Space Speeds and Jump Gate near Io (NEED HELP!!!)

Mrakvampire

Mongoose
I'm newby to Babylon 5 game, but I have a lot of experience in D&D 3 (3.5) editions.
And i'm confused about one thing: Io is about 600 million kilometers from Earth. All freighters must travel in normal space to Io to enter hyperspace. But to do so, they need Speed (game mechanics) of about 1000-2000 (it still takes about a week or two to travel there)
Is it true??? An if so, how could sensors detect it? (radius 100 squares, and spaceship travels 1000 squares in a round)
 
Most larger ships can create their own jump points so they wouldn't need to use the Io gate.

As for freighters than can't and have to use jump gates, that explains why you don't get fresh foods shipped out to Babylon 5 or the colony worlds.
 
OK, speed table on page 69 of the first printing of the hardback, multiply by 100 for spacecraft.

Coroporate Freighter on P. 92 of the same book has no max top speed and accel/decel of 1/2.

Speed of 1/2 for Spacecraft = 2500 feet = 762 m.

So the freighter can increase/decrease it's speed by 762 m per round = 127 m/s^2. now that's about 12 g which is at best very uncomfortable. but that's been argued in another post.

But in the real world, I've done the sums, and under a constant state of accel or decel of 1g (switch halfway), you'd make it in less than 6 days.

Like I say above, there has been discussion of the possible flaws in the spacecraft stats for speed e;sewhere in the forum but I can't find it just now.

LBH

EDITED the numbers related to speed of 1/2 cos I got them out by an order5 of magnitude :oops: (Thanks shadowscout)
 
lastbesthope said:
2500 feet = 7620 m
Interesting.

You are aware of the relationship between "feet" and "meters" are you not? :roll: Well, actually it seems -not quite-. :wink:

As a reminder:
1 foot = 0.3048 meters!

Which means that 2500 feet are in fact only 762 meters.
And that you erred by one decimal... :p :wink: :) :lol:


But to add some info to the discussion at hand...
The Galactic guide has a chapter about "Travelling the Galaxy" where it gives the maximum safe speed for EA and Narn as 1 AU per 24 hours (Centauri make 1.2, Minbari 1.5, and Dilgar 0.9). Which is of course a mere game mechanic, as actually - as was mentioned - the travel speed would depend on acceleration, and would differ widely - passenger liners couldn't afford to go faster then 1 g, while military ships and private transports could go as high as their captain can justify (I would assume that military vessels routinely go at 1g too, but will accelerate to 1.5 g or even 2 g for short time periods when things get hot - soldiers will be expected to endure the higher gravity while the ship is making some rapid transit.
More, the mechanics of acceleration means that actually a "flat speed" is not quite right - the longer the distance, the faster the ship will go at it's "turnover", which means that as you add distance to the travel time equation, their effect on total travel time becomes increasingly less as they also allow the ship more distance to accelerate, and so ate travelled through at increasingly higher speeds.
Unfortunately I am not good at number crunching, but it would be nice to see one who is do some calculations about realistic travel times for constant acceleration/deceleration travel (like, going 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 AU at 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.25, 1.5 and 2 g)

As for the original Q.: yes, freighters and all small ships without their own vortex generator do have to go the long way between a jumpgate and their destination. That is an early security measure, as it gives the system's defenders more time to react agaist a low-tech or sneaky opponent. So, if someone tried to attack sol system disguised as freighter (or by highjacking a freighter and crashing it into something important), it would be stopped and engaged at Io and not even make it to earth orbit. Since space freighters do not usually carry perishable goods - well, at least not in perishable state, but rather cryogenically frozen - the time it takes to transport them doesn't really matter that much - and if they had to invest in a jump engine, the cost for transporting their goods would increase astronomically (which is why you usually won't find jump engines on mere freighters, only on military supply transports).

And remember B5 the show, especially the first season - there you can see that looong travel times between jump gates are rather common for all the small ships, from freighters to raiders to patrolling Starfuries...
 
ShadowScout said:
lastbesthope said:
2500 feet = 7620 m
Interesting.

You are aware of the relationship between "feet" and "meters" are you not? :roll: Well, actually it seems -not quite-. :wink:

As a reminder:
1 foot = 0.3048 meters!

