Bruce Johnson wrote: >> OOC: Jump 2. You need to get the drive parts from >> somewhere...do you know where? :) ...to get back your 2+ >> capability. > > OOC> XTCE, off to coreward/spinward a ways... OOC: Quite right! Xtce! > Ricardo continues "Well, barring any excitement at Newton, I'd > like to get to Montrose, so we turn around pretty quickly on > Newton, then on to Wrothag which might just be a transit, since > we have tankage for a J3 barring passengers or cargo to pick up, > then Montrose. "Ur!" Jac raises his hand, "I agree with you about the ship getting on to Montrose, but rather than transiting through Wrothag, what would you think of going from Newton to Leuet to Montrose?" "I know it looks like a step back on the map, but either Wrothag or Leuet puts us one jump from Montrose, and we are *much* more likely to pick up cargo and passengers from Newton to Leuet and from Leuet to Montrose than from Newton to Wrothag and then on to Montrose." The relevant data for the systems in question are: PlanetName Loc. UPP Code B Notes PBG Al LRX ---------- ---- --------- - ---------- --- -- --- Newton 1719 A652A9C-A N Hi Po 903 IN 78J Wrothag 1818 C578221-6 Lo Ni 303 IN 050 Leuet 1920 B985786-9 Ag Ri 223 MC 060 Montrose 2018 A966845-A Ri 411 MC 7BE "Newton, a high pop, but poor system, should provide passengers for and, profitable, cargoes for rich worlds like either Leuet or Montrose. Wrothag has a low population, and thus we are unlikely to get much in the way of passengers or cargoes wanting to go there, or going from there to Montrose. Leuet, is both an agricultural world and rich one, and we just found out from the Port Captain on Serbia that much of the agricultural trade heading for Newton and Montrose comes from Leuet, so making contacts there should be more useful than simply passing through Wrothag." Jac says, "Of course, it's up to the Captain...or the partners of the ship's company, but I did want to point out that I think there would be better trade opportunities passing through Leuet than passing through Wrothag." OOC: It's up to y'all, but I thought I should point this out. > "I'll start the spitballing. > > "All the spec cargo we have is best suited for Montrose. After > that? Depends on what we find out, but my gut feeling is that > that Jump 1 main from Cuellar to Montrose is going to be > well-travelled. > > "We might be better served in a survey route working via the J2 > back route Montrose-Hunterman-Bamphophee-Rinardo-Lawson and back > down. We're going to have to look tough, though. Little > backwaters like Rinardo can be infested either with bandits, > imported or homegrown. "If we're going to travel the J2 back route, perhaps we should extend it from Hunterman over to Lath or Archibald and *Xtce* before continuing up to Bamphophee." Jac suggests, "We don't know much about Xtce, but what we do know indicates it is a high tech system." "Although, fueling could be a problem I'd also vote for a visit to Xtce. Dell adds, "I was looking at the engine specs and Xtce is the maker for those Jump 3 parts that aren't working. If you went there we might be able to get them replaced or repaired. That would give us longer legs than anybody other than a few warships." > "I'll want to jump in with both us and the /Blue Rain/. It's got > a GG for refuelling.* but regardless we'd HAVE to refuel there, > neither of can do two jump 2's, unless we get some collapsable > tanks. Del, I want you to start surveying the hold for where to > set up one of those. All we'd need is a J1 size tank to manage > two J2's.** "Hum, I hadn't thought of that." Del says, "It makes sense, though, if we're going out where reliable sources of fuel might be in short supply or there might be a strong need to jump before you can refuel even if there is fuel around. I'll get right on it. Oh, and don't forget we have tankage already for a 3 parsec jump, so adding another 100 dtons would get us 4 parsecs without refueling. That's what you want, right?" > "But it's pretty clear that the commerce flows to Montrose, > they're the rich folks sitting in the nexus of a nice bunch of > trade routes. > > "The question are they rich because of the trade or because of > the tolls? What do you know about the Montrose Combine, Jac? Fat > Merchants or Robber barons?" "Combination, from everything I've seen." Jac says, "There are several merchant houses associated with the governance of Montrose, and from what the Mark government has picked up they are pretty aggressive toward ships that aren't part of their Combine...that would include us." > OOC> > > * Can we do Oort cloud refuelling from dirty iceballs? Oort cloud refueling is a no. In this game, jumps are from System to System only, no deep space jumps...and if it happens it's because there is something out there to jump to that has been "charted" and that would be a very closely held secret. Meta-game, I just want you guys in systems, not skulking around out in the deep black. :) > ** side question: Akus jumped with his previous ship *inside* the > / Mae Lee/, thus weaseling out of his promise to Roscoe Ollis's > dad to everything *in* the old ship. Now, this is a yes...with a really small "but!" If you could fit /Blue Rain/ inside the cargo hold of the /Mae Lee/ you could load the smaller ship inside and jump to your hearts content. The "but" is that right now, it won't *quite* fit! To get the smaller ship to fit inside will require some modifications to both the /Mae Lee/'s cargo hold. The /Mae Lee/'s main cargo hold covers parts of three decks. The lower deck (4) is the deep hold, but there is a balcony overhanging it from deck 3 and another from deck 2. It was built that way so you could load very tall cargoes, but still have overhead areas where you could stack crates and containers. To get the /Blue Rain/ into the /Mae Lee/'s hold would require removing the balcony level from Deck 3 (but not 2)...it could be taken out and put back as needed, but that will require some internal modifications. Plus...and this is a biggie...the Blue Rain is just a little too big to get inside and keep the internal airlock closed on the big front clamshell doors, so the hold would be in vacuum while the smaller ship was inside. If you put in a collapsible tank on the mezzanine of Deck 2's cargo area (you'd lose 30 dtons of cargo space, when collapsed and 100 dtons when filled), but you'd get your extra jump. You could then modify the grating that makes up the mezzanine on Deck 3 so it can be put in and taken out with a few hours labor. Grating in, it's your regular cargo hold, out, it can hold a 100 dton ship, but you lose 150 dtons of cargo storage. Configurations: A. Tank collapsed, grating in (no ship inside): 300 dtons cargo space. B. Tank filled, grating in (no ship inside): 230 dtons of cargo space, but with an extra 100 dtons fuel loaded. C. Tank collapsed, grating out (ship inside): 150 dtons of cargo space, plus up to 20 dtons of fuel inside the smaller ship. D. Tank filled, grating out (ship inside): 80 dtons of cargo space, but with an extra 100 dtons fuel (plus up to 20 dtons inside the smaller ship) loaded. > In an emergency could we jump with the /Blue Rain/ in our hold? Only with the modifications, and limitations, as mentioned above, but yes, you could. :) Eris AKUS
