DataPacRat replied to me: > > There are rules on abrasion at very high speeds and for > > micrometeorites in Spaceships 5. To survive random junk > > impacts without damage, you would want dDR 3 to 15. > > Hm... are you going by page SS5 p39? The ship's trip will be using > about 5 mps to accelerate and half that to decelerate, so by the rules > we treat is speed as 10 mps; if the once-a-year encounter roll is > positive (3-4 on 3d6), and if the e-beam's point-defense fails, and if > the ship fails to dodge, then, in general, 1d6 damage will be done to > the front hull, right? > > If that's the case - then would it make more sense to stick about 6 > dDr armor on the front section, such as one space of SM+8 > unstreamlined light alloy armor?
Hello DataPacRat, I'm going with p 39, but I was assuming protection against cometary junk at 50 mps at the high end. Against that, the frontal protection won't work -- a piece of debris might just as well come from behind or from the sides. > Whaddaya wanna bet that both spellings will be considered acceptable > in 50 years or so? Language is recorded by academics who will follow common usage, with delays and careful deliberation. They will accept genuine shifts, sooner or later, but they will hesitate to legitimize common errors. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lol > > For a hundred people or less, with specialized jobs, I see just > > two options -- a kind of socialist dictatorship, where they all > > meet to schedule work and everybody has to abide by it, or a > > plain dictatorship, where a smaller group calls the shots. > > > > Any market system will break down due to monopolies and > > prohibitive entry costs to break them. A miner can't become a > > surgeon on short notice, or vice versa. > > Hm... Thinking a bit about this, the true value of a marketplace is in > being able to set prices, to quantify how much X is valued compared to > Y. A market with a currency and prices also helps to express and evaluate individual choices. For example, I live in a smaller than average flat, and spend more than average on books. For me, more books are more valuable than a little bit more space. Other people choose differently. The currency also helps to facilitate exchanges. Say you are a programmer who likes oranges. Does the farmer need a bit of code right now? > But in a potential market in which there are various X's and Y's > which are irreplaceable, and whose continued existence is > fundamentally required in order for any sort of market to exist at > all... then it's probably a good time to ignore the standard advice of > free market proponents, as such advice depends on assumptions which > don't apply. A decent family is communist -- no currency or marketplace for internal transactions, to each according to his or her needs, from each according to her or his abilities, all decisions are made by a non-elected group of people who claim that they know what is best for all. Oh, and the youngsters are indoctrinated to perpetuate the system and to honor the old guys in the 'politburo'. For larger groups -- towns, cities, nations -- communism doesn't work nearly as well. Size is one of the key factors. The turning point for your colony will come when it is time to switch from a command economy to a market economy. There will be people with a vested interest in keeping a command economy, people who will benefit from an early change, and others who benefit from a later change. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
