In-System FTL Idea for Traveller
- Thread starter Voltron64
- Start date
George Labour
Mongoose
Possibly opening up a very limited jump window through which pulses of light are sent and that are received by a properly synchronized receiver that forms its own window at the same time?
I've been mulling over the idea of converting the FTL communication relays of the Alternity Star drive system to Traveller myself. Since the former was very inspired by the Original traveller it looks simplistic to work in the idea of FTL skipping satellties to form massive chains of relays, thus meaning news can spread faster than travelling, but still keeping things a bit ponderous.
Heck, I may just adopt the whole tachyon drive system of SD. My players are not the kind to like taking a month to get to where they're going.
I've been mulling over the idea of converting the FTL communication relays of the Alternity Star drive system to Traveller myself. Since the former was very inspired by the Original traveller it looks simplistic to work in the idea of FTL skipping satellties to form massive chains of relays, thus meaning news can spread faster than travelling, but still keeping things a bit ponderous.
Heck, I may just adopt the whole tachyon drive system of SD. My players are not the kind to like taking a month to get to where they're going.
Depends how the tech works - is it something portable, that can be used on spacecraft or even carried by people? Or is it something that requires a big, powerful relay station?
Relays wouldn't really be practical - a lightyear is about 63,000 AU, and a parsec is 3.26 lightyears, so you'd need about 200 stations at 1000 AU separation (which have to get to that distance somehow) just to cover a J1 distance. It'd cost a lot of money to build and maintain those.
If you're in a system though, and it's at least ship-portable, then I guess you could use it to get out a warning that you're being attacked by pirates, or otherwise in distress. Or you could quickly report back to the mainworld if you're investigating something in the outer edge of the system. But it won't be much use in terms of getting help to you - it'd still take days (if under M-drive power) or a week (if jumping) for it to arrive.
Relays wouldn't really be practical - a lightyear is about 63,000 AU, and a parsec is 3.26 lightyears, so you'd need about 200 stations at 1000 AU separation (which have to get to that distance somehow) just to cover a J1 distance. It'd cost a lot of money to build and maintain those.
If you're in a system though, and it's at least ship-portable, then I guess you could use it to get out a warning that you're being attacked by pirates, or otherwise in distress. Or you could quickly report back to the mainworld if you're investigating something in the outer edge of the system. But it won't be much use in terms of getting help to you - it'd still take days (if under M-drive power) or a week (if jumping) for it to arrive.
dreamingbadger
Mongoose
Voltron64 said:
wouldn't the message take a week to arrive if this was based on jump technology? You could always base it on something else though
