High Levels of Enhanced Move

[Pursuivant]

I've been playing with very high levels of Enhanced Move + increased Basic Move recently.

Three things I noticed:

1) Warp with all the suitable enhancements (notably, several variants of Cosmic) and the Hyperspace limitation maxes out at 655 points.

By contrast, Basic Move 50 (45 lvls above Move 5 = 225 CP) + ~52 levels of EM (Space) based on Move 50 (1,040 CP) is enough to get you across the observable universe in a matter of hours. Likewise, Move 5 + ~55 levels of EM (Space) (1,110 CP) gives you similar levels of movement.

While higher levels of Move give a huge combat advantage and apply to all forms of movement, EM (Space) is nowhere as good a deal as Warp with whatever Cosmic modifiers the GM will allow.

For this reason, GMs might want to apply limitations to high levels of EM (Space) or to very high levels of EM in general, to bring its point cost into line with Warp.

The logic here is that most characters with EM (Space) will be operating in settings where space travel is possible. In that case, the value of EM depends on how quickly you can move around the important areas of the campaign map, especially relative to your opponents. For example, if the campaign area encompasses the solar system, the EM (Space) which allows you to quickly get to and from the outer planets is sort of an advantage, whereas the ability to get from Point A to Point B on the surface of Earth or Mars - or between the two - is a major advantage.

1) I've also found that it's potentially useful to price Move in 2 point increments (2 CP = .1 Move) when modeling high speed vehicle performance. While this level of detail is overkill for typical characters, when designing fast-moving aircraft or spaceships it makes it much easier to "reverse engineer" levels of EM based on Basic Move and top speed.

Solving Speed = Basic Move * 2^Enhanced Move for E you get:

E = LOGe(Speed/EM)/LOGe(2)

This allows you to work backward from top speed to get levels of EM, which is handy when designing vehicles with known performance profiles. Almost inevitably the calculations give you a fraction which doesn't end in .5 or .0 and factions of a level of EM matter when you're operating at high speeds.

RAW suggests that round point costs up to the nearest half or full level of EM while retaining fractional performance numbers.

3) When designing speedster characters, the break point on cost optimization is Basic Move ~10-15 (faster for speedier characters) plus as many levels of EM as you can afford. This gives you reasonable handling while allowing ridiculous top speeds for straight-line movement. Basic Move 10 + EM 6 (135 CP) gets you comfortably past Mach 1, or Mach 2.5 with Move 15.

As shown in my initial example, characters capable of traveling at massively FTL speeds benefit from even higher levels of Basic Move, if only for the ability to accelerate to top speed in a reasonable amount of time.

For FTL characters, Move 15+ is justified once you get above 30 levels of EM, and Move 20+ once you get up to science fantasy warp speeds.

[AlexanderHowl]

You would need Flight (Space Flight, +50%) to accelerate or maneuver in space, and Space Move is 2 × Basic Speed. Having a maximum speed of c requires only Enhance Move (Space) 25 while moving at 1 parsec per day would only require Enhanced Move (Space) 35. Since accelerating at 1g (Space Move 10) require a year to reach c, you would probably want some form of Cosmic to accelerate instantly, which would add +50%.

[Refplace]

Interesting on the high Basic Move being that useful at high levels.
Since your Basic Move is additive I wouldn't think it would work out that well. But too tired to check your math a the momemnt.

The method I prefer is Instant Acceleration, +50% n some levels of EM as each such level would allow you to instantly double basic move, and do it for +10 points.
The full +150% Cosmic for speedsters who can maneuver and adjust speed freely is great too but not needed for just traveling.

As for lowering the cost further I use a House Rule but will g over a RAW option.
If available tech can do the same thing I give the 1/5 discount used for alternative abilities, redundant abilities, and internal abilities.
A RAW way of getting that discount though is using Character Point powered abilities for the same 1/5. But wait! you say, I dont want to spend CP for that.
Use Impulse Buys and spend Impulse Points to power it. Cost is based on how important or thematic the use is so traveling from point to point is likely going to be 1 point for the scene in a setting where ships can do it too.
Use the suggestion in Impulse Buys to create a regenerating pool.
That gives a RAW way to do this and rather affordably.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

For this reason, GMs might want to apply limitations to high levels of EM (Space) or to very high levels of EM in general, to bring its point cost into line with Warp.
.

