[TML] [Merchant Shipping] Some ideas I came up with tomake merchant shipping more interesing

[Evyn MacDude]

Commentary in-line,

On  Apr10 08, at 21:25, Jerry W Barrington wrote:

> On 4/10/08 11:43 PM, "Joseph Paul" <josephnjody at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>> <Jerry protests shutting down the powerplant when docked>
>>
>> What do modern diesels do in seaports? Run the big engine or  
>> switch to a
>> standby generator?
>
> Not a good comparison, as the diesels start like a car, ie. push a  
> button
> and it starts up.  Whereas the Traveller power plant takes an hour  
> or more
> of nursemaiding by the engineer.

Nope, LLDs can be just as much a bitch to light off as a steam plant,  
though
they do come up to speed faster.

>> Do they even use the big engine for power or only
>> propulsion? The fuel still costs credits and cutting every cost to  
>> the bone
>> is in the interests of the crew.
>
> PCs generally go with gas giant or ocean fueling where possibly.   
> When fuel
> is free, that issue is gone.

Er? Not in my games, wilderness refueling has been generally the
exception not the rule.

>> As for start up how long are we talking
>> here? And just what do you use to initiate a fusion reaction and  
>> what powers
>> it if the powerplant is down? That may be a reason for the ship to  
>> go on
>> station power.
>
> Given that running silent is a documented maneuver, the ship must  
> be able to
> start it up on it's own.  Ergo, no need for station power.  And many
> lower-class ports don't even *offer* power.

That I have to agree with, Imagining a starship sized blower unit  
amuses me
though.

Though I generally think the one plant that drives the entire ship  
concept
that a lot of people around here subscribe to be baffling. Most ships  
have
multiple plants, and the ability to shift load as needed.

> Spending an hour or more warming up the plant still leaves the need to
> disengage umbilicals.  Which should auto-disconnect anyway!  Not
> disconnecting when there is a significant force on the airlock and
> umbilicals endangers everybody aboard the station.

Really depends, but prudent design of the ground tackle will have a
break-away point some where in the connection. Though with a
unplanned undocking the berth probably will need some rehab before
its ready for it's next ship.

>> Normal ships (as opposed to PC
>> run travesties of commerce) have schedules and stick to them.
>
> I refer you to the post about riding on freighters.  The web page  
> mentions
> *real* tramp freighters that *don't* have set schedules.

Yep.

>  There are a lot of
> "adventurous" situations where having a ship stuck on the ground is  
> a good
> way to lose the ship.

But only PCs, Militaries and Intelligence Services think about things  
like
this.

Evyn MacDude
infojunky at ceecom.net

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