Which means that 2500 feet are in fact only 762 meters.
And that you erred by one decimal... :p :wink: :) :lol:

My bad, I knocked up a lovely Excel spreadsheet to do the sums for me and I keyed in 25 thousand feet not 2500 as I should have. So my sums are out by an order of magnitude. I'll edit my post above.

:oops:

Still 12 g is still unlikely (for sustained acceleration to be surviveable) as opposed to 120 g (not possible).

I know my sums at 1G accel/decel to Io are right though.

Your other info is good, hadn't read that part of my GG yet. So 1AU per day, huh? So 1AU is about 93 million miles is about 150 million kilometres (Rough numbers to keep the sums easy). So that makes the trip to IO about 4AU, so 4 days. My 1g sum said just less than 6 days, so that about matches common sense. They'd be under constant acceleration/deceleration of about 1.4 g (Rough guess from my remembered numbers, I deleted the Excel sheet). Or under higher g for less time and a 'coast' in the middle. Either way, quite realistic for EA craft, and the other races have gravometric drives, artificial grav and so can generate larger accels easier and create artificial grav to slightly negate the accel effects. I like it, it's neat and it fits the maths and physics of the B5 universe.

LBH
 
And remember B5 the show, especially the first season - there you can see that looong travel times between jump gates are rather common for all the small ships, from freighters to raiders to patrolling Starfuries...

Ok... But I asked in game terms. How do you rule a travel time for a liner from Babylon 5 to Mars (Back in Banylon 5 show it took Franklin and Marcus two weeks to travel from Babylon 5 to Mars)

1) Your ships accelerate to what speeds when traveling such great distances?

2) And what about sensors? They detect ships only in 100 squares. A ships moving faster than 100 squares a round can not be detected at all!

3) And what about space combats? Why would ships travel at speed 5 or 10, when they can travel speed 100 or 200. They move 100 squares, fire, then rotate (as in tv show - move in one direction, face - another direction) - and continue firing.

4) How can raiders attack freighters if they travel at speeds of about 100-1000 in game terms to even cover distances between planets in months not years!!! What about liners (passengers from Earth do not travel 2-3 months to Babylon 5). And if they move at speed 1000, how can pilot maneuvre in asteroid fields, or how raiders can even hope to attack such fast moving target.

I ask those questions only in game terms, for gaming, not for my physics education. I want to run a campaign of freelancers. They would recieve an old ship (modified from simple freighter) and they want to travel to unhabitated planets to explore them. How can raiders attack their spacecraft, when they need to travel at ultra-mega-speeds (game only states speeds of 1 to 40 as standard speeds).

How do you play? How do you rule such moments?

What rules do you use for space combat? That found in Babylon 5 Core Rulebook, or in Call to Arms?
 
Mrakvampire said:
Ok... But I asked in game terms. How do you rule a travel time for a liner from Babylon 5 to Mars (Back in Banylon 5 show it took Franklin and Marcus two weeks to travel from Babylon 5 to Mars)

That was by a slow freighter with stops. As we saw in the show, a White Star can make the jump in a week. Depends on the ship really. Ultimately, I just make an assumption.

1) Your ships accelerate to what speeds when traveling such great distances?

Each ship has a speed score, and for sake of argument, I assume that the ship travels at that "safe" speed when theres no danger forcing them to go faster.

2) And what about sensors? They detect ships only in 100 squares. A ships moving faster than 100 squares a round can not be detected at all!

Thats a game mechanic that doesn't really hold water. If a ship is coming into range sensors will pick it up (barring stealth). I recommend ignoring that and just going with the flow.

3) And what about space combats? Why would ships travel at speed 5 or 10, when they can travel speed 100 or 200. They move 100 squares, fire, then rotate (as in tv show - move in one direction, face - another direction) - and continue firing.

The faster you go, even in space, the more likely you are to rip your ship apart due to G-Force when trying to turn. In a combat you cannot afford to go too slow nor too fast. Too slow and you are going to get destroyed. Too fast and you risk damage to your ship or you risk a collision.

