Economics in Gamba

Wildstar:

>How about a stutterwarp-powered missile (or better yet, a whole bunch of
>them) launched from a conventional ship.  Instead of high explosive,
>have a proximity fuse connected to a sandcaster round.  Have the missile
>home in on the stutterwarp ship, and detonate in its path.  If the ship
>is not too badly damaged by this, then launch a bunch more, and surround
>the ship with sand.  Now that you've gotten the thing to stand still,
>you can fire at it with conventional weapons, or come alongside at your
>lesiure for a boarding action.

Sand won't bother it THAT much.  And if you can get something that close,
then use a nuke instead.  It saves you time and trouble.  Keep in mind
that if you surround the ship with enough sand to keep it stationary
(about as much as the Sahara desert has, for a start), it STILL takes you
hours or days to reach the ship, and he can cruise out of your sand on
normal drive (which all S/W ships have), and bug out.


>0109  Motet         C898735-3           AG         Y
>Obviously an agro world feeding Madrigal, and maybe other parts of the
>subsector as well.  Good destination for traders looking for an unususl
>cargo

Why does ANYONE believe that TL3 worlds can feed a subsector?  TL3 countries
usually have trouble feeding themselves, much less anyone else.  Look
around at the food exporting countries in the real world:  they are all
comparatively high technology (TL6+).


>0110  MADRIGAL      B7989DE-6  S        IND        Y
>The industrial powerhouse of the subsector.  I don't believe that
>commercially important worlds need to be high-tech.  Madrigal is quite
>capable of producing industrial goods that would be useful to worlds
>anywhere from TL-3 to TL-9 (which includes most of the worlds in the
>subsector).  For export to lower-tech worlds, it probably produces heavy
>machinery and mining and agricultural equipment; for high tech worlds,
>Madrigal likely exports machine tools, precision equipment, and some
>consumer goods.  It also is the major source of refined chemicals and
>bulk metals (iron and steel ingots, barstock, plates, pipes and other
>useful materials).  Total production is likely to be more than a
>hundred million tons annually.  The class B starport is maintained
>by and for the convenience of Madrigal's customers, and the cost of imported
>skills and technology is part of the cost of doing business.

How many TL6 machine tools do we import into the USA?  How much precision
equipment?  At TL6, your idea of precision isn't even in the time zone
required for real precision work.  Total production is more than 100,000,000
tons annually?  So where do the exports come from?  The USA does more than
that, and we sure don't have 1,000,000,000 people in the USA!

				Steve