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Old 07-17-2017, 08:37 PM   #121
warellis
 
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Default Re: Traveller and modern electronics

How much would OTU Traveller change if it had FTL communications that could travel as fast as the fastest current jump drives, at jump-7, but i stead of a ship was an actual subspace ansible?:

The idea for this question is based on an official ATU published for Mongoose Traveller's rules but featuring a setting that has no connection to the Third Imperium setting or universe, called Twilight Sector:
Quote:
Gravity Radio:

Radio waves are able to traverse warp space or the gravetic plane the same as physical objects like starships. Radio waves move at the same speed(s) as starships, the speed being based on the volume of tachyon particles released when a comsat (communications satellite) is dropped into warp space. Most comsats are large and configured to broadcast radio waves at a rate of 8 parsecs per week, but smaller units can be built. The difference between a space radio and a starship is the radio wave does not have to emerge from warp space after a week. It will continue on until it reaches its aim point which can be as far away as the comsat has coordinates for.

So it is possible to communicate with from one end of known space to the other (900 light years) in approximately 35 weeks. Not exactly instant communications but communications none the less.
In this setting the FTL wave is capable of 8 parsecs a week (since their jump engines are also capable of jump 8 for the best) but what if the Third Imperium had something like this, just at jump-7 instead for the speed of the FT L communications?

Essentially if FTL comms are still only as fast as the fastest ship, would that still keep the setting the same?

Last edited by warellis; 07-18-2017 at 04:11 AM.
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Old 07-18-2017, 05:37 AM   #122
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Originally Posted by warellis View Post
...
Essentially if FTL comms are still only as fast as the fastest ship, would that still keep the setting the same?
These FTL comms are as fast as the fastest ship if that ship doesn't need to stop to refuel every jump. Since ships do need to refuel (or pass the data along to a waiting ship that's already fueled), this gives the comms a slight speed advantage.
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Old 07-18-2017, 09:03 AM   #123
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These FTL comms are as fast as the fastest ship if that ship doesn't need to stop to refuel every jump. Since ships do need to refuel (or pass the data along to a waiting ship that's already fueled), this gives the comms a slight speed advantage.
Yes, if you followed the J-4 X-boat system you'd get better than a 75% speed increase. Perhaps approaching 100%. If you don't need relays (like the X-boats do) and can go direct it's easily more than that. Maybe 3x.

This should generally knit centralized organizations together with a little more efficiency but without improving ship speed it only goes so far.
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Old 07-18-2017, 12:41 PM   #124
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These FTL comms are as fast as the fastest ship if that ship doesn't need to stop to refuel every jump. Since ships do need to refuel (or pass the data along to a waiting ship that's already fueled), this gives the comms a slight speed advantage.
Only a slight one though if you have the organization to set up the relay system. Possibly the most important strategic effects is that it allows sending of a message in all directions, FTL distress signals and it makes impossible to shut up a system under attack by intercepting every launching hsip if there's no courier ship in place or you can take it out before the attack.
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Old 07-18-2017, 07:11 PM   #125
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Only a slight one though if you have the organization to set up the relay system. Possibly the most important strategic effects is that it allows sending of a message in all directions, FTL distress signals and it makes impossible to shut up a system under attack by intercepting every launching hsip if there's no courier ship in place or you can take it out before the attack.
What would be the best way to prevent word of an attack from getting out with a system like this in your mind?
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Old 07-18-2017, 08:07 PM   #126
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What would be the best way to prevent word of an attack from getting out with a system like this in your mind?
Destroy the ansibles. The feasibility of doing so depends on whether or not there are any limitations (e.g. gravity well) on their placement. Absent that detail, it's an undefined and thus unsolvable problem.
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Old 07-21-2017, 08:33 PM   #127
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Default Re: Traveller and modern electronics

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Originally Posted by warellis View Post
How much would OTU Traveller change if it had FTL communications that could travel as fast as the fastest current jump drives, at jump-7, but i stead of a ship was an actual subspace ansible?:

The idea for this question is based on an official ATU published for Mongoose Traveller's rules but featuring a setting that has no connection to the Third Imperium setting or universe, called Twilight Sector:

In this setting the FTL wave is capable of 8 parsecs a week (since their jump engines are also capable of jump 8 for the best) but what if the Third Imperium had something like this, just at jump-7 instead for the speed of the FT L communications?

Essentially if FTL comms are still only as fast as the fastest ship, would that still keep the setting the same?

With nonship FtL comms the starships would retain the same inflight speed. The effect would not be so much like a WWII navy as like a more flexible warning bonfire.

If ansibles are common enough to be in private use, commercial intelligence will be more reliable. It will still be out of date but the problem will be less.

Personal messages could be sent fairly easily.

A lot will depend on how common ansibles are.

Military strategy will center a lot on taking out ansibles, much as in World War One(and sometimes in WW2) the difference between the friendly and enemy side of no mans land depended to a large degree on the availability of landlines.
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Old 07-28-2017, 07:42 PM   #128
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The ansibles will have one other significant impact upon the setting: tramp freight will be much diminished.

See, the Couriers of the network run at either about J3... I got 3.25, Hans got similar.... on an 8 day cycle... and J2 on a 9 day cycle off the X-boat designated routes, averaging about 1.5 Pc.

The Ansible will do J6 on a 7 day cycle. This means that I can organize demand runs at 6 Pc much faster, and to 48 Pc very much faster...
6 Pc is going to be by XMail 13-16 days there, a day for response, and another 13-16 back, assuming that J6 is 2 hops of the X-boat away, for some 16-36 days. (If it's 3 courier jumps, 27 days there, a day for response, 27 back, for 55 days)

The Ansible, instead, is 7 out, 1 for response, 7 back.

Historical trends show a massive change in shipping between the generally 40+days to arrange pre-telegraph and the 3 days post-telegraph...

Runs up to a week seem to largely have been split demand and spec trade historically; just over 2 weeks round trip for comm is the point where it seems to almost switch to primarily speculation, but the data points aren't hard enough for valid stats analysis.
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Old 08-04-2017, 03:58 AM   #129
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In Traveller, well the Classic/Mongoose/GURPS Traveller eras during the Strephon-era of the 3I, does anyone know what the average lifespan of humans are during that era, barring the use of anagathics?

Like is there mention of people living 150 years or something as a general lifespan due to better tech and medicine? The Traveller wiki mentions "the average human lifespan is now well over one hundred years in span and many live longer than that" but in my experience that generally reads as them living only a little past 100 at most.

Because I've noticed a lot of scifi, well perhaps visual scifi, often has it that despite it being centuries in the future, average people still die at like the age of 90-100 while aliens, of course, will generally live longer than us puny humans.

One of the things that got me interested in Mass Effect was that humans in that setting actually live longer, living up to 150 years, than that seemingly standard scifi rule regarding aging.

Edit: There is an ATU setting called Clement Sector where the average lifespan is 250 years, without anagathics, so aging rules are sort of different for it IIRC.

Last edited by warellis; 08-04-2017 at 04:08 AM.
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Old 08-04-2017, 05:20 PM   #130
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That require far more than just advanced medicine. It would require genetic alteration as well as extreme levels of trauma repair for average citizens let alone anyone even slightly adventurous.
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