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

[Timothy Little]

On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 02:25:38AM -0400, Jerry W Barrington wrote:
> Well, LLB 3 did define E ports as "Essentially a marked spot of bedrock
> with no fuel, facilities, or bases present."  X isn't even that good.  :)

I'm just saying that even if there isn't a port facility for providing
fuel, it doesn't mean that the starship can't refuel there.  It just
means that they have to arrange for fuel to be brought in themselves.

I agree that X means "no refuelling in port", though just in the
technical sense of "no port to refuel in".  There's still the
possibility of landing somewhere that you can buy and load at least
unrefined fuel.

Also, as I see it port class (at least within the Imperium) simply
means the *official* starport with extrality, etc.  There will usually
be ports owned by local governments and/or private enterprises of
greater or lesser quality.


> On the other hand, without omniphibians, the lowtech worlds would
> have no connection to the Imperium.  Only those worlds with a
> highport would.

IMTU, even low-tech worlds generally have highports if they do any
meaningful amount of trade, by which I mean a starship per month or
so.  But then, I interpret TL as referring to general availability.
The existence of a tin can in space and a couple of shuttles dependent
upon outside maintenance does not incline me to assign TL 9+ to a
system.


- Tim