[Space] FTL Ideas/Thoughts

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by scc

Flyndaran, the FTL-x system is a GAME MECHANICS one, if two ships have the same FTL number they go at the same speed

It's not real or written in stone. But that would make it fall back on the silliness of Faster Than Light drives being much slower than light.
It would be like making jets that travel in units of 100 MPH but each MPH is really Miles Per Day.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

It's not real or written in stone. But that would make it fall back on the silliness of Faster Than Light drives being much slower than light.
It would be like making jets that travel in units of 100 MPH but each MPH is really Miles Per Day.

From what I understand of the drive, FTL-1 DOES enable FTL travel. Travel at .25c will give you speed that's truely faster than light. FTL-1 technically enables just under 5 times the speed of light.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Travel at .25c will give you speed that's truely faster than light.

This part makes no sense. "Travel at a quarter of the speed of light is faster than light"... wut?

[Anaraxes]

Normal-space travel that would be .25c, but with an FTL-1 drive, means to multiply the speed by 5, so net speed is 1.25 c. It's the Fast Forward drive; everything just speeds up.

[scc]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

This part makes no sense. "Travel at a quarter of the speed of light is faster than light"... wut?

Because the FTL drive system I proposed is like the one in David Weber's Honorverse, a velocity multiplier, it doesn't impart speed.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by scc

Because the FTL drive system I proposed is like the one in David Weber's Honorverse, a velocity multiplier, it doesn't impart speed.

He avoids confusion by calling them "bands" of hyperspace. Even that would clearer if he called them levels.

So lets say that you have a "level one hyperspnace shunt".
You can only reach level of hyperspace without aid. Level one of hyperspace is what's called a "co-ordinate" dimension where every point in one dimension has a corresponding point in normal space. Only in H1 those points are much closer together. Higher levels of hyperspace are even "smaller" compared to normal space.

So what you have on your ship is a "hypershunt" that enables you reach a specified level of hyperspace (and probably lower ones too). You still need to the same propulsion system you use in normal space to cover distance. Weber's starships 8se their "gravitic impeller wedges" in both normal and
hyperspace (yes, I'm skipping over Warshawski sails and grav waves as unhelpful additional sources of confusion).

So I think this is basically what you men but phrased in what other people might find less confusing verbiage.