Consolidation Thread: Xboats in a System

[willtron3030]

This should probably be updated in light of current TL 7 data transfer costs...

I should think the data transfer cost is infinitesimal compared to the cost of moving that data across the stars.

Some author called the telegraph "The Victorian Internet". At some level I like thinking of XMail as "The Interstellar Telegraph".

 

[Drew]

"Xmail: Messages sent by xboat. Xmail carries information only; material objects may not be sent. The message is digitally coded; xmail costs Cr1O per 20 kilobits per parsec. The message may be sent using a standard Anglic character set (about Cr1O for a 500 word message) or a picture may be reproduced in facsimile (Cr20 for a 200 x 200 bit matrix). The message is printed out at its destination and delivered by a world's local mail system."
This should probably be updated in light of current TL 7 data transfer costs...

Thank you. Here is food for thought.

The entire computer section for all the Traveller series needs to be rewritten or updated. The Intel 8086 microprocessor delivered 4.77 MHz of power back when the first LBB was written. We went from 8KB on a 5.25" disk to 1 septillion bytes. Ship programs were built around loading one program at a time. How many of us currently have 3 or 4 programs already open on our computer as we read this response? Thinking how fast the first generation of quantum computers are running - multiply that by a million for speeds and data storage. I suspect that we haven't built in the concept of AI into the equation (a true NPC?)

 

[kilemall]

Thank you. Here is food for thought.

The entire computer section for all the Traveller series needs to be rewritten or updated. The Intel 8086 microprocessor delivered 4.77 MHz of power back when the first LBB was written. We went from 8KB on a 5.25" disk to 1 septillion bytes. Ship programs were built around loading one program at a time. How many of us currently have 3 or 4 programs already open on our computer as we read this response? Thinking how fast the first generation of quantum computers are running - multiply that by a million for speeds and data storage. I suspect that we haven't built in the concept of AI into the equation (a true NPC?)

LBB8 robots had AI, so technically a CT. Had parallel processors cutting edge at the time, and synaptic processors which have not been seen yet.

Any hard computing capacity will look ridiculous later on. GURPS cyberpunk didn’t age that much better.

I prefer the complexity type measures, keep it to scale of task the computer has to do and how quickly it can do it.

 

[Father Fletch]

LBB8 robots had AI, so technically a CT. Had parallel processors cutting edge at the time, and synaptic processors which have not been seen yet.

Any hard computing capacity will look ridiculous later on. GURPS cyberpunk didn’t age that much better.

I prefer the complexity type measures, keep it to scale of task the computer has to do and how quickly it can do it.

I'm a fan of "the computer does what it needs to within the game defined structure, and sometimes what the plot demands within that same envelope"
Also a fan of this article from Freelance Traveller

 

[Black Vulmea]

So the tender doesn't refuel; the xboat, it takes it to the station...

"The fuel level contains tankage for the ship and for the refuelling of express boats. An external fuel probe allows fast refuelling of express boats without taking them into the ship bay or requiring crew to don vacc suits. A fuel lab on the tankage level monitors fuel quality." - Supplement 7, Traders & Gunboats, "The Express Boat Tender" p 14

 

[mike wightman]

"The fuel level contains tankage for the ship and for the refuelling of express boats. An external fuel probe allows fast refuelling of express boats without taking them into the ship bay or requiring crew to don vacc suits. A fuel lab on the tankage level monitors fuel quality." - Supplement 7, Traders & Gunboats, "The Express Boat Tender" p 14

"A ship makes its jump, relays its messages to the station immediately upon arrival by means of a high-speed, tight-beam radio transmission, and then waits to be picked up and towed into the xboat station by a specially built xboat tender, where it will be refueled, refitted, and prepared for its jump to the next destination" JTAS Scouts article, MT IE, which also state:
"An xboat station contains facilities for refueling and repair of the xboats and their tenders"

Traveller is not noted for its consistency.

 

[whartung]

Traveller is not noted for its consistency.

Sure it is! It's just...lumpy.

 

[Black Vulmea]

Traveller is not noted for its consistency.

No, it definitely is not.

And I don't really worry about it all that much, honestly. My four favorite letters in this game are "IMTU," and a fair amount of what's "canon" about Charted Space I dismiss as Imperial propaganda.

Here's something I wrote about the x-boat system several years back, in a response to post by @Whipsnade.

Some years ago I sat down to identify the number and composition of scout squadrons operating out of a way station, and without having my notes in front of me, I can say that what I recall of my calculations fits your model pretty closely.

I call 'em 'comm offices' imtu, but they are functionally identical to your link stations: a tender for each link in the network, tankers to keep the tenders and their boats fueled, and shuttles to connect to the downport component of the comm office for physical mail, delivering equipment and perishables, and relief pilot transfer. The busiest comm offices, such as a subsector capital, may include a standby tender, in the event a boat needs to be taken out of service and replaced, and an orbital facility on-station as well; iirc, I used the Eshpadir from Adventure Class Ships Vol II as the orbital element.

Security may be provided by a system defense boat, subsidized wholly or in part by the IISS. In systems without a planetary navy, orbital security may be provided by a scout-courier armed with a triple turret, called the 'messenger'; serving aboard the 'messenger' ship is known as 'riding shotgun.'

My scout squadrons tended to included tenders, tankers, barges, and couriers, while the comm office itself included a shuttle-and-courier flotilla. Keeping the comm offices staffed and supplied while allowing crews and ships to rotate out of service for rest and refit required several squadrons, for a way station which covered just two subsectors. The x-boat system is a logistical beast.

