I think I meant to say that a rutter is like a nautical almanac in that it's a handy little book that sailors would probably carry around in the days before search engines, but the education has been edifying.
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Originally Posted by TGLS
And another race:
The CyKoi are a humanoid race, who look very much like humans with a few exceptions. Their nose, while in the same place, is completely flat with slits at the bottom. Their skin is turquoise, their faces narrow, and on average 50% taller.
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The first humanoid race, nicely done.
Races tally:
Humanoids- 1/3, 2 left
Non-humes- 5/9, 4 left
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Question: Are there faster than light communications? If so, are they limited?
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Answer:
FTL Communication
Even if it were possible to send a point-to-point comm beam through a jump hole, the fact that there's no way to predict where it comes out the other end precludes it from having any practical use. Therefore, messages essentially have to be carried by hand. (BTW- This is one of the conditions that seems necessary for a free trader setting to work,
according to here, so it's lucky that it's come out.)
Now in this tech age, that means computerised data servers carried on jumpships which connect with planetside or station-based servers when they're within broadband range. It means that messages only go as far as they've been paid to go, which means they go nowhere for free. It means that most jumpships have a data server to make some extra cash on each jump. It means that empty data storage, like empty cargo space, makes no money, so traders will fill up their servers with cheap entertainment that they can try to sell off along their trade route. And it means that small star systems that are off the major trade routes will be somewhat disconnected from communication with the rest of the galaxy, unless they can contract a vessel to make daily runs to a local data hub.
More civilised areas are serviced by highly organised, specialised network data carrier jumpships, and there are almost as many variations on how they handle that as there are networks.
One of the pre-eminent examples is the Durras Cluster Postal Union, which serves the 180 odd star systems of this open stellar cluster. They have a large fleet of light and medium freighters doing the rounds of the cluster on an almost incomprehensibly complex schedule, but it means that stock orders, share market indexes, corporate correspondence, the news- the lifeblood of commerce- never take more than a day to reach their recipients.
As an interesting aside for budding free traders, ex-DuPo freighters are often available cheap at auction too, especially second or third hand. The union regularly cycle old cruising stock out of the fleet, which is why you shouldn't be surprised to see the familiar blocky outline of a
Durrant Freefaller in the neighbouring berth on a spacering halfway round the galactic disk.
Question:
Which mainly human polity does everyone else consider to be bad guys? What have they done, or what do they want to do, to deserve this dark reputation? And is the reputation actually justified or are they just misunderstood?
And I'm going to cheat with an...
Auxiliary Question:
What year is it?