> Tom Anderson wrote:
> secondly, why do caches, observation posts etc have to be in systems?
the > example given was of concealing a cache inside an 'iceball' (like a lump
of comet > stuff, i assume; i've never heard this term before, shame on me).
why not just build > the cache in deep space? an object a few hundred metres
on each side (allowing > for a big cache, all wrapped up in mylar film or
something), located half a lightyear > from any system, is, if anything,
better hidden than one in a comet fragment!
It is. Unfortunately, unless your FTL equipments are *very* accurate (which
the GZG ones aren't) or your "hidden" cache has a powerful omnidirectional
beacon to allow your own ships to locate it (in which
case it won't stay hidden and secret for more than at most half a year -
better use it up fast), it'll be bloody difficult for your own ships to find
it as well. Star systems are harder to miss, like.
Regards,
Oerjan spake thusly upon matters weighty:
> It is. Unfortunately, unless your FTL equipments are *very* accurate
Counterpoint: Put an 'interrogation-response' beacon on it. Then you
have to track its coords, get nearby, drop an odd-freq pulse out
(short, with a small code) and wait for the response pulse. If you aren't
close, you don't even see the pulses. (Enemy odds of being close really low).
Enemy sensors will not pick up beacon because it is not active until queried
by current code (a la good IFF).
/************************************************
> Thomas Barclay wrote:
> Counterpoint: Put an 'interrogation-response' beacon on it. Then you
Good point. The main point is the FTL accuracy - you need to be able to
jump close enough to cache to trigger its response (and, hopefully, to do
so without sending an omni- or at least multi-directional "Kilroy was
here" signal which someone can pick up <g>). If the jump uncertainty for
long deep-space jumps is on the order of some light days, you still need
a fairly powerful signal.
Later,
Oerjan spake thusly upon matters weighty:
> > Counterpoint: Put an 'interrogation-response' beacon on it. Then you
> > have to track its coords, get nearby, drop an odd-freq pulse out
Ah Oerjan, but I had heard suggested that the approach from a star to a star
was:
leaving - small jumps to clear gravity well of star
large intermediate hop
arriving - a series of small, more accurate jumps as you close in
So if you made your last jumps small, accurate ones, you could
place/find such a cache.
N'est pas?
Tom.
/************************************************
> Thomas Barclay wrote:
> > Good point. The main point is the FTL accuracy - you need to be able
Um... I read it (the FB FTL description) more as "accuracy is a function
of jump range and presence of gravity wells" - you need to begin and end
each journey with a series of short jumps *because* the accuracy is shot by
the presence of the gravity well. You try making a long jump right up to the
FTL limit of the gravity well, you risk going a bit too far and
get destroyed - or, almost as bad, get thrown somewhere else entirely.
> So if you made your last jumps small, accurate ones, you could
May work, yes. I'm not sure how accurate deep-space astrography is -
this is another limiting factor in the jump accuracy, and probably the most
important here. Indy, comments?
Regards,
This discussion about making small FTL jumps to allow a ship to get closer to
a specific location. The assumption naturally is that shorter jump are more
accurate. That brings up the question, what is the smallest FTL jump possible,
and the longest possible?
The Full Thrust rules do not address this. But since ships going to FTL during
a battle completly leave that battle, we can assume that ships can't make
small enough jump to be useful as a tactic in a battle. I can't say I'm going
to FTL to put my ship behind that big bad super dreadnought my enemy has.
Unfortunatly this does not help us much since no scale for distance or time is
given in the rules.
Another unknown is how fast do the ships travel FTL? Also do the ships have
control of how fast they go in FTL? Then there is the unknown factor of how
short timewise can a FTL jump be controlled. Current technology can easily
time controls to at least the microsecond range. Of course FTL jumps involve a
lot of engery which can't be turned on and off that quickly.
So I'll make some assumptions:
1 - The slowest FTL travel possible is just barely above the speed of
light.
2 - Combat occurs at distances on the order of thousand of miles
maximum.
3 - The shortest time that an FTL jump can take is one second.
That gives us the shortest jump distance of a light second or 186,000 miles.
This should pose no problem for the signals used to locate a cache of
supplies. Currently we can receive very low power signals from the likes of
Marriner and Voyager at longer distances that that.
Enjoy,
Tom spake thusly upon matters weighty:
> So I'll make some assumptions:
300,000 km/sec.
> 2 - Combat occurs at distances on the order of thousand of miles
If we assume 1000km per hex, we could figure 'combat ranges' as 50,000 km or
so.
> 3 - The shortest time that an FTL jump can take is one second.
Why not?:)
> That gives us the shortest jump distance of a light second or
300,000km, or 300 hexes. Useful in some senses, but not really as a
mid-battle tactic.
Tom.
/************************************************
> At 09:13 AM 9/17/98 -0700, you wrote:
[snicker-snack]
> That gives us the shortest jump distance of a light second or
Okay... but how much fuel does it take? If it's scaled to the jump, fine, you
can do that a bunch, though I'd still say there's likely to be a reasonably
hefty inital fuel cost. In fact, just to be perverse (and 'cuz I like the
idea) maybe it costs *more* fuel to go slower in FTL? In which case making
short hops to try and locate your reserve fuel dump could run you out of fuel
before you get there....
Okay, so this is very much universe-specific (I don't *think* Jon
specified
anything like that) but it's certainly what I'd go with. ^_-
Just semi-random musings,