In Message 1415, -bertil- notes an inconsistency in the rules for meson
screens:
>Blunder #2: <
> According to the Ref's Manual, MesonScreens draws a unholy amount<
> of power. In a design example of by Joe Fugate (TD 11 or TD 12, I<
> think) where he remakes the old Regal Class BC from TCS, he gives <
> it a MesonScreen that is supposed to draw 0.9 MW/kl of craft <
> volume, this would be about 900,000 MW. And this is the figure <
> given in the text, *but in the table in the article it is reduced <
> to 90,000 MW* (The powerplant would never in any way be able to <
> support 900,000MW). BTW, the article seemed to use the latest <
> version of the design system, including all erratas, even the '/50<
> if over 50' rule for gunners and bridge crew. <
When I started playing around with the design rules (prior to getting a copy
of the second set of official errata, I noticed the incongruously large amount
of energy needed to use a meson screen.
> When I checked with High Guard (Yes, I know, I'm a anacronism. <
> But I still treat the old books as 'default' when MegaTraveller <
> don't make sense) I got a figure of about 180,000 MW (One energy <
> point equals 250MW). <
So I checked with High Guard, too, (you're not the only dinosaur), and
decided that the table would be consistent with High Guard if you divided
all the energy costs for meson screen by four, and I so noted in the margin
of that page. Then I got the second errata sheet, and found all the optimized
screens divided by ten, and decided (probably after reading the Regal rebuild
article, too), that all the meson screens should get the same treatment,
and noted that correction in the margin as well. It's not official, so far as
I know, but if anyone is keeping track of these things, it is what I did with
the several large ship designs that were among the packages I uploaded last
week. (Or whenever it was.)
> So here I have 3 opinions about how much power a meson screen <
> requires, and they differ by a factor of ten, sheesh! Is there an <
> errata that I have missed that divides the energy for mesonscreens<
> by 10 and not only the optimized meson screens? <
As I say, that isn't yet part of the errata, unless there is a third
official set that I haven't seen, but it is what I have been using. As you
note, Fighting Barges uses the unrevised figures, meaning that no one has
better than a meson screen-1 or so (as I recall--I bought it, but I read it
once and threw it down in disgust, thinking that I could do better without
much trouble). Why bother carrying a screen like that? It won't stop
a real meson gun (i.e., spinal) ever, and the little ones not often.
Another Blunder (#4):
One you didn't mention: Look carefully at the rule that allows you to
dispense with a vehicle commander. Subtracting the cps for the sensors
from the total cps and dividing by the computer multiple means that the result
will only be between 0 and 1 if the cp of all non-sensor components is less
than the computer multiple. For TL15, and Comp 9 (120 mult), this works out
to 800KCr (less for a smaller computer), which means if you carry a fusion
plant as big as 4 kL (only 24MW) you cannot possibly eliminate the commander.
Why bother having a rule for this if the only vehicle simple enough to apply
it is a motorcycle?? It is really intended for combat vehicles, since any
civilian vehicle can get by with only a driver for crew...but it can never
work out. No change to this is in the official errata, but clearly one needs
to be...
Another Blunder? (#5)
In the trade and commerce tables, why do passengers move preferentially
from high-tech to low-tech worlds? Look at the rules. Maybe they are going
on vacation, but they would probably want to come back in roughly the same
numbers in which they go, wouldn't they?. Same thing with cargo...high tech
worlds inundate low tech worlds with cargo...I can see where they would want
it, but where is the money coming from? Why should there be tech level
effects on the price of speculative goods that represent raw materials? Most
of the stuff a non-industrial or agricultural world is exporting is probably
food or minerals, and I can't see paying a premium for gold that came from
an asteroid as ooposed to gold that was panned from a stream by a TL3 49'er.
Any comments? Also...it still looks to me like the sizes of major and minor
cargos should be 1d*10 and 1d*5 respectively, rather than 1d+10 and 1d+5. I
would really like to hear some more on this subject.
:::Rob Dean:::
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