[gurps] Tinker's Starship?

[Onno Meyer]

> Setting:  A vast federation/alliance/empire with worlds of differing tech 
> levels from about TL6 - TL13.

GURPS Traveller has put a lot of thought into multi-TL empires, mostly 
to reconcile the 'canon' of differing TLs with the free trade rules in 
Far Trader. 

The key question: is the listed TL the maximum locally available TL or 
the maximum locally sustainable TL? If there is trade between TL13 and 
TL6 worlds, how long will TL6 worlds stay genuine TL6? And how do you 
describe TL6 heavy industry and farms with TL13 cell phones and space
transport? How long will the heavy industry stay TL6 if you can send 
your best and brightest to a TL13 university? The terms of the 
scholarship could make them come back for a couple of years with 
their fancy education. If they don't want to return to a backwoods 
planet, well, sue for immediate repayment with compound interest ...

Star Trek is another example of starships (with replicators, not 
nanofactories) and far-flung colonies. Of course a TV series can
get away with more economic ambiguity and just plain silliness than 
a game. 

> The ship:
> TL13 Important items:  Enough armor and weaponry to make pirates give second 
> and third thoughts to attacking. 

Q: Why do we get so many pirate attacks at the Somali coast, but not 
   in the North Sea? 
A: The EU has problems, but it ain't that dysfunctional yet :-)

Is your federation/alliance/empire corrupt enough to allow piracy?
Such 'interesting times' make for good adventures, but can a TL13
society live that way or will the economy suffer and decay?

> Cargo capacity about that of a 
> supertanker, with additional space devoted to a nanofactory tank big enough 
> to build a TL8 naval destroyer inside the tank, plus several smaller ones of 
> differing capacity.  A genius, high-capacity megaframe computer with lots of 
> storage space for templates.  Most of the cargo space is devoted to carrying 
> rare elements (such as rhenium down to titanium).  They also have several 
> chrysalis machines.

* Being mobile will increase the pricetag of your factory complex
  and the operating costs. 

* Moving to the customer and the most common raw materials makes 
  the factory responsive to customer needs and cuts those parts 
  of the transport bill. 

* How those two balance depends on travel and communication speed:

  Is moving to the customer the only way to learn their needs in
  time to fill them? Or are they just an interstellar phone call 
  away?

  Will the expensive factory spend months idle in transit or can 
  it travel fast enough to be kept busy working on the basic load 
  of on-board raw materials?

> The business:
> Going to various lower tech worlds to build items that they cannot, or at 
> least not easily.  The "host world" supplies common materials like iron, 
> carbon, etc.  Also, performing biotech transformations.  Then move on to the 
> next world after a period of time.

How will they pay?

> QUESTION:  Is this a viable business?  Is it more viable if it is restricted 
> or illegal to give those lower tech worlds the tech?  Does it need more 
> cargo space for rare elements?  What would it take to make it viable?

Depends on the quality of law enforcement. In a functional state,
breaking the law in a large, armed starship means the local cops 
will call in the Navy if they have to. 

Onno