4) How can raiders attack freighters if they travel at speeds of about 100-1000 in game terms to even cover distances between planets in months not years!!! What about liners (passengers from Earth do not travel 2-3 months to Babylon 5). And if they move at speed 1000, how can pilot maneuvre in asteroid fields, or how raiders can even hope to attack such fast moving target.

Because they wait outside jumpgates. Its risky to try a complete jump, say - Earth to B5, as one flight. Instead ships periodically stop at gates to get fresh lockon signels. No one really wants to risk losing the signel trying to go direct. The Raiders find out the shipping lines and wait in ambush for the freighters.

I ask those questions only in game terms, for gaming, not for my physics education. I want to run a campaign of freelancers. They would recieve an old ship (modified from simple freighter) and they want to travel to unhabitated planets to explore them. How can raiders attack their spacecraft, when they need to travel at ultra-mega-speeds (game only states speeds of 1 to 40 as standard speeds).

How do you play? How do you rule such moments?

What rules do you use for space combat? That found in Babylon 5 Core Rulebook, or in Call to Arms?

I have found that the ship combat/movement rules in the B5 rulebook arn't very good for a flowing game so I scale it down to the basics. I don't worry about facings too much nor the speed unless the players (or NPC's) pile it on. When its small scale combats I use the D20 B5 rules, but when it involves lots of capital ships I move over to AC2A.
 
That was by a slow freighter with stops. As we saw in the show, a White Star can make the jump in a week. Depends on the ship really. Ultimately, I just make an assumption.

White star can jump directly to Mars. Freighter must use Jump Gate near Io. You said a lot, but I haven't heard any answers! :(

Each ship has a speed score, and for sake of argument, I assume that the ship travels at that "safe" speed when theres no danger forcing them to go faster.

At what speed? I asked about freighter traveling from Mars to Io. What speed does it use in your game? How fast does it travel??? I need answers, please, real answers.


Because they wait outside jumpgates. Its risky to try a complete jump, say - Earth to B5, as one flight. Instead ships periodically stop at gates to get fresh lockon signels. No one really wants to risk losing the signel trying to go direct. The Raiders find out the shipping lines and wait in ambush for the freighters.

Only at Jump Gates? And in series they attacked even in open space. My problem is about ultra-high speeds that HAVE TO be used to travel from one planet to another. I think Jump Gates are well defended...
From Io to Earth 650 million kilometers. Freighter HAVE to accelerate to Speed 1000 or 5000 if it wants to be there in a month! I think it is insane!

Please answer my question: Do ships in your game use mega-high speeds to cover large distances or not? And how do the sensors even hope to detect a ship travelling a speed of about 1000? They simply get in range, and get out of range in 1 ROUND!!!
 
Please answer my question: Do ships in your game use mega-high speeds to cover large distances or not? And how do the sensors even hope to detect a ship travelling a speed of about 1000? They simply get in range, and get out of range in 1 ROUND!!!

In *MY* games, no. As GM I decide on time taken based on distance travelled.

I think your getting too hung up on using the rules and not just making a call at the time, based on game and whatever you need to happen as GM.

I don't think I can give you the answers you're looking for though.
 
In *MY* games, no. As GM I decide on time taken based on distance travelled.

I think your getting too hung up on using the rules and not just making a call at the time, based on game and whatever you need to happen as GM.

I don't think I can give you the answers you're looking for though.

Ok... My players arrive at ZZZ system. They want to explore 3rd planet "XXX". I state for example (based on what?) that they need 1 week to get there. Ok. One day sensors detect raiders. It's encounter.
Raiders begin encounter at speed 10 each. At what speed starts the encounter player's ship?
What is default speed of ships when they travel long distances?
 
Well the Whitestar can travel from B5 to Io and back in 3 days.

JMSNews.com entry
Richard Wakefield <100534.504@compuserve.com> asks:
> Does this mean Ships travel at different speeds in Hyperspace ?
> And maybe the Vorlons and Shadows are so advanced they can go
> faster, hence the WStar + Battlecruisers ??

Actually, the White Star doesn't go to Earth in "Severed," it
goes in "Messages from Earth," and it's stated in dialogue that it
takes 3 days in that episode as well.

jms

JMSNews.com entry
Thanks. I hope that you will find the series bears out your
optimism.

