Starport trade

Derek Wildstar writes:
>I assumed that most merchant starships would use as small a jump number
>as possible.  Larger jump drives are considerably more expensive,
>require a larger crew, and additional fuel requirements.
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I've never accepted Megatraveller's removal of the jump governor. In
fact, I decided that a higher jump engine was more effective, so that
a jump-2 engine making a jump-1 would only use 7.5% fuel (half of
what it uses for a jump-2).

>All of these
>typically come at the expense of cargo space.  The result is higher
>expenses and lower revenues, a situation which most merchants detest.

The thing is that there is two types of merchant shipping: Regular and
tramp. Regular merchant ships would be tailored to fit the route it's
on. But most player's are interested in tramp freight. That ought to be
_less_ for well-established trade runs. As for jump-1 engines, there
are far too many unprofitable star systems even in a Main for a tramp
freighter to waste time with it. With a jump-2 engine he may have less
cargo space, but he saves a lot in being able to bypass unprofitable
worlds (not to mention other kind of troublespots).

I haven't had time to look your tables over in detail, but I will do so
and get back to you later. Keep up the good work!



      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     [email removed]
- ------------
        "A  subsector  official  pompously states that the
        subsector  armed  forces  have  four Kinunir class
        ships in service,  each with enough troop strength
        to put down any military operations that threathen
        the peace of the Imperium."

                        ---Adventure 1, The Kinunir