[Space] FTL Ideas/Thoughts

[scc]

OK, I've been playing around with an FTL idea that is, I believe, rather unique and I want to bounce the idea off the forums head before for usability before I go using it ton plan a campaign, and some parts I could do with some advice on.

First this a hyperspace-based setup, but hyperspace isn't somewhere where matter is allowed to exist normally (I thinking along the lines of the conservation of energy, which offers some very interesting options at a level beyond that which GURPS Spaceships offers), so you not only need to enter hyperspace somehow, you need someway to stay there as well. And the two aren't the same thing.

So, the way I thinking, you need a hyperdrive to 'weaken' part of the local space/time so that a ship can 'dive' through a 'window' into hyperspace, once there you need some kind of shields to keep you there. The important bit is that the ship doesn't need to actually mount the hyperdrive doing to work, it could be generated by another, bigger ship (Think PT boats escorting something) or a stationary gate, but the ship does need to mount the special shields.

Currently I thinking that the maximum speed (Assuming a ships has the shields to handle it) is equal to 5^X where X is the FTL rating, and you can't use multiple drives to boost the number. Note that this is a speed multiplier. Now I figure that any ship that mounts a FTL drive gets enough shields to handle it's FTL speed for free, it's part of the cost of the drive. A ship that doesn't mount FTL can pay a construction premium to mount the needed shields. (This is, I think, a very good thing for someone using the Spaceships series, many of the ships in that lack a Stardrive and this is a good way around having to design extra ships).

Now my minimum thought for the campaign is that FTL-1 and FTL-2 drives are available to spaceships, and portal stations mount FTL-3 gear, enabling a FTL-2 equipped to save a good deal of travel time, if of, course it pays the transit fee. Not all planets/systems have a protal but.

[ericthered]

5^X is really steep!

The shields idea is cool -- from its description I'm hearing 'Hyperspace stabalizer', but 'shields' work too.

[Varyon]

Sounds interesting. Some questions/thoughts.

First off, how does one get out of hyperspace? Does it happen automatically when you drop your shields, or do you need to make use of a hyperdrive? Additionally, if you need a hyperdrive, does it need to have the same FTL rating as the one that sent you into the hyperspace to start with? If so, that's going to result in a ship that enters through a portal being unable to exit except through another portal.

Secondly, how much of the mass of a hyperdrive is the necessary shielding - and can you make a hyperdrive without it? Portal devices probably aren't going to be going through hyperspace under their own power and thus could save mass and cost by not mounting the shields. This will also be good for figuring out how much the shielding system(s) weigh (or are they just expensive Design Features?).

Thirdly, is combat in hyperspace possible? If so, how does it differ from normal combat? Forcing a ship out of hyperspace by taking out its shields (or stranding it in hyperspace by taking out its drive) could be an interesting strategy.

[Anaraxes]

Speed is in pc/day, as in the general hyperspace description in SS?

The speed is determined by the rating of the initial stargate, rather than the ship shields? (Why ever have more than shields-1? My first assumption was that the speed is limited by both systems; either the gate can't fling you through hyperspace fast enough, or if it can, your shields couldn't take it, so you ask them not to throw you so hard.)

Since you say "hyperspace" rather than "jump drive", I assume the ships can maneuver freely once they enter through the window. Do you exit hyperspace just by dropping your shields? Or do you have to create an exit window?

[schmeelke]

Originally Posted by scc

Currently I thinking that the maximum speed (Assuming a ships has the shields to handle it) is equal to 5^X where X is the FTL rating, and you can't use multiple drives to boost the number. Note that this is a speed multiplier.
[…]
Now my minimum thought for the campaign is that FTL-1 and FTL-2 drives are available to spaceships, and portal stations mount FTL-3 gear, enabling a FTL-2 equipped to save a good deal of travel time, if of, course it pays the transit fee. Not all planets/systems have a protal but.

Originally Posted by ericthered

5^X is really steep!

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Speed is in pc/day, as in the general hyperspace description in SS?

