Re: Planetary Infrastructure/Invasion/etc

Jeff spake thusly upon matters weighty:
<SNIP>

>> I think the old Traveller system had something like this (probably in
the
>> section on running a merchant ship)...all the various commodities and
tech
>> gizmos where rated according to their availability; some things could
only
>> be purchased at industrial worlds with a given tech base, population
and
>> law level.
>
>The advanced rules also accounted for the fact that an TL 15 (high
>tech) rich world had currency worth many times more than a TL 10 (low
>for space tech) low pop world's currency. That kills you in balance
>of trade...
>
>>  Tech base and law level kinda falls out of the equation in the
>> FT/DS universe and especially for this discussion, but I think that a
>> simple system of rating planets on their level of development would
be
>> useful.  For example for DS II:
>>
>> Industry:   Can Produce
>> Level 0 - No heavy industry: Imported or converted vehicles only
>> Level 1 - Wheeled vehicles, Tracked vehicles, Helicopters, Jets
>> Level 2 - GEVs, VTOLs
>> Level 3 - Walkers
>> Level 4 - Aerospace Vehicles
>> Level 5 - Grav vehicles
>>
>> Or whatever.  This is just off the top of my head.  If your
interpretation
>> of the universe says walkers are harder to produce than aerospace
fighters,
>> then change it to suit you.	The scale could also be condensed to as
few
as
>> 3 levels or expanded to however many you like.  Make up a similar
chart
for
>> weapons as well.
>
>That's a cool idea. World stats like traveller.... Hmmm. If it isn't
>a copyright offence, it is a great idea.
I also think it would be cool to get some common definitions for things
like that - I can't imagine we would run into to any legal problems with
traveller.  While there may be some similarities, other factors would
probably be involved in the world descriptions.  Just don't keep the
same
order of the same statistics, and don't call the worlds stats a UWP
(universal world profile)

FWIW, and maybe to kickstart some ideas, travelller defines stats for 8
items:
Starport Rating
Planetary size
Atmospheric density/composition
Hydrosphere percentage (water coverage-frozen or liquid)
Population size
Government type
Law level
Tech level

Worlds with certain combinations are classified as
industrial/non-industrial, rich/poor, etc. - classifications that
simplify
some trade calculations.

>Notice the difference between Traveller type background and 2300 AD
>style background - in one, we have vastly differing tech next to each
>other (TL 15 and TL 3....) and in the other, the tech tend to degrade
>somewhat uniformly from the homeworld out to the rim, but even the
>rim has some of the highest tech stuff. Two different models of how
>worlds would develop....
>
I think this is largely because classic traveller seemed to carry a bit
more of the Star Trek Altruism with it. The only reason I can think of
that
a TL 15 empire, a thousand years old, that spans thousands of light
years,
would have TL 3 planets inside it is that people are intentionally
leaving
it alone, perhaps allowing the native population to develop
independantly.
Shades of ST's 'Prime Directive'.

Or on a more sinister note, the high-tech imperialists could be keeping
the
natives primitive so they cannot effectively resists, and may not even
understand, while they rape their world's resources, but somehow this
doesn't seem to fit as well.

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>
>Tom.
>/************************************************
>Thomas Barclay
>**************************************************/

    Jared