To your questions: 1) The method of transit is called a Jump Gate.
2) We're still in the process of drawing up a detailed starmap with the
distances from B5 to each of our major governments, but we're looking at
roughly 25 light years from Earth. 3) The Earth/Minbari war lasted
almost five years. The terms of surrender were conditional; there was
to be no reparation. It was simply a cessation of hostilities. It was
not a clear-cut issue of being beaten or doing the beating; it just
stopped...which left a lot of people feeling about the same way some did
after Vietnam. Peace with honor? Maybe, maybe not. 4) The Earth
government -- located in Earthdome -- is basically a republic, with
reps from each nation serving as senators or in other capacities. 5)
Earth has fougth in some other conflicts, on a smaller scale; prior to
the Earth/Minbari war, they came to the assistance of the Non-Aligned
Worlds against a race known as the Dilgar, which devastated whole worlds.
(You'll see the last survivor of this race in "Deathwalker.")

jms

So, 25 ly in ~36 hours equates to a roughly 6,000c average interstellar speed, if my calcs are right. That should be at or near the an upper limit for younger race warship speeds as the White Star was supposed to be one of the faster warships.

The sublight acceleration of freighters and other civilian ships would probably be around 1g with a max emergency acceleration of no more than 1.5-2g at most. The important thing will be how much fuel can the ship carry to accelerate and who much is the company willing to spend on fuel to get the freight to it's destination.

Kizarvexis
 
Eryx said:
Mrakvampire said:
Ok... But I asked in game terms. How do you rule a travel time for a liner from Babylon 5 to Mars (Back in Banylon 5 show it took Franklin and Marcus two weeks to travel from Babylon 5 to Mars)

That was by a slow freighter with stops. As we saw in the show, a White Star can make the jump in a week. Depends on the ship really. Ultimately, I just make an assumption.

Plus they were changing ships every couple of days and going by the less travelled routes to avoid detection.

LBH
 
Mrakvampire said:
In *MY* games, no. As GM I decide on time taken based on distance travelled.

I think your getting too hung up on using the rules and not just making a call at the time, based on game and whatever you need to happen as GM.

I don't think I can give you the answers you're looking for though.

Ok... My players arrive at ZZZ system. They want to explore 3rd planet "XXX". I state for example (based on what?) that they need 1 week to get there. Ok. One day sensors detect raiders. It's encounter.
Raiders begin encounter at speed 10 each. At what speed starts the encounter player's ship?
What is default speed of ships when they travel long distances?

I've had the same problems running space combat. Twice the PC's had no reason to stand and fight, so they fled. The raiders easily matched speed, but as soon as anyone tried to turn, even a simple 1 hex face, or 45' turn, it became catstrophic, and all ships were lost in a massive collision. I haven't figured out a hard rule on this myself yet. As far as simple travel times, I took the guide lines in the B5 core rules, and decided their ship moved on an average. So, 12 hours between jump gates in hyperspace for major routes, 3 days for minor, and from jump gate to jump gate or planet in hyperspace upto 6 hours or so. As mentioned, most of that is just for plot.
 
Mrakvampire said:
In *MY* games, no. As GM I decide on time taken based on distance travelled.

I think your getting too hung up on using the rules and not just making a call at the time, based on game and whatever you need to happen as GM.

I don't think I can give you the answers you're looking for though.

Ok... My players arrive at ZZZ system. They want to explore 3rd planet "XXX". I state for example (based on what?) that they need 1 week to get there. Ok. One day sensors detect raiders. It's encounter.
Raiders begin encounter at speed 10 each. At what speed starts the encounter player's ship?
What is default speed of ships when they travel long distances?

