RE: SPS/Pulsars

The big drawback to this system is the number of courier ships you have.
If
you have 2 in a system and the ship before you dispatched messages to 2
systems, you have to wait for one to return (or send a replacement).

Assuming that FTL is still somewhat expensive (not every one has his own
"space car"), courier service would be used for high priority
communication.
The number of couriers would depend a lot on the importance of the
system.
The number of trips out of the system would probably be limited to the
number of couriers (minus 1) except in times of war. And there would
probably be a circuit of couriers (System A to B to C to D to A) or if
each
system had 3 couriers one each way (System A to B & D; B to A & C; C to
B &
D; D to C & A).

In this ring of couriers, there would be 1 "Hub System". Hub Systems
connect
2 or more Courier Rings. They usually have a station or base where
couriers
can take leave (being cooped up in a 4 man courier boat for weeks on
end,
making an FTL jump twice a day is stressful duty). This is also helpful
for
a campaign, giving some systems more strategic importance than others.

Couriers would also act in a 'run for help' role if a system were
invaded.

-----
Brian Bell
-----

-----Original Message-----
From: B Lin [mailto:lin@rxkinetix.com]
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2002 12:43
To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
Subject: RE: SPS/Pulsars

For Pseudo-FTl communication you can use FTL couriers to get to the
system,
then beam the communication across to the next courier who then jumps to
the
next system (a la Pony Express.)  I believe that Niven used this method
in
"The Mote in God's Eye" series.  This has the downside that you can only
use
it in areas where you have a good courier network setup.  Communication
to
the out of the way places would still be intermittent or take a long
time.