Warp Drive vs Jump Drive

[LotusBlossom]

I've just been looking at the options for Warp Drive variant, as it feels more natural to me not to always have jumps being 1 week long. I thought the Warp option was just that, an option, not particularly some ultra hi-tech replacement.

However, unless I have miscalculated, the fuel required with this option is massively reduced, far more than I expected.


e.g 400 ton craft with all drives rated at 4 (H) and Jump Drive

Crosses 4 parsecs in its week long jump. Burns 160 tons of fuel


e.g 400 ton craft with all drives rated at 4 (H) and Warp Drive

Lets say I go warping about the place for a week. I cover 4 parsecs just the same, but this time I have used 16 tons of fuel

(Power plant H uses 8 per week, 16 if warping)


Something wrong there Cap'n.

 

[rust]

Something wrong there Cap'n.

Not at all.

The Jump Drive uses most of the "fuel" not to produce energy, but to
create the "Jump Bubble" around the ship. The Warp Drive uses all of
the required fuel as fuel, to produce energy with its reactor.

That's why in my setting the jump drive is an outdated drive type and
used only by old ships, while all modern ships use hyperdrives (= warp
drives) - they require much less fuel and do not misjump.

 

[Majestic7]

This goes a little off-topic, but can the ships using this warp drive be detected while in transit between the stars? If yes, that gives a military reason to still use jump drives, in order to mount surprise attacks.

 

[rust]

This goes a little off-topic, but can the ships using this warp drive be detected while in transit between the stars? If yes, that gives a military reason to still use jump drives, in order to mount surprise attacks.

In my setting ships in hyperspace can be detected by other ships in hy-
perspace (they can even fight each other in hyperspace, although this
is extremely difficult), but they cannot be detected from normal space.

So, you are exactly right, in my setting a military jump ship still is a kind
of "stealth" ship, very well suited for safe transit through hyperspace and
surprise attacks on enemy systems.

However, in my setting each system has a "hyperborder" with a distan-
ce from the system's star that depends on the star's mass, and for a G0
star this would be about 22 light minutes.

While the maneuver drives of my setting are much more powerful than
those of the OTU, with 500 G a normal value for a small, fast starship,
it still takes some time to reach a planet in the habitable zone from the
hyperborder.

Therefore, while jump ships still have some advantages, a real surprise
attack on a planet is somewhat difficult.

 

[simonh]

I don't think any attempt was made to make the FTL alternatives in the rulebook game ballanced relative to Jump Drives, or each other. My guess is that they may be based on similar drives from other fictional settings, so perhaps the Warp Drive is based on Star Trek and clearly the Starship Enterprise isn't 60% hydrogen fuel by volume.

I'm workign on a setting where several alternative FTL systems are available aside from jump Drive, but because they are used in the same universe there are some common fantasy-physics principles behind the drives which ballances them somewhat against each other.

Simon Hibbs

 

[LotusBlossom]

Thing is, in the upcoming High Guard, will the new charts and ships make any use of these alternatives, or are they going to be just great big tubs of hydrogen waddling about for 7 days a shot.

It would be nice, if these were at least provided as options again,as they are in the Main Book

 

[rust]

It would be nice, if these were at least provided as options again,as they are in the Main Book

I wholeheartedly agree, it would be most interesting to see more of such
alternative design options - and I would no longer have to re-design all
those classical OTU ships for my setting.

 

[rje]

It would be nice, if these were at least provided as options again,as they are in the Main Book

I wholeheartedly agree, it would be most interesting to see more of such
alternative design options - and I would no longer have to re-design all
those classical OTU ships for my setting.

Well, there's always the TLL...