Thanks for all the info.
(I like to 'crunch' numbers too!)

It occurs to me that it might be useful to think of the 'standard' prices for passage the same way that SuperBowl (US) tickets are handled.
(IOW, most folks pay more than 'face value')

It might be that , unless tickets are purchased well in advance, that a third-party (dealer, 'scalper', etc) would be the only place to purchase passage.

That would allow a premium (or maybe even a discount!) to be figured in depending on any number of factors.

--------------------------------------------
On Fri, 6/16/17, Grimmund <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] Long Route Merchants
 To: xxxxxx@simplelists.com
 Date: Friday, June 16, 2017, 1:07 PM

 On Wed, Jun 14, 2017 at
 6:14 PM, Evyn MacDude <xxxxxx@gmail.com>
 wrote:
 Have you
 ever pondered merchants that operate on a different schedule
 than the week in Jump and a Week in port model?
 What if you built a route that
 require 2 or 3 jumps between port stays other than for
 refueling.
 Been
 reading about the early days of long distance steamships
 that used coal having to stop at coal stations in between
 scheduled stops.

 I suspect that up to J3, it
 will be cheaper to build a ship that can do the route
 directly, rather than spending an extra 2-3 weeks making the
 trip at J1.
 That might still hold at
 J4.
 I
 have some doubts about J5 and J6, but even if you charge a
 premium, there just isn't a lot of space left for income
 generating cargo and passengers 
 At TL 13-14:
 J1, 15% of hull volume is
 jump drive, power plant, and fuel.J2, 29%J3, 43%J4, 57%J5, 71%J6, 85%
 At TL 15, the power plant
 is 1% of hull volume per power number, vice 2%.  
 Bridge (2%), M1 maneuver
 drive (2%), and crew staterooms will burn another 5% at
 minimum.
 Ship weapons, turrets,
 vehicles, small craft, faster maneuver drives, all will cut
 in to the volume available to generate revenue. 
 Assuming a hull is running
 unarmed:
 A
 J1 hull has about 80% of the hull volume available for cargo
 and passengers (and weapons, vehicles, small craft,
 everything else).
 A J6 hull, has about 10% of
 the hull available for cargo and passengers.  

 I suspect my casual rule,
 shipping cost = square root of jump number * standard J1
 prices, is probably vastly under pricing.
 A little math, and assuming
 an extra 6% of hull for maneuver drive, bridge, and
 staterooms, the general cost multipliers to the basic
 transit rates, for a higher Jn ship to generate the same
 income as a J1 ship on higher Jn routes:

 JumpCost
 multiplierJ11.00j21.22j31.55j42.14j53.43j68.78

 J2 and J3, those are probably still
 cheap enough to justify direct shipping.  
 J4 is slightly cheaper (2.14) than
 two J2 jumps, (2.44), and shaves two weeks, probably still
 viable if there is enough direct traffic.

 J5 is
 more expensive (3.43)  than a J2 and J3 (2.77) and not
 attractive unless you have something urgent enough that
 saving two weeks is worth paying an extra
 24%. 

 J6 is WAY more expensive (8.78) than
 two J3 jumps (3.1), unless your time is very valuable, or
 your information is valuable and has a short half-life, that
 2.8x premium price is expensive.

 Dan

 --

 "Any sufficiently
 advanced parody is indistinguishable from a genuine
 kook." -Alan Morgan

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