Problems with system data

[Gray Pennell]

In the real world there are several sources of navigation materials. There is a book I think published by US Navy or Merchant Marines used many moons ago that gives distance between ports and their long/lat positions. There is also maps put out by the US's DMA. Oddly after mapping thousands of ports into a GIS database we discovered the two sources did not match. While simple and unimaginative, I can see "Its wrong" as just a plausible answer as the capital was vacum world because the leader was exiled there long ago. Both are right just one is much more romantic.

 

[rancke]

While simple and unimaginative, I can see "Its wrong" as just a plausible answer as the capital was vacum world because the leader was exiled there long ago. Both are right just one is much more romantic.

While "there's a political/historical explanation" and "it's wrong" may be equally plausible, they can't both be right for the same universe. My opinion is that if there is an acceptable explanation then it's always better to use that instead of "it's wrong" for the OTU (For MTU I may decide to change UWPs for plot reasons, but that's my TU and nobody's business but my own). That is to say, that "it's wrong" is the last resort. However, unlike some, I'm also of the opinion -- no, make that 'I firmly believe' -- that there are situations where no acceptable explanation is possible.


Hans

 

[Gray Pennell]

I started this thread because I am a firm believer in Traveller or any role playing game is romantic at heart. If we did not want that than we could all play bankers and business men. When I brought up the idea of the Grand Survey being wrong I did not do it in a void, instead I mentioned that it would make a good scout campaign to correct errors.

I just wanted people to look beyond our rational view, indeed that view is often inaccurate, and bring romantic and imaginative adventure into their campaigns. Even the best of hard science fiction have these qualities.

I would be very interested in what you do in your TU universe because it might help mine come alive.

Look we now have the romantic idea that there could be two sources of UPP the scouts and TAS with a possible third or fourth party publishers let alone other races data. TAS can hire scouts to write the publications and maybe grant free refueling at all class A ports to the scouts doing the work.

 

[Rigel Stardin]

...Or a local trade guild, corporation or shipping company, needs a good detail survey of the sector to plan their business goals for the next century...

I have always thought a game system has to be a living growing enitity to keep the players happy and interesting. This forum and the amount of MTU information does just that. Ideas spawn scenerios whether they are run with the cannon or by some homebrewed method. In the end it is still Traveller...

 

[BytePro]

In RL, over the years, I've dealt with literally trillions of hand entered, derived and measured data values relevant to business and safety. With human entered data, I expect a 3~5% effective inaccuracy without additional QA. In large data sets, even 0.01% can be 'a lot' - and I've seen the results of errors run into direct costs in the millions of U.S. dollars...

When training new personnel, I always insist they read the manuals (generally several thousands of pages). Then I tell them not to blindly trust a single 'fact' in them (not to mention their own interpretation and recollections) - followed by hands on demonstrations to re-enforce that reality.

Experienced and competent people in any field will have essentially that same philosophy.

 

[Dragoner]

Experienced and competent people in any field will have essentially that same philosophy.

You lucky dog, in running millions of dollars worth of projects, too many times I get information, such as scans, plans or data sets that are just plain wrong. Then workers that may or may not even understand what is going on or how to do what they are suposed to do. That's why I have to be the problem solver and be competent to find solutions before they arise.