>RE: Jump Points
>
>Baranski: True... However, in my opinion, not all systems are organized
>enough
>to have jump points defined, published and guarded. Cretainly and A or B
>starport will, but maybe not C, and probably not D or E.
>
>Steve: In the Imperium, they do. That's what the Scout Service does.
Note
>that I don't believe in Jump points, but id=f they were there, the Scouts
>would
>have maped them 600 years ago.
>
>The Scout Service may have mapped/defined them, but my point is does
everyone
>actually use them? Is there anyone hanging around in the lesser systems
to
>guard them and enforce use of them? Maybe, Maybe not...
Notice that I don't even believe in them, so their enforcement is academic,
as far as I am concerned.
>Steve: And your pleasant customs people will be most curious about a ship
that>arrived on planet without using a Jump point. A planetary sensor
system
>should
>be able to track any ship within 100 diameters, wherever it arrives. I
>believe
>NORAD can do that now, By TL9 it should be geedunk.
>
>Given enough resources, you can hide from any scanner. Also, a Captain
>needing
>privacy would most likely file a flight plan that he was doing some
>intrasystem
>exploring/trading/prospecting, fly past the range of any given sensors,
jump
>out, do their business, jump back in somewhere in the system, but out of
>sensor
>range, and just motor back to the planet. There are always ways to get
around
>customs.
Given enough resources, you can build a sensor that cannot be hidden from.
I doubt that the average ship captain-PC has more resources than the
average
planetary government. As to going beyond sensor range, I suspect that any
world higher than TL8 will have system range sensors that track everything
in the system. In which case, you'll spend a LOONG time getting beyond
sensor range. I also suspect that when your transponder stops sending a
detectable signal (just after you jump), they'll realize you jumped (or
were
destroyed), and be waiting with a fleet of Customs people when you return.
I also suspect that transponders and flight recorders are checked
frequently,
and anything you do had better have a faked transponder/recorder record
that
won't be cracked when the daily report of traffic in nearby systems is
brought in by X-boat. Or by Courier, in systems off the X-boat routes.
Later...
- -- Via DLG Pro v0.985b
[email removed]
I have learned to use the word "impossible" with the greatest caution.
--W. von Braun