07-03-2022, 08:03 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Jan 2018
|
Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?
Hello everyone, I was reading up on the TV Tropes page on the "Alcubierre Drive", I was wondering how to incorporate into a relatively hard Sci-fi space warfare setting, but I am at a snag.
Let us assume that in the future, scientists figure out how to make viable Alcubierre-like warp drives. However, thinking about it, how exactly would space warfare work with such a warp drive? I'm not good with math, but wouldn't a starship moving FTL would be virtually impossible to detect, and be essentially a planet killer? Even a practical wall of super-advanced military drones would not be able to protect a planet and detect and intercept a starship using warp-drive. Personally, my own thinking would probably to incorporate something like the "Slow Zone" effect as seen in The Expanse. Basically, a godlike alien race creates a "portal network" that allows for FTL travel, but attaches an upper-speed limit in the surrounding space. Maybe I am missing something. If so, please let me know. Thanks for the replies. |
07-03-2022, 08:22 PM | #2 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
|
Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?
Quote:
|
|
07-03-2022, 08:43 PM | #3 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
|
Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?
Quote:
On Star Trek these are those generic "sensors" that obviously function faster than light too. <shrug>Alcubierre gets attention not because it actually has a functioning scientific theory but because it has internally consistent math behind it and too many people confuse the second with the first.
__________________
Fred Brackin |
|
07-03-2022, 09:36 PM | #4 | |
Join Date: Jan 2018
|
Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?
Quote:
|
|
07-03-2022, 10:15 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: Jan 2018
|
Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?
Quote:
However, there would still be the issue of the Planet Killer. As far as I can tell, there seems to be no way, according to the contemporary physics, to detect an incoming ship and stop it. This effectively creates a massive problem. One way to get around it is to have FTL limited to specific "jump points". This would create "chokepoints" that would allow for some kind of space battles. |
|
07-03-2022, 10:25 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
|
Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?
I haven’t run sci-fi in a while, but I seem to recall that a common explanation for FTL without gates was that you couldn’t warp when you were near a significant gravity well. This means ships must use sub-light drives to get far enough out from a sun to warp away. Arriving ships similarly couldn’t arrive closer than this safe radius.
|
07-03-2022, 10:39 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: Jan 2018
|
Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?
Quote:
|
|
07-03-2022, 11:49 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
|
Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?
Any FTL is superscience at this point so I would just make up what I wanted.
__________________
My GURPS publications GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits; GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits; Pyramid articles. Buying them lets us know you want more! My GURPS fan contribution and blog: REFPLace GURPS Landing Page My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items) My GURPS Wiki entries |
07-03-2022, 11:55 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Virginia, US
|
Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?
Quote:
For example, 2300AD had the stutterwarp drive that lost efficient based upon the gravitational field strength. Hell, arguably Warhammer 40,000 did this with it's warp drive back in the days where it wanted to be gameable rather than just "grimdark". |
|
07-04-2022, 01:54 AM | #10 | |
Join Date: Feb 2007
|
Re: Does warp drive render space warfare obsolete?
Quote:
Otherwise you end up with 'speed of plot', which tends to undercut believability pretty quickly.
__________________
HMS Overflow-For conversations off topic here. |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|