I've had the same problems running space combat. Twice the PC's had no reason to stand and fight, so they fled. The raiders easily matched speed, but as soon as anyone tried to turn, even a simple 1 hex face, or 45' turn, it became catstrophic, and all ships were lost in a massive collision. I haven't figured out a hard rule on this myself yet. As far as simple travel times, I took the guide lines in the B5 core rules, and decided their ship moved on an average. So, 12 hours between jump gates in hyperspace for major routes, 3 days for minor, and from jump gate to jump gate or planet in hyperspace upto 6 hours or so. As mentioned, most of that is just for plot.
 
lastbesthope said:
So that makes the trip to IO about 4AU, so 4 days. My 1g sum said just less than 6 days, so that about matches common sense. They'd be under constant acceleration/deceleration of about 1.4 g...
Which means that these numbers in the GG should be taken for military craft, and modified widely with common sense.
For example, there is NO reason why dilgar ships (which are supposed to be built "quick and cheap" and thus structurally weaker) should be slower, as ~1.4 can't be a problem for them in any case.
Civilian ships on the other hand, especially passenger liners would have a speed of about .75 AU/day, as they couln't dare inconvinience their passengers with more then 1G (of course, freighters with non-breakabkle goods and declared fast liners might go up to the 1AU/day again)
However, Minbari ships should be much faster, as their artificial gravity ought to compensate at least 3 G - means a "basic speed" of 2 AU per day at least.
So...
Say an average speed of 1AU per day for pre- artificial gravity races, 1.5 AU for barely AG races (like the Centauri) and 2-3 AU for full AG races (like the Minbari), with, say, 5+ AU for mid borns and up to 10 AU for First Ones.
How does that sound?

Mrakvampire said:
Ok... But I asked in game terms. How do you rule a travel time for a liner from Babylon 5 to Mars (Back in Banylon 5 show it took Franklin and Marcus two weeks to travel from Babylon 5 to Mars)
Easy. From B5 to mars...
B5 is right next to a jumpgate - no transfer time.
Hyperspace from B5 to Sol System... if the WS can do it in 3 days, a freighter will take at least twice, maybe three times as long - say two and a half times as slow, making it one good week, 7.5 days.
Then from IO to Mars... at 1G... say, the "almost six days" mentioned before (remember the scenes of the two in the freighter - they has gravity, but didn't suffer from more then one G... while in the passenger liner, with "Captain Jack" they certainly had no more then 1G), with one day added to switch ships.
There you are, 14.5 days total travel time.
Matches with the show info...

Mrakvampire said:
1) Your ships accelerate to what speeds when traveling such great distances?
Top speed depends on distance. They accelerate at their chosen acceleration half the way, then turn around and decelerate the other half so they come to a stop at their destination.
Maximum top speed would depend on race and engine tech - the unfilmed Crusade scripts place the absolute maximum for a minbari-powered ship like the Excalibur at 75% of lightspeed IIRC. (which may be a bit questionable if one thinks about the bas things that could happen to a ship travelling that fast in normal space - one sand corn would be enough to seal it's doom...)

Mrakvampire said:
2) And what about sensors? They detect ships only in 100 squares. A ships moving faster than 100 squares a round can not be detected at all!
Now THAT is a valid point.
I think we will have to assume that these "100 squares" are not the maximum detection range...
Now, I can't really go deep into game mechanics, as I'm not playing the game in d20 (converting it into GURPS).
What are the exact rules about this?
Can it be (or can it be constructed) that these "100 squares" are the range for combat lock-ons? Or for identification? Because in that case you could have a much bigger detection range, but with far less information (a "blip" on the screen instead of an ship class ID)
Something like:
within 10K squares - information: something is there
between 1000 and 100 squares: increasing chance to identify ship size, power leels (warship or civilian), and maybe even class
below 100 squares: combat distance, ship class identified and targetin systems in range...
...at least that is how I would handle it...

Mrakvampire said:
3) And what about space combats? Why would ships travel at speed 5 or 10, when they can travel speed 100 or 200. They move 100 squares, fire, then rotate (as in tv show - move in one direction, face - another direction) - and continue firing.
See last "Signs&Portents".
Of course it would be possible - one pass and then you'd have to wait for half a day or more until you could re-engage.
Not to mention that the slower fleet would have an incredible adantage - because the faster you go in space, the less you can turn. So, if an enemy comes at you really, really fast, all you have to do is fire lots of missiles (or mines, or even rocks) into the area of space where he has to come through. Going really, really fast, he cannot evade, while you move away from that area and watch his ships go boom without even getting anchance to shoot back efectively.
That may be why they all seem to slow down for combat...

