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Old 12-10-2016, 08:18 PM   #21
warellis
 
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Default Re: Traveller and modern electronics

Does Traveller have a lot of things like asteroid mining or space station habitats and space colonies and such? OTU I mean.
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Old 12-10-2016, 08:20 PM   #22
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Default Re: Traveller and modern electronics

Well, tea leaves keep better than seasonal fruit juices, and silk feels MUCH better than leather. But for the most part, I agree that luxuries make bank.

Though they still require plenty of wealthy people to pay through the nose for them. And they still won't supply the bulk, literally and monetarily, of the trade.
Was the silk road really all about the luxuries?
Even if so, wasn't it more about numerous micro-stops and the road only existed when looked at from "above" and over long periods of time?
My history knowledge isn't very detailed, so I really don't know.
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Old 12-10-2016, 08:23 PM   #23
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Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
Well, tea leaves keep better than seasonal fruit juices, and silk feels MUCH better than leather. But for the most part, I agree that luxuries make bank.

Though they still require plenty of wealthy people to pay through the nose for them. And they still won't supply the bulk, literally and monetarily, of the trade.
Was the silk road really all about the luxuries?
Even if so, wasn't it more about numerous micro-stops and the road only existed when looked at from "above" and over long periods of time?
My history knowledge isn't very detailed, so I really don't know.
Well I imagine most interstellar trade would consist of luxuries or materials not locally available. Most other stuff could probably be made from material in-system.

Last edited by warellis; 12-10-2016 at 09:10 PM.
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Old 12-10-2016, 09:08 PM   #24
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Default Re: Traveller and modern electronics

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Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
Well, tea leaves keep better than seasonal fruit juices, and silk feels MUCH better than leather. But for the most part, I agree that luxuries make bank.

Though they still require plenty of wealthy people to pay through the nose for them. And they still won't supply the bulk, literally and monetarily, of the trade.
Was the silk road really all about the luxuries?
Even if so, wasn't it more about numerous micro-stops and the road only existed when looked at from "above" and over long periods of time?
My history knowledge isn't very detailed, so I really don't know.
Yes and yes. The various princes tippling along the way forced the price to be passed on to the consumer. But once it got all the way to Europe people bought it essentially because it was expensive-and came from mysterious places-and was a good way to one up one's neighbor-and yada, yada, yada. The actual aesthetic and functional advantages were not what gave them their price. That is a robe that looked like a China Silk robe but was made of wool(if one can do that) would obviously be downgraded.

To this day Kashmere is a household word even though the overhead for getting Kashmere cloth is really not comparable to what getting silk from China was.

In other words, if a product becomes "magic" then a raise in price will actually be an advertisement as people start potlaching with it.
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Old 12-10-2016, 10:22 PM   #25
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Does Traveller have a lot of things like asteroid mining or space station habitats and space colonies and such? OTU I mean.
Asteroid mining, yes -- there's even a Belter career and the Beltstrike module -- and main "worlds" that are asteroid belts. High ports, space stations for cargo transfer, are common. Space colonies and habitats are mentioned, but don't figure in the worldbuilding system and so show up only by referee fiat.
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Old 12-11-2016, 01:18 AM   #26
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Luxury has always been one of the most important cargos on long range trade. It often doesn't become luxury unless it's from a long way away. Who says pepper is better then whateverwort, or tea is better then apple juice or china silk is better then leather?
Well...the Chinese do. They weren't going to the opposite end of the world for apple juice and cowhide.
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Old 12-11-2016, 08:42 AM   #27
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Well...the Chinese do. They weren't going to the opposite end of the world for apple juice and cowhide.
But they were making such efforts for jade and glasswork. And you can find writings of Tang poets making eloquent displays of drooling at the wares in frontier bazaars.
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Old 12-12-2016, 12:05 PM   #28
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We're probably within a tech level or at most two before it at least becomes possible to make nearly anything on site, nationally, with sufficient power and elements.
I think the restriction in Traveller on a lot of worlds that have the technology for making essentially anything they need is low population. It's possible for a world to have a population that is little more than the local jump-6 capacitor factory, a few associated support businesses, and routine services, with everything else based on trade.
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Old 12-12-2016, 05:58 PM   #29
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I think the restriction in Traveller on a lot of worlds that have the technology for making essentially anything they need is low population. It's possible for a world to have a population that is little more than the local jump-6 capacitor factory, a few associated support businesses, and routine services, with everything else based on trade.
Jewel Subsector will always remain depopulated because everyone knows that's where the next war is going to be. The advantage of Interstellar Empires is that the core planets are more-or-less free of the burden of geopolitics. The disadvantage is that the border worlds get shafted
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Old 12-12-2016, 06:01 PM   #30
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One point to remember is that the lower TL worlds are exactly the ones a Free Trader is going. He is looking for a niche that is beneath the megas notice, essentially surviving like a cockroach in a world of humans.
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