Alternative to the 1000D M-Drive limit

[Condottiere]

1. Like a lot of Traveller technologies, it seems the current iteration of the manoeuvre drive seems gravitationally based.

2. However, in the inner system, where a lot of more gravity wells could be in range, wouldn't that be an acceleration multiplier?

3. Also, you wouldn't really need a turn over mid course, you just change the setting from push to pull.

 

[MasterGwydion]

1. Like a lot of Traveller technologies, it seems the current iteration of the manoeuvre drive seems gravitationally based.

2. However, in the inner system, where a lot of more gravity wells could be in range, wouldn't that be an acceleration multiplier?

3. Also, you wouldn't really need a turn over mid course, you just change the setting from push to pull.

Sir! The Megamaid! She's gone from suck to blow!

lol

 

[Styryx]

I see it's been awhile since this thread has had any traffic. With the 1000D M-Drive limit in effect, it could take years for a scout ship to do a system survey. That's my Cr.02. And like it's been said, this is pretty new. I've played CT and MgT1e. It was never a rule in either of them. I'm not changing my ways now.

 

[Condottiere]

Why would it be in factors of ten?

Why would it be based on standard Terran gravity?

Base it on Jupiter standard gravity, and you'd double acceleration.

 

[Galadrion]

Meh. I've come up with a house rule which essentially eliminates the problem for my games. M-drive works to the given rating out to the heliopause (or the local stellar system's equivalent), which I pretty much set as 120 AU times the square root of the stellar system's luminosity - fairly arbitrary, but at least it gives me something to work with. Beyond that, out in interstellar space, M-drive rating is decreased by one, or halved if it's already one or below. Move out into a rift area - something I define as more than nine parsecs from the nearest stellar system - and the M-drive rating drops by another one (or halves again, if already one or below). From there, every time you move out "range band" (another factor of nine from the nearest stellar object - 81 parsecs for the second range band, 729 for the second, which is considerably more than halfway between the galactic arms for the most part), the M-drive rating drops again by the same scheme. It should be pretty clear that dropping to negligible M-drive ratings is fairly unlikely, since you'd run out of jump fuel first (and be well outside the galactic halo).

Barring misjumps, it's something that almost never comes up in my games anyway - my players generally try to stay out of deep space. Not a healthy place, y'know? Space dragons and such...

 

[Sigtrygg]

Just ignore the stupid rule suggestion. Or switch to HEPLaR

 

[Garnfellow]

Weirdly I just posted a blog entry looking at the 1000D limit. I like the concept just fine as an in-setting explanation for how the maneuver drive works, but I don't think for game purposes the juice is really worth the squeeze. I hadn't thought about the havoc it would wreak on Scout surveys, but that's a good point.

 

[Sigtrygg]

And there are adventures that contradict this interpretaion.

 

[Geir]

And there are adventures that contradict this interpretaion.

Almost certainly, but then again all the way back to Kinunir, that's true if a lot of things: there are no Imperial Senators.
But as far as 1000D goes, it does fit into the narrative that j-drive was first used by the Solomani in their own solar system, I assume to get to the ice giants or the Kuiper belt. Saturn works with a little bit of planning (Astrogation check?) and using Saturn's own 1000D limit, so you could pretty much go there on m-drive with accelerate-turn-decelerate.

For other in-system transfers then the planning becomes either:

1) How fast can I go and still slow down inside the destination 1000D bubble? (and yes, that in fact might involve going past the target while still slowing down and the doubling back - more tricks for the astrogator).

2) Does it make more sense time and fuel wise to do a microjump to 100D of the target? As for the velocity vector leaving a jump, that is - and I think I've said it before - pretty much handwaved away, since not only the ship's vector but the relative velocity and direction of the source and target might need to be considered. (vague - but the source and target could be in an orbit around a star or around the galaxy or something shooting off towards intergalactic space)

 

[Condottiere]

1. The problem with microjumps is that they use the same time and fuel as a factor one.

2. Factor six acceleration tends to get you there faster.

3. If you have a fixed destination, you could with a kilodiameter drive accelerate there, and once you hit the destination's kilodiameter limit, decelerate.

 

[Geir]

3. If you have a fixed destination, you could with a kilodiameter drive accelerate there, and once you hit the destination's kilodiameter limit, decelerate.

Yes, but if you leave the 1D1000 of the sun, coast, and enter the 1D1000 of say, Neptune, you'll likely be going too fast (still outward) before you exit out the other side of the 1000D of the planet, so you're turn-over would be prior to the coast phase while still in the sun's 1000D bubble. Depends on where start from, how much acceleration you've got, and math.

 

[Condottiere]

Sounds like astrogation.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Almost certainly, but then again all the way back to Kinunir, that's true if a lot of things: there are no Imperial Senators.

There are no Imperial Senators in Kinunir, the senator is described as a noble and a senator - looks like he is a senetor of a subsector planetary government.
The term Imperial Senator is never used.

Mandela effect and all that.

 

[Geir]

There are no Imperial Senators in Kinunir, the senator is described as a noble and a senator - looks like he is a senetor of a subsector planetary government.
The term Imperial Senator is never used.

Mandela effect and all that.

Mandela was never an Imperial Senator. (No, I understand the reference)
Fair enough, I did just look at it again, and it is sufficiently vague, but when it came out, two years after Star Wars, the implication seemed obvious... at the time... to a 14-year-old.