Poll for FTL travel

[Darth Plaigus]

So it has come to no surprise that after a couple months of every one and there ships A.I. posting a suggestion on a warp-drive, hyper-jump, portal (Anything that I will be referring to as just an FTL system), that it's probably gonna happen one way or another. However, which way do we actually want it. The way I see it most suggestions fall into one of two categories of FTL system.

1. A ship based FTL system. Example: Star Wars, Star Trek, Halo, etc.
There's a warp-core, or a hyper drive on the ship. There's a button on your screen somewhere, you push it, you scream "warp factor nine chewy", it does a thing, and then you're some where else.

2. A Planet/Beacon FTL system. Example: Mass Effect, Star Gate, Cowboy Bebop, etc.
You have a machine based on a planet, asteroid, or space station. It gets turned on, you interact with it. it creates a portal or accelerates you to the next selected machine. Point A to Point B.
​

Now which does the public prefer. I'll let you guys hash out the pros and cons.

 

[Holydemon49]

Both. The problem with FTL drives on ships, is that small ships(scouts, fighters/bombers, interceptors) shouldn't be able to power one by themselves, so you should have a warp gate, mass relay, hyper gate, etc., for the smaller vessels. Now, with that being said, larger ships would be able to power their own FTL drives, but ultimately would be too big for most jump gates, if the standard variation of going through a ring was used. Now, I know you'll say that the beacon would solve this issue by just giving a point to jump to, so larger ships don't have the gate size problem. But if you just have that, then you wouldn't be able to, say, reinforce allies who are under attack if they're not at a jump beacon. Having both systems balances it out by letting fighters jump between points, but not on their own power, and prevents larger ships from just coming through any gate laying around, perhaps actually needing to explore the area before the ship can warp in.

 

[NeonSturm]

Evasion = difference(v1, v2) / ship-size * reaction-time (from player + new created projectiles to arrive, ...)

I like FTL, because it limits evasion during combats (sublight) while still draining enough power to be an important factor for ship design and still allowing fast travel through the big void.

But I would prefer beacons to be the primary choice for long-distance travelling

• except for capitals (too big for beacons) and
• dedicated FTL ships (with very low weapons/shields/sublight/...) for either scouting or to set-up new beacons.

My fav:

• Interstellar: beacons or dedicated FTL-scout ships.
• Interplanetary: FTL and mini-beacons
• Planetary & combat: Sub-light engines (maybe because of warp-scramblers, ...)

 

[ltmauve]

I would like:
Shipboard drives to require fuel and a pretty dedicated ship, and:
A jump gate system that any ship can use with only a small, low-power drive.

This way control of jump gates is important, since many ships will not be able to mount a dedicated full jump drive, and the fuel would be too expensive and possible just not available in sufficient quantity.

 

[RoyalWolfe]

well, I've seen a lot of science fiction in my time. every single one had their own distinctly unique approach toward the problem of living through as the N.A.S.A. engineers call the impossible voyage.

they coin it that because as we know of space itself you cannot survive traveling from one solar system to another. and you have to ask yourself why? well it takes so long to do just that that, you will die of starvation hunger, and possibly suffocate due to lack of oxygen, or any number of other shortages, if you don't prepare for the trip. well you say ill just take enough with me to not have that problem, fine OK then, then you will die of old age. your maybe grand children's children, will likely maybe be the ones to reach the destination, but not you. that is the reason the trip is so impossible. you cannot change what time does to your body over years. and thus traveling through space must be just as impossible in the real universe, as it is clearly portrayed in fiction.

OK, so Hollywood has stretched things way beyond what we in the real world know is possible, but they both have to agree, however it is done, it must be done in a way that lets the traveler live through the journey. this can be in a number of theories, but there are even more that have never been even explored.

what we here are trying to do is to find out a way to do that, that agrees with everyone, so I say maybe just one approach is just too simple to do that. we need one way that works for all of them. this one way, needs to be simple and universal. we need to make the basic simple way to do it mechanically in the game then allow for that one way to work in concert of whatever way we choose to modify it to work. i say make the base part first then let us build around that. why have one way, when you can have one way that does it any way you please. consider the mods of possibility if you could modify one set of systems to work different ways.

what is one fall short problem is the way we travel in the game, if I go somewhere I can get lost really fast, why, well because I cant find my way back to a place, if I don't know where back is. we do have a map right, yes we do, but its markers are blank. it shows us the locations but not their coordinates. that is the first problem we need to solve. you cant decide where to jump to if you don't know where you are going right? well navigation and fast travel are two things that need improvement as well. we need to fix that before we can fix them both.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

I think a combination system is best. Gates to travel long distances nearly instantaneously. Some form of FTL to travel faster through local space. Gates will need to be built of course and other limiting factors apply. Ship based FLT will also need balancing to keep people from abusing it.

