Micro-jump vs 1G trip

[Vidgar]

So, player's doing something GM did think of ....... surprising.

Player do a 6.5days 1G trip instead of 1 week Micro-Jump in a 400T Sub-Merchant

How much fuel would 6.5days 1G trip?

This is for my education only?

 

[Arkathan]

6.5 days of operations is 0.232 Dtons of fuel.
1 Dton allows the 400 ton Subsidized merchant to run for four weeks.
So 1 week is .25 Dtons.

 

[agentwigggles]

I have no idea, if its for your education.
Lets us know if you find out.

 

[Condottiere]

Fuel, unless you can throttle the power plant, is a fixed consumption.

So, by default, all things being equal, is the same, with a micro jump consuming an additional ten percent of hull volume.

 

[Anstett]

I rule also that a Jump is a Jump for fuel consumption.

 

[Vormaerin]

As mentioned above, fuel consumption by the maneuver drive is negligible. It's based on the power plant, regardless of the activity you are undertaking. Given how expensive fuel for jumping is by comparison, I would expect that any trip less than 8 days would be automatic for normal travel. The risk of piracy or some other hazard would have to be extremely high to justify making a jump.

I would suspect that you'd need to be pushing two weeks or more before its economical for freighters to micro jump given the cost of fuel. And it wouldn't surprise me if there were non jump capable freighters handling even longer in system routes for things that aren't urgent.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

The cost of fuel is not really a consideration; the time value of the bound capital (the mortgage) is vastly larger:

Fuel is about 2% of the operating cost while jumping...


Since you cannot jump through the jump mask of the star you cannot easily jump from one side of the star system to the other, so accelerating to the target may be your only option, short of two micro-jumps around the star.

 

[steelbrok]

a micro jump might be useful for a surprise attack (or inspection com to that)

 

[Arkathan]

a micro jump might be useful for a surprise attack (or inspection com to that)

Any surprise attack using a jump, without stealth jumps, gives the target a 100d warning, although waves of missiles could precede the main body.
Non-stealth jumps are automatically detected.

 

[Shadowblayde99]

It's the Picard manoeuvre.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Jump into a system at a distance of 1 and a bit light weeks out.

Send out a massive burst of active sensor radiation, then jump insystem to arrive just behind your sensor wave...

 

[Saladman]

I've long assumed significant in-system, non-jump traffic, but haven't really done much with it. But it does open up the possibility of a train robbery type adventure, either performing or guarding against, without literally taking the ship down over a ground-based train as in the Firefly episode.

 

[Condottiere]

If the target is going to be at a known position in about a week's time.

 

[Saladman]

If you've got departure, destination, and thrust that narrows it down considerably. That would be enough to jump to the vicinity. And you're likely to have those if you know the one shipment you're going after, say the one that's Radioactives rather than Common Ores. Which you're likely to have, otherwise it's chicken thieving scale piracy rather than train robbery.

Without jump inbound, you either go for stealth, or just gray man camouflage as regular traffic. Or get on board as the guards or crew. Then ideally you jump away, or else try to pull it off without anyone knowing until it docks, cross in suits on sleds so it's not immediately obvious which ship it was.

A considerable list of challenges, I haven't even listed everything, but that's what makes it a train robbery or heist rather than a single combat encounter.

OR, be hired as the guards, and let the NPC pirates figure it all out.

 

[phavoc]

In-system craft will have more powerful M-drives to offset the time factor. The ships will also be able to carry larger payloads since they will not have to budget space for jump fuel or a jump drive. V2 of MGT greatly changes the cost savings (CT and through v1 it was 10% of your displacement for jump fuel per parsec jumped).

 

[Vidgar]

Thank to all, more educational than I expected.

I tried mapping a 1G ship being chased by a 2G ship after the flip point (in Excel, using Combat turn to calculate Velocity and Distance travelled & between ship) and basically you have 1 Combat turn to fire as you go screaming pass.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I tried mapping a 1G ship being chased by a 2G ship after the flip point (in Excel, using Combat turn to calculate Velocity and Distance travelled & between ship) and basically you have 1 Combat turn to fire as you go screaming pass.

Don't just accelerate, start decelerating in good time before you overtake, in order to match vectors and board the target.

 

[tytalan]

Realistically once you get M-Drive 2 micro jumps make no sense in system at all. Not only is the travel faster but the mass drive to cargo always favors M-Drive. Not only is the drive mass less (A Jump ship still needs a M-Drive) but the fuel requirements are much lower. Most in-system transport rather cargo or personal would be carried on ships designed specifically for such and would not waste space on jump drive systems. I would expect any system with any off primary world population and industry would have a significant amount of M-Drive ship traffic. I would also expect that starting at TL9 more and more of the system’s industry would be in vacuum.

 

[AndrewW]

(A Jump ship still needs a M-Drive)

Tell that to the X-boats.

 

[Alqualonde]

Tell that to the X-boats.

X-Boats are special cases. A specific route with a station at each system.
For most traders, not having a M-Drive means you are limited to systems that have a 'recovery' service that can get you to the high port (and it won't be free) or have their high ports at the 100d limit.
No landing on a planet. No frontier refueling.
No way to escape a danger. You are a sitting duck.
No hasty escape from a planet (like the Millenium Falcon in episod IV).
That might be a nice idea for big merchants on a specific route (or even between two worlds), but for other traders this will be a great drawback.