Stations/Depot/Xboat Politics

On Deep Space Stations:

It's possible they don't often make much economic sense.  (Maybe I'll do
a quick analysis sometime.)  But they might make very good military
sense, as a refueling depot.  All you need are the hulls for holding
the LHyd fuel, tanker/tugs to haul them around and fill them up, and
a parsec or so to hide them in.  I don't know whether the logistical
assets to support such a venture would be worth tying up or not.


On Depot and its' TL16:

David Johnson [email removed] writes:


>If this infrastructure exists in Deneb - and essentially Vincennes is the
>only source available - then Depot might continue to function.  Clearly
>this would be a priority of the Domain and later the Regency.  On the
>other hand, if Depot was previously supported by Imperial infrastructure
>beyond the Domain then it might be more feasible to move these facilities
>to Vincennes.

Point taken.  However, I think that Depot's tech is supportable on
the Domain's resources.  Deneb has enough TL15 worlds to handle any
materiel Depot got from other worlds at that tech level (maybe with
some retooling) and it would be fairly difficult and time-consuming
to ship anything significant from further away.  The nearest TL16
world outside Deneb was the capital of Corridor, Kaasu (Corr. 1209).
The only other TL16 worlds in that direction are the two in Vland,
Gemid and Lukham.  So Depot had to be fairly self-sufficient in the
way of manufacturing.  And from what we're told, typical Imperial
naval policy dictated this.  Still, I'd expect short-term equipment
problems, especially with experimental ships like the uprated TL17
armed Voroshilev battleships, since those contractors and that project
was not originally in Deneb.  It still will be rough for a couple
of decades, but not I believe, insurmountable.

Hmm...Depot (Deneb) may have been centered on Imperial prototype
development and testing, as well as high tech production.  Does
anyone else remember any TL16 naval depots?  (It seems to me that
some of the depots were designed with major secondary missions.
Except Depot (Corridor).  Its' secondary mission was its' primary
mission -- to be the biggest naval base in the Imperium!) :)

>My own view is that TL represents the production capability of the world.

Agreed.  I really liked the DGP _World Builder's Handbook_ development
of the tech level concept into types of technology at different levels,
with UWP tech level represented as the height of commonly available
technology on the world.  That didn't rule out weird tech level
variations in places, or lower tech in undeveloped regions, and so on.
For instance, UWP tech for modern Earth was 8, best representing the
planetary production (i.e. the industrialized, computerized "First
World" countries), but low common was only 6, representing the best
available elsewhere.  The book, if you can still find a copy, presented
a nice flexible system.


On Imperial Politics:

The x-boat system is an interesting case study.  When designed in the
mid-600s, it was state of the art: tech 13, jump four.  (Although
the Imperium was considered tech 14 in 700, so the government probably
had many jump five ships by then).  After four hundred years of service
it was still jump four.  While political reasons for having a slower
information system have been expressed (the government gets news by
jump six first), there are other considerations.  The x-mail system
may have been aging, but it still worked, and it would be terribly
expensive to redesign the entire system for jump six.  What if the
way stations would need to be moved?  Think of the expense of the
new x-boat designs!  [Especially in the old Classic Trav design
system which explains why we have the xboats we do!]

Even so, prior to the Fifth Frontier War, there had been talk of
building a jump six express route from Regina to Capital in order
to keep closer track of the Zhodani situation.  (Which may have been
Imperial sabre-rattling, but is still interesting.)  TNS news
releases on such things were in the 5FW game, and may have been in
JTAS was well.

  Steve Bonneville
  [email removed]