On Aug 24, 2014, at 10:47 PM, Phil Pugliese (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:

> I don't think a 10kTon ship w/ 6kTon cargo is really in the same class as the immense bulk carriers I recall from MT.
> I certainly would NOT call it that.
> But, I think that it could qualify as a 'massive' commercial vessel.
> I also would have reservations about whether or not a commercial vessel this large would really be required.
> But, if it was, I don't think there'd be much need for an armed version as I would doubt that it would be needed to service anything other than established hi-pop worlds. I'd also dispense w/ the fuel scoops & purification plant.
> IMO, though, there would be more demand for passenger space & so I'd swap reduce cargo space accordingly & also have J2 & J3 versions.

Here's the basic conundrum:

An imperium based on 'tramp steamer'-scale trade does not need and cannot afford the massive navy and starport infrastructure it has. (See: Trillion Credit Squadron, which has been hailed as canon many times) .

If you have such a volume of trade that you need dozens of 10KT ships regularly plying a route, far fewer 100Kton ships will be more economical. And if you need a dozen of those, well, a 1MDt container ship will make you more money, once costs are amortized (and remember, ships last hundreds of years) because the costs of operation do not scale linearly with ship size.

This is WHY we have huge containerized bulk transports today.

and if you have trade routes that have 1MDt ships traveling them regularly, well lo and behold: you have the tax revenue, and infrastructure needs to build the canon Imperial Navy and starport system.

If the Imperium really is serviced by 200Dt ships once per 10 weeks, the economic value of interstellar trade is simply too low to generate the taxes needed for the IN and the rest of the Imperial bureaucracy.

The only way to accommodate both things as true is to assert that the game rules are for modeling PC-level 'interstellar scraps' trade, not a comprehensive model of the Imperium-wide economy.

I've analogized it in the past as "Trying to model modern global trade economics, based on cross-Indian Ocean dhow cargo trade data."

--
Bruce Johnson

"Wherever you go, there you are." B. Banzai, PhD