> I would think decreasing sensor range would help as well. Even better,
> expand the range difference between an at rest pirate with advanced equipment
> actively watching for a victim, and a short crewed merchant with basic
> equipment in flight.
Perhaps Traveller Sensors should be like submarine sonar. When you're
moving you're blind because you're making too much noise. For
something like a neutrino detector this even sounds plausible. Maximum
sensitivity comes from turning off your own plant. The more power you
generate, the harder it is to detect other people's power plants. When
you get close enough and have a bearing on a target you can switch to
optics, and when you get real close you can switch to something like
radar or laser-ranging. Likewise the less power you're using the
harder you are to see on N-detectors.
Warfleets would have scout boats ahead doing bounding overwatch with
some moving while others coast on low power looking for unexpected
power sources, but a merchant can't afford to do that; it's pick up a
cargo and boost for jump because time is money.
I think the other thing that would aid pirates is reducing weapon
range, so that 12 warships in a dodecahedron around a planet can't
cover the entire volume to 100 meters without needing to move.
- --
Carl Rigney
[email removed]