On 12Feb2018 1956, Caleuche wrote:
> If you consider worlds in the imperium to be equivalent to cities in
> a nation (as trade is just about as easy), that doesn't quite hold
> up. New York City is by no means poor, and it doesn't have the
> technical infrastructure to manufacture iPhones, but it is awash in
> them. It can't manufacture them in part because it is so not-poor:
> it's much cheaper to manufacture them somewhere else. Even in the
> poorest cities in the world police still carry TL8 (or maybe TL7)
> sidearms rather than crossbows.

Trade is cheaper and easier here than in the TU, though. Also, I wasn't
trying to justify why the TU has such massive TL differences in an
entity that's over a thousand years old, with most of that time spent
with no external avenue for expansion. I consider that a different (and
much harder) question to answer.

Also, some things probably are worth importing, and if you import enough
and have the techs to maintain them locally, you're really at that TL.
Manufacturing isn't all a TL represents (and I'm sorry if my previous
post implied that I meant that). When it comes down to it, TL in a UWP
basically means "The highest TL stuff a Traveller will find at roughly
list prices and availability", just as Law Level means "What weapons are
freely carry-able and how much the local law will harass you".

> When (in game) we land on a wealthy population 9 world that is TL4,
> what should we expect to see, or is in your view a wealthy, high
> population low tech world a contradiction in terms?

I think to a large extent it is. Striker and TCS tend to agree, with
lower TL worlds having weaker credits or worse incomes.