GURPS Space campaign setting

[combatmedic]

I like this very much. I think I will use it.:

David Johnston -
The "telegraph" equivalent could be created by having FTL radio, but one with limited effective range, maybe just a tenth of a lightyear. Therefore in order to actually create a communication link between systems you need 40 to 100 "repeater stations", each of them full of eminently destroyable (and perhaps plunderable) hardware. The expense, and need to defend the communications lines, means they only connect up the wealthier, more populous systems and less important inhabited systems that happen to be on the way between them.

This is also very cool, but I'll have to see how it meshes with the FTL drive I'm using:

Fred Brackin-
Rather than literal telegraph, FTL comunication is a sort of semaphore. A packet of enrgetic plasma is contianed in a warp field and aimed at a sun. Anything smaller is too small to be aimed at.

The packet of plasma drops out of warp at whatever distance limit there is and makes a visible flash. You use a simple interval code to encode info. You can't make it very dense though.

You also have limits on how many messages can be coming in from the same side of the galaxy. Too many flashes and they run together.

Messages will look like old-fashioned telegrams. Security is handled by use of codebooks. You send an identifier and the code group "glops". What "glops" means is then looked up in the reciever's codebook. Maybe it's "buy titanium at any price under 100 credits/lb" and maybe it's "Alien invasion" or whatever other meaning was prearranged.

Carrying new codebooks is an important job for secure couriers and stealing codebooks looks highly profitable. Forget about throwing teams of nerds with gigacomputers at the problem though. There shouldn't be enough for them to work with.

[Anaraxes]

Forget about throwing teams of nerds with gigacomputers at the problem though. There shouldn't be enough for them to work with.

Depends on how much communication is going on and how fast the codes can be changed. You'll need the gigacomputers for the massive pattern matching necessary to discover that every time Boskone sends the code word "glorp", a fleet of trucks converges on the abandoned warehouse on the south side of town.

Oh, look, Boskone just sent "glorp" again.

There's also traffic analysis. Recall the probably apocrophyal story about the number of pizzas delivered to the Pentagon the night before the start of Gulf War I.

But yes, since there's no relation between random code words and their meaning, you can't generally crack a code without the code books. Conveniently, this gives the adventurers something more interesting to do than watch the progress bar on their brute-force cracking program.

[Greystar]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

But yes, since there's no relation between random code words and their meaning, you can't generally crack a code without the code books. Conveniently, this gives the adventurers something more interesting to do than watch the progress bar on their brute-force cracking program.

*Stops Staring at his brute-force cracking program's progress bar* I like this method better! *Goes back to watching it*

Anyway I was bored sorry to hijack the thread but I needed to make a comment on that line.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Depends on how much communication is going on and how fast the codes can be changed.

Yes a significant issue when code "books" were actual bundles of paper. You match observed actions with sent code. Important stuff for WWI and II.

However, a TL9 a Datachip holds 1 TB and 1000x that at each succeeding Tl that's a lot of codebooks. Probably enough that the "one time pad" method wil be standard.

I'm suprised no one has mentioned it yet but in one time pad you never send the same code group twice. You just send an identifier telling the recipient what pad/codebook to use to decipher the message and then neither of you ever uses that pad again.

Fred Brackin

[DoctorRomulus]

Originally Posted by David Johnston

)

The "telegraph" equivalent could be created by having FTL radio, but one with limited effective range, maybe just a tenth of a lightyear. Therefore in order to actually create a communication link between systems you need 40 to 100 "repeater stations", each of them full of eminently destroyable (and perhaps plunderable) hardware. ...........

ADVENTURE IDEA - (should you go with this option).

The PC's are members of the (Enter Star Nation here) Marines and are told to hold a "vital" Repeater Statioin against the Horde of (Whatever).

[Bandii]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Yes a significant issue when code "books" were actual bundles of paper. You match observed actions with sent code. Important stuff for WWI and II.

However, a TL9 a Datachip holds 1 TB and 1000x that at each succeeding Tl that's a lot of codebooks. Probably enough that the "one time pad" method wil be standard.

I'm suprised no one has mentioned it yet but in one time pad you never send the same code group twice. You just send an identifier telling the recipient what pad/codebook to use to decipher the message and then neither of you ever uses that pad again.

