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T4 Survey

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
It's basically a book full of deck plans for the different components you can build into a ship, there are plans for small bridges, large bridges, small staterooms, large staterooms etc. ...

You are allowed to photocopy it to build up full ships that you have designed.
But from my memory...not all of the components are of the same scale, so you *can't* interchangablly piece them together. And just what *is* the scale in NA, 5' squares, 1.5 m squares, 1 m squares, 3' squares? It never says...or if it does, I totally missed it. You should have heard me holler when I went through that book!
 
5___ Marc Miller's Traveller (Hardcover)
2___ Starships
5___ Central Supply Catalog
0___ Aliens Archive
0___ Milieu 0
0___ First Survey
0___ Emperor's Arsenal
9___ Pocket Empires
0___ Anomalies
0___ Psionic Institutes
0___ Fire, Fusion & Steel
0___ Emperor's Vehicles
0___ Naval Architect's Manual
0___ Imperial Squadrons
0___ Missions of State
0___ Long Way Home
0___ Gateway!
3___ Annililik Run
0___ Game Screen

Sorry. Thought the entire line was weak, except
pocket empires.

Regards.
Savage
 
Hello Drakon,

I have a copy of T4 Book H: Naval Architect's Manual. The book contains deck plans for everything from the bridge to greenhouses. Each page has between 1 and 2 plans with text that can be photo copied. Since I am hand drafting impaired and do not have a CAD program this would save me time in designing a deck plan. Of course the plans are not set up for miniatures, but at least you would have a visual aid to help out the detail.


Originally posted by Drakon:
I would like to know just what all is in the "Naval Architect's Manual" I know what it sounds like, and have been looking for this book. Unfortunately, the only T4 stuff I have seen in the game shops is Annililik Run.

I have the T3 (excuse me, TNE) FF&S but not the T4 version. Starships I think is the only T4 book I have.
 
Evening all,

I am amazed that I have all the books listed in the survey. Here is how I voted:

0____ Marc Miller's Traveller (Hardcover) only have softcover
5____ Starships
5____ Central Supply Catalog
7____ Aliens Archive
7____ Milieu 0 softcover and Milieu 0 campaign
6____ First Survey
5____ Emperor's Arsenal
5____ Pocket Empires
4____ Anomalies
6____ Psionic Institutes
5____ Fire, Fusion & Steel
5____ Emperor's Vehicles
6____ Naval Architect's Manual
5____ Imperial Squadrons
6____ Missions of State
6____ Long Way Home
6____ Gateway!
6____ Annililik Run
7____ Game Screen
 
Darn, Sigg Oddra beat me to another post. Ah well, what do you expect from a retired submarine sailor ;) .

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
It's basically a book full of deck plans for the different components you can build into a ship, there are plans for small bridges, large bridges, small staterooms, large staterooms etc. ...

You are allowed to photocopy it to build up full ships that you have designed.
 
;)
;)
file_23.gif
file_21.gif
 
Hello erisred,

The lack of such a detail is one of the reasons my highest rating was a 7 for any book. If FFE added an "official" erratum page that brought together the various errata pages for T4 that would be a boon. ;)

Originally posted by erisred:
But from my memory...not all of the components are of the same scale, so you *can't* interchangablly piece them together. And just what *is* the scale in NA, 5' squares, 1.5 m squares, 1 m squares, 3' squares? It never says...or if it does, I totally missed it. You should have heard me holler when I went through that book!
 
Originally posted by Morte:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Larsen E. Whipsnade:
Why? None of the other Reprints incorporated new errata. They did include errata applied during GDW's publishing lifetime, but they didn't include any new errata.
Judging by the general layout, and the date, of my copy of Pocket Empires it looks like it might have started as an electronic document (DTP). If so, and they still have the files, it could be corrected and reprinted much more easily than the older stuff. That was from the paper paste-up era and would have needed OCR (rather than photography) to correct before reprinting.

You might get lucky. Sounds like an "ask Avery"...
</font>[/QUOTE]Actually, if you contact Andy Lilly he's probably got electronic copies of everything pre-DTP that CORE worked on - Mileux 0, Pocket Empires. Gateway and LWH are in a weird position that Andy Lilly/David Burden were never paid for the use of their work so IG didn't have legal title to use them IIRC.

Dom
 
Originally posted by Savage:

3___ Annililik Run
Huh? That book is amongst the worst in T4. It breaks canon liberally and is basically a DnD scenario in space.

Even worse when you see the original CORE proposal and then see what was done when it was taken off them.

Dom
 
Originally posted by Larsen E. Whipsnade:

Of the ninteen titles listed, perhaps three as currently written are worth owning.
IMO T4 was a great game broken for lack of proofing for consistency and typos.

The line had some good points, especially some of the general books:

Milieu 0 - Ideally in the Campaign book, but the softcover was good if you added the 32 pages extra that were on the net. There are a few glitches in descriptions vs the map but I've got a load of notes on them somewhere. Actually, probably three computers back, at least...

Aliens Archive - big font to cover a lack of material, but the material itself was good.

Psionics Institutes - possibly the best treatment of Psionics I've seen in Traveller.

Imperial Squadrons - good in parts, and also because it tried to link FFW to the Pocket Empires model

Pocket Empires - needed more playtesting, but a fantastic metagame.