That's awfully fast. Comparing to ST:TNG:

                   Distance               FTL-1        FTL-2         FTL-3
-----------------  ---------------------  -----------  ------------  -------------
Earth to Moon      400,000 kilometers     224 µs       44.8 µs       8.96 µs
Across Sol System  12 million kilometers  6.72 ms      1.344 ms      268.8 µs
To nearby star     5 light-years          7.358 hours  1.472 hours   17.66 minutes
Across one sector  20 light-years         1.226 days   5.887 hours   1.177 hours
Across Federation  10,000 light-years     1.679 years  4.032 months  3.504 weeks
To nearby galaxy   2,000,000 light-years  335.8 years  67.16 years   13.43 years

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by schmeelke

That's awfully fast. Comparing to ST:TNG:

                   Distance               FTL-1        FTL-2         FTL-3
-----------------  ---------------------  -----------  ------------  -------------
Earth to Moon      400,000 kilometers     224 µs       44.8 µs       8.96 µs
Across Sol System  12 million kilometers  6.72 ms      1.344 ms      268.8 µs
To nearby star     5 light-years          7.358 hours  1.472 hours   17.66 minutes
Across one sector  20 light-years         1.226 days   5.887 hours   1.177 hours
Across Federation  10,000 light-years     1.679 years  4.032 months  3.504 weeks
To nearby galaxy   2,000,000 light-years  335.8 years  67.16 years   13.43 years

<shrug>How fast it is effectively depends almost entirely on the frequency of interesting worlds. When I did a brute force work-up of the results of the randpm system in Space 1e I got words that were vaguely teraaformable every 20 parsecs and really Earth-like ones every 30.

That level of frequency would result in FTL-1 needing about a week for average travel. That's a popular interval.

It's effectively impossible to determine what he actual average distance "should" be in a realistic galaxy but we can rule out some very short distances like Traveler's assumption of long chains of habitable worlds averaging only 1 parsec across. ST:TNG's "nearby star" at 5 ly is basically just as bad. The right kind of stars are nowhere near that common.

[Phantasm]

Here's how I handled FTL in my space pirate game:

Faster-than-light travel consists of shunting the craft into a sidereal aspect of the universe commonly known as hyperspace. Hyperspace exists alongside "RealSpace" in a manner that is best modeled using the analogy of an onion. RealSpace is the "skin" of the onion, with hyperspace existing in layers "beneath" the "skin." The "deeper" into hyperspace one travels, the shorter the distance between two points in RealSpace becomes. This happens because space, according to Einsteinian physics, is curved; by cutting through hyperspace, the curve becomes closer to a straight line.

There is a drawback. In theory hyperspace should permit instantaneous travel between two points; in practice, however, the most common speed for a hyperdrive is 6 lightyears per week. The effective maximum speed at which organic life can survive is five lightyears per day (35 lightyears per week). This is because the physical nature of hyperspace puts a strain on one's body and mind; the strain gets worse the deeper into hyperspace one goes. Those who travel through hyperspace report nausea, dizziness, headaches, vomiting, and an inability to concentrate – and those are the milder side effects from short trips at slow speeds. A number of travelers have fallen unconscious, and a few, notably the elderly and severely ill, have fallen into comas or died.

The physical nature of hyperspace is also unsettling to biological minds when viewed directly while in transit. Information dating back for the last few centuries have reported people becoming insane when visually exposed to hyperspace. Because those who have viewed recordings of hyperspace do not exhibit any tendency towards insanity, even when making the transit at the time, it can be inferred there are elements of hyperspace which cannot be recorded and yet are picked up by one's subconscious when viewed directly.

Travel through hyperspace is best performed along one of the well-mapped trade routes that cover the Sol Sector. Outside the Sol Sector sit a number of regions that are not that well charted. Gravitational anomalies, particularly unmapped brown dwarfs and rogue planets, have been known to drop a ship out of hyperspace without warning. A Navigation (Hyperspace) roll is required to successfully plot a course, with the Sol Sector gaining a +4 to the skill due to being well-charted.

