Originally posted by Sandman:
<snip>
One must not forget than in Traveller, computers aren`t *that* much trusted. you can`t have one pilot (well, except in emergency situation) and all that, so I guess that having an astrogator doing/rafining all/part/some of the calculations would be in that line of thoughts...
There I think you touch on the base of the problem. The Pilot is often perceived as vital and glamorous when in reality he's even less needed than the Navigator imo. The computers in some jumbo jets today can (iirc) taxi, lift off, fly and land all without more than a few settigs dialed in from the navigator (like where to go). The reason its not done is nobody trusts the darn things, much better to have Pilot error to fall back on I guess. How many flight computers are tired because they just flew transatlantic with no layover, or are showing up minutes before departure because they overslept after a late night of bar hopping. You get the idea. Me, I'd prefer the computer do the flying, but with a pilot there to monitor it in case.
Anyway, back on topic, the computer could eliminate all but the people skills (i.e. Stewards) aboard ship. It has not so we must have reasons. The easiest is mistrust of computers but (at least before Virus) there seems little reason for that. The real reason of course is it is an RPG and we need to find Roles for all the Players in the Game.
So we have our small ship crew complement of:
The Pilot, whose job it is to monitor the flight computer and anticipate unforseeable problems in the flight profile and correct for them, either manually or with new program parameters. (And its not like a dogfight in space with zooming and rolling and looping,
)
The Astrogator, whose job is defining the parameters for the desired flight path and feeding those into the navigation computer to do the actual plots which the astrogator then checks to see if they overlooked anything. Like arriving at the destination with a bad vector.
The Engineer, who monitors the computers watching the power plant and drive(s) and if an event comes up that requires repair or maintenance they get their hands in there.
The Gunner, who identifies targets as hostile or friendly for the computer to provide firing solutions for (after being detected of course) and once he or she confirms the target, orders the firing solution to engage. (And again its not like sitting in a rotating turret with a clear viewport and eyeballing targets and pulling the trigger as they fly by
)
The Steward, if provided handles the comfort of the passengers, and to a lesser need the crew. It can be anything from providing a good homecooked meal (rather than the glop from the recycler, or the instant meals), to cleaning the ship, clothing, and bedding for you. On bigger ships the Chief Steward usually also handles the business of ticket sales and maybe some cargo brokering as well as the ships payroll.
The Medic, and every ship should have one (at least), will tend to minor complaints personally and probably use a computer to diagnose and suggest (maybe even assist) treatment for serious illness and injury.
All the above is my interpretation, more or less. From this you might think that an expert Computer technician would be a good addition and I'd agree, though the job usually falls on the Astrogator
who everybody seems to think is really not needed otherwise
Oh and in case you're wondering I have nothing against StarWars and its treatment, I just prefer something a little more realistic for Traveller
