Vague Traffic Measurements

[robject]

Marc Says:

My conclusion is that
passenger numbers for interstellar travel need to be symbolic or representative rather than actual.

Marc's probably approaching this from a playability angle. What does the player see? An orbit uncluttered by visitors, or awash in activity? Wide open spaces, or New Orleans-style (busy) orbital ports?

Or, maybe he's thinking "this port is an order of magnitude busier than that port".

Or, maybe he's thinking something else.

 

[mike wightman]

Maybe by describing them as sedate, busy, very busey etc. it's being left to the referee to decide what this represents in his TH.

I'm a small ship heretic, so I would put quite small numbers to what each of the above represents.
Someone using the GT:FT model may well have many more passengers, etc.

 

[robject]

Whoof, yeah, good point.

How about a busyness index?


</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Index Busyness
0 empty
1 slow
2 average
3 bustling
4 dense
5 crowded</pre>[/QUOTE]

 

[Spinward Scout]

Multiply that index by the Population code and that could be how many passengers try to get a bunk/stateroom on any given day.

Dameon

 

[Black Globe Generator]

"From Port to Jump Point" in the JTAS reprints covers quite a bit of this, from a players' perspective (i.e., "How many ships are in starport, and when are they leaving?").

 

[Plankowner]

I like the symbolic representation of this kind of info. A simple 0-A range that I can use how I want to, populated with the types/sizes of ships that I want in my game. Even for the OTU, we all play it a little different. If you are sticking to LBB2 size ships or HG size ships you will want to use the number differently.

I will generate the specific number of ships based on my vision of the OTU, or MTU.

 

[robject]

Originally posted by Sir Dameon Toth:
Multiply that index by the Population code and that could be how many passengers try to get a bunk/stateroom on any given day.

Dameon

Or average it with neighboring worlds for the number of dice to roll, or an order of magnitude, or a lookup.

 

[parmasson]

Don’t forget in-system traffic! Not everyone is going to another system, there is plenty of adventure to be had without a jump drive.

 

[Black Globe Generator]

Originally posted by Kurega Gikur:
Don’t forget in-system traffic! Not everyone is going to another system, there is plenty of adventure to be had without a jump drive.

Quoted for truthiness.

As a side note, it pains me when players jump in and out of really cool systems without ever taking the time to look around anyplace other than the mainworld - to that end, I'll put speculative cargos on different planets or satellites to compel them to stretch their legs a bit.