Re: (2050) Automating a starship?

From: Mark F. Cook [email removed]

>We were talking about the campaign and he said (paraphrased) ,"As soon as
>I get some more cash, I'm going to have the ship's computer upgraded so
>that just one person can operate the whole thing."  This stopped me cold.
>This ship currently requires a minimum crew of three: pilot, navigator,
>and engineer.  The Ref. rules say that's the MINIMUM.  There are no
>additional rules for anything like what my player wants to do.  Now,
>I can wing it and allow him to do what he wants, but I'm concerned on
>two points.
>
>First, what would be the most logical/least-rule-bending way to do what
>he wants?  My initial reaction is have him buy two stationary robots
>(one for engineering and one for nav.) and require a live pilot at
>all times.  My reasoning is that a 'mere' computer could never be smart
>enough (within MT guidelines) to do the jobs, and it would require at
>least some synaptic processing, hence robots.  My robot design skills
>are pretty much non-existant, but I guess this is a good excuse to
>learn how, huh?
>

This is the way I would do it except you don't really need two stationary
robots, one stationary robot centrally located (perhaps tied into the main
computer) could run both positions assuming it possesed the correct skills.

>Second, assuming that I do allow him to succeed, what effect will it
>have on game balance?  I mean, I assume that GDW/DGP put those crew
>minimums in there for a reason.  Will allowing a single person with
>Pilot-1 to fly around the Imperium in a 200 ton Free Trader screw
>things up?  My initial reaction is "No", but I feel like I'm over-
>looking some points.
>

It shouldn't have any effect on game balance.  Traveller already allows
robots to be used in crew positions.  In my current campaign, the party
has one mech droid which they use as assistant engineer (the ship requires
two engineers and only one person on board has any skill).  In fact this
may be an economical way to operate a ship.  You need to consider the cost
of building and maintaining the robot plus the cost of any modification to
the ship to allow it to run automatically with the cost of hiring a crew
member to do the same job.  An engineer with skill level 1 and BRN of 1
get a salary of 500Cr/month (I think) plus lifesupport of Cr4000/month for
a total of Cr4500/month or Cr54,000 per year.  If the robot cost say
Cr200,000, it would pay for itself in only 4 years or 1/10 the life of the
ship's loan!  On the other hand a PC in that position (at least in my
games) is cheaper because he works for no salary and your going to pay for
his life support anyway!

I do think that the Imperium would require at least one living being on board
at all times however (ie no completely automated robot ships) because
their artificial intelligence technology is still pretty young and not
to be fully trusted.  Moreover, if *you* wanted, you could impose a -DM to
robots in the minimum crew positions during high stress situations such as
combat on the grounds that they are not truely intelligent and would not be
able to act on a hunch or knowingly exceed reccomended safty limits for the
device (ie engines) in question or such like.

This does bring up a good question that maybe should be addressed namely
"What is the role of Artificial (or better Simulated) Intelligence in
Traveller?"  How does one handle adding synaptic units to the main computers
of a ship?  It should be possible.  The more I think about this the more
questions and situations pop into my mind.  I need to think about this some
more and post a list of thoughts on the topic after I've had some time to
organize them.

Later

TLH

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