GURPS Space: Stardrives

[Diomedes]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Matter transmitters would do the trick. Then again it may not be the planet that has an objection to your transportation of said goods but some authority between the planet and the source of the contraband.

True. In that case, it's simply a matter of evading the blockade.

[Apache]

I once ran a game where the stardrive was your Typical Star Warsie Hyperdrive...but with a twist.

Hyperspace kills all electronic devices. Off, on, 'shielded', once they enter hyperspace, electronic devices simply Do. Not. Work. And more importantly, they still don't work when you exit hyperspace, either.

So, the ship computers/radios run on vacuum tubes, astrogators carry slide rules, and ships are armed with autocannon and rockets, in turrets manned by gunners with high-powered telescopic sights.

Net result, Earth (and the other core worlds) are all TL9/10, while the Frontier (and the starships that go out to it) are TL6+2, and look like it...;)

[Diomedes]

Hmm. I don't know how I missed this post.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Okay, you go up the Terran trailing Alpha. You are actually moving in a corkscrew fashion up the sides of the line.

So the line is shaped like a hollow tube?

Ideally, you control your corkscrew movement so that when you come to the Secondus juncture you are on the opposite side of the juncture in relatively smooth territory.

Okay. So you roll to avoid the junctures you're not travelling on.

The one drawback is that mapping this thing is going to be annoyingly complex. Each portal is going to lead to its' own "tree" until (maybe) they start to link up.

Any starchart more complex than "two-dimentional map" will be annoyingly complex, I'm afraid. Even node maps can get out of control quickly, although yours seems simpler than most.

If the Alpha Lines are one-system spurs, my earlier question moves up one level: Does a trip through the Gamma Line put you somewhere else on the Beta, or can you travel to a different Beta entirely?

[Diomedes]

Originally Posted by Apache

I once ran a game where the stardrive was your Typical Star Warsie Hyderdrive...but with a twist.

Hyperspace kills all electronic devices. Off, on, 'shielded', once they enter hyperspace, electronic devices simply Do. Not. Work. And more importantly, they still don't work when you exit hyperspace, either.

I hope none of the passengers had a pacemaker...

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Depending on the exact properties of hyperspace, this may support hyperspace pirates. If gates can only be detected at relatively short distances (relatively short on hyperspace scales, anyway) this also supports exploration. I'd also be strongly tempted to toss psionic powers into the blender, as some form of excuse to keep robotic probes under control.

The easy way would be to have it that only psionics can detect a gate at anything more than "we're on top of it" ranges while in hyperspace. The other way is to require psionic talent for hyperspace navigation. The former means psions are only needed for exploration, the latter means they're needed for all FTL travel and are therefore a likely limitation on ship numbers.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I actually favor boarding actions in FTL, but the requirements for normal-space drives are determined by the stardrive, and also influence the practicality of close engagements.

An FTL environment that encourages merchants to follow somewhat (but not completely) predictable paths, requires some time to travel, and has limited sensor range compared with the apparent distances travelled would appear to be in order. That makes it somewhat like sailing an ocean, and we know piracy works in such environments.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Diomedes

I hope none of the passengers had a pacemaker...

No.....no, none of them did....;)

[Sanity]

[QUOTE=Apache]So, the ship computers/radios run on vacuum tubes, astrogators carry slide rules, and ships are armed with autocannon and rockets, in turrets manned by gunners with high-powered telescopic sights.[QUOTE]

I have a hugh problem with that - it makes any military action idiotic.

You simply can not attack any world. You come out of hyperspace, with your primitive weaponry...

...and get destroyed by computer controlled missiles from automatic defense satellites.

See, just because they discovered hyperspace made not made electronic disappear. And as long as my defense systems are not traveling through hyperspace... they can use all that electronic equipment. This gives a TREMENDOUS advantage to any local defense, to a level that makes fighting non-sensical.

Even if you look at ships - system defense boats, without hyperspace capabilities, never intended to travel, will...
...have modern computer controlled equipment.

If you wan tthis to work, you ahve to go full retro and just ban electronics, but hyperspace disabling it does... have side effects.

[Urban]

Use several methods of travelling FTL?

For instance have artificial jump gates or stable worm holes that can transport ships instanteneously to another destination. However, you have to either make the gates very hard and expensive to build and the stable worm holes rare in order to make it attractive to have another FTL option.

Second FTL drive is jumping into "hyperspace" using "slowdrive", but that you are travelling at speeds that still takes days or weeks for a jump a parsec or two.

A twist is to make it possible to navigate and steer and even use weapons and sensors in hyperspace but with limitations, like short range of sensors and that only beam or missiles/projectile guns work. Perhaps you could even stop your engines so that you can be still in hyperspace?

This woulds make it more likely for piracy to be an option, since they could perhaps be near known hyperspace lanes and routes where there are degraded sensor range or hyperspace conditions that force ships to be.


If you have both means of transportation, then the gates/worm holes becomes nexues and strategic points to travel through and control and likely to become the trade hubs that hyperspace routes go to/from.

Other stellar systems that have no access can still be travelled to using "slowdrive" .

[Pomphis]

I mainly use a jump drive with comparatively short instanteneous jumps and considerable delays between jumps. So ships spend no time in jump space, but lots of time in normal space where they can discover lost planets or be intercepted by pirates. Ships will usually use the straight route as it is fastest, which again helps with interception, but are not bound to it. Jumps generate a FTL flash, which together with the delay between jumps means that an ambusher can wait for somebody, see where the ambushee jumps to, and jump there for an interception over considerable distances. At the same time FTL flashes are weak and not that fast, so not very useful for interstellar communications. Though the FTL-coms are good enough to avoid noticeable time lags when calling mars from terra (or when the free trader calls the target world from some AU away). With ships spending much time in normal space and interceptions being possible maneuver drives remain quite important. Major courier routes can transmit information very fast by using a relay system (courier A arrives, transmits information to courier B, courier B jumps to courier C, while courier A waits for it´s jump drive to recharge). But this takes many ships, so information will travel slower on less important routes.

I use FTL limits as I don´t like the idea of attackers jumping in and just nuking a target world. I want space battles, and defenders who can actually defend planets. As I also want smugglers, I have so-called sneakships. Sneak tech is basically star trek cloaking, but with limitations to make sure that only smugglers and spies will use it. It takes mass, and it is disabled by the neutrino emissions from fusion power plants. So sneakships can only use energy banks and/or fission power. Under GT/VE2 that makes them so much weaker than fusion powered ships, that sneakwarships will be a rare exception. There is also a size limit. Sneakships are not totally undetectable, as they can be detected when they are exactly between a star or other emitting object and a sensor, which will see the star disappearing or a small dark spot. But detecting them this way takes major surveillance capabilites. Major worlds can afford that, most others cannot. Individual ships or small groups can be ambushed by sneakships, large fleets which are escorted by lots of fighters and/or drones less so. Similarities with WW2 submarines are intentional.