[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I generally detest FTL communications/sensors. I prefer to have my PCs depend on news brought by courier spacecraft. Of course, I also like having it that strong AI cannot survive FTL travel, so FTL travel depends on living creatures (AI plagues are restricted to STL travel).

I also have a dislike for FTL communications and sensors. In my own space opera setting, FTL drives operate off a hyperdrive model, with specialized exploration/S&R/SWACS spacecraft for long-range sensors. FTL radio does exist, but is nowhere near as fast as the slowest courier ships out there; at most, it'll eliminate communications lag in a star system, but a message from, say, Earth to Alpha Centauri will still take several weeks (a courier could make the trip in a matter of hours taking it easy, or minutes if he's in a rush and doesn't mind suffering a bout of hyperspace compression sickness).

I can somewhat justify FTL radios using my setting's "advanced" physics and the "hyperspace onion" model I'm using, but I can't really justify Star Trek-esque realtime FTL sensors.