On 09/29/2020 12:05 AM Phil Pugliese - philpugliese at yahoo.com (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:

These are yet more of the 'weirdness' that originates w/ the TU rule that the POP stat only applies to the "mainworld".

That system in the Trojan Reaches could just be one where gazillions of people live on one planet while (& who knows why?) the (highly automated?) starport for the system is located on another.

No hordes of transient contract labor from outsystem is actually necessary in this case. The insystem POP provides number of workers who rotate to & fro (maybe even on a daily/weekly/monthly basis? go figure!), in order to insure the smooth op of the starport.

In any case, no more than ten folks live there permanently.

Must be a real 'hellhole' as, apparently, no one wants to live there permanently! ;-)

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On Monday, September 28, 2020, 08:29:36 PM MST, xxxxxx@gmail.com <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

Well, I don't disagree that it will, but the original author seems to think that the table should look (in this instance) linear.

(IMO: 10 landing pads is not even close to enough for a class A starport for a tens of billions of population planet. Maybe it should that number squared (100)).

When I recall looking at the Highport in Dragon #59 (Exonidas Starport), it has a lot of pads. And it fit my idea of a large port. 10 reminds me of what I'd expect at a C Class.

But the authors of this supplement seem to think a Starport upgrade are only worth 1 extra pad per level.

B->A is worth one extra landing pad over B just like B is over C, etc. all the way down according to the authors. I'm just trying for the fix that fits their progression.

The odd part is what if I have a type D port on a pop 2 planet. That's pop digit - 3. Does that mean you have -1 landing pads? (I'm assuming minimum one).

If we look at the one crazy setup in the Trojan Reaches where it's a type A on a pop 1 world, it'd only have 1 pad. The logic folks on the list suggested was 'lots of transient contract labourers plus millions of cargo handling bots'.

I can understand why they coupled population digit and landing pad count, but I think they're way out to lunch generally about the size and scope of larger population planets as far as the landing capacity they need. If you go with the 'heavy trade' model (vs. the 'bring in some antiquities, curiosities, and high value, low bulk goods only'), then you need a lot of pads.

So if I were fixing this inconsistency while maintaining the out of whack numbers the whole scheme generates, I'd still preserve their table and edit the max pad count, but that's totally a subjective thing.

Unfortunately, I did not include the full process for determining the number of berths from The Compleat Starport article.

In CT, MT, TNE, T4, and T5 determine the starport at the start of system generation. GT, T20, and MgT generate starports after population determination.

Note that all the information has not been checked against any errata documentation.

Check for each class of starport in turn, in each case rolling 3d for less than the target number. Place a starport for the first roll that succeeds.

A Class V starport will appear only on a world of PR 6 or greater. Roll 3d for less than (PR + 3). Class A
A Class IV starport will appear only on a world of PR 6 or greater. Roll 3d for less than (PR + 6). Class B
A Class III starport will appear on any world, on a roll of 3d for less than (PR + 9). Class C
A Class II starport will appear on any world, on a roll of 3d for less than (PR + 8). Class D
A Class I starport will appear on any world, on a roll of 3d for less than 15. Class E
If no Class I-V starport is present on a world, the starport will automatically be of Class 0. Class X

From the start the best port that the Trojan Reach world with a Population of 1 is Class II/Class D.

"Traveller Note: The original Traveller world-design system assigned starports without reference to the population of a world. To mimic this pattern, roll 2d on the Starport Class Table if the world being generated is the mainworld of the star system. Otherwise, follow the above procedure, except that no secondary world may have better facilities than the main world. Secondary worlds will only have port facilities on a random die-roll if they are populated (the GM is free to deliberately place a port on an uninhabited world if he has some reason to do so)."

Roll 2d

2-4 Class V/Class A

5-6 Class IV/Class B

7-8 Class III/Class C

9 Class II/Class D

10-11 Class I/Class D

12 Class 0/Class X

"This procedure will cause some high-population worlds to have primitive facilities or none at all, while some frontier worlds have Class V starport facilities. Explaining why such combinations occur is up to the GM. Perhaps the highpopulation world has deliberately shut itself off from interstellar trade for cultural reasons, or the frontier world has a major port because of its strategic location."

Using the alternate method the Trojan Reach world with Population 1 could still have a Class A/Class V port.

T20 World Development p. 377 Step 9 Starports and bases follows Step 8 World Population. The starport roll uses 2d6 + DM

DM:Starports +3 if Population 3-, +5 if Population 2-, If Population is 0 then the Starport is type X.

The Trojan Reach world with a Population of 1 in T20 has a +5 DM on a roll of 2 + 5 the result is 7 giving the world a Class C port. A roll of 7 or more results in a Type X classification.

MgT 2e Core Rule Book p. 225 Starport class uses a 2D6 + DM with the following modifications.

DM+1 if the planet’s Population is 8+
DM+2 if the planet’s Population is 10+
DM-1 if the planet’s Population is 4-
DM-2 if the planet’s Population is 2-

The best starport to the Trojan Reach world with a Population of 1 is class B.