[Star Wars] Astrogation

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Intuitive Mathematician outrates a scicntific calculator by several orders of magnitude. IM is capable of doing engineeering design work rathert hasn jsut simple (or even not quite simple) calculations.

Ah, looks like I got it mixed up with Lightning Calculator. Yeah, if a character is an Intuitive Mathematician, their brain basically is a computer, so that trait combined with accurate navigation charts is all that's needed.

Which does beg the question of why any droid brain capable of sentience might be incapable of Astrogation. Presumably it requires a higher Complexity than does AI - either because it's truly that difficult (in which case IM may still have trouble with it) or because the Complexity necessary for Star Wars AI is lower than the GURPS assumption.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

Which does beg the question of why any droid brain capable of sentience might be incapable of Astrogation.

Lacking the requisite databases and interface hardware.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

Which does beg the question of why any droid brain capable of sentience might be incapable of Astrogation. Presumably it requires a higher Complexity than does AI - either because it's truly that difficult (in which case IM may still have trouble with it) or because the Complexity necessary for Star Wars AI is lower than the GURPS assumption.

They may simly lack the required database.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Lacking the requisite databases and interface hardware.

Originally Posted by Refplace

They may simly lack the required database.

Well, that does make sense. =P

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

Which does beg the question of why any droid brain capable of sentience might be incapable of Astrogation. Presumably it requires a higher Complexity than does AI - either because it's truly that difficult (in which case IM may still have trouble with it) or because the Complexity necessary for Star Wars AI is lower than the GURPS assumption.

Star Wars droids aren't software based AI, they are old-school science-fantasy robots.

[Phaelen Bleux]

What got me started on this was the following rough calculation:
At 180 billion planets, with a small "why go here" blurb, I roughly said 0.00002 gig per system, or 3.6 million gig. At $100 per gig, a complete astrogation database to go anywhere in the galaxy cost $360 million!!!

[Urban]

Hyperspace capable ships in Star Wars also seem to have some sort of sensor capability to detect at least objects of smaller asteroid size due to its mass affecting hyperspace and will drop out when sensing objects/gravity wells over a certain size.

How to be able to jump across the galaxy in a few hours without hitting any object in between do seem like pure magic, and adapting Star Wars space opera into a more "realistic" GURPS setting will require alot of work.

[GoblynByte]

For what it's worth, in one of the movie commentaries, Lucas intimates that hyperspace travel is theoretically instantaneous provided there is nothing blocking the path (which is statistically impossible). Therefore it is the sophistication of the nav computer and/or the skill of the navigator that determines how effectively instantaneous the jump really is. In practice, NO ship can obtain instantaneous travel, but ships such as the Falcon can make faster jumps because the nav computer (and Han) is up to the task of plotting a more efficient route than most other ships with second rate computers (and navigators). So the sophistication of the computer and the skill of the navigator is paramount.

Incidentally, this explanation does solve many of the contradictions perceived with travel throughout the saga.

Another note: in general Star Wars canon it is suicide to travel through hyperspace without a nav computer. Astromech droids serve as nav computers in ships like the X-Wing and, quite often, smaller ships such as the A-Wing that are hyperspace capable have a smaller nav computer with a limited number of per-programmed jumps that expire fairly quickly. It is rare for a ship to be capable of traveling through hyperspace without having some sort of nav computer.

[GoblynByte]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

At least according to the WEG rules, Astromechs aren't capable of calculating a new hyperjump but can hold preprogrammed settings for several jumps with known entry and exit points.

That's no exactly true. In WEG they were per-programmed with a number of jumps for quick access, but they were capable of figuring out new routes (they had an Astrogation skill). They just weren't very good at it. Not at factory settings, anyway. R2-D2 had twice the skill than the standard Astromech. ;)

[GoblynByte]

Originally Posted by Urban

How to be able to jump across the galaxy in a few hours without hitting any object in between do seem like pure magic

Exactly. Conversations about how it works are ultimately moot because it really just boils down to the fact that (in the movies) ships traveled at the "speed of drama." Ships are neither fast or slow, they arrive precisely when the author intends them to. However, that's a tough thing to work into an RPG when players and GMs are partial to having such things defined.

I would simply work out a simple formula for skill (of a navigator or computer) modified by the difficulty of the jump (NOT the physical distance of the jump!!) and the sophistication of the computer (if it is helping a navigator). Have the duration of the jump be a factor of their margin of success or failure.

By focusing more on the difficulty of the jump (rather than the distance) provides the GM with endless wiggle room in which he can exercise dramatic license. If they succeed well, they arrive in time to gain an advantage (the bad guys don't know they're coming). If they don't succeed very well (or fail) they arrive too late and lose the advantage (the bad guys warn someone of their arrival). And it will all keep with that Star Wars feel of being inconsistent and nigh magical.