XBoat Route Identifiers

[robject]

Do Xboat routes have identifiers? Generic labels? Branch identification? Are they related to the original link-and-branch conquest of the Imperium? Are they labelled according to Ziru Sirka traditions? Using an xboat branch ID, can you determine what its parent branches are, or at least get a general idea?

Route IDs could have any data, or none. Maybe just enough to figure it out. Suggestions?

</font>

• parent sector</font>
• parent "branch" (whatever that means)</font>
• parent subsector</font>
• branch leaves parent subsector</font>
• hex or worldname on that branch</font>
• terminal worldname on that branch</font>
• originating or 'head' worldname on that branch</font>

For example, the leg from Regina to Boughene could be SMC0-Feri or SMC0-2005. Boughene to Pixie could be SMC0-Pixie-t or SMC0-1903t (t means Pixie is the terminus). Pixie to Kinorb would be SMC0-2202 or SMC0-Kinorb.

So, SMC0-2005 means "Spinward Marches - Subsector C - internal to subsector - contains hex 2005".

Yuk. Seems easier to just say "Pixie-Kinorb". And "SMC0" doesn't feel very Xboaty for some reason.

"X-42", or "I-754" sound better.

Try #2

How about something more relative? The starting hex plus the general direction?

X-1910c is the route that begins at 1910 and heads coreward. X-1910s is the route that heads to spinward. So routes are labelled by origin.

X-2219 is where the Rhylanor and Mora lines merge and head for Lanth, ending at Regina.

My question is, "where does the Rhylanor line comes from?" Thus my second attempt breaks down.

Try #3

Well then, how about a plain numbering system, where branches are numbered "clockwise from the direction to Capital" or some such nonsense.

So Ivendo-Regina would be something like X-640, being "the only branch (i.e. a merge) from the fourth branch from the sixth branch from Capital" (assuming the Capital - Vland - Rhylanor connections are intact).

(But does it even make sense to assume a direct route when there are branches all the time?)

So Regina to Boughene would be X-6402, and Boughene to Jewell would be X-64021, and Jewell to Esalin would be X-640213.


Try #4

How about a mix of the two: sector "origin world" plus the branches taken within that sector?

X-Mora-21211 is the leg between Karin and Raweh. Regina to Boughene is X-Natoko-1112.

Or, "Natoko Line, X-1112" and "Mora Line, X-21211".

Might be nice to have the terminal subsector in there, too, or how about the "owning" capital world?

 

[Plankowner]

For Method #2, how do you deal with travel in the opposite direction? Seems to me the branch would have the same name no matter what direction you were travelling.

I tend to think that it should something pretty cryptic but still decypherable. Perhaps XXXX-XXXX where the X's are the location of the two worlds within the same sector. Inter Sector routes would add the Sector designator: SMXXXX-DBXXXX. Which world comes first would be by convention, perhaps which is closer to Capital? The disadvantage to this method is that every single leg would have it's own designation, but that might not be too bad..

You could then identify the path of your desired message by stringing all the locations together. This would make a pretty cool looking header at the top of the message that you received, especially if it really travelled a long way...

 

[robject]

For method #2 (and all other methods), perspective is always from Capital outward.

I agree with crypticness.

Good point about building up a "header" for transmissions. The solution has to look cool as a header string!

Maybe we should work backwards, from a cool-looking header string to its meaning, and adjust as needed. Something like a cross between one of the old network addressing protocols and a mail routing address.

Assuming routes always run outward from Capital, we could simply identify relevant hub hexes. When the hex-distance is greater than 4, then we've encountered a jump into another sector. But that's a little bit boring.

I was considering a sector shortcut so that I don't need to look up the routes through adjacent sectors, hence the "Mora Line" and "Natoko Line" designations.

 

[robject]

Marc sent some suggestions, independent of our meanderings:

X-nn where X means xboat (just as I means Interstate) and nn is the route number. Odd is north-south (ie, coreward/rimward) etc.

