Current Subjects

Hans Rancke-Madsen [email removed] writes:
> I've been toying with making the price of yearly maintenance higher the
> older the ship is while making the risks of an inadequately maintained
> ships less. The result should be that established corporations would
> get rid of their ships after 30 or 40 years because they became too
> expensive to maintain. Thus lots of cheap but old ships on the market.

I like this idea; do you have any specific numbers?

Here is a possibility to play with:

Age of ShipOverhaul cost(delta)
 0 to  9 years00.10%-na-
10 to 19 years  00.11%00.01%
20 to 29 years00.13%00.02%
30 to 39 years00.16%00.03%
40 to 49 years00.20%00.04%
50 to 59 years00.25%00.05%
60 to 69 years00.31%00.06%
70 to 79 years00.38%00.07%
80 to 89 years00.46%00.08%
90 to 99 years00.55%00.09%
 . . . well, you get the idea . . .

By the time the ship has turned 40, it's maintainance cost has doubled
and the cost will double again in less than 30 years.

> The problem with fleet sizes I still can't quite see how to overcome.
> More star systems and less high-population planets is what's needed here.

Probably the only real fix for this is to change the formula for
shipyard capacity and tax revenues; change from a linear system to a
non-linear one, so that high population worlds pay and produce less per
person than less populous worlds.


Rob Dean [email removed] writes:
> However, as I recall, the question cannot really be answered "authoritatively"
,
> since the Hard Times book deosn't show a category for subsectors in the
> Spinward MArches outside the Imperium.  Ah well.

Presumably, if the "light behind the claw" scenario is being used, then
things should be approximately the same as the pre-Rebellion Spinward
Marches.  The Darrians and the Sword Worlds balance each other in a sort
of microcosm of the Deneb/Zhodani balance.

[email removed]
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                                                 Science-Fiction Adventure
                                                         in the Far Future