Background and How We Started

 - CMDR Surly Badger

I'm a grumpy old fart; not the leader type. I chose the title "Rats" because my mental image is something like a bunch of scruffy squabbling warf-critters who might swarm out to board a weakened ship - mostly to help but also perhaps to relieve them of excess weight in the form of valuables. "Vent that palladium and you'll be able to jump farther (nudge) (nudge)" I wouldn't want to be at the top of a hierarchy like that because your tail gets chewed a lot.

But: thank you for the idea.

This thing is going to evolve (I hope) and I'm concerned that it may become unwieldy (if it does, it'll evolve more) My original vision was that someone would friend all the rats and we'd go find them. But that's a lot of friend requests (Thanks CMDRs for your amazing ratlike squeals of support. I salute in your general direction. You bring a tear to my beady little remaining eye!)

I think a couple things:

  1. This is just going to become a long thread for now. If someone need fuel and posts here, we can swarm to help, or fold our arms and watch them die.  Either way, it'll be entertaining. So I suppose we just keep an eye on the thread and if there's a call for help, we'll evolve our response.
  2. As future game-play evolves we will evolve with it. Someone needs to experiment with refuelling in 1.3 and make some official recommendations for a procedure, whether there are any "gotchas" or things we should watch for. I don't want to go 10 kylie just to blow up the person I am rescuing and I certainly don't want to end up needing rescuing myself.
  3. I don't want to do a set fee for rescue; I'm going to rescue people for the pleasure of rooting through their underwear drawer in their cabin when they're not looking. My opinion is that having no set fee allows for some fun role-play. Will you get cheap assistance, fast assistance, or good assistance? You won't get all three.
  4. We will need to evolve (via discussion in this thread) our methods and recommendations for both the rescuee ("stay with your ship. pray." I love the sign!) and Fuel Rats: how much to bring, whether to show up armed or not, etc. That will evolve as well; like proper rats we will remain nimble, selfish, and bitey.
  5. I am concerned that someone might conceive the idea of wasting a rat's time by summoning help to where they aren't. That's why I cooked up the 'friend' idea. I would enjoy it highly if someone summons me to help and tries to dry gulch me. If you think rats bite, try a badger. I intend to show up in at least an A-rated Clipper with fuel and plenty of missiles and beams. If it means I make a few extra jumps getting there, so be it.



I go through bursts of RL busy and often check the forums via airport internet and smartphone; if I miss something, it's no surprise and if you think I missed something I shouldn't feel free to PM me or throw a wet, chewed-up cigar at my head.

 - Forum: Traveller_GG

A few idle thoughts:

Did you know a group of rats is called a mischief? How utterly appropriate 

The aglie kangaroo rat's taxonomy is Dipodomys agilis. Given our willingness to jump great distances I can't help but think this would be a suitable Latinname for the group. We need shoulder patches!!

If someone posted that they were out of fuel and a nearby rat jumped to help, but it turned out to be a pirate; would this be a Rat Trap (and you've been caught)


Notable Operations and Rescues

 

 

 

 - CMDR Rusticulous

EDShipyard has the 1.3 features. Looks like a 1D controller is optimal for exploration (low mass) as speed of transfer and range would not be critical - this will transfer 1 tonne of fuel at a max range of 0.8km. I think the limpets take up cargo space but you only need to get the stranded CMDR to the nearest scoopable. Which means that you need to know how far they need to travel and what sort of ship they are in to work out how much fuel they need. Get that wrong and you could end up with two CMDRs stranded without enough fuel to get to the nearest scoopable 

A quick build to test the weight of kit: http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=70g,,2...fa05UmpU2jw2UI

EDIT: BTW, limpets are one time use - they go bang in a satisfying way 

  - Forum Name: Gimi

Anyone know if you can actually scoop to fill the additional auxiliary tanks. 
If that is the case, you could build an asp with an 8t auxiliary tank, stock up on drones and if you have to, make additional runs to nearest scoopable star if more than 8 tons are needed.
It would also allow you to run out with an empty fuel tank for extended range.

Can't test this right now....

 

 - CMDR Surly Badger

We need a poster version like a railway warning:

IN CASE OF FUEL SHORTAGE
- Remain with your vehicle
- Stay calm
- Reduce your breathing and food consumption
- Call the Fuel Rats
- Praying is optional
- The penalty for loitering is death

etc.

- CMDR Murishani

 - CMDR Alec Turner

You know what? Like any half decent volunteer force, we need training! Once 1.3 launches we should have a rota of people willing to go somewhere and deliberately strand themselves so they can be rescued.