Coolant [Spaceships]

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Anyway, I think I like the coolant idea for FTL more and more. Combined with a gravitation exclusion zone equal to (40 × [square root] of objects mass in Sols]), you end up with the edge of a system being a very busy place. The majority of the action would occur within 1 AU of the edge of the exclusion zone (to prevent suprise FTL attacks) where the refueling depots would be located due to access to volatiles.

40 whats? If that's AU, it's way out of the system at about the average distance of Pluto from Sol, and the shell of that sphere is huge it will only be busy at points close to something useful.

Pirates and smugglers would have their own refueling depots in interstellar space, protected by anonymity and by distance, and they would prey on ships as they came out of FTL and run before the authorities could catch them. Of course, the authorities could easily come knocking, so most such depots would be temporary, just operating for a couple of months before relocating a couple of light months away. Abandoned depots, with buried cargo or hidden nanostasis hostages, would be a prime adventure location.

Ships coming from standard origins will arrive from known directions and unless your FTL system dumps them out in unpredictable places, will be able to arrive close to their intended refuelling point (but on the FTL boundary of course), which means the local law will be able to provide protection. If they arrive too scattered for protection by the law, how are the pirates able to predict their arrival points well enough to catch them?

If FTL paths are trackable from normal space, and/or FTL journeys can be interdicted it becomes easier for the pirates, of course.