...Depots: Marc agreed to some changes, but 1) no illegal TLs, and 2) several are placed for political reasons, and the Navy makes do. ...
Depot/Corridor, a naval depot in a sector with eight subsectors but enough Vargr threat to warrant 16 fleets, is tech level D for political reasons, and the Navy makes do. 19 Depots through the Imperium, and no more than 7 are TL F, with 8 TL D and 3 TL C museums. Seems like almost 2/3 are placed for political reasons.
I can understand the desire not to break the rules. With so few real threats, it may be that the Imperium finds old-tech ships adequate for the role of keeping member worlds in line while giving economic boosts to the shipyards of worlds that need it. Perhaps the fleet is equally diverse, a handy mechanism to diminish the power available to some upstart grand duke who might think to assassinate an emperor to claim the throne. It has a certain appeal for those of us who have no fondness for the MegaTrav idea of the Imperium disintegrating in a multi-sided civil war; much harder to support a civil war when the Emperor has a TL F depot in his backyard and another just 2 parsecs spinward of Core in Dagudashaad, while Dulinor settles for a D. Definitely makes it much harder to justify that course of events, which for me makes the lower tech depots very appealing.
However, I also understand that, given paradoxes like a TL D depot supporting a hotly threatened sector, there will be great pressure to ignore that piece of canon for the most controversial locations, so I don't see the effort resulting in the desired outcome in those instances. If one is insistant on hewing to the rules, one should strongly consider revisiting the situation in Corridor, perhaps spiking the population or otherwise making it possible to place a real base where it is most needed, 'cause the politics thing is going to be a hard sell for players familiar with that sector.
I'm also curious as to that rationale in light of the fact that most of the Depot worlds appear altered from their MegaTrav stats. Many law levels were altered, along with some population ratings and government types. I'm curious why the decision was taken to change those worlds, yet not to change them enough to justify a higher tech level for the depots.
...Lanth: Sigh. My theory is that it's used to spy on the Swordies. ...
???
What's wrong with Lanth?