Modeling the communications delay

[The Oz]

Something I've never seen mentioned but I think would be very handy would be some kind of software that would handle the communication delay found in the TRAVELLER universe. Since messages move between worlds at the speed of jump (which varies depending on the ship) it's possible for news to spread very erratically. News of an event in some podunk starsystem off the beaten path (X-boat/trade routes) would have to wait until someone came there, picked up the news and then jumped it somewhere else. From there it would spread according to the trade and X-boat networks.

For role-gamers this could help track the spread of rumors, and the news of the player's own actions. With a fast enough ship and careful route planning, players could even beat the news of their own deeds and make speculative investments accordingly.

For wargamers such a software would have obvious use in tracking the news of the movement of enemy (and friendly) fleets and the ability of admirals to send orders to their forces. I would love to see a computer version of the Fifth Frontier War boardgame with this communication delay built-in. It'd be frustrating, but very realistic (in the OTU, anyway).

Ideally the software could read data input from the various subsector/sector map generators and then, given the trade routes/X-boat routes, calculate the time needed for news to go from planet X to planet Y.