On 10Oct2020 1109, Thomas RUX wrote:
> Hello again Phil,
>> On 10/09/2020 12:08 PM Phil Pugliese - philpugliese at yahoo.com (via
>> tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:
>>
>> However, they both work the same way;
>>
>> Incoming energy is absorbed & transferred to some sort of storage.
> The accumulator is acting as a power plant that the computer is
> controlling  to charge one of the jump drives. The black globe is
> siphoning the energy and dumping it to the capacitors that can be in
> the jump drive or maybe stand alone units.
>> Apparently, when energy from the BG comes into the capacitors whose
>> primary purpose is to energize the J-drive, they 'magically' lose
>> that ability!
> When the jump drive is being energized for a jump the computer is
> controlling the power plants output used to charge the capacitors.
> When the BG is functioning the energy being diverted to the capacitors
> in a jump drive is still under computer control but not being used to
> make a calculated jump.
>> I wonder if MM realized that, if his rule is followed, any ship using
>> a black globe would effectively have it's J-drive disabled until the
>> (contaminated?) BG energy was discharged?
>> I suspect, Probably Not.
> Considering Marc Miller was publishing other games I rather doubt he
> and his staff could follow up on every rule. Even if he and his staff
> did manage to follow up, they gave the fans the ability to change
> rules that don't fit their Traveller game. I'm wondering how many
> rules fans have modified affect something.
High Guard and MT Book2 state that "If a ship absorbs enough energy to
make a jump and is sup
plied with sufficient fuel, it may jump at the end of the turn." MT
seems to have identical text to HG, aside from changing the numbers for
energy absorbed, etc., and a slightly expanded paragraph on Black
Globes' stealth.

TNE's /Brilliant Lances/ uses different rules on absorption, including a
rule that if you use you thrusters when flickering you absorb part of
your own drive output - presumably drives are assumed to be unable to
turn off and on fast enough to only function when the globes is off. It
makes no mention of using charge to jump. /Fire, Fusion, & Steel/ notes
that you can use charge to power ships' systems, such as lasers, and
that Globes can be used as a solar array to gain power.

As I recall, last time this came up the argument wasn't about whether
you could jump using power from a BG, but rather it was about whether
you also need fuel. The list went round and round on this, because it
ties into 'fuel' vs 'coolant', when the 'fuel' is used, and so on.

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>