Re: Space Campaign, revisited
 

On top you will have very fast (!) communication. Messenger ships will just use the jump lane, then send the data out via radio. If you have close jump points, that will result in a pretty fast transport system, like our postal system today.

YOu will naturally hae space stations close to jump points which can maintian the messengers, but also serve as tax / traffic control and military posts.

In general I do not see jump points going for pirates - they are way too easy to control. And instantenous jumps mean communication by courier network will be faster than you want. You may end up with a message crossing the known space in a day.

Re: Space Campaign, revisited
 

Good point. I avoided warp drive because it tends to allow you to go anywhere, and that doesn't support the trade network I want.

Re: Space Campaign, revisited
 

Maybe I should switch the instant jumps for slow jumps- like in Traveller? That would slow down communications nicely.

Classic space pirates are not absolutely necessary to the setting, really. Some pirates may raid planets, not ships- Space Vikings! Raiding an enemy world may get overlooked by friendly port authorities [or ones you've bribed].


Keep in mind there is not a single star empire controlling all these various jumplines.

Edited previous post to reflect this question of time involved in jumps.

Re: Space Campaign, revisited
 

You might want to check out STARFIRE.

I have no idea what edition its in now, but it uses a 'warp line' system very similiar to what you are thinking of using.

Dave Weber got his start writing STARFIRE novels, in fact.

Another thing you want to consider (using STARFIRE as an example) is whether or not your Jump Points can be fortified.

A common tactic in STARFIRE (and perceived by many as a major weakness of the game) was the ability to place ungodly amounts of mines, asteroid bases full of missile launchers/fighters/energy weapons, and defense fleets on top of/near the Warp Point.

Assaulting said Warp Points was like very much like trench warfare in WW1.....bloody as hell.

Re: Space Campaign, revisited
 

Another possibility that some jump points may lead to more than one location. Combine this with clusters and one way trips, and things get a bit more interesting.

Re: Space Campaign, revisited
 

I'll have to google Starfire. Sounds cool.

Re: Space Campaign, revisited
 

Yes and no - in a roleplaying scenario I would expect similar anti-tactics to materialize. Just make small jump capable missiles - they jump (with fast speed), then select a target and go there.

It WILL get bloody, though - it is terrible bad for a role playing scenario. It is worse than the real world. In the real world, the government can control the roads into a city (population center), but it can not really put up a total block for anything else - you can always TRY hiking outside the roads.

With jump lanes, you HAVE to use the warp points, which means there is no way to go through - smuggling is out, mostly. Criminal checks can be done. There is no alternative to bypass that. I would be severely carefull about the side effects.

What I did do in a campaign was:

* Slow jumps like traveller, but ships used less fuel - they started with traveller like fuel at TL 8 (early jump) and halved that for every TL The drive hat higher, so a ship at TL 10 could do a lot more distance.
* FTL communication WAS possible, but required HUGH installations in deep space and a lot of energy. Bandwidth was also limited. In fact, it created an unstable wormhole, that needed to be kept open, and pulsed the energy level - resulting bandwidth was in the range of 2Mbit. Systems also needed calibration and were point to point, so you could not really "dial somewhere else" - both sides needed to sync, which took a lot of time (about two weeks).

The result is that news could travel fast, but only between certain points. Messages still took some time (radio to the station), and only major colonies or military installations had access. The fleet had hugh ships that had comm equipment with them - one or two per fleet, for communication with base, when operating far outside.

For anything practical, this means FTL communication was out. THere were maybe 3 dozen non-military FTL links, and a dozen military ones - in a couple of hundred colonized worlds. But it also meant that important news travelled faster.

Re: Space Campaign, revisited
 

You can force warp ships to go through certain spots. The 2300 AD stutterwarp drive needed to enter a planetary gravity field every 7.7 light years. Any warp drive might use fuel and have to refuel every few parsecs, much like the traveller jump drive.

One could combine the two: warp drives exist but are slow, and jump points don´t exist in every system, only in a few ones. The warp drive can use those jump points to jump. So most traffic will go through the few major systems with jump points, but then spread out using warp drives to go to/from the actual destinations. And smugglers may avoid those major systems, but take much longer to get somewhere.

Re: Space Campaign, revisited
 

How big are drones/automation in the setting ? Will the equivalent of Warp Torpedoes be making regular comm runs or only sentient-piloted vessels ?

Re: Space Campaign, revisited
 

You might want to read the Vorkosigan Saga from Lois McMaster Bujold for a good take on jump point warfare.