OTU Only: Fleshing out the Extolay system (SM1711)

[Commander Truestar]

A few things to think about.
One: Per T5.10 BBB 3, page 90, a Thin surface atmosphere extends from whatever mean ground level is up to 500 meters, so 1600 feet or so. It should be noted that the same page has a Standard Atmosphere extending up to only 1000 meters, so that Denver would be a Thin atmosphere city by T5.10. Personally, I would go with 2000 meters for Standard to change to Thin, but that is what the rules say. So no need for pressurized living quarters unless at higher elevations.

That's a good point I had not considered!
Checking a chart, Cusco, Peru is at 11,152ft (3399 m)
When I visited there in 2018, I did not realize it but I was ignoring a health issue I had. We "thought" it had been a failure to adjust to the altitude, but it turned out I had double pneumonia! We didn't find that out until I returned to the US a week later. (We think I contracted pneumonia in Ecuador the week before)

But, given that, my wife had no issues breathing and I was able to be active so long as I stopped and took breaks to catch my breathing up. We also had the "space balls" experience of stopping at shops to buy me "canned oxygen"...hehehe

That said, at sea level, the pneumonia did not seem to affect me except during extreme exercise. But it did have more of an effect in Cusco, Peru. Judging by those real-world events, I could even suggest "Thin" would be comparative to altitude: 10,000 ft+

That said, "sealed" structures would not be needed until 15,000 ft+ based on that experience.

Second: Just about all of the water is going to be in a BIG ice cap on the Dark Side of the planet. Any water which comes from the habitable zone into the Sun Side is not going to stay.

I absolutely agree with that.
My current mental map of the world shows the following:
1) A massive ice-shield broken by up-thrust geologic structures(mountains and "surface plates") covering the dark side of the world

2) Where the ice shield reaches around towards the habitable zone, it melts into elongated "seas" which are connected to each other by thready rivers. Water from those seas would then flow into and across the habitable zone. Those rivers would either pool in lakes(large or small) or flow into the ever increasing heat of the bright side.

3) Not far outside of the habitable zone, rivers that reach that far will fade into alluvial fans where the water evaporates away completely.

The air coming from the habitable zone is going to be cooler than the air on the Sun Side, and therefore is going to warm up, and pick up more humidity along with the warming, so you are going to have desert conditions very quickly on the Sun Side. Think Southern California. For any agriculture on the Sun Side, you are going to have to pipe massive quantities in from the Dark Side, after first melting it.

My mental view of this is based on experiences in Iceland in 1998, when we went to see eruptions from a vent under the Vatnajokull ice sheet. If you don't like the weather in Iceland, wait five minutes....literally. The Gulf stream meets arctic currents meet right over Iceland and the weather can change 10+ times in under an hour! During a walk outside Reykjavík, we experienced three separate rain storms and two snow storms between periods of "clear skies"

To the south, there are huge volcanic wastes and other spaces which were water-starved despite their proximity to the Atlantic ocean. I am also considering some environmental "shifts" based on situations like Chili's "Atacama Desert", which is water-starved because of the location's proximity to the Andes mountains along with its position in the Earth's wind currents.

As you said, cooler surface winds would be ripping from the cold side to the hot, but those steadier winds will be countered by higher altitude hot air currents. I expect there will be lots of friction and volatility in the interphase layers, and there will be "sudden domes" of hot air pushing out of the bright side too.

Third: The planet's circumference is going to be at least 12,500 miles, with a habitable zone of uncertain width. If it is say, an average of 100 miles wide, that gives an inhabitable surface area of 1,250,000 square miles, of about 1/3 of the United States. I suspect that some of the area can be used for agricultural purposes, and the planet will likely be able to feed itself depending on the topography. You will not have any seasons, and those areas with direct daylight will have it continuously, which does drastically increase the growth rate.

Agreed.
This also supports my suggestion that conditions on the world edge towards "overpopulated" where the world is settled. Not like "Dr. Dredd" urban blocks, but the less you have, the less space you have to fit into...

Thank you for making me think of things, and in directions, I had not considered!

 

[Sstefan]

Hmm,


Can you point me published to data describing the world as the Wiki does? I have been assuming the Wiki provided "Fan-based" data in opposition to the publication. Especially since the World Size stat was incorrect

There is the article "Worlds within Jump-6 of Regina" by Hans Rancke-Madsen published in Steve Jackson's JTAS in mid-July 2006 (05-JTASSJG\2006\2006-0717.2).. although one of the lead sentences states "the information applies to the GT universe as on 001-1120.

 

[Commander Truestar]

There is the article "Worlds within Jump-6 of Regina" by Hans Rancke-Madsen published in Steve Jackson's JTAS in mid-July 2006 (05-JTASSJG\2006\2006-0717.2).. although one of the lead sentences states "the information applies to the GT universe as on 001-1120.

Comments Edited now I've pulled the CD and checked the data....
My issue with data published under GURPS Traveller "remains" that many details in the universe were changed. Names of major noble leaders as well as descriptions of some worlds.