I ran a fair bit in T4 M0 and found myself using:

a) The core rules, with a typed out integration of combat from EA and the core MRB plus the T4.x draft for the char gen.
b) Emperor's Arsenal - guns, and useful additions
c) Central Supply Catalog - Toys
d) 101 Lifeforms, 101 Rendezvous, 101 Cargos, 101 Travellers, 101 Patrons - my BITS ref's tool kit.


The following deserve recycling into pulp:
-----------------------------------
The Annililik Run
Starships
Emperor's Vehicles
Half of Missions of State (there are three good scenarios, the rest break canon mainly)
First Survey (but could be useful if you had time)

I've quite strong feelings about the T4 line, because that's when I started writing for Traveller and the glitches were annoying...
 
The only thing that was really worth one's money in T4 was the BITS products that came out.

I happen to also like Chris Foss' artwork (minus Blue Space) as a way of representing a growing confident Empire forging its way into an Intersellar Dark Age. Interiors of most T4 products were appalling both in terms of artwork and the errata and things like needing Pen & Paper (a coded reference to what an RPG is all about?)...

I still support the idea of Milieu 0 Campaign being the only sourcebook that could worth reprinting, and only if the First In dataset is corrected.
 
The only thing that was really worth one's money in T4 was the BITS products that came out.

I happen to also like Chris Foss' artwork (minus Blue Space) as a way of representing a growing confident Empire forging its way into an Intersellar Dark Age. Interiors of most T4 products were appalling both in terms of artwork and the errata and things like needing Pen & Paper (a coded reference to what an RPG is all about?)...

I still support the idea of Milieu 0 Campaign being the only sourcebook that could worth reprinting, and only if the First In dataset is corrected.
 
Originally posted by Dom:

IMO T4 was a great game broken for lack of proofing for consistency and typos.


Agreed.


Imperial Squadrons - good in parts, and also because it tried to link FFW to the Pocket Empires model

Pocket Empires - needed more playtesting, but a fantastic metagame.


Yes, yes, and again, yes. Great ideas but were unrefined.


I ran a fair bit in T4 M0 and found myself using:

a) The core rules, with a typed out integration of combat from EA and the core MRB plus the T4.x draft for the char gen.
b) Emperor's Arsenal - guns, and useful additions
c) Central Supply Catalog - Toys
d) [my BITS ref's tool kit]


Almost ditto here. We used the core chargen, arsenal and CSC for accessories, and anything handy for story ideas.



The following deserve recycling into pulp:
-----------------------------------
The Annililik Run
Starships
Emperor's Vehicles
Half of Missions of State
First Survey



Yeah. Sigh!
 
Current Data based on the Module Survey.
This information is un-normed.
The ratings are averages of the responses so far.

6.57 Marc Miller's Trave
3.07 Starships
5.31 Central Supply Cata
4.36 Aliens Archive
5.56 Milieu 0
3.47 First Survey
5.59 Emperor's Arsenal
7.06 Pocket Empires
4.42 Anomalies
6.56 Psionic Institutes
4.81 Fire, Fusion & Stee
4.07 Emperor's Vehicles
3.82 Naval Architect's M
5.17 Imperial Squadrons
4.20 Missions of State
5.18 Long Way Home
5.25 Gateway!
3.91 Annililik Run
5.63 Game Screen
 
Hi,

It's rare that I get time to enjoy browsing CotI, but I heard some mention of reviewing T4 stuff and thought I'd put my oar in.

Like Jo Grant, Joe Walsh and a number of others who originally formed the CORE group, I contributed to a number of the T4 books and - like many of the other writers - was only compensated for some of my work. Like Jo, I kept electronic copies of our submissions but these were sometimes edited prior to appearing in print, so we may not have all the material in quite the same format as in the books.

The way The Long Way Home got messed up in printing was particularly annoying, but this was one of the projects that Imperium Games never paid up for, so the copyright still resides with David Burden and myself. If we ever decide to re-print it (through BITS, for example), I will try to ensure that it is done to an appropriate standard. It would be interesting to check up just which of the other books weren't paid for either. I think I also have some material that I started work on for proposed IG products, which never made it into print, but I can't recall the details. I might trawl my archives in a fit of nostalgia and see what I can find.


To help Marc out I've tried to rank the following objectively, putting aside my preferences for the books that I contributed to... ;)

7____ Marc Miller's Traveller (Hardcover)
1____ Starships
5____ Central Supply Catalog
4____ Aliens Archive
8____ Milieu 0
1____ First Survey
6____ Emperor's Arsenal
9____ Pocket Empires
1____ Anomalies
9____ Psionic Institutes
6____ Fire, Fusion & Steel
4____ Emperor's Vehicles
0____ Naval Architect's Manual
0____ Imperial Squadrons
0____ Missions of State
7*____ Long Way Home
7*____ Gateway!
0____ Annililik Run
0____ Game Screen I

0=Don't have or can't recall off the top of my head. *=Content, not layout.

Happy Travelling

Andy
BITS UK Limited
PO Box 4222, Sawbridgeworth, Herts, CM21 0DP, England
bits@bits.org.uk core@core.org.uk
www.bits.org.uk www.core.org.uk
 
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