Fred Brackin

Alternately, I could still see actual paper (or futurepapersimulacra) being used to make codebooks for fear of someone tampering with digital media. It's a neat mental image of some comms officer flipping manically through an actual codebook in order to decode the incoming telegram.

-Mike

[combatmedic]

I need to work out the basics of how the FTL drive will function. Here is what I want for starships/FTL travel:


-manuever drives[ STL] are used to approach or leave planets

-longer distance= longer overall travel time

-trade routes and shipping lanes through space exist

- it is possible to chart new routes

- some ships are faster than others/can go further distances before needing to refuel



Any suggestions? There will be only one known method of FTL travel, although some variations on the technology may exist.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

I need to work out the basics of how the FTL drive will function. Here is what I want for starships/FTL travel:


-manuever drives[ STL] are used to approach or leave planets

-longer distance= longer overall travel time

-trade routes and shipping lanes through space exist

- it is possible to chart new routes

- some ships are faster than others/can go further distances before needing to refuel

Of the three broad categories (Warp, Jump, Hyperspace) we can pretty much exclude Warp off the bat. Warp usually moves through normal space which is notable for it's bland emptiness. No trade routes, new or old.

Jump with special Jump points can give you 1, 3 and 5 as natural consequences. You approach the Juymp point on maneuver drive. Trade lanes routes and shipping lanes go from point to point and the faster your M-drive the faster you get from point to point.

2 is possible if a trip from inhabited planet A to inhabited planet B usally means going through uninhabited systems C, D and E. Going to the enxt planet after B could send you through systems F, G and H.

4 is possible is Jump points are detectable but not obvious (i.e. not always directly above the solar north and south poles) and not rigidly limited by theory ( i.e.always come in pairs)..

Jump points with multiple jumps between usual destiantions looks like a strong contender to me. You'll definitely have to have repeater stations at each jump pt if FTL comms are related to FTL travel. If you use jump sats that bounce back andd forth between jump pts you'll have very little in the way of bandwidth limitations.

As a possibility jump points "large" enough for a simple comm flash but not for ships might offer more direct communications to at least _some_ colonies.

Your other main option would seem to be Hyperspace with "terrain", i.e the other dimension you use for FTL travel is not filled with bland emptiness.

Soem parts of Hyperspace would be faster or slower to travel through than others. Some are possibly dangerous. Travel through hyperpace probably takes significant time. You might even use your M-drive in hyperspace. You could probably hide in hyperspace and ambush ships passing through it too.

FTL comms in this setting would probably be some sort of Hyperradio and relay stations seem likely.

Fred Brackin

[dscheidt]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

I need to work out the basics of how the FTL drive will function. Here is what I want for starships/FTL travel:

-manuever drives[ STL] are used to approach or leave planets

-longer distance= longer overall travel time

-trade routes and shipping lanes through space exist

- it is possible to chart new routes

- some ships are faster than others/can go further distances before needing to refuel

Any suggestions? There will be only one known method of FTL travel, although some variations on the technology may exist.

I get all of these from my jump system. Jumps are through wormholes; each wormhole leads from 1 to 4 other wormholes, with no guarantee of symmetric jumps (In other words, being able to jump from A to B doesn't mean you can go from B to A. You usually can, but not always.)

Trade routes are a natural result. The others are details based on what other technologies you've got. In a hard setting, you'll have maneuver with various performances, and range depending on the mass fraction of the ship devoted to fuel. If you require some special fuel (a la Traveller) to make jumps, then you get different ships with different range.

[combatmedic]

Thanks Fred. This is the sort of feedback for which I'd hoped.

My inital idea[warp] doesn't seem to support the conception I have of how the setting works.

Both options sound good. Jump points make a lot of sense, but I want to avoid this:

Originally bosted by Fred Brackin:
If you use jump sats that bounce back andd forth between jump pts you'll have very little in the way of bandwidth limitations

.

I want to keep the FTL comms low bandwith. I like all the stuff about codebooks we've discussed thus far. That's definitety going to be part of the setting. I also want courier ships to be used a lot, at least in areas ''off the grid''.

Maybe I will go with hyperspace after all....

If anyone has anything else to suggest, feel free to do so. I really appreciate all the help and advice.