Well, the virus is less unlikely. But I still don't buy it.
I had to re-read the part about the "mass of data impeding new players".
Sorry, I have trouble with that one too. The players need a few
subsectors, maybe a sector to run arround in. Like the Spinward marches,
which were included with the rules. The rest of the data is stuff to be
added as *needed*.
Their new system will accumulate data just as fast, if it survives.
The only *good* idea in there was allowing there to be multiple kinds of
interstellar drive. That's reasonable. If there's *a* way to go FTL,
it's not that unlikely that there will be multiple ways. And it makes
interactions with "aliens" (or even humans with a different drive
technology) far more interesting.
But there's no need to "grandfather" it into the rules. It'd work just
fine if they just claim that it was developed on a world (or worlds)
that Knew that an interstellar drive had existed, but had no idea how it
worked!
Something like Pournelle's Alderson drive would be nice too *if* they do
it right. Which means that you can only jump between specified points in
systems. Not all adjacent systems would have a "jump path" (Alderson
tramline) between them. And anybody who knows the technology *knows*
where the jump points are.
Pournelle chose the limits for that drive *very* carefully. It makes
system defense a considerably different matter than in regular
Traveller. The Alderson points are a spot where you can defend against
invasion, instead of having to wait near the mainworld to see where the
attack comes from.
Cultures with different drives are going to be driving each other
*nuts*. Which is a good thing.
GDW's original mistake was the map that had the Imperium *surrounded* by
other cultures.. That *killed* several games I know of that were based
on exploration of "the unknown". And made others toss the background out
the window.
Hmmm... maybe there *is* a second good point. Keeping the rules and the
background seperate may help. But I wish we could have the alian
cultures set up withouit requiring definite locations with respect to
the other cultures?