RE: cold start launch

[This came to [email removed], looks like it was meant for
[email removed].  Watch those automatic reply headers! -- James]

RE: Jim Baranski

>Your descriptions of different states of readiness seems to overlap some.
>RESERVE implies that the powerplanet 'fusors' are running, but the
>description does not match.

     Sigh, 'tis true.  I admit it.  I do not have my rules memorized and
was trying to reconstruct them off the top of my head while waiting for a
program to bomb.  I was partially sucessful.  The program did bomb.

>RESERVE- Fusors up, drives ready, ship pre-flighted and on internal power.

>LOW STANDBY- Engineering systems on line at low power, ship ready to
>lift after drives and fusors have been warmed up and pre-takeoff checklist
>has been completed.

     I knew that!  I knew that!  I was just testing to see if you were
paying attention.

>In my mind, there should be the states:
>[description of states follows]

     The heart of the matter.  Yes, you have chosen fine states.  They
are goodly states indeed.  I will be the first to admit that your states
are every bit as good as mine.  Maybe better.  However...
     Your states appear to be chosen on the basis of crew activities,
mine were chosen on the basis of power consumption and drive functionality.
Other possibilities exist as well (weapons functionality, avionics status,
opperational level of the Feel-O-Tron, etc.)  The particular choice of
opperational states would seem to depend upon the nature of the starcrew
subculture, the availability of Feel-O-Trons, and the whimsy of the GM.
A martial culture may only be concerned with the weapons.  A race of
hedonists may wait in line for the Feel-O-Tron.  Eight Worlds ships are
TERRIBLY fuel limited so fuel management becomes THE overriding issue.
     And oh yes I forgot.  Fuel consumption and power level also
determine the extent to which the ship is visible to passive sensors.
This has, at times, been a matter of supreme importance.

TECHNICAL NOTE:
     There are no GRAVITICS in the Eight Worlds universe.  Eight Worlds
spacecraft are propelled by reaction drives, the way the gods meant Man
to propel spacecraft.  No inertial compensation either.  Grunt snort.
     There are also no Feel-O-Trons in the Eight Worlds, to the dismay
of PCs who think that this would be an acceptible alternative to
inertial compensation.

Paul R. Gazis
Sunnyvale, CA

[email removed]           or
[email removed]                    or
something like that