Singularity Errata

[WHULorigan]

Personally I stick with the next generation of FTL being basd on the misjump potential of the "quantum1" jump drive, 36 parsecs.

So the "quantum2" ftl drive is capable of 36xJno. so 36, 72 all the way up to 216. I also quite like the heronymous nexus raising one jump drive to the power of another, this should max out at 6⁶ or 46,656.

Shouldn't that be "quantum3 / Skip", and "quantum2 / Hop" be 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36?

Or do you allow the standard "quantum1 / Jump" the potential to reach controlled J36 with high enough TL? Perhaps the reason Imperial researchers are having difficulty seeing past J6 @ TL15 is that there are sub-level regimes to the energy levels:

TL
16 -- (Early J7)
17 J7-9
18 J10-12
19 J13-15
20 J16-18

21 -- (Early J19)
22 J19-24
23 J25-30
24 J30-36

Of the two hops I prefer the Mongoose iteration,

I am ambivalent. I like things about both the MgT & T5 versions.

but the prototype and experimental TLs should have disadvantages in addition to increased cost.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Any jump drive 1 to 6 misjumps 1d6 x 1d6, so a maximum of 36 parsecs regardless of its actual TL and jump number. I call this quantum 1.

A jump 1 drive using 10% fuel has the same misjump potential range as a jump 6 drive using 60% fuel.

Quantum 2 has a base drive of 1-36 parsecs, the same as any quantum 1 drive misjump potential, multipled by the new jump number that increases fuel consumption and maximum jump range in multiples of 36 parsecs.

 

[WHULorigan]

Any jump drive 1 to 6 misjumps 1d6 x 1d6, so a maximum of 36 parsecs regardless of its actual TL and jump number. I call this quantum 1.

A jump 1 drive using 10% fuel has the same misjump potential range as a jump 6 drive using 60% fuel.

Quantum 2 has a base drive of 1-36 parsecs, the same as any quantum 1 drive misjump potential, multipled by the new jump number that increases fuel consumption and maximum jump range in multiples of 36 parsecs.

Perhaps you could tie this in with the potentiator nexus concept.

All drives can already employ basic additive nexi to sum the drive potentials of linked smaller drives together.

The Hieronymous Nexus is an Exponential Potentiator of unspecified ultra tech TL.


Perhaps the quantum levels you note above are actually achieved by a multiplicative nexus or potentiator, allowing drives to be linked together multiplicatively (let's say it is a baseline TL16 or 17 device). Drives are J1-6, a tandem (dual) x2 multi-nexus expands that range 1-36.

The breakthrough for higher quanta occurs with special Hyperjump Governors moderating energy usage for the Hop/Skip/Leap, etc, coupled to a triple (or higher) multi-nexus on the J1-6.

Hop Governor = Energy/36; with x3 multinexus
Skip Governor = Energy/216; with x4 multinexus
Leap Governor = Energy/1296; with x5 multinexus
Bound Governor = Energy/7776; with x6 multinexus
Vault Governor = Energy/46656; with x7 multinexus

That technology then ultimately leads to the Hieronymous configuration.

 

[MongooseChris]

@MongooseChris, the only issues I have with Act 3 relate to the High Guard: Singularity section.

1. Gravity Well Generators:​

• These rules are completely different from the ones for the same device currently listed in High Guard 2022. It would be helpful if there was some reference or description that bridges these differences.
• It seems to me that the Jump Dampers and Gravity Well Generators are the same device. So, I played around with it a little and easily combined the two. Be willing to share, if you are interested.

They probably stem from the same technology, but the application might be different. The scale is enormous on the gravity well generators.

3. Have you considered One-Shot Hop Drives?​

• This might be a useful limiting factor for the expansion and impact of the introduction of Hop Drives into the Third Imperium.
• I have used them IMTU and found it very helpful (in fact, much like Mother and Ye-Lu, I have a rather large space station equipped with a one-use hop-drive as a key location IMTU).
• Hop Drives used to have a 1000D limit, similar to the way J-Drives have a 100D-limit. This also reduces their expansion and utility.

No, because they need to make multiple hops, and the way we describe one-shots is that they only work well... well, once, but you can sometimes squeeze one or two extra jumps out of them. The same would be true of hop drives, and the narrative requires that they make several hops, not just one or two.

What's your source on the 1000D limit? I don't see anything in T5 other than the 1000D manoeuvre drive limit.

Singularity introduces some crazy tech, and it takes the Charted Space setting down a path from which it is difficult to recover your traditional OTU, but that's the point, really. I'm not concerned about introducing wild tech like hop and high-end conscious intelligences because this campaign is a divergent path from the OTU. If you want to run with it afterward, you can... or you can safely return to 1105 and take on the next campaign, in which none of this ever happened.

Ye-lu is, of course, limited to the one jump. I didn't want to have an Enceladus-sized space station jumping around all over the subsector.

 

[Terry Mixon]

They probably stem from the same technology, but the application might be different. The scale is enormous on the gravity well generators.


No, because they need to make multiple hops, and the way we describe one-shots is that they only work well... well, once, but you can sometimes squeeze one or two extra jumps out of them. The same would be true of hop drives, and the narrative requires that they make several hops, not just one or two.

What's your source on the 1000D limit? I don't see anything in T5 other than the 1000D manoeuvre drive limit.