While faster-than-light transportation has become commonplace, the secret to efficient faster-than-light communications remains elusive. At present, real-time hyperspace communications are limited to a range of 500 A.U.s, and even this requires massive relay stations on both ends.



I also ended up with a lot of habitable or at least terraformable worlds around the K-, G- and F-class stars, which comes to like 14 suitable stars in a 20 lightyear radius around Sol, five of which were homeworlds (including Earth itself): Sol, Alpha Centauri A, Tau Ceti, 61 Cygni A, and Sigma Draconis all had homeworlds. This doesn't include the glut of space stations (O'Neill Colonies and Stanford Toruses... toruses, tora, torii... what's the plural on that?).

[Captain Joy]

It sounds to me like you're basically requiring jumpgates AND hyperdrives for FTL travel which is fine and I can't see any problem with it.

[scc]

Wow, lots of stuff I need to answer. Feels like I've forgot to say something but

Originally Posted by ericthered

5^X is really steep!

Maybe, but my initial thought where that 5 * X would be too shallow.

Originally Posted by ericthered

The shields idea is cool -- from its description I'm hearing 'Hyperspace stabalizer', but 'shields' work too.

Well I was thinking that force screens might double as extra shields, it makes things interesting.

Originally Posted by Varyon

Sounds interesting. Some questions/thoughts.

First off, how does one get out of hyperspace? Does it happen automatically when you drop your shields, or do you need to make use of a hyperdrive? Additionally, if you need a hyperdrive, does it need to have the same FTL rating as the one that sent you into the hyperspace to start with? If so, that's going to result in a ship that enters through a portal being unable to exit except through another portal.

Yep, the shields are the only thing keeping you in hyperspace, drop them and you drop out. This means it's impossible to get stuck in hyperspace. Of course if you have a malfunction in the shields and don't have a hyperdrive, your kinda stuck where you came out.

Originally Posted by Varyon

Secondly, how much of the mass of a hyperdrive is the necessary shielding - and can you make a hyperdrive without it? Portal devices probably aren't going to be going through hyperspace under their own power and thus could save mass and cost by not mounting the shields. This will also be good for figuring out how much the shielding system(s) weigh (or are they just expensive Design Features?).

If using Spaceships a hyperdrive comes with shields sufficient for it's rating for free, while the portals are Jump Gates. Things obviously change if using vehicles

Originally Posted by Varyon

Thirdly, is combat in hyperspace possible? If so, how does it differ from normal combat? Forcing a ship out of hyperspace by taking out its shields (or stranding it in hyperspace by taking out its drive) could be an interesting strategy.

I theory, yes. There's just of problem of actually meeting up. I'm also thinking that military ships can use their force screens as extra shields, so if you take damage to the screens, you slow down.

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Speed is in pc/day, as in the general hyperspace description in SS?

No, the speed produced by the hyperddrives is a velocity multiplier, so to go 1ly/year you need a velocity of at least .2C with FTL-1 or .04 with FTL-2

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

The speed is determined by the rating of the initial stargate, rather than the ship shields? (Why ever have more than shields-1? My first assumption was that the speed is limited by both systems; either the gate can't fling you through hyperspace fast enough, or if it can, your shields couldn't take it, so you ask them not to throw you so hard.)

It's a mixture of both, the rating on the FTL systems is a maximum speed multiplier it can impart, but it's also limited by your shields. I'm thinking that many early adopter ships from when FTL-3 was introduced would be limited a velocity multiplier of 100, that was a lot cheaper then 125 when refiting, at least back then.

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Since you say "hyperspace" rather than "jump drive", I assume the ships can maneuver freely once they enter through the window. Do you exit hyperspace just by dropping your shields? Or do you have to create an exit window?

Yes, just drop the shields. Many interstellar freighters are retro-fitted in-systems designers because of this.

[ericthered]

Its a real speed multiplier? that's an interesting detail. Now I see why you thought 5^X was too shallow-- you want to be able to get where you are going!

I suggest moving up another notch, and making the permanent portals FTL-4 or even FTL-5.