by Daashulinta Sharakkannik

QuITS: Quick Interstellar Trade System

Created 2 June 1998 Updated 24 Jan 2000 Edited 14 Feb 2001

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Once upon a time, we started thinking abstractly about passenger and freight traffic along the Spinward Main; in particular, we decided to figure out a simple way of determining, in general, just how busy all these Imperial starports really were. This is the fruit of our labor. Instructions. Traffic is determined between pairs of ports. First, select two worlds. Next, determine the trade indices of each world. Finally, use those indices to find the trade volume passing between these two ports. Heuristic. Usually, any given world will have one major neighbor whose traffic surpasses the others by an order of magnitude or more. In such cases, it's only really necessary to figure out which neighbor that is, and then you've pretty much pinned down the total traffic through your port. The Trade Indices. Add up all applicable modifiers from the table below to determine the composite trade index for a world:     Feature Mod. A or B starport +1 D,E, or X starport -1 TL A+ +1 TL 7- -1 Military and/or Scout bases +1 Capital world +1 On the Xboat route +1 High population +1 Low population -1 Rich world +1 Poor world -1 Agricultural world +1 Industrial world +1 Amber zone -2 Red zone -8 This produces a value V ranging anywhere from -12 to 8. Figure out the trade indices for two worlds, and call them V1 and V2. Modifiers for Passenger vs. Freight Traffic.  For more detailed traffic information, you may use two indices -- one for passengers and one for freight -- and use these rules of thumb for calculating index modifiers: Passenger index +1 modifiers: Starport A/B; TLA+; Capital world; Xboat route; High population; Rich world. Passenger index  -1 modifiers: Starport D,E,X; TL 7-; Low population; Poor world; Industrial world. Passenger index -2 modifier: Amber zone. -8 modifier: Red zone. Freight index +1 modifiers: Starport A/B; TLA+; Capital world; Xboat route; High population; Rich world; Military/Scout bases; Agricultural or Industrial world. Freight index -1 modifiers: Starport D,E,X; TL7-; Low population; Poor world; Non-Industrial world; Amber zone. Freight index -8 modifier: Red zone.   Suffice it to say that there are many interpretations of the UWP, and this system is tailored with the general view in mind rather than a perfect and detailed view.   Figuring in distance.  Distance to the neighbor world affects trade volume. For every two parsecs from the neighbor world, subtract one point from both world indices. The Sparse Imperium.  If your interstellar traffic is sparse, then you may want to subtract one point per parsec before applying distance modifications; or alternately, you could halve the trade indices before applying distance mods. The Busy Imperium.  If you prefer more trade, then you may want to double or treble the trade indices before applying distance modifications; or, alternately, if you want far-flung trade, you could subtract one point from the trade indices for every eight parsecs. Throw Out the Negatives.  Negative trade indices indicate that the port in question receives no publicly-advertized regular traffic. Now, if that world happens to have a class A starport, one might wonder just what is going on there, whether there is actually corporate or government traffic, or if something sinister is going on... Determine Traffic Volume.  Traffic volume is determined by multiplying the trade indices together, and taking their square root. The resulting number, X, is an exponent of ten. Treat it like this:     Value Traffic 1 10 2 100 3 1000 4 10,000 5 100,000 6 1,000,000 7 10,000,000 8 100,000,000 For the general index, this number represents passengers per week through the pair of starports in question. Freight can be assumed to be somewhere between 1 and 10 times this amount, in dtons. My preference is to multiply the traffic number by 2.5 to get the passenger count, and to multiply the traffic number by 10 to get the freight count.

Example: Inthe. Yori    2110 C360757-A   Ri De    713  index=2 dist=3 Inthe   2410 B575776-9 A Ag     X 423  index=4 Risek   2712 A325579-A N Ni     X 401  index=4 dist=3 Macene  2612 B000453-E N Ni As    911  index=3 dist=3 The distance to each of these worlds is 3 parsecs; using normal rules, this reduces each trade index by 1. So, the trade level with Yori is sqrt(1x3) = 1.7: perhaps 150 passengers per week and 1500 dtons of freight. Trade with Risek is sqrt(3x3) = 3, or 2500 passengers per week and 10,000 dtons of freight. Trade with Macene is sqrt(3x2) = 2.4, or around 250 passengers per week and 1000 dtons of freight. The grand total, then, for Inthe is 2900  passengers per week and 12,500 dtons of freight. Example: Jae Tellona. Jae Tellona 2814 A560565-8  N Ni De X 913 index=3 Rhylanor    2716 A434934-F  A Hi Cp X 810 index=6; dist=2 Porozlo     2715 A867A74-B    Hi      201 index=4; dist=1 Rhylanor is the dominant partner by far. So then, we have 6 x 3 = 18; the square root is 4: maybe 25,000 people per week, and freight would be 100,000 dtons per week through Jae Tellona. Pretty heavy. But don't worry; Rhylanor is handling close to twice that, because a similar volume is arriving from Porozlo. Example: Mora. Mora     3124 AA99AC7-F A Hi In Cx X 112 index=7 Fornice  3025 A354A87-C   Hi       X 202 index=4; dist=2 7x4 = 28; the square root is 5, giving us 250,000 passengers arriving at Mora per week, and 1 million dtons of freight arriving per week!

 

Starport Capacity.  Once you have the weekly passenger volume, you can figure out what the starport is built to handle:   Weekly  Daily  Hourly  Monthly  Yearly  100M  14M  600k  400M  5B  10M  1.4M  60k  40M  500M  1M  140k  6k  4M  50M  100k  14k  600  400k  5M  10k  1.4k  60  40k  500k  1k  140  6  4k  50k  100  14  1  400  5k  10  1  -  40  500  1  -  -  4  50  Starport Shuttles.  Use this table to determine quantity and type of shuttles the starport uses.   Pass/hr  1000t  (200p/760t)  100t  (16/72)  VIP  (30/20)  Parkbays  Downports  600k  2916  300  400  329  36+  200k  974  100  133  110  18+  100k  487  50  67  55  9+  60k  292  25  40  33  5+  40k  194  25  27  23  4+  20k  95  25  14  13  3+ 10k  49  14  7  7  2+  8k  39  14  6  6  2+  6k  28  14  4  5  2+  5000  23  25  4  5  2+  4000  19  14  3  4  1+  3000  14 14  2  3  1+  2000  10  4  2  2  1+  1500  7  8  1  2  1+  1000  5  4  1  1  1+  600  3  4  1  1  1+  400  2  4  . 1  1+  200  1  4  . 1  1  100  . 8  . 1  1  60  . 4  . 1  1  30  . 3  . 1  1  1  . 1  . 1  1