Or, is it A where A is the first initial of the sector in which the route is operating. S-10 is a route in Spinward; V-10 is a route in Vland. There is somee overlap/potential confusion where two sectors start with the same initial.

Or,

Routes emanating from Capital are one-digit; branches are two-digit; sub-branches are 3-digit. Sort of like tributaries to rivers... THe YellowStone feeds the Missouri feeds the Misssippi. Everything prefixed with X.

 

[robject]

Try #2-a

Okay, how about prefixing a character for the sector?

X-S1910c:
</font>

• Xboat route</font>
• S = Spinward Marches or Spica or Solomani Rim</font>
• 1910 = begins at 1910</font>
• route heads coreward</font>

Eh? How's that? Getting there? Getting close?

Although, I do like the branching codes...

Try #5

Even worse, then, really too many characters:

X - Sector Code - Sector Head World Hex - Branch list

X-S-3124-21211 is the Mora line, Karin to Raweh.
X-S-3209-1112 is the Natoko line, Regina to Boughene.

Pretty ugly, eh? How do you describe something that's been routed from Rhylanor to Regina?

Well, it's practically done. Just relabel the route head to be Rhylanor:

X-S-2716-1

That's it. You know the point of origin and its terminal route, which means you know the endpoint.

I imagine if the endpoint were, say, Dinomn, you'd actually want a stop count added:

X-S-2716-1-4

The destination is the 4th stop on that leg.


Huh, this is a routing address.

Too dense? Too annoying? Too arbitrary?

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">X-S-3209-111 # i.e. Regina
X-S-3209-111-0 # i.e. also Regina

Explicit routing through Rhylanor:

X-S-3209-2716-1 # i.e. also Regina
X-S-3209-2716-1-0 # i.e. Ivendo
X-S-3209-2716-1-1 # i.e. D'Ganzio
X-S-3209-2716-1-2 # i.e. Lanth
X-S-3209-2716-1-3 # i.e. Ghandi
X-S-3209-2716-1-4 # i.e. Dinomn
X-S-3209-2716-1-5 # i.e. also Regina

And finally:

X-621321223124212312122121312122111 # i.e. Sylea to Regina?</pre>[/QUOTE]

 

[robject]

Well, Marc thinks all this fooling around is a bit too silly. Too much work for not enough benefit. The solution is likely to be less clever and more reasonable than I've been cooking with.

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by robject:
Do Xboat routes have identifiers? Generic labels? Branch identification? Are they related to the original link-and-branch conquest of the Imperium? Are they labelled according to Ziru Sirka traditions? Using an xboat branch ID, can you determine what its parent branches are, or at least get a general idea?

Route IDs could have any data, or none. Maybe just enough to figure it out. Suggestions?

"The route from there to there".


As in:

"The route from Capital to Vland to [capital of Coorridor] to Usani to Mora".

"The route from Mora to Rhylanor."

"The route from Regina to Jewell used to go through a deep space station in hex 1508, but when Grant was destroyed by that plague, it shifted to go through Roup, Efate, and Lysen."

"They're setting up a new X-boat station on Echiste and opening a new X-boat route between Rhylanor and Regina. The Archduke has convinced Capital to approved the use of jump-5 X-boats."

"The routes from Iderati to Raweh and to Emape are pure propaganda projects. They allow the Scouts to say that they go 'from one end of the Imperium to another'. Same thing for those ridiculous routes from Jewell to Emerald, Ruby, and Mongo."


Hans

 

[Plankowner]

If we think of the X-boat routes as something like the old Pony Express, maybe there is a historical system we could use? Does anyone know how the Pony Express Routes were identified?

I think Marc may be right (imagine that, the designer of the game being RIGHT

). This is probably more work than it's worth, but it's still fun to think about.

Perhaps simpler is better. Within each sector number the routes and be done with it. I would assume the routes would be numbered based on when they were added to the network?

 

[robject]

The Butterfield Trail was a stagecoach line that ran through the Southwest for hundreds of miles. And we have I40 where Route 66 used to be. And we've got the railroads.