Singularity introduces some crazy tech, and it takes the Charted Space setting down a path from which it is difficult to recover your traditional OTU, but that's the point, really. I'm not concerned about introducing wild tech like hop and high-end conscious intelligences because this campaign is a divergent path from the OTU. If you want to run with it afterward, you can... or you can safely return to 1105 and take on the next campaign, in which none of this ever happened.

Ye-lu is, of course, limited to the one jump. I didn't want to have an Enceladus-sized space station jumping around all over the subsector.

I found this in the T5 starship's book. I don't think Mongoose should make it more than 100D, honestly. That's needless complication as Skip is 100AU and it only goes up from there. Just keep it at 100D.

 

[Vormaerin]

"No one uses Hop drives, because if you aren't dead on target, you appear where your M-Drive doesn't even work for bleep. And even if you appear perfectly, you are a week or more from your destination!"

 

[ProfGrizzlyJon]

Ye-lu is, of course, limited to the one jump. I didn't want to have an Enceladus-sized space station jumping around all over the subsector.

Fairly certain that Ye-lu is mentioned in Act 3 as jumping around: "...There are many ways in which Mother could be incorporated into this adventure but getting her that far takes her to the limits of her abilities. Her ‘one-shot’ jump drive will have been used three times to cover the six parsecs between her home system of Ye-lu to Sher, which conventional wisdom indicates is the most anyone should use these drives. A fourth jump would almost certainly be fatal..."

Thanks for responding.

 

[GabrielGABFonseca]

What's your source on the 1000D limit? I don't see anything in T5 other than the 1000D manoeuvre drive limit.

That would be Page 123 of T5.1 Core Book 2: Starships, codified in the table replicated below:

The short story Names by Marc Miller also has this featured along with some juicy details about the fabled Black Ships. Unfortunately, I cannot for the life of me find the link to were it was hosted in the Far Future Entrerprises website. @Sigtrygg might have the link, possibly?

 

[Terry Mixon]

That would be Page 123 of T5.1 Core Book 2: Starships, codified in the table replicated below:View attachment 7474

The short story Names by Marc Miller also has this featured along with some juicy details about the fabled Black Ships. Unfortunately, I cannot for the life of me find the link to were it was hosted in the Far Future Entrerprises website. @Sigtrygg might have the link, possibly?

Maybe it's just me, but that's excessive in my opinion.

 

[Endie]

It struck me that a skip drive ship would want to fit a jump drive and a J1 fuel tank to get to its final destination after it emerges from skip.

 

[Sigtrygg]

That would be Page 123 of T5.1 Core Book 2: Starships, codified in the table replicated below:View attachment 7474

The short story Names by Marc Miller also has this featured along with some juicy details about the fabled Black Ships. Unfortunately, I cannot for the life of me find the link to were it was hosted in the Far Future Entrerprises website. @Sigtrygg might have the link, possibly?

This may work:

https://www.farfuture.net/Names.pdf

 

[Garnfellow]

I've been loving Singularity, which provides very helpful guidance for several ideas I've been using in my Into the Interface campaign. Last week I ran a very fun adventure that involved a rogue Solomani CI that discovered embodiment and maybe read too deeply of the ancient Terran poet Walt Whitman. The Solomani researchers scoffed at all those Vilani restrictions on AI development, and didn't think hard enough about the implications of feeding an AI 400+ years of racial supremacy literature. Think "The Ultimate Computer" crossed with The Hunt for Red October.

 

[ProfGrizzlyJon]

It struck me that a skip drive ship would want to fit a jump drive and a J1 fuel tank to get to its final destination after it emerges from skip.

Microjumps (sub-parsec or 1-3 lightyears) are a thing...as are Advantages: Early Jump/Hop/Skip: This drive can enter jumpspace 10% closer to a gravity well than normal.

 

[ProfGrizzlyJon]

This may work:

https://www.farfuture.net/Names.pdf

Never read that before. That is beautiful and brutal

 

[Terry Mixon]

While I still favor just keeping 100D for all FTL travel, I’ll throw out an alternative to the set distances that the various T5 drives call for, maybe it would make more sense to base the requisite distances.

For example, it’s kind of ridiculous for a Skip Drive to make a one parsec trip but need 100AU to do so, on both ends of the journey. Perhaps it would make more sense to have a chart of required distances to make the length of the trip, with jump distances needing 100D and going up from there.

 

[Vormaerin]

Or.... since Skip drive is TL 20+, it is entirely possible that someone will get around to replacing the TL 9 Maneuver Drive with something faster by that point. Then you can have your Sprint Drive crossing the solar system in a few hours or whatever.

 

[WHULorigan]

For example, it’s kind of ridiculous for a Skip Drive to make a one parsec trip but need 100AU to do so, on both ends of the journey. Perhaps it would make more sense to have a chart of required distances to make the length of the trip, with jump distances needing 100D and going up from there.

There is also a difference in that for the T5 drive, anything less than the minimum "Hyperjump"-1 range is not possible except by deliberate jump line occlusion by an intervening mass-shadow (in the respective diameters).

So in the T5 iteration it makes more sense, as a Hop-1 cannot do a Jump 1-9 except by intersecting an intervening 1000 diameter mass-shadow along it's hopine.

 

[WHULorigan]

Or.... since Skip drive is TL 20+, it is entirely possible that someone will get around to replacing the TL 9 Maneuver Drive with something faster by that point. Then you can have your Sprint Drive crossing the solar system in a few hours or whatever.

Or just miniaturize the tech so that you can have 3-4 times the number of units producing x3 to x4 efficiency within the same volume, powered by your antimatter plant.