Mrakvampire said:
4) How can raiders attack freighters if they travel at speeds of about 100-1000 in game terms to even cover distances between planets in months not years!!! What about liners (passengers from Earth do not travel 2-3 months to Babylon 5). And if they move at speed 1000, how can pilot maneuvre in asteroid fields, or how raiders can even hope to attack such fast moving target.
Answer - they can't. Which is why raiders will most of the time attack them at meneuvering points - like when they have to go slow to make a turn during transfer from one jumpgate to another, or when they emerge from the system's jumpgate, or when they lift off from an colony where they took on cargo, or when they have to slow down because of navigational hazards... you get the idea, right?
Raider attacks at top speed woudl be very, very rare, and could succeed only if they had the complete and accurate flight plan of their target. Then they could match velocities, and dock in-flight. (Wasn't there a movie featuring some maneuver like that? "Velocity Trap" IIRC... low-budget SF, following the same layout as "die hard" -tough hero alone against the criminals-, but quite nice...)

Mrakvampire said:
I ask those questions only in game terms, for gaming, not for my physics education.
Ahhh... then you may have choosen the wrong game :wink:
Remember, the use of real-life physics is what seperates B5 from such "magic tech" SF like Star Wars - a trend the game should follow.

Mrakvampire said:
I want to run a campaign of freelancers. They would recieve an old ship (modified from simple freighter) and they want to travel to unhabitated planets to explore them. How can raiders attack their spacecraft, when they need to travel at ultra-mega-speeds (game only states speeds of 1 to 40 as standard speeds).
Look above. Raiders can't attack them in mid-transit wiothout having the exact maneuvering info. So they'll wait at points where the ship will either start, or end it's acceleration/deceleration movement - either at the jump gate, or around the destination... or somewhere the ship has to slow down. For example, an uncharted asteroid belt... (if you know the movement of every asteroid in the belt, you can calculate a high-speed course through it - risky, but doable. If you don't, you HAVE to slow down to evade tumbeling rocks... now, your usual asteroid belt doesn't look like in "Star Wars", with rocks floating within meters of each other -that's more the kind of thing you find withing a gas giant's rings BtW-, it usually means at least several klicks of space between the rocks, with ample warning if one is on collision course - IF you go slow enough to do some maneuvering)
OtoH... if you as GM want to be really sneaky, and your players have something that justifies the effort... a bug in the navigational computer could get a raider band the info they need to match velocities...

Mrakvampire said:
Please answer my question: Do ships in your game use mega-high speeds to cover large distances or not?
Probably. It IS the way to gat around in normal space, and B5 prides itself on following real-life physics whenever possible (and unless the technology is sufficiently advanced)

Mrakvampire said:
And how do the sensors even hope to detect a ship travelling a speed of about 1000? They simply get in range, and get out of range in 1 ROUND!!!
If that's what the rules say, the rules are wrong. Period. We know from the show that ship sensors have quite a long range for detecting ships (several hours of sublight travel in fact - B5 detected B4 after all, and it did take the rescue mission quite a while to get there with their shuttles - but only as "contact", not as ID - that's why they had to send a starfury once their sensors detected the anomaly to look and see), system-based sensors will detect a ship anywhere in the system, and hyperspace probes can detect them at a distance of several days of hyperspace travel (under optimum circumstances of course)

Mrakvampire said:
Ok... My players arrive at ZZZ system. They want to explore 3rd planet "XXX". I state for example (based on what?) that they need 1 week to get there. Ok. One day sensors detect raiders. It's encounter.
Raiders begin encounter at speed 10 each. At what speed starts the encounter player's ship?
What is default speed of ships when they travel long distances?
See above. Logically the Raiders would have been waiting at the jumpgate OR around planet "XXX" (maybe they have a base on it, or their Battlewagon is currently in orbit, for repairs or cargo transfer to their fixers...)
Mid-intercepts of long-distance travellers are just plain stupid.
BUT...
If the enemy has a ship with much better accel, he can calculate your course, and then use his ship's better delta-V to catch you, matching velocities. As written above, that will put quite some G stress on his ship and crew, so it's not a good thing to do often, but quite possible.
And of course the prey will do it's best to evade... boosting their accel and taking some extra gees too.
You are the GM.
Here's the real-life physics info.
Take it, Run with it. Dazzle your players with it! :wink: :D

