On 28Jun2020 1347, Evyn Gutierrez wrote:
>
> Sure make me go read the various iterations of Pilot and Shipsboat.
> The biggest difference is in handling.
>
> Note in one of the early adventures air/rafts in zero g required
> Shipsboat skill to operate.
>
> Also note the skill acquisition tables pilot generally on the advanced
> education table (edu8+)
>
> Shipsboat also talks more about aerospace operations, while Pilot
> briefly discusses atmospheric flight, it primarily allows the
> operation of the Jump Drive..
>
I think the breakpoint being 100 DTons is arbitrary from an external
POV, but in-universe it makes sense - it's the point where a ship can be
jump capable (give or take). That's why anything smaller is a boat, and
anything bigger is a ship even if it doesn't have a jump drive.

This is such a big distinction that it colours how everyone thinks of
space vessels, and thus even a 100 DTon intra-system barge is called a
'spaceship', and is given ship-style control systems, instrumentation,
and so on. A 95 DTon shuttle is a 'boat' and has the controls, sensors,
and instrumentation appropriate to a boat. Thus, even though that 95
DTon shuttle is closer to the barge in size than it is to a 20 DTon
launch, you fly it like a big launch rather than a slightly smaller
barge because that's how the controls are set up and that's how it
reacts to command input.

In keeping with this, it's also how licensing is regulated. The
authorities recognise two grades of space vessel licence, 'Ships Boat'
and 'Pilot'. I would argue that while a Pilot is licensed to fly small
craft, at Pilot-1 (and thus effective Ship's Boat-0) this only allows
them limited non-commercial flight (a restriction probably observed more
in the breech in most systems), and only at Pilot-2 is it the full
equivalent of Ship's Boat in terms of what you can legally fly.

When it comes to what you learn, Ship's Boat simply leaves out
everything related to jump space insertion, etc. while Pilot tends to be
a bit thin on interface operations.

I would allow someone with Ship's Boat-1 or better to undertake Pilot
checks for interface and orbital operations as if they were Pilot-0 (so
they avoid any penalties for being unskilled), but that would be it.

Finally, as far as I'm concerned Pilot-1 (or Pilot-0 in an emergency,
but don't let the traffic cops catch you!) is good enough to Pilot a
ship of any size. They all have the same sort of instruments and
controls, and manoeuvre in the same way - the bigger ships are just
slower to roll, pitch, etc., but flying an Ashanti High Lightning into a
gas giant for refuelling is no different from flying a Type-S, or
wouldn't be if the designers had bothered to streamline the AHL properly.

Remember, on the scale of most ship operations in Traveller, a 75 KDTon
Atlantic-class heavy cruiser with 5G acceleration is /more/ nimble than
a 100 DTon Type-S scout with 2G acceleration. Only when docking and the
like would the Atlantic's great size make it seem clumsy.

--

Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>