Added to that, the data in the piece is from "001-1120", where my campaign is in the year 1113.
I have also checked and the data claims the Vargr settled the world in advance of Imperial settlers and the Humans arrived and learned to fit in. That would suggest the Vargr population "should be" larger than the Human population. Despite that logical assumption of population growth, both pre and post Imperial colonization, the piece suggests the Vargr population is 25% of the system pop....that is...Odd

The piece also suggests that the "plethora of new laws and taxes." is a recent thing....despite the fact that the Law level has been very high since the creation of the OTU. So, the idea of "newly restrictive laws" does not fit in with the pre-existing universe.

Finally, the relocation of 20k more Vargr refugees from Gvurrdon "suggests" (but does not state) that this is a hold-over from the Virus/Empress Wave storyline even though GURPS Traveller did not go that route. Yes, I can admit that the worlds and polities in the Gvurrdon sector are dynamic enough the refugees could have come from almost any other event. But the piece agrees too much with the Domain of Deneb book data...which did follow the Virus/Empress Wave storyline.

Still, thank you for prompting me to check it out! I am always glad I bought the CD's from FFE You never know when source material will hide there and I recommend people by the stuff!

 

[Commander Truestar]

OK, so here is my writeup:
Extolay:
Arriving in the Extolay system, the ship will be 22.5 hours out from the main world at best. The primary, Harbinger, will burn large in the ship's visLight view while the binary partner, Pariah, will be a distant bright speck orbiting 154 AU's away from the primary.

Outer beacons broadcast advertisements from any number of local service providers and the two primary local shipyards. The ship also gets in-system regulations and traffic advisements in an initial burst. That includes vectors to the systems destination and transit ports and a warning to steer clear of designated military space. (Note: there may be a number of elements from the Regina, Lanth, Vilis and Jewell subsectors)

Direct contact with the port authority will let arriving crews take care of various issues, like paying the Cr 150 fee to register as a merchant. That allows ships to trade in-system after completing the electronic forms from the port.

Services provided by the port include per diem support from the Starport Authority and Imperial Ministry of Commerce. The two In-System ports are the "Destination" port, handling traffic within the Imperium, and the "Transit" port handling traffic entering or leaving the Imperium. The Destination port is in geo-stationary orbit, above Extolay City and the Transit port orbits Extolay’s inner moon, Ensky.

The Destination port manages traffic control, tugs, tenders, repair ships) are handled from the inner port and SAR(search and rescue) are handled by the inner port. Both the Destination and Transit ports provide berthing, warehousing, security, emergency/medical, brokerage, fuel, lodging, entertainment, and inter-station. Shuttle service are available on both stations. TAS has facilities on both highports.

The system's shipyards provide for repair, overhaul or new ship construction.

Due to local population issues, and concerns for crew from outside the Imperium jumping ship, security on both stations is high. Any sophont found without housing or identification will be removed to a spartan (and some would say, brutal) holding facility which is, ironically, down on Extolay itself. So, visitors are often reminded not to lose their ID's.

Visitors to the system will find that food and items created from natural fibers come at more of an expense because of the rarity in-system. Tech goods and other consumer novelties waver in pricing depending on local manufacture or import-status.

Trade with the system is dominated by goods from the Regina system, though systems such as the Vilis or Arden systems and the worlds between also provide imports to and purchase exports from Extolay. There is also a significant flow of higher tech goods from D'Ganzio, Rhylanor and Imperial worlds to trailing. Extolay is a mining world, providing ores, chemicals and gasses, both normal and exotic. The world also exports local tech goods and consumer items.

With a hab-zone on average 100 miles wide, and with population housing eating more than fifty percent of that land, the government does it's best to maximize land for agriculture. An effort which is less than two centuries old involves driving above-ground mag-rail lines out into the edges of the world's starside face. At the distant ends of these lines, large agro-domes are being built to increase the world's growing fields. Despite the constant sunlight and lack of "off season" weather periods, growing fields must move "out of production" while growing crops that restore the fields as opening the fields to livestock are not an option. Because of these limits, more than sixty percent of plant output is devoted to vat-food processing to create the meats and vegetables generally available to the population. That said, food imports sell well in-system.

Dirtside:
Extolay is tidally locked 0.1 AU from the primary. The starward half of the world is dominated by a heat-blasted wilderness which cannot be survived without specialized hazardous environmental gear. Continuing away from the star, the surface transitions into a "twilight zone" locally referred to as the hab-zone. As the surface transitions from the "hot face" to the hab-zone, the interface region is characterized by "stringy" elongated seas connected by thready rivers. These are fed by rivers which cross the hab-zone from similar seas created by extreme ice melt in the interface between the Hab-zone and spaceward face of the world. On-world conditions also include very-active tectonics and volcanic activity as well as significant hot and cold atmospheric currents.

Due to the thin atmosphere, breathing support and sealed structures are required at 2,000 meters and above and are recommended for out-doors activity above 1,500 meters.
Building codes assure that all structures at, or rising to, higher altitudes include sealed environments.

