Bertil:
> I found this on sci.military, and it might be of interest to the
vehicle/
>a-c design crowd. It looks like the Traveller method of speed as a direct
>function of TtW is bogus.
It certainly is. I think Traveller looked at AFVs, and tried to generalize
to flying thingies. The F-15 and SR-71 demonstrated that back when they
first stuck their feet in hteir mouths over at GDW.
Do you have any good (simple) solutions to the problem? Create a drag
index for ALL vehicles, not just aircraft?
Brian Vaughan:
>According to _Hard Times_, as worlds are cut off from interstellar
>trade, they become unable to sustain their prior levels of technology,
>and must regress to lower, locally sustainable levels of technology.
>
>Now, I had always assumed that the reason for the incredibly wide range
>of levels of technology was that most worlds preferred to remain at
>levels of technology which were locally sustainable.
I had assumed that too. Cynthia and I are working toward a redefinition
ot Tech Level that would incorporate the effects shown in Hard Times, and
the original definition of TL, and the definition given in HT (none of
which
agree to any apreciable degree).
So far, we have decided to redefine TL as an ECONOMIC indicator, in line
with TCS/Striker. Then actual Technological level is defined by two sets
of TL breakdowns from WBH - one to indicate production TLs, the other to
indicate TLs USED.
So a world might have a TL of 7, indicating a weak economy, with few
exports.
It's production TL might then be: 96-858B6-9890-A8-B, and it's Use TL might
be: B7-AAAD6-AAAB-CC-F. The Use TL would be the one adversely affected by
HT, with the collapse tending toward the Production TL (with a chance of
dropping below that, in case of bombardment, or other destruction of local
industry). The economic TL could vary wildly during HT, as this world
might
export more, import more, import less, export less, whatever.
>_Hard Times_ seems intended to cut down on the number of high-tech
>worlds, and to increase the number of low-tech worlds. But, I had rather
>felt that there was already a superabundance of low-tech worlds.
>
>I hope I am not annoying anyone by initiating another round of _Hard_
>_Times_ bashing, but most prior discussion has focused on the idea that
>technology could be quickly reacquired, rather than on the question
>of why technology would be lost in the first place.
SO had I. However, the system outlined above can explain those low TL
holes
as places with few exports to the Imperium at large. The system above
developed out of several discussions about how TL could be lost, when it is
defined as production capability.
Later...
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I have learned to use the word "impossible" with the greatest caution.
--W. von Braun