Interesting that many of the towns along the railroad grew because of the RR. Dallas was a cow town. Now it's a transport hub, second to Chicago.

I imagine there could be some routes that are specially labelled. But labelling all of them might be too much.

 

[inexorabletash]

Who'd use this data for gameplay?

A "realistic" Xboat network would function like the Internet, with data packets being routed with various algorithms, and the individual links being of interest only to those charged with maintaining it. Presumably there would be big backbones coming out of Capital with multiple jumps per day, "wartime" channels set up to relay data during a new Frontier War, etc. but the exact details would be mind-numbingly boring unless the goal is "TCP/IP - the Role Playing Game"

Suggestions based on a global topology - e.g. number of branches from Capital - imply that someone has actually mapped out the whole network (and is willing to take the heat for that). Simply detailing Spinward Marches wouldn't be enough.

Also, re: numbering - the routes presumably changed over time as the Imperium borders expanded/contracted, and new worlds became xboat hubs. So the numbering would look somewhat random for any given snapshot in time.

"Pixie-Kinorb" works for me.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Originally posted by Joshua Bell:
unless the goal is "TCP/IP - the Role Playing Game"

Seriously, the issue is partly that the XBoat routes are cononically mapped out. And those maps don't make sense. robject is trying to make sense of them (poor rob

).

 

[robject]

Originally posted by Fritz88:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Joshua Bell:
unless the goal is "TCP/IP - the Role Playing Game"

Seriously, the issue is partly that the XBoat routes are cononically mapped out. And those maps don't make sense. robject is trying to make sense of them [...]. </font>[/QUOTE]Don't make sense? They make perfect sense! We could go public. Yeah! Looking for the routes. Paper. We need to post an ad in the paper. We could buy the paper. Then we could ask what we want. Find them. All the Xboat routes. Yes. Paper routes. Ha haa!

Nurse, I'll have my pills now. Please?

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by Joshua Bell:
Who'd use this data for gameplay?

Not everything I obsess abo... I mean, am interested in, is useful for gameplay. Some of it is useful for world-building, though. If I come up with an adventure that involves X-boats, I could probably make it work on Pixie, even though there's absolutely no good reason for why anyone would extend a X-boat link to Pixie. But I just like it better if the background elements make sense. It also makes it easier for me to come up with 'business' (in the theatrical sense). And there is, of course, always the risk that my players will say "Hey, there's absolutely no reason for an X-boat link to Pixie. I bet there's a deep dark secret buried there. Let's spend a lot of time digging for the absolutely fascinating reason Hans has come up with for it!"

It may not be all that big a risk, but it's a risk I don't see any reason to run.


Hans

 

[parmasson]

The way some modern trucking companies run is to ship all freight to a region to a “breakball” center where it is transferred to local delivery drivers. I imagine it may work like that. X-boat deliver to the hub, S class couriers take it from there. Not the fastest but it allows you to reduce the number of routes if you want.

 

[Vargas]

A clue for a detail scheme may lie in how FedEx or even the US Postal Service codes the movement of letters and packages. (Don't ask me what they do, but I see similarities).

I think the most practical answer is that messages are coded [origin world/destination world] and that some form of computerized system 'buckets' them appropriately and out of sight of all.

 

[jasper]

I like vargas system. X-boats are generally local.Right? The package may be carried by many xboats with the route name being like bus lines. Multiple xboats with same destination different depart times with different ship numbers.
So you could have a xboat 3 times day
X-1910c leaving at 0600 1300 2400 With the ship number 1 72 and 108. on the first day on the 8th day the orginial ships return.
Or x-1910C leaving every 3 days. Ship numbers 1,72,108,
Or it just the route next desitantion or combined next and final desitination. Ex Buffalo, La. Which tells you next stop is Buffalo turn around is L.A. Ship numbers would not matter but call sign would x-number-former stop. In this case x-666 New York would be the 666 ship to leave from new york to buffalo. Ship number will be corporation/military unit then class num.