Well, to start out with, Traveler was the second game I ever played in 1977, just a few weeks after I started playing Dungeons & Dragons. I think the pulpy goodness and the references to the Age of Sail give a really great roleplaying environment. Traveller really created the concept of the big story arc within the game, and the lifepath system. Both really give you a lot of information that you can use to create a fun character. Combat is pretty deadly and I think that helps encourage role-playing. There are some anachronisms and things that don't really make sense in a modern context. However, I think you can really leave those if the rest of this setting makes sense to you.
Battle Dress in the Imperium is complex and generally misunderstood. If you were designing Battle Dress and it didn't currently exist in the Third Imperium what capabilities would it have? Would there be integral weapons? Electronic Warfare? Would the exoskeleton add strength or just endurance? Inquiring minds want to know.
If you’re not interested in the product, that’s one thing but this isn’t something that they’re printing 5 million copies of. This is a prestige format book on a niche in industry. I personally paid upwards of $150 for a single history text, so I don’t know what you’re talking about. Not all books are the same.
Definitely NOT outrageous. $20 in 1982 is equivalent to $66 now. SOURCE. (The purchasing power of the US dollar is a third of what it was in 1982.) I have a copy of the book on my desk and it is incredibly well researched and printd and bound on good quality paper with excellent art in four colors. Look at Shannon's other work on RPG history and you will see some fantastic work.
Just a few ideas. First of all, I think using Pirates of Drinax is an excellent idea because it's a great sandbox. Second, I think it's a great opportunity to collaboratively run your game between the three of you. You can say, "I want to do this." One of your friends can say, "I want to do that," and somebody else can say, "I want to do that." Using those three things, you can build a concept. I'm really interested to hear regular updates, Maybe even a blog that each of you writes an entry into in sequence; so you write the first, the second person writes the second, the third person writes the third, so that we can really get a multiple perspective view of what's going on and how it works. Also consider documenting by either audio recording or YouTube video or something so that you guys can reference it when you're in the next session. Definitely record keeping is gonna be a big part of this.