Jump Drive Distance Based on Mass

[Micro753]

The original idea is Scypio's. His post (here) got me thinking about jump drives, and this is actually just a modification/alternate version of his idea.

The distance one can jump using jump drives should be based on a ratio of jump drive modules to the mass of the ship. Also, times to charge should be the same no matter what. This way, chain drives will only let you jump a short distance each time, but one drive with more modules will let you go much further, discouraging chain drives. It would also make more sense to me, since the role of jumping goes to jump drives, not thrusters.

Some examples for my system:

-A large carrier would likely have more jump drives and less weapons, so it can jump farther per jump than a similar sized battleship. This would make the carrier faster, since jump drive charge times would be the same.

-A battleship would have to decide if it wants to jump farther or have more weapons. If it chooses more jump drive modules, it will have a bigger disadvantage in battles. If it chooses more weapons, it will take it longer to respond to an attack at an allied station, since it will take longer to get there, giving the enemy more time without its support.

-A smaller ship specifically designed for transportation only would have no problem jumping good distances, since it doesn't have a lot of extra mass from weapons. An example would be a Traders' Guild Freighter.

-A fighter could easily get a good jump distance since it is smaller, so a good ratio is easier to get. However, it will be bigger than a fighter of the same capabilities, making it slower or just a bigger target. Maybe it would decide it isn't worth it and instead just hope the carrier doesn't get destroyed. An example would be a star wars TIE Advanced. It is about as good as a regular TIE, but is was made bigger to fit a hyper drive and a tiny bit of shields. It is almost twice as big as a TIE Fighter, but isn't significantly better in battles, and more expensive to make.


Scypio's original post:

Just thought about it yesterday and found it really interesting. Having the jump distance based on the max speed possible on the ship is a good way to promote small ships, or at least fast ship, to travel. This would promote carrier, ship to dock before jumping or jump ring and so on too.

For example, let's take a 10km jump distance and 100m/s max speed. I know that isn't the base values but they're round and easy to pick for a small example.
If your vessel got the max speed, it would jump the max distance, known as 10km in this example. If the ship got only 50 m/s max speed, then it's only half of this max distance, 5km.

Maybe add a minimal value for jump distance for immobile ships or docked reactors. That way they won't jump nowhere. I don't know what to think about overdrives and counting them for the purpose of the max speed and max jump distance.

Let me know what you think, bad or good idea ?

 

[Lecic]

Even if the minimum jump distance is 1 sector, that'd still be 1 sector every 3.5 seconds or so.

 

[Cornedo]

This would also make fleets trickier, unless every ship you have has about the same range for their jump drives your ships would arrive from a jump scattered all over the place. While some could find this a useful tactic, it might be a good idea to make it so that jump drives can be set to send you less then that drive's maximum range to allow for coordinated jumps with shorter range vessels.

You might also want to take a look at how jump drive inhibitors should work within your idea, as a big part of their purpose is already to discourage 'chain drives'.

I do agree though that this sounds like a better idea then having their range be based on your speed.

 

[Madman198237]

You'd already be setting an arrival location, Cornedo. You just have to set it out of detection/maximum weapons range so that your ships can arrive over time. Or, provide suitable carriers for short-range vessels.

 

[Scypio]

After thinking with a bit of time about the original idea it makes more sense this way. So...


Yeah, took me half an hour to do it. I'm proud of me.

 

[Cornedo]

You'd already be setting an arrival location, Cornedo. You just have to set it out of detection/maximum weapons range so that your ships can arrive over time. Or, provide suitable carriers for short-range vessels.

Right. I knew that.