OK. If we postulate multiple FTL/Sidereal sytems that sidestep the
lightspeed problem, what are the mass penalties, etc. In FT it is assumed that
about 25% of a ship's mass is taken up by their "Hyperdrive" style FTL. This
would follow all rules postulated by the rules.
New systems.
Warp Drive Mass: 20% Cost Hullx3 Speed doubles every round till player off
board. May be intercepted by other warp driven vessels in strategic games.
Moves Thrust value in strategic hexes per strategic turn.
Fold Drive Mass:40% Cost: Hullx2.5 Ship folds space around it. Any units
within 6" are folded as well. Number of ships in fold envelope may not exceed
mass of folding ship. If so, each ship takes 2d6 damage and fold fails. May
not be intercepted in strategic game. Moves 4 strategic hexes.
Any additions? comments?
> On Tue, 16 Sep 1997, Mike Wikan wrote:
> OK. If we postulate multiple FTL/Sidereal sytems that sidestep the
If you want to use multiple FTL-drive types in the same campaign, these
rules look good. The one quible I have is the Warp Drive and
courier/escort ships moving strategically at Thrust 8...seems like
that's
a huge advantage, that isn't reflected enough in the cost/mass of the
drive.
That speed is especially valuable if, as I do, you have a strategic
universe where interstellar FTL communications does't exist - all that
stuff goes via courier ships.
If you're interested, I postulate a FTL comm tech that needs fairly large
power output, so ship-board transmitters/antenna can communicate across
a solar system but not even Superdreadnoughts have the power to transmit
light years. Light-year range transmitters can be set up, usually in
solar
orbits, but the cost/building time and power (especially power)needed
ensure that only core systems have these attennas, and the rest of the systems
make use of courier ships, military or commercial as appropriate.
I haven't bothered coming up with any PSB explaining this, it seems as likely
as any system, but if someone out there who knows more physics than I do can
provide one, please do...
Finally, the fold-space system means that a fair chunk of your fleets
could be non-FTL vessels, piggy-backing thru fold-space on a SD's drive.
And making your fleet cheaper, and nastier - something which should be
reflected in the cost/mass numbers.
> Mike Wikan writes:
@:) OK. If we postulate multiple FTL/Sidereal sytems that sidestep the
@:) lightspeed problem, what are the mass penalties, etc. In FT it is @:)
assumed that about 25% of a ship's mass is taken up by their @:) "Hyperdrive"
style FTL. This would follow all rules postulated by @:) the rules.
@:) Any additions? comments?
Additions are easy, anyway. This is an idea for a portal-based FTL
system, perhaps similar to that seen in the Buck Rogers TV show.
Jump Gate Generator Mass: 40 Cost: 100
This component can open a gate into hyperspace. The gate opened by this
component is large enough to allow a ship of mass 25 to pass through. The
effects of any group of JGGs that are mutually within 6" can be added. Thus a
cluster of four JGGs could create a gate large enough to accomodate a ship of
mass 100.
The gate effect is generated within 12" of all participating ships and
continues for a number of turns equal to twice the number of JGGs used to
create the gate. Once opened, no maintenance is required to keep the gate in
operation. While the gate is open, any ship of small enough mass may enter
hyperspace by moving within 1" of the gate location. A ship larger than the
specified mass will not enter hyperspace and will take nd3 damage, where n is
the number of JGGs used to open the gate.
A JGG remains in operation until the gate it has created collapses. During
this period, it may not be used to open another gate.
Once in hyperspace, ships may only move one hex per strategic turn. However,
if another gate is activated at the same time as the first, the ships may move
instantaneously to the second gate. A JGG must be used to open a gate out of
hyperspace into a hex where no gate is present. The gate out of hyperspace is
large enough to accomodate any vessel. Vessels using a jump gate to enter
hyperspace are not required to carry any FTL drives.
> Warp Drive
I like this...
I tried something like it once when i was working on a Robotech flavor for FT.
did the same sort of thing for shields and shield types
I will have to think about the drive systems think a bit before I'm sure how I
(only me) think they should work.
CMC
> On Tue, 16 Sep 1997, Joachim Heck - SunSoft wrote:
> Mike Wikan writes:
This sounds pretty cool, although with the size of the Generator you'd be
nearly obligated to have dedicated "Jump Ships", enough for the whole
fleet -- and if those got KO'd you'd be in deep, deep trouble.
I like the idea of simultaneous gates allowing farther travel - it makes
settled systems easier to connect, and would lead to a smaller colonies
struggling to afford a double-gate link to make commerce easier (and
other travel).
A few questions on the Warp Drive :-
What happens if the drives take damage before the ship leaves the board?
-
I presume it continues at its new speed Can they be powered down early?
What speed is the ship moving at on FTL entry? - I would assume this
would be very high and the first thing to do is to slow down to a combat
capable speed Is it a modified normal space drive or a second drive as in the
standard FTL drives?
----
> Warp Drive
> Mike Wikan wrote:
Interesting.
> On Wed, 17 Sep 1997 23:02:07 -0700 "Craig" <craig@clara.net> writes:
In Star Trek episodes, I think the ship drops to sublight when the warp
engines are damaged.
If Warp drive is damage, the ship immediately decelerates to the speed it was
at before the Warp Drive was engaged. IU imagine it as a supplementary drive.