Identifying Mains

[Vargas]

Apologies in advance if this topic has already been adequately covered.

I’ve been playing on the Traveller Map with the feature that identifies mains. I’m surprised how extensive some of them are. In particular, the one Vland sits on touches 9 sectors. (Admittedly there are a few where it’s only one world but still . . . ). Zhdant is no amateur either.

I thought it interesting that sectors covered in the Atlas of the Imperium had such a fair number since I’m fairly certain they were randomly and not purposely generated, (as was the case potentially with later additions made post CT).

I don’t know what I’ll do with this knowledge but I find it interesting nonetheless.

 

[Vargas]

Another though came to mind: Perhaps where two mains are seperated by Jump 2 there would be money to be made renting demountable fuel tanks.

 

[aramis]

Another though came to mind: Perhaps where two mains are seperated by Jump 2 there would be money to be made renting demountable fuel tanks.

Until the Interstellar Wars era, the Vilani didn't have the ability to do "empty hex jumps" - those demountables are worthless until the second Imperium... unless there's a documented rogue planet.

It was during the ISW period when it was discovered how to end a jump without slamming into the gravity well at the far end.

 

[Spinward Flow]

In particular, the one Vland sits on touches 9 sectors. (Admittedly there are a few where it’s only one world but still . . . ). Zhdant is no amateur either.

Two things to think about.

The Vilani and Zhodani homeworlds sit on J1 mains for their branches of humaniti.
The Solomani homeworld is conspicuously OFF any J1 mains.

Any J1 Trader operating at a commercial tempo of 1 jump per 2 weeks has effectively 25J1/50 weeks of transport operations per year before they need to put in for an annual overhaul. That means that there's effectively a "limit" on how FAR a J1 commercial starship can go in a single year. Ideally speaking, you're going to want to be able to jump 25 times (one way) to reach a type A/B starport, get your annual overhaul ... and that's your year. You then turn around and head back, jumping 25 times (to your starting point) to reach the type A/B starport where you started from, get your annual maintenance ... and that's your second year.

One year out, one year back.
Two runs of that is a 4 year term in a merchant's career.

If there's no convenient type A/B starport around 24-25 jumps away, you're looking at wanting to do round trips in a single year instead of one way trips for two years running, so you can get your annual overhaul maintenance done at your "home base port" every single year. That gives you a range of effectively 12-13 jumps out and back.

When you start talking about mains linking up through multiple sectors ... no ONE J1 ship is going to run those from end to end. For one thing, it would take a lifetime(!) ... and for another, it might not even be profitable to attempt (especially if there are "economic backwater/dead zones" along the way!).

Instead, what you wind up with in a J1 fleet of merchant ships is a kind of "links in a chain" sort of patchwork, where Free Traders run specific segments of the mains with some overlap on the ends of "their segment" so that passengers and freight can move "all the way along the chain" even if the specific starships carrying those passengers and that freight do not.

Until the Interstellar Wars era, the Vilani didn't have the ability to do "empty hex jumps" - those demountables are worthless until the second Imperium... unless there's a documented rogue planet.

Right, you would need a Calibration Point or a Caravanserie in order to get across those "empty hexes" between mains.

Because they Vilani didn't NEED to jump through empty hexes to get to other star systems (being on the Vland Main), they didn't go to the effort of developing the astrogation skills needed for doing that. By contrast, the Solomani HAD TO either jump to empty hexes (with extra fuel) OR research and develop J2 before they could leave the Terra star system, since every available nearby star was 2+ parsecs distant.

Necessity, meet the parental history of invention ...

 

[mike wightman]

Until the Interstellar Wars era, the Vilani didn't have the ability to do "empty hex jumps" - those demountables are worthless until the second Imperium... unless there's a documented rogue planet.

It was during the ISW period when it was discovered how to end a jump without slamming into the gravity well at the far end.

Empty hex jumping was discovered long after the ISW period during the events of the Dark Nebula era boardgame.

 

[Vargas]

I'm not necessarily saying that just because there's a wealth of J1 worlds connected to each other that merchants will want to work the whole thing. There are clusters on those mains as well. The math behind trading in the game will set up specific advantageous trade pairs but to PCs, especially adventurers, there's access to many worlds within reach of a ship with "short legs". I once ran an adventuring campaign that started in Five Sisters and got well across District 268 before fading out, all of it along the Spinward Main.

 

[Spinward Flow]

I'm not necessarily saying that just because there's a wealth of J1 worlds connected to each other that merchants will want to work the whole thing. There are clusters on those mains as well. The math behind trading in the game will set up specific advantageous trade pairs but to PCs, especially adventurers, there's access to many worlds within reach of a ship with "short legs". I once ran an adventuring campaign that started in Five Sisters and got well across District 268 before fading out, all of it along the Spinward Main.

Oh I certainly agree!
Players (and the campaigns they get into with Referees) tend to be the definition of EDGE CASE for what can be done with the time, tools and tech manuals available.

There's a huge difference between what is POSSIBLE to do and what is necessarily ADVANTAGEOUS to do. Plying the Spinward Main in a J1 Free Trader is perfectly possible from an astrogation capability perspective ... but whether doing so can be profitable (enough) for the ship to "pay for itself" along that route is a different question.

Adventures ... sure!
Profits along the way ... well, there's no guarantees of that ...



And the same holds true for other J1 mains else where in Charted Space.
Just because your ship CAN go places, doesn't mean it will necessarily be worth your while TO go to some of those places.

So if you think about a J1 main as being made of up a collection of chain links, the "strength" of those links will vary WILDLY ... and as the saying goes, chains will break at the weakest link(s). What is difficult for Free Traders is when you get a stretch of these "lousy market opportunities" all in a row, creating barriers to profit potential when traversing that particular stretch of a J1 main. Those "trade barrier stretches" can (in effect) cause the chain of profitability to "break" through those regions, depressing travel, transit and ticket manifest opportunities (mainly due to low population).

The solution to the problem (of course), is to treat those "profit dead spots" in the J1 main as being Jumpover Territory. You aren't selling tickets to passengers and cargo bound for those locations (specifically), nor are you intending to stay for a week to conduct business there after every jump. Instead, the plan is to "refuel and go" within a day or two, rather than stop there to take in the sights and offer shore leave. So what you're doing is selling a CHAIN of tickets (for passengers and cargo) that get them to the other side of the profit "dead zone" of low population worlds that few people want to be dropped off at.

As an operator, you "declare" that your ship is going to MULTIPLE worlds (in sequence) and offer tickets to passengers and cargo going to EACH of those destinations, usually starting with the high(er) population/profitable market at the far end and working your way back towards the point of origin to fill up your manifest. Passengers and cargo need to buy tickets for each jump, but that then gives a way for merchants to "gloss over" the profit poor regions so as to "link up" the more profit rich ones at a quicker operational tempo.

In other words, there are ways to finesse the profit challenges, but doing so requires preparation, skill and it helps to have a decent reputation.

 

[aramis]

Right, you would need a Calibration Point or a Caravanserie in order to get across those "empty hexes" between mains.

Because they Vilani didn't NEED to jump through empty hexes to get to other star systems (being on the Vland Main), they didn't go to the effort of developing the astrogation skills needed for doing that. By contrast, the Solomani HAD TO either jump to empty hexes (with extra fuel) OR research and develop J2 before they could leave the Terra star system, since every available nearby star was 2+ parsecs distant.

Necessity, meet the parental history of invention ...

Not even CPs... you need a planetary mass object to run into until most of the way through the period.
Terrans, per AM Solomani, used Oort cloud objects.
Terrans didn't empty hex jump any earlier in the timeline than the Vilani.