Hello Phil,
> On November 16, 2019 at 8:34 AM "Phil Pugliese - philpugliese at yahoo.com (via tml list)" <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:
>
> Except that it's already been posted that the Xboat system was actually originally built at
> J3 & then upgraded to J4, which means that the 'US Freeway System' experience has
> already occurred.
As has been mentioned more than once there are issues between the different sources that often conflict with each other.
Yes, I found the entry that in "900 c Imperial Navy begins upgrading ships to jump-4. Spinward Marches Campaign, GDW, 1985, p. 32."
I'd did make the comment that I would have thought that the IN would have had J4 capability earlier. Unfortunately, I had not thought that the above could mean that the IN began to upgrade those hulls that came in for overhaul were being upgraded from J3 to J4.
The Express Boat Network could have been J4 in Imperial 624 along with the IN building new construction J4 hulls.
Tom Rux
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Yeah they could've been J4 but then the Xboats would've been as fast as the IN Fleet Couriers so that might've been a consideration altho the fact that the c.1100 version only averages 2.6 parsecs/jump means that the IN's couriers would still be a lot faster even if they both had the same Jmax.
Perhaps the upgrade to J4 happened when the 3I achieved a Jmax of 5 & all the Fleet Couriers were upgraded or replaced?
Also, way back when, when the system was upgrade to J4 it appears that a whole new design was produced as the internal tankage was bumped up to 40Dtons of fuel.
All along I've had in my mind a sort of 'bifurcation' system where dispatches destined to go farther than J4 would be separated form the rest.
There are some places (doglegs & 'triangles' etc) on maps of the Xboat system that seem to imply that.
p.s. I believe that, since d-tanks are used to supply the extra fuel & also assuming that the intention was to retrofit existing Xboats, that an extra 2Dtons would still be required to replace the J4 drive with a J6 drive, using CT HG rules.
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