight line on the hex map) within the drive's range.
Note that the "straight line only" limitation makes for some interesting
tactical and strategic effects - "turns" while in jump are impossible -
although I've yet to work these out in detail.

I'm also still figuring out how you discover which gates let out into which
systems.  Maybe the "drive" is actually more like a sensor, letting you
detect jump exits and pick the one you want to use?  So it would be possible
to have "secret" systems that don't appear on public jump maps, as only
high-jump "drives" (4+ or maybe 5+) can reach them.

> In practice, for Red Zones located along mains, transit orbits between its
> > stargates generally remain open.  My mains are really important, since
> any
> > ship can use them.  Jump drives are needed only if going further than
> the
> > next map hex.  This means - among other things - that free traders can
> make
> > a go of it using very marginal ships.
>
> Very profitable actually, as they have all that space a J Drive would use.
> :)


Yes.  I'm essentially trying for a small ship Imperium.  Even without
nanotech, there just aren't that many bulky cargos that make sense to haul
between worlds, unless you're setting up an initial colony.  I'm thinking
the maximum tonnage which any stargate will allow in is 5000 dtons.  So
that's as big as "bulk" transports and jumpdrive warships ever get IMTU.
Orbitial forts, of course, have no upper tonnage limit.  So my "'Verse" is
one where the defense has a solid advantage.  To my mind, this best explains
how five separate Frontier Wars haven't changed the Imperial borders much.

-- 
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein