World War II Galaxy

[Tom Kalbfus]

A hyperdrive works best for this setting, as it not only provides FTL transport but also FTL communication. The way it works is you open a portal to hyperspace, and you either travel through that portal, or you send radio waves through that portal to another portal leading back to normal space, hence an FTL radio. the 100 diameter limit doesn't apply to Hyperdrive radios, only to spaceships. The Galaxy is a small one, about 32 parsecs in diameter. Tech Level is 11, which basically means no fusion rifles or plasma guns.

 

[Condottiere]

For a Great Patriotic War aesthetic, instant communications, but not necessarily instant travel, perhaps days instead of weeks.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

The standard hyperdrive is not instant, you open up a portal to hyperspace and use your maneuver drive to travel through it, or you up a much smaller portal for instant communication's purposes, this is called a hyperwave set, this operates much as a World War II era radio. Land war doesn't have the same role here as it did in World War II, the Great Patriotic War was a land War, but in this setting Germany and the Soviet Union aren't on the same planet, so it takes the form of a naval war in space. The Soviet Union is a large area of space many parsecs across, so is the Third Reich, Poland has multiple worlds, which I usually name after cities. A country that is really small, such as Switzerland, might consist of one or two worlds.

 

[Condottiere]

The Galaxy part sort of clued me in, unless you were planning on portals opening directly on planets.

To make it plausible, the diameter of the portal dictates how fast something can travel through it, which means a short burst message would only need a portal the size of a pinprick, a destroyer medium sized hole and the Bismarck can go faster than normal, since the engines are a higher tech level.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

The Galaxy part sort of clued me in, unless you were planning on portals opening directly on planets.

To make it plausible, the diameter of the portal dictates how fast something can travel through it, which means a short burst message would only need a portal the size of a pinprick, a destroyer medium sized hole and the Bismarck can go faster than normal, since the engines are a higher tech level.

The portal inside a hyperwave set is tiny, when you turn it on, it "warms up" just like a vacuum tube radio and opens up a tiny portal to hyperspace which stays open for as long the set is on, it takes a small amount of energy to keep this portal open continuously, even within the gravity well of a planet. You can broadcast into hyperspace, and if there is another portal within a few parsecs of the broadcast, you can receive, there is no need for an astrogation roll because the hyperwave signal is onmi directional, it propigates through hyperspace, the more power to the signal allows it to travel further, just like radio waves, only these are instantaneous because hyperspace is a shortcut. For the hyperdrive, a much bigger portal is opened up allowing the passage of a starship into hyperspace, this requires an astrogation check to navigate hyperspace to arrive at the correct destination, and of course you need to be at or beyond the 100 diameter limit when you are doing this. Hyperwave television was only recently been introduced before the war started, for instance the Olympics from Berlin, Germany in this setting was broadcast in hyperwave television, but few had a hyperwave television set to receive the broadcast at the time, and that broadcast was at the time in black and white. Hyperwave sets tend to be as bulky as 1940s era radios before the transistor was invented. Regular radio and other communications devices that travel at the speed of light are much smaller and use less energy because the equipment for opening up a small portal into hyperspace is not included.

 

[wbnc]

If you realllllllly want to make people sweat when they travel...Make everyone share the same hyperspace...intercept ad hyperspace combat are possible, and add something that allows shis to slip up undetected on each other..Dust debris, gas clouds, energy geysers....what ever.

If there is a constant danger of intercept by a stealthy attack boat, you get that nice WWII uboat attack vibe going...small ships dashing along safe patrolled routes, or joining up with large well defended convoys...and then running for their lives when the enemy wolf pack appears out of the night..

I Use thi set up in several games, and trust me no one takes it easy on a flight of any duration....and they keep someone on the sensors, and guns at all times...and if they detect anything, even if it's a ghost signal from a botched sensor roll( which to make them sweat even more, I make their detection rolls) All I say Is "Contact!!!"...they shut up wand listen at that point, and start taking a voyage seriously....Just like a good WWII-esque scenario should be

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

If you realllllllly want to make people sweat when they travel...Make everyone share the same hyperspace...intercept ad hyperspace combat are possible, and add something that allows shis to slip up undetected on each other..Dust debris, gas clouds, energy geysers....what ever.

If there is a constant danger of intercept by a stealthy attack boat, you get that nice WWII uboat attack vibe going...small ships dashing along safe patrolled routes, or joining up with large well defended convoys...and then running for their lives when the enemy wolf pack appears out of the night..

I Use thi set up in several games, and trust me no one takes it easy on a flight of any duration....and they keep someone on the sensors, and guns at all times...and if they detect anything, even if it's a ghost signal from a botched sensor roll( which to make them sweat even more, I make their detection rolls) All I say Is "Contact!!!"...they shut up wand listen at that point, and start taking a voyage seriously....Just like a good WWII-esque scenario should be

I've been thinking along the same lines myself. Hyperspace is a parallel universe, with a one to one correspondence between points in hyperspace and points in the normal universe, it is just that the distance between the points in hyperspace are shorter. The hyperspace that hyperwave operates in is even smaller, but the space is curved, so it is good for communications purposes only. A hyperwave set works both in normal space and in hyperspace. A ship's maneuver drive determines how fast a ship can travel through hyperspace. All the hyperdrive does is open a portal to hyperspace so you can get in and then opens another portal from hyperspace so you can get out. The tricky part is hyperspace is very empty, there are no stars, and it gets as close to a vacuum as it is possible to get given there is random quantum fluxuations. Travel time is distance in parsecs divided by the maneuver drive number, take that number and get its square root and multiply by 12 hours Hyperspace travel is fast. similar to a world war II airplane for the higher numbers, or at least that is the intent. Communication is effectively instantaneous.

Lets try some numbers:
Maneuver 1 Travel Time
1 parsec: 12 hours
2 parsecs: 17 hours
3 parsecs: 20 hours
This is the equivalent of a surface ship, such as an aircraft carrier.


Maneuver 4 Travel Time
1 parsec: 6 hours
2 parsecs: 8.5 hours
3 parsecs: 10.4 hours
6 parsecs: 14.7 hours
12 parsecs: 17 hours
24 parsecs: 24 hours

This is almost like Jet travel, maybe the Germans have something like this, of course their ranges are shorter.

 

[wbnc]

I've been thinking along the same lines myself. Hyperspace is a parallel universe, with a one to one correspondence between points in hyperspace and points in the normal universe, it is just that the distance between the points in hyperspace are shorter. The hyperspace that hyperwave operates in is even smaller, but the space is curved, so it is good for communications purposes only. A hyperwave set works both in normal space and in hyperspace. A ship's maneuver drive determines how fast a ship can travel through hyperspace. All the hyperdrive does is open a portal to hyperspace so you can get in and then opens another portal from hyperspace so you can get out. The tricky part is hyperspace is very empty, there are no stars, and it gets as close to a vacuum as it is possible to get given there is random quantum fluxuations. Travel time is distance in parsecs divided by the maneuver drive number, take that number and get its square root and multiply by 12 hours Hyperspace travel is fast. similar to a world war II airplane for the higher numbers, or at least that is the intent. Communication is effectively instantaneous.

Lets try some numbers:
Maneuver 1 Travel Time
1 parsec: 12 hours
2 parsecs: 17 hours
3 parsecs: 20 hours
This is the equivalent of a surface ship, such as an aircraft carrier.


Maneuver 4 Travel Time
1 parsec: 6 hours
2 parsecs: 8.5 hours
3 parsecs: 10.4 hours
6 parsecs: 14.7 hours
12 parsecs: 17 hours
24 parsecs: 24 hours

This is almost like Jet travel, maybe the Germans have something like this, of course their ranges are shorter.

Ya know what they say about twisted minds thinking alike..one of us should be worried

I'll share my idea of hyperspace with you if you want to look at it...ignore the lousy grammar, and horrible spelling..Its not my best work...you'll see why I need a prooofreader and editor....
http://pax-belum.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Hyperspace
I like the idea of one side being faster and shorter ranged, with the other having range but not the raw speed..It forces players on either side to think about things a tiny bit.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I've been thinking along the same lines myself. Hyperspace is a parallel universe, with a one to one correspondence between points in hyperspace and points in the normal universe, it is just that the distance between the points in hyperspace are shorter. The hyperspace that hyperwave operates in is even smaller, but the space is curved, so it is good for communications purposes only. A hyperwave set works both in normal space and in hyperspace. A ship's maneuver drive determines how fast a ship can travel through hyperspace. All the hyperdrive does is open a portal to hyperspace so you can get in and then opens another portal from hyperspace so you can get out. The tricky part is hyperspace is very empty, there are no stars, and it gets as close to a vacuum as it is possible to get given there is random quantum fluxuations. Travel time is distance in parsecs divided by the maneuver drive number, take that number and get its square root and multiply by 12 hours Hyperspace travel is fast. similar to a world war II airplane for the higher numbers, or at least that is the intent. Communication is effectively instantaneous.

Lets try some numbers:
Maneuver 1 Travel Time
1 parsec: 12 hours
2 parsecs: 17 hours
3 parsecs: 20 hours
This is the equivalent of a surface ship, such as an aircraft carrier.


Maneuver 4 Travel Time
1 parsec: 6 hours
2 parsecs: 8.5 hours
3 parsecs: 10.4 hours
6 parsecs: 14.7 hours
12 parsecs: 17 hours
24 parsecs: 24 hours

This is almost like Jet travel, maybe the Germans have something like this, of course their ranges are shorter.

Ya know what they say about twisted minds thinking alike..one of us should be worried

I'll share my idea of hyperspace with you if you want to look at it...ignore the lousy grammar, and horrible spelling..Its not my best work...you'll see why I need a prooofreader and editor....
http://pax-belum.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Hyperspace
My version of hyperspace with no mass shadows, gravity doesn't extend into hyperspace, it just prevents portals from connecting hyperspace to normal space from within the 100 diameter limit except for hyperwave communication.
I like the idea of one side being faster and shorter ranged, with the other having range but not the raw speed..It forces players on either side to think about things a tiny bit.

Your version of hyperspace seems complicated. Mine is fairly simple, there is nothing in it other than what goes into it from Normal space. Large portals can only be opened without tremendous expenditure of energy in flat space, hence they 100 diameter limit. There is no mass shadow, gravity fields from normal space don't extend into hyperspac.
Ships with high maneuver ratings are analogous to German experimental jet planes, they don't have many of them, they are of course short range interceptors and can fly circles around allied spacecraft, but the allies overwhelm them with numbers. There is a planet out there called Hiroshima, the year is 1942, there is a Manhattan Project, what kind of weapons do you suppose they would be developing? All sides already have atomic weapons by the way, the trick is getting through the defenses, past radars, including hyperwave radars. The Manhattan Project is developing something much worse, something they fear the Germans may be developing. One candidate is an Antimatter Bomb.

 

[wbnc]

I may have gotten a little carried away with my idea..I developed it as a setting for an entire sub campaign of a world I put together over several years.

what kind of weapons do you suppose they would be developing? All sides already have atomic weapons by the way, the trick is getting through the defenses, past radars, including hyperwave radars. The Manhattan Project is developing something much worse, something they fear the Germans may be developing. One candidate is an Antimatter Bomb.

a weaponized quantum energy....a quantum bomb, "Q-Bomb".....creates a field of intense instability at the quantum level, and atomic particle come apart at the seams...near complete and instant conversion of the target mass into energy.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I may have

what kind of weapons do you suppose they would be developing? All sides already have atomic weapons by the way, the trick is getting through the defenses, past radars, including hyperwave radars. The Manhattan Project is developing something much worse, something they fear the Germans may be developing. One candidate is an Antimatter Bomb.

[/quote]


a weaponized quantum energy....a quantum bomb, "Q-Bomb".....creates a field of intense instability at the quantum level, and atomic particle come apart at the seams...near complete and instant conversion of the target mass into energy.[/quote]
An antimatter bomb releases 100 times as much energy as a thermonuclear bomb, The planet doesn't have to be blown up, just what's on the planet, something equivalent to a "dinosaur killer" asteroid I think.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

This is the map of the World War II Galaxy so far, just to show you what I'm working on.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Do you plan on having the planets of Berlin, London and New York anywhere?

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Do you plan on having the planets of Berlin, London and New York anywhere?

Actually they would be the planets Germany, Britain, and New York. Basically, I've translated a Polar Map into a Traveller Map, the North pole is by the way, the Galactic core of this small Galaxy, it turns out that a single hex covers about all of Germany, while I need several hexes to represent Australia, this kind of matches a galaxy that thins out as you move toward the rim. Also Rimward is South, Coreward is North, Spinward is East and Antispinward is West. And yes, each system will have planets. Population will be proportional to the populations of the Nations represented in 1942.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Have you worked out the details on how New York and any of its other planets will be handling supplying and travelling to both assault Germany and Japan? One thing a projection map cannot do is simulate the globe it come from. Unless your universe is so small you go off the map in one direction and come back on the other side (assuming a closed universe).

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Have you worked out the details on how New York and any of its other planets will be handling supplying and travelling to both assault Germany and Japan? One thing a projection map cannot do is simulate the globe it come from. Unless your universe is so small you go off the map in one direction and come back on the other side (assuming a closed universe).

No, its an open universe, the Galaxy is a small Galaxy, about 33 parsecs in diameters it orbits a much larger galaxy about the size of the Milky Way. If you go beyond 33 parsecs from the core, there are still more stars, that are spread further and further aprt the further you go from the core. Travel between the planets is by starship.

 

[Jeff Hopper]

Something that I posted on CotI recently may be relevant to your superweapon discussion.

For catastrophic misjumps, like from within the atmosphere or a world surface, I say that the ship explodes with an energy release of (E=MCsquare) multiplied by the jump number squared.

This has lead to the development of jumpspace weaponry......


These are the results of a Scout/Courier engaging a jump-1 on the ground:

Yield (megatons) = 3005247
Calculated Values

Thermal radiation radius (3rd degree burns) 9630.2 kilometers, Air blast radius (widespread destruction) 1608.2 kilometers, Air blast radius (near-total fatalities) 609.3 kilometers, Ionizing radiation radius (500 rem) 70.2 kilometers, Fireball duration 7154.3 seconds, Fireball radius (minimum) 303 kilometers, Fireball radius (airburst) 370.3 kilometers, Fireball radius (ground-contact airburst) 488.1 kilometers,

 

[wbnc]

Something that I posted on CotI recently may be relevant to your superweapon discussion.

For catastrophic misjumps, like from within the atmosphere or a world surface, I say that the ship explodes with an energy release of (E=MCsquare) multiplied by the jump number squared.

This has lead to the development of jumpspace weaponry......


These are the results of a Scout/Courier engaging a jump-1 on the ground:

Yield (megatons) = 3005247
Calculated Values

Thermal radiation radius (3rd degree burns) 9630.2 kilometers, Air blast radius (widespread destruction) 1608.2 kilometers, Air blast radius (near-total fatalities) 609.3 kilometers, Ionizing radiation radius (500 rem) 70.2 kilometers, Fireball duration 7154.3 seconds, Fireball radius (minimum) 303 kilometers, Fireball radius (airburst) 370.3 kilometers, Fireball radius (ground-contact airburst) 488.1 kilometers,

If this was a practical scenario..as in required more than a one on 100 million chance of happening. Why would anyone allow a jump drive anywhere near a planet.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

This is my latest star map of the World War II Galaxy. I will start creating World data for this.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

This is my latest star map of the World War II Galaxy. I will start creating World data for this.