========================================================================================

I think this illustrates a common problem for any sci-fi rpg.
So much of it has to be 'made-up' that the more 'pseudo'-detailed it gets, the easier it is to see the flaws.
As Trav became more & more detailed, not only was more errata required (re:MT), but I actually found it to be less & less appealing
I finally fell back to CT, where, like StarWars, all the cool stuff, "just worked", & one could play w/o worrying about why.

--------------------------------------------
On Fri, 10/23/15, Bruce Johnson <xxxxxx@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] High Guard missile bay launch
 To: "xxxxxx@simplelists.com" <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
 Date: Friday, October 23, 2015, 9:18 AM

 > On
 Oct 23, 2015, at 8:28 AM, tmr0195@comcast.net
 wrote:
 >
 > The
 propellant chemicals are metallic hydrogen and
 antihydrogen?
 > Missiles use
 contragravity thrusters that are set to overload, like a
 > Star Trek phaser?
 >
 > IIRC, 6G6 is 18 G-hours of thrust (6G for
 6 30 minute turns, right?)
 >

 Per the CT pdfs a turn is 1000
 seconds, or just over 16 minutes.

 "These rules are written for the standard
 starship combat scales in Traveller, and use those scales.
 Time is measured in turns of 1,000 seconds (or 16.66
 minutes). Distance is measured with 100 millimeters equaling
 10,000 kilometers. One G of acceleration for one turn moves
 an object 100 millimeters.”

 from the SS3 Missiles (revised version)

 I think what they REALLY mean
 is "sufficient fuel to move the missile 10,000km in 16
 minutes, and do it over and over to the max G-turn number of
 the missile” which is a hella different thing than “1G
 thrust”.

 They mean
 ‘constant velocity’ not 'constant acceleration’;
 not surprising, since this is all based on a tabletop
 wargame practice (100 mm per turn).

 This also means ranges of missile combat are
 absurdly small on interplanetary scales <100K km.
 Practically eyeball.

 >
 That gets you a terminal velocity of ~635km/sec for boosting
 all the way
 > to the target…

 Yep.

 Here’s their description of the
 “standard” missile:

 "For example, the standard missile in
 Traveller is a 5G6 continuous burn (36 kg, Cr3,600, TL 8),
 mass sensing (1 kg, Cr1,000, TL 10), proximity detonator (1
 kg, Cr500, TL 6), high explosive (10 kg, Cr500, TL 6)
 warhead missile (all produced at their standard tech level),
 costing Cr5.600 and massing 48 kg. This price does not take
 into account tech level effects. At TL 9, this missile costs
 Cr5,540; at TL 12, it costs Cr4,480.”

 Sounds all cool and sciencey but is purely
 numbers plucked from the air. 10 kg of TL-6 HE is precisely
 the warhead of the AIM-9 sidewinder. Does lots of damage (if
 lucky) to an essentially unarmored (by Traveller scales)
 aircraft, but against a starship would be sort of like
 shooting a destroyer in the hull with a RPG.

 Note this is pretty much why
 TNE moved to nuke-det xray laser warheads, which also gave
 PC’s nuclear weapons, but hey what’s a few WMD among
 friends :-)

 --
 Bruce Johnson
 University of
 Arizona
 College of Pharmacy
 Information Technology Group

 Institutions do not have
 opinions, merely customs

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