In support of this, note that the two most common offices of assignment in the IISS per Book 6 are Communications for Field Scouts and Operations for Scout Bureaucrats - the x-boat system swallows entire careers of would-be first-contact explorers and stellar cartographers.

Some of the canonical stuff about x-boat stations really breaks down for me when I figure out star types - many mainworlds sit well inside the jump shadow of their primaries, resulting in trips of several hours to a couple of days to and from the stellar 100-diameter limit. Running x-boats back and forth for refueling sounds kinda insane at that point and the S7 tender's fuel probe makes worlds more sense in this environment. Likewise being perched on the edge of the system: if you want to make your x-boat system carrying sensitive financial records and correspondence maximally vulnerable to pirates or enemy raiders, yeah, stick it out in the Oort Cloud.

IMTU ( ) x-boat tenders operate a bit beyond the stellar or planetary 100-dia limit, slightly trailing the arrival box for most incoming traffic - starships arrive to spinward of a planet's rotation so they can meet it rather than chase after it; conversely they depart to trailing, so arriving and departing ships rarely interact with one another. Tenders and x-boats are serviced locally from a comm office located in an orbital station or dirtside Imperial mission complex with its own flotilla of ships and boats, as noted above.

 

[mike wightman]

The latest campaign for MgT, Singularity, has the latest canon on how the xboat network functions. I'll post some snippets from it in a bit.

I like your ideas by the way.

 

[Black Vulmea]

I like your ideas by the way.

Thank you.

The latest campaign for MgT, Singularity, has the latest canon on how the xboat network functions. I'll post some snippets from it in a bit.

I'll be curious to see them.

 

[Father Fletch]

No, it definitely is not.

And I don't really worry about it all that much, honestly. My four favorite letters in this game are "IMTU," and a fair amount of what's "canon" about Charted Space I dismiss as Imperial propaganda.

Here's something I wrote about the x-boat system several years back, in a response to post by @Whipsnade.


In support of this, note that the two most common offices of assignment in the IISS per Book 6 are Communications for Field Scouts and Operations for Scout Bureaucrats - the x-boat system swallows entire careers of would-be first-contact explorers and stellar cartographers.

Some of the canonical stuff about x-boat stations really breaks down for me when I figure out star types - many mainworlds sit well inside the jump shadow of their primaries, resulting in trips of several hours to a couple of days to and from the stellar 100-diameter limit. Running x-boats back and forth for refueling sounds kinda insane at that point and the S7 tender's fuel probe makes worlds more sense in this environment. Likewise being perched on the edge of the system: if you want to make your x-boat system carrying sensitive financial records and correspondence maximally vulnerable to pirates or enemy raiders, yeah, stick it out in the Oort Cloud.

IMTU ( ) x-boat tenders operate a bit beyond the stellar or planetary 100-dia limit, slightly trailing the arrival box for most incoming traffic - starships arrive to spinward of a planet's rotation so they can meet it rather than chase after it; conversely they depart to trailing, so arriving and departing ships rarely interact with one another. Tenders and x-boats are serviced locally from a comm office located in an orbital station or dirtside Imperial mission complex with its own flotilla of ships and boats, as noted above.

Yoinking the enter to Spinward and exit to Trailing for MTU

 

[kilemall]

Does the scout base have to be at the main world? Seems more scouty to be on a freeze belt moon outside jump shadows.

 

[Black Vulmea]

Does the scout base have to be at the main world? Seems more scouty to be on a freeze belt moon outside jump shadows.

While that could be true, and even potentially likely, for an actual scout BASE, not every mainworld link in the x-boat network has such a base: @Whipsnade called them "link stations" and I call them "comm offices," and IMTU they're simply a function of the local Imperial mission, that collection of facilities which make up the Imperium's administrative footprint on a subject world.

When you bear in mind that x-boats may be delivering parcels ("There is a one ton cargo bay which is occasionally used to carry vital cargo such as vaccines or sophisticated repair parts," S7 p 10), it's damned inconvenient for the end users to have the x-boats operating "near the edge of a system," as canon suggests, or on some outer reaches iceball, as "scouty" as that may be!

 

[Spinward Flow]

Does the scout base have to be at the main world? Seems more scouty to be on a freeze belt moon outside jump shadows.

To be honest ... it depends ... on the context and operational circumstances.

I can easily imagine that if there's a scout base within a star system, there will be "branch offices" for the scout bureaucracy on the main world, but the "base proper logistics hub" is probably located somewhere else in the star system (preferably somewhere with easily accessible and plentiful fuel skimming available). Generically speaking, that will typically mean "somewhere around/near gas giants" with a bias towards setting up shop somewhere that ISN'T the primary target for gas giant refueling for a main world (to avoid interplanetary traffic concerns).

Part of the basic premise of a scout base is that it's a location that can perform annual overhaul maintenance/repairs of (scout) starships and craft, without needing to rely on the shipyard and industrial/tech level base of the main world. So even if a star system has a type E starport and the main world is TL=5 (for example), you can still take your (detached duty) Type-S Scout/Courier to the scout base and get full repairs/maintenance needs met ... whereas you COULDN'T do that with a civilian merchant starship (like a Free Trader, for example).

The scout base is going to have accommodations for dealing with crew rotations, bureaucrats to shuffle the spreadsheets, staff who keep the whole thing running and be capable of operating "independently" of external resupply for some "it's in the ops manual" duration of time in the event of disaster (or outbreak of hostilities) in the region.

Best way to sum things up would be that Scout Bases are "logistics outposts" in the star systems they're located in.