11-13-2019, 07:09 AM | #21 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
|
Re: FTL 'Fuel' [Space]
A potentially darker alternative is a psionic drive that requires a psionic navigator and which can go faster if the psionic navigator murders a human being during the beginning of the trip.
|
11-13-2019, 10:03 AM | #22 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
|
Re: FTL 'Fuel' [Space]
Quote:
The next edition (2300AD) notes that "Nearly all MHD turbines vent their waste gasses", and that "Many fuel cells recycle their waste gasses", so both can do this if they're set up for it. In both editions it takes 2MW of power for a week to crack 23 tons of fuel. As a fuel cell consumes 75 tons of fuel per MW per week, you can't run a closed-cycle fuel cell as a perpetual motion engine, using the main rules text. If you use the rates given in the ships' stats, an MHD turbine is 100% efficient and a fuel cell 133% efficient, and that is a problem. It appears your memory was clearer than mine.
__________________
Rupert Boleyn "A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history." |
|
11-13-2019, 03:24 PM | #23 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
|
Re: FTL 'Fuel' [Space]
Quote:
Yes, it is a rather creepy and disturbing book.
__________________
-- Burma! |
|
11-13-2019, 05:51 PM | #24 | |
Join Date: Mar 2008
|
Re: FTL 'Fuel' [Space]
Quote:
|
|
11-13-2019, 06:04 PM | #25 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
|
Re: FTL 'Fuel' [Space]
An obvious "dark" form of FTL might be using sacrificially powered gate magic for interstellar travel rather than actual FTL.
|
11-14-2019, 02:46 AM | #26 |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
|
Re: FTL 'Fuel' [Space]
Most traditional magical gates are FTL though . . .
|
11-14-2019, 02:59 AM | #27 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
|
Re: FTL 'Fuel' [Space]
Yeah … I was sort of thinking of bypassing distance with a gate rather than covering it at speed with some kind of drive, but I didn't express it properly. Also, I suspect the distinction gets a bit blurred... possibly some aspect of instantaneous point to point as opposed to fast travel?
|
11-14-2019, 03:03 AM | #28 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
|
Re: FTL 'Fuel' [Space]
Usually FTL has an implied usage involving some form of space travel using spaceships, IMO.
A spaceship flying through a gate is "FTL", but someone stepping through a similar but terrestrial gate is just "instantaneous travel."
__________________
Collaborative Settings: Cyberpunk: Duopoly Nation Space Opera: Behind the King's Eclipse And heaps of forum collabs, 30+ and counting! |
11-14-2019, 03:28 AM | #29 |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
|
Re: FTL 'Fuel' [Space]
Instantaneous travel for any non-negligible distance is FTL by definition, and messes up causality just as much.
|
11-14-2019, 03:32 AM | #30 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
|
Re: FTL 'Fuel' [Space]
By definition, sure, but I was referring to common usage. And it also implies tech rather than the magic gates which were originally referred to.
__________________
Collaborative Settings: Cyberpunk: Duopoly Nation Space Opera: Behind the King's Eclipse And heaps of forum collabs, 30+ and counting! |
|
|