Structures on-world include large trapezoidal buildings which are erected to a standard dug at least ten levels below the surface. Except a small number of non-trapezoidal structures, the design are Outer/Inner-buffered structures to dampen tectonic vibrations. Reports from spacers who'd visited the surface suggest the housing and facilities for the population vary in quality based on the wealth of the residents. Where the smaller percentage of older structures are purpose-built as residential or commercial, newer structures blend commercial, entertainment and vending concourses within residential structures.

The best amenities are more available to the visitor in the world's capital city, Extolay City and the downport. Still, even spacers will notice the closed spaces. This is because the world's overpopulation mean space is only available at a premium on-world. As with the stations, Law Enforcement sweep all structures looking for any sophont found without housing or identification will be removed to holding facilities on-world. So, visitors are often reminded not to lose their ID's.

Citizens tend to be friendly and open, but poor and often under-fed. The government has promoted grav ball competitions, even providing playing facilities in almost every residential structure. Competitions on-world are constant and the world fields a team named "Lesunda Nidak Aliigim" which is competitive in the Subsector and Sector circuits. Membership in the team is earned and comes with perks such as being moved to the world capital to train and compete. This is also seen as a primary vector to changing one's social and financial status.

While there are the usual track and field activities out of doors and at lower altitudes, the only universal outdoors activity on world are competitive kite flying and fighting competitions. Kite flying is so important on-world that a kite may become a family's most valued asset based on the money spent on materials to build and fly it. Competitions range from "Pattern flying" and "mirror flying" to stunt and challenge flying. Often, the most exciting events are the kite fighting events. As with grav ball, there is also government sponsorship for kite-work and there is a cultural kite team that travels out-system at government expense.

Commercial careers can be made in assembling low-end tech goods and software or raw material recovery(mining) and processing. This includes the extremely deadly role of "storm pilots". The pilots trained and chosen for this role must fly what were intended to be unmanned grav-Drones into the hotter parts of the atmosphere. It is there which, guided by satellite and tracking data, the drones open doors to their internal crucibles and "catch" molten liquid metals in a near-pure state. Target levels are determined by satellites tracking precipitation and "air currents by heat level" to determine where pure molten metal will be falling as rain.

Because the unmanned drones couldn't handle the extreme air currents, the government chose to switch to live pilots to redeem the costs of creating and testing the system.

 

[whartung]

Commercial careers can be made in assembling low-end tech goods and software or raw material recovery(mining) and processing. This includes the extremely deadly role of "storm pilots". The pilots trained and chosen for this role must fly what were intended to be unmanned grav-Drones into the hotter parts of the atmosphere. It is there which, guided by satellite and tracking data, the drones open doors to their internal crucibles and "catch" molten liquid metals in a near-pure state. Target levels are determined by satellites tracking precipitation and "air currents by heat level" to determine where pure molten metal will be falling as rain.

Because the unmanned drones couldn't handle the extreme air currents, the government chose to switch to live pilots to redeem the costs of creating and testing the system.

While I love the vision of these hot shot, devil may care, drink all night, "get my 25 missions or die young" bravado, the "Because..." doesn't just chafe -- it itches as well.

The example of the Martian helicopter, and what it can do autonomously stands out as the glaring TL7-8 example right off. They actually tried manual control here on Earth with that thing, and essentially found it impossible to control.

Drones have better data, more channels of data, higher bandwidth, can respond faster, take more G's, have no "fear" (or anything else), can't fixate (properly coded, natch...), and never have an off day. Particularly in a extreme environment where the value of the drone is high, the cost of failure is low (Oops, lost another drone...), it's hard to imagine any scenario where a human being can perform better than a drone in this environment.

 

[Condottiere]

Analogue controls and electromagnetic interference?

 

[Commander Truestar]

Electromagnetic interference

The universe is not as absolute black and white as others would suggest.
Additionally, not all worlds have the cash to build out top-of-line systems and the universe is not filled with "absolute top-efficiency and Best-possible" systems. If it were, there would be no space for Traveller ship crews ��

 

[Condottiere]

There's always the option to upload your consciousness to the ship's computer.

 

[Commander Truestar]

There's always the option to upload your consciousness to the ship's computer.

Those would be extremely expensive drones indeed
"Just at the top of the market" for tech IMTU

On an overpopulated world with an Impersonal Bureaucracy, Humans are much less expensive than equipment. This social-economic is very similar to many in Human history, be it the serfs of pre-Black plague Europe, the people of post-WW II Russia, Modern Day China, etc....

The only difference between those are "who is in charge". In this case, it is a non-Communist or Non-Feudal Bureaucracy

While "Absolute Human Rights" may be our point of view, it is not the point of view of governments who have far too many humans on their books. Such is life in overpopulated spaces and has always been that way no matter how egalitarian the society.

 

[Condottiere]

Unless neofeudalism becomes entrenched, automation would be the cheaper and more practical option.

Unless it turns out that human brains, when properly conditioned, can outperform electronic computers, in which case, a lot of us are going to be cyberpunked (and connected).