Or you could just not use Warp as you find its' mechanics unpleasant.

Of course you could also be dissatisfied with the aphysical mechanics of Spece Flight.

I tend to import the rules from 3e where Spece Flight was measured in Gs and you used a Hyperflight Ad to go extremely fast. Spce Flight is one of those areas where linear increases in cost do not provide linear increases in utility.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Or you could just not use Warp as you find its' mechanics unpleasant.

I love the Warp advantage (as a player and designer, not so much as a GM) due to its utility. Even a short range teleport capability is a huge advantage and some form of the trait is available in most campaign genres.

The only reason I compared Warp to EM is to suggest that there are decreasing levels of return on fantastically high levels of EM. Above ~600 points it's more advantageous to model very high speed movement as an improved version of Warp. At lower point levels, Warp is the better option for certain types of movement, such as travel in built-up areas. Its value all depends on how many enhancements the GM is willing to put up with.

Warp becomes even more favorable vs. EM when, as you point out, you add the cost of EM (Space) to Flight with the Space Flight enhancement (60 points). The point cost of eventually reaching C is a minimum of 560 CP, not counting the cost of improved acceleration and all the life support advantages necessary to survive the trip.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

I tend to import the rules from 3e where Spece Flight was measured in Gs and you used a Hyperflight Ad to go extremely fast. Spce Flight is one of those areas where linear increases in cost do not provide linear increases in utility.

Exactly my point. This is particularly true in campaigns where space flight is a part of the genre.

For example, in a campaign where you have the option of buying a bioship or cybershell spaceship as an Ally vs. buying a spaceship as equipment, it's far cheaper and more effective in terms of character design to spend the points on sufficient levels of Wealth.

The value of any "mobility" advantage is its ability to get you into, or out of, the action fast, but the exact distance you must travel to get into/out of trouble is heavily campaign dependent. Setting fixed costs for mobility-related traits is logical and "mostly fair" but it's an inherent limitation of GURPS' attempts to be generic.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

You would need Flight (Space Flight, +50%) to accelerate or maneuver in space, and Space Move is 2 × Basic Speed. Having a maximum speed of c requires only Enhance Move (Space) 25 while moving at 1 parsec per day would only require Enhanced Move (Space) 35. Since accelerating at 1g (Space Move 10) require a year to reach c, you would probably want some form of Cosmic to accelerate instantly, which would add +50%.

Good catch. I was only evaluating EM + Basic Move on its own without taking Flight + Space Flight into account.

Add the equivalent of 3 levels of EM to get Space Flight, but Flight gives you the equivalent of 5 levels of Basic Move, so it's closer to 2 levels.

[Refplace]

So running some numbers.
Flight (Space, +50%) [60]
Basic Move 5 is default. This gives Move 10 for Flight and Space Flight which is 20 MPH.

25 levels of Enhanced Move (Space, Instant Acceleration, +50%) [750] for *33,554,432 to Acc and Top Speed is just over the speed of light.
31,536,000 seconds in a year so 5 more levels of Enhanced Move gives us just over 1ly/ second for another [150].
So crossing the Milky Way would take about 55 minutes.

So lets use that Impulse Buy suggestion I made earlier.
Flight (Space, +50%) [60]
Enhanced Move 30 (Space, Instant Acceleration, +50%) [180] (900/5)
Enhanced Move 6 (Flight, Instant Acceleration, +50%) [36] for atmospheric travel, bought as a alternative ability of EM (Space) with a travel speed of 1,280 MPH.
Impulse Point pool Cap 2, recover 2 points session [30].
Total 306 points to be able to travel anywhere and back in the Milky Way in about an hour if the GM rules its a good off screen or especially appropriate use once per game session.
Not bad IMHO.