>Scott ([email removed]) writes:
>> As I said above, TL 15 starports are FAR to busy making mailitary and large
>>craft to make many free traders, thus the average free trader is about TL 12
>>or
>>so. One can still run a free trader off a 1/bis, but it is not as tempting.
>Computer questions! First off, what does 'bis' mean? I remember that 'fib'
>meant something like 'fiber backup', but 'bis' escapes me. "Big Information
>System"?
As best as I can tell, it means "better." In Old Traveller, the bis models
were identical to the normal ones, except that they had a mauch larger cpu and
no storage. Thus, one could run better programs, but one had fewer options (in
general) This was an artifact of the old traveller system where one had
specific programs that did things and took up generic space units. I
personally liek the new system better where a bigger computer just controls
more stuff.
Quoted stuff---------
Bob Mahoney BITNET: [email removed]
Also, what actual effect does differing computer models have on ship's
functions, aside from the DM's to the various tasks? For example, the 200-ton
trader detailed in the Starship Operator's Guide: Is it doing all of this crew
recognition, entertainment holograms, etc. on a model 1 computer? If it is
powerful enough to do all this, is there any reason to have a better (more $)
model? And if it's not, why waste processing on 'frills' at the expense of the
DM's for combat, etc.?
- ----- End quoted stuff
Hokay, here is what **WE** do. This is not very official....
First off, a bigger computer lets you get by with less crew, or lets you use
better equipment with the same crew. Second, the machinery gives you neat
combat DM's We rule that most of that dreck they mention in the starship
operators manual can be run on most machines, but it gets better with tech
level and computer power. When a combat situation comes up, you sht down your
library program and all the entertainment consoles, shoo the passengers back to
thier rooms, and lock all of the doors. Thus, a combat is the ideal time to
try and take a ship over as its internal scanners may well be inoperative.
This is not so on a ship with *far* more computing power than it needs.
Example:My current group was given an electronic warfare/tacint ship vaguely
disguised as a merchant ship. They have three of every communicator ever built
at experimental tech levels. (Read as "prone to failure at bad times") Thier
electronics are fantastic, and thier computer would normally be a part of a
battleship. A big battleship. This little toy was built by Naval Intelligence
as a small spy craft. Because it is so overpowered, it routinely keeps track
of all sorts of things that a normal ships computer would not. (e.g recording
all intrument readings at all times, instead of the critical ones, recording
comm channels and sensor inputs much of the time on the off chance it will be
useful later, etc.)
Now, I allow technology to fight it out on many occasions. Breaking the
security on a coded transmission is child's play to a device like this, so it
is routinely done. They usually have no problem crashing security on most
planets they go to, etc. On the downside, it can be spotted. After all, thier
software is only as good as the programmer. While the hardware is almost
unbeatable, a clever person on a ground station might well notice the breakin
attempts and get them into heaps and piles of trouble, when they really were
not interested in the information.
It is an equivalent circumstance to a band of space aliens coming to earth
and casually breaking into the NSA or CIA files just to see if they can do it.
This is would cause a great deal of trouble.
By the way, to the person who mentioned you "pocket computer," I believe that
the model 1 is at or near mainframe levels of capability, pushing into the
supercomputer regions. I do think it should be earlier than TL 11, but my
gripes about the weird, utterly non-linear technology scale are well known.
>Am I confused? I think so. (That would be standard.)
Scott
Scott Ellsworth
[email removed]
[email removed]