Kizarvexis said:
So, 25 ly in ~36 hours equates to a roughly 6,000c average interstellar speed, if my calcs are right. That should be at or near the an upper limit for younger race warship speeds as the White Star was supposed to be one of the faster warships.
...modified by hyperspace currents of course, which introduce the "speed of plot" element! :wink: :p

Kizarvexis said:
The sublight acceleration of freighters and other civilian ships would probably be around 1g with a max emergency acceleration of no more than 1.5-2g at most. The important thing will be how much fuel can the ship carry to accelerate and who much is the company willing to spend on fuel to get the freight to it's destination.
Exactly. And how much the crew and structure (warships are built to withstand combat, but freighters are built as cheap as possible...), and freight can take.

Diafanus said:
I've had the same problems running space combat. Twice the PC's had no reason to stand and fight, so they fled. The raiders easily matched speed, but as soon as anyone tried to turn, even a simple 1 hex face, or 45' turn, it became catstrophic, and all ships were lost in a massive collision. I haven't figured out a hard rule on this myself yet.
For one - play the raiders smart, and never follow exactly behind the fleeing ship. They ought to try and match speed while flying some distance to the rear side, so that when their prey suddenly starts to change it's vector, they won't run into it...
For another... remember that most player-owned ships (means civilian hulls) won't be able to outrun a raider ship anyway, and never it's fighters. Use raiders only when your players are ready to deal with them, or you have an idea of how they could. And in some cases that will mean giving them what they want...
 
One solution to the sensor range is that the 100 squares could be viewed as a range increment. That way a ship can scan much longer albeit with a minus to the roll, but if a ship is moving fast it reduces it's stealth score so a fast moving ship far away would probably be detected anyway.

Comments?
 
ShadowScout said:
Say an average speed of 1AU per day for pre- artificial gravity races, 1.5 AU for barely AG races (like the Centauri) and 2-3 AU for full AG races (like the Minbari), with, say, 5+ AU for mid borns and up to 10 AU for First Ones.
How does that sound?

The average speed would increase the longer your accel phase.

LBH
 
It should be noted that most civilian ships (freighters) won't keep under constant acceleration/deceleration from start to finish; they'll likely accelerate to a "fast enough" speed and coast until they need to slow down again.

If you want evidence for this in the show, witness the first leg of Marcus and Franklin's trip to Mars that we saw. They were clearly in a near weightless environment aboard the freighter (floating, unsecured cargo!!!) so the ship had no significant acceleration at that point (say less than .05g). The ship was coasting, and given how "settled in" they were, it had been for some time.

Military ships would probably have a greater fuel reserve, and are less wary of "running costs". It's also likely (for the EA ships) they would run under a slight acceleration when ever possible so that the crew got some "heavy time" so as not to lose muscle tone etc.
 
Mrakvampire said:
I'm newby to Babylon 5 game, but I have a lot of experience in D&D 3 (3.5) editions.
And i'm confused about one thing: Io is about 600 million kilometers from Earth. All freighters must travel in normal space to Io to enter hyperspace. But to do so, they need Speed (game mechanics) of about 1000-2000 (it still takes about a week or two to travel there)
Is it true??? An if so, how could sensors detect it? (radius 100 squares, and spaceship travels 1000 squares in a round)

To answer this simply, to actually get to the target, you have to slow down or you overshoot it; The speed you're indicating would only be an average as the ship accelerates up from 0, crusies, and then decelerates to 0 again when it gets to its target. Any ship that could accelerate/decelerate from 0 to 1000 squares a round in a single round would covert its crew into chunky salsa very quickly.

Say the freighter has a deceleration rate of 10, then one round before reaching its destination it's travelling at 10, so is 10 away, the round before it was travelling 20 and so was 30 away, 60 away the turn before that and 100 the turn before that so you have 5 rounds notice on the fine tuned sensors (and considerably before that in reality - the heat bloom from the thrusters, which would have to be firing towards you, would be damn obvious against the cold of interplanetary space).
 
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