New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Yeah but that's pretty much beside the point. Is there a reason why the detailed exploration can't just be done with robot probes that move so much faster than people?

Time constraints (the probes don't have sixteen to thirty years to spend in a system mapping each planet encountered before returning home, as they are unable to send the results back in anything resembling realtime; remember, it took us months to get all the data New Horizons recorded over a few days' flyby past Pluto, and now factor in "no FTL radio" over dozens of lightyears), coupled with a lack of truly volitional AI (in this setting, volitional AI essentially must be "grown" rather than "programmed" and that takes time, and is generally reserved for the one race of sentient robots with TL12 computers, though the occasional droid may develop into one) for the probes. At best, you've got non-volitional AI with pre-programmed responses ("if it's a threat[list of threats], spin, engage thruster to reverse course, and enter hyperspace headed to [these coordinates]", etc). And in no case can the on-board computer interpret the data.

Plus, while they are faster in hyperspace, the probes themselves may not be moving at speeds that can match those reached by manned craft; you're more likely to have basic maneuvering thrusters and a limited delta-v on a probe than you are a full-fledged reactionless engine like those mounted on a hyperspace-capable SWACS craft. Probes are supposed to be fairly cheap; reactionless thrusters aren't.

Clear as mud?

[warellis]

How fast is FTL travel in your setting?

[Astromancer]

{The Farfarers}

Originally Posted by warellis

How does the military/explorer groups having skimmer warp while everyone else uses those point-to-point jump drives change military or civilian responses to crises?

The millitaries of this setting does have jump drives. However, although there are plenty of practical reqsons for the military to have jump drives, there are few practical reasons for nonmillitary groups, other than explorers and those seeking total isolation, to have skimmer warps. More millitary ships are likely to be jump drives but the majority of skimmer warp drives are millitary or scouts.

Edit, I've changed my mind.

Skimmer Warps (SWDs) are more expensive. Most trade and commerce uses the jump points. However, there are plenty of "Tramp Steamer" types that ply the less profitable but still vital routes. Also some jump routes are involved. They pass through dangerous territory were trade can't safely go. SWDs take trade around these chokeholds.

[Astromancer]

{The Farfarers}

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this idea.

Millennia ago powerful aliens noted the Earth's abundant lifeforms and seeded the galaxy, which was mainly sterile, with Earth life. With the rise of the classical civilizations they decided that Earth life was ready to develop on its own on the many worlds they'd spread it to.

Many of the Human and Near Human groups that these seeders took from Earth were further manipulated genetically. The resulting parahumans then went on to found civilizations of their own.

Humanity moved out to the stars quickly and met our kinfolk.

This can go as you like it. Traveller with the numbers filed off, STOS, Doctor Who, Lensmen, whatever. The aliens are in fact simply humans, and you know what trouble they are. I'll add further details later. This is a base I intend to use a few times.

Now the various groups drawn from Earth are at different tech levels. Some worlds weren't conducive to agriculture. They were brutally limited in development. Interestingly parahumans designed to be psions were normally dumped on these worlds. Perhaps a limiter in case of trouble.

Some worlds lacked accessible metalic ores, a serious limit on tech. Other worlds had more subtle geographical limitations to them. Worlds where all the arable land was in the tropics or where geography favored Gunpowder Empires in all major cultural areas. However some worlds are as advanced as Earth.

You can either go with Traveller's Earth conquers by disease senario or say that many worlds faced diseases and all post TL7 societies understand antisepsis or collapse in pandemics. I prefer the latter.

[Astromancer]

{The Farfarers}

Originally Posted by warellis

How fast is FTL travel in your setting?

If that refers to me, jump drives going through jump points are instantaneous and skimmer warps generally don't go faster than 125 times the speed of light. However getting to jump points with non FTL drives takes time. Meanwhile skimmer warps can travel for a week or two at 512 times the speed of light, but it will need expensive maintenance within a couple of months afterward. Speeds of 1000 times the speed of light aren't practical for more than a day or two and require more costly maintenance more quickly.

Note, the Skimmer Warp Drives (hereafter SWDs) work fairly well within a Solar System. There's a point, the exact reasons aren't understood, were it fails, mainly because it's too close to the gravity well of a star, or so it's generally thought. In Earth's system, the SWDs work to the orbit of Jupiter. In some systems, mainly dual or multiple stars, the SWDs can get as close as the Zone of Habitability. In star systems only mad men run their SWDs at more than 8 times the speed of light.

The great advantages of Jump Drives (hereafter JDs) are, cheapness of construction and maintenance, the ability to travel truly vast distances, and the likelihood of meeting other species at trading hubs and making profitable commercial and diplomatic contacts. The JDs will always be popular.

Does this help?

[AlexanderHowl]

Assuming the six month travel rule from center to border, 125c is sufficient to support an interstellar state with a radius of 62.5 light-years (with exploration occurring within a radius of 125 light-years). While it might not seem like a lot, there are 3,900 stars with 62.5 light-years of the Earth and 31,000 stars within 125 light-years. With 90% of them probably having planets and 90% of the ones with planets probably having life, that is a lot of stuff to explore (even if there is no evidence of existent TL6+ civilizations). The jump drive is actually unnecessary unless there is an outside civilization with much faster drives threatening the central civilization.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Assuming the six month travel rule from center to border, 125c is sufficient to support an interstellar state with a radius of 62.5 light-years (with exploration occurring within a radius of 125 light-years).

While a few historical empires sort of operated with a few bits separated by year long communications delays ("if death came from Spain we should all be immortal"), it's debatable these were really a single "state". The largest ancient empires managed four to six weeks from capital to peripheral provinces (Rome to Mesopotamia or Beijing to Tibet). Six months is more like "we're pretty sure it's a real place" or "I think I met someone who'd been there once" than "part of our state".

[AlexanderHowl]

Six months relates to the largest empires, like early 14th century Mongolian Empire, early 17th century Spain, or early 19th century Britain. It took around six months for communication to go from Britain to Australia (making an exchange of communication a year long process). Anyway, since the skip warp can be boosted to 500c for a few weeks, you could use special relays to cut an exchange of communications to 13 weeks ago.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Six months relates to the largest empires, like early 14th century Mongolian Empire, early 17th century Spain, or early 19th century Britain. It took around six months for communication to go from Britain to Australia (making an exchange of communication a year long process). Anyway, since the skip warp can be boosted to 500c for a few weeks, you could use special relays to cut an exchange of communications to 13 weeks ago.

Now let's condense this a bit. Say two months for up to 20 lys from Earth, making it four months to cross the sector, barring successes on a Navigation (Hyperspace) roll condensing that by a minor percentage (say, -5% time for each margin of success of 2; an MoS of 4 would be -10%, an MoS of 6 would be -15%, etc.), with a frontier of 50 to 75 ly that hasn't been fully charted so navigational surprises ("this rogue planet that pulled us out wasn't on the charts!") can still happen.

One issue I had with my setting in-play was trying to answer just how fast a standard hyperdrive could go.

[AlexanderHowl]

The real question is what prevents people from going beyond the frontier? With 125c as their velocity, they could travel for eight years and be 1,000 ly from the Earth, well beyond the reach of a central government, and they could target some of the worlds discover by the Kepler probe. In fact, you could have a large number of failed colonies resulting from such an expansion, where groups of pioneers decided to travel for a decade from the Earth so that their light would not reach the edge of human space for a thousand years and ran into something that killed them.