 

[testkil]

this is already asked you should check the suggestions before make your own

 

[MossyStone48]

We don't need FTL yet and when we do start needing it the way it's done is going to blow your mind.

 

[testkil]

We don't need FTL yet and when we do start needing it the way it's done is going to blow your mind.

could you spoil us a bit ^^

 

[Darth Plaigus]

Just wanted to make this clear. This is a poll for a idea that a lot of people want. This wasn't created for a new idea. This was made to gather a statistic.

 

[MossyStone48]

Spoiler: dot dot dot

"NOPE"™ -WarSong Deathmark® ©1999 LOLOL Gmbh

 

[lupoCani]

As in, you know what we should expect but refuse to tell us(If so, thanks. The less spoilers in circulation, the better), or you're just speaking from experience of Schema's mind-blowing tendencies?

 

[Vyor]

As in, you know what we should expect but refuse to tell us(If so, thanks. The less spoilers in circulation, the better), or you're just speaking from experience of Schema's mind-blowing tendencies?

Well, the Q/A stream had some stuff... but mostly it's the last part.

 

[rece ktore leczo]

WarSong

DAMN YOU. I'M CURIOUS.

 

[Ithirahad]

I'd like to see ship-initiated warp drive that only works if you haven't gotten your ship hit by any weapons for a certain amount of time... Maybe 30 seconds or so...

 

[Vyor]

I'd like to see ship-initiated warp drive that only works if you haven't gotten your ship hit by any weapons for a certain amount of time... Maybe 30 seconds or so...

Personally, I want to be able to run away with it... if it can be tracked... think about any sci fi out there with warp drive/hyper drive...

 

[Ithirahad]

Personally, I want to be able to run away with it... if it can be tracked... think about any sci fi out there with warp drive/hyper drive...

Good point, a traceable ion trail or subspace distortion wave trail would work as a balance too. However, I feel like warp-chasing someone from here to Kingdom Come would get frustrating, unless you had some way to shoot at people while at warp. (Happens in Star Trek sometimes)

 

[Vyor]

Good point, a traceable ion trail or subspace distortion wave trail would work as a balance too. However, I feel like warp-chasing someone from here to Kingdom Come would get frustrating, unless you had some way to shoot at people while at warp. (Happens in Star Trek sometimes)

No, what you have is a cool down. The farther you go the longer the cooldown is, if you make short hops quickly it burns out and you can't use it for a while... It would of course have a distance limit, if you hit it the drive core breaks and has to be replaced(it will have a long charge time before it can be used). The more powerful a drive core is(dependant on the size of the core and the mass of the ship), the farther away that limit is, and the faster it goes(so you reach the limit in the same time regardless). This is a bit of a combination of star wars and mass effect style FTL.

 

[Nebulon-B_Frigate_FTW]

The recent Q&A addressed FTL. We will be getting at least a few different kinds (Calibiri indicated there are four types they are looking at: jump drive, stargate, hyperluminal, and hyperspace.) including both ship-initiated and station-initiated. There will be a long charge time on ship FTL to prevent immediate fight-fleeing. However, other than that and a few minor details (like having to build stations to make wormholes, and coming out a smaller gate than you went in stripping/shrinking (it was not clear which, probably stripping) your ship), not much seems to be very far in planning. FTL-tracking would be a good question for the next Q&A, as would be asking for more details in case they've moved further towards finalizing how FTL will work.

 

[Vyor]

The recent Q&A addressed FTL. We will be getting at least a few different kinds (Calibiri indicated there are four types they are looking at: jump drive, stargate, hyperluminal, and hyperspace.) including both ship-initiated and station-initiated. There will be a long charge time on ship FTL to prevent immediate fight-fleeing. However, other than that and a few minor details (like having to build stations to make wormholes, and coming out a smaller gate than you went in stripping/shrinking (it was not clear which, probably stripping) your ship), not much seems to be very far in planning. FTL-tracking would be a good question for the next Q&A, as would be asking for more details in case they've moved further towards finalizing how FTL will work.

It is always fun to theorize... just so long as you don't make a new god damned thread...