Re: hyperspace (was: cloaking device rules)

In message <199608201924.PAA10801@cliff.cris.com> Mike Miserendino
wrote:

> joachim wrote:
> >Warp bubbles, tachyon beams and breaking through
> >reality are all well and good but to me, that's not what FTL means.
> >To me, FTL means going really fast.	I don't know if it even means
> >going faster than light - who cares?
> 
> FWIW FTL=Faster Than Light.  The idea is any system capable of
propelling
> your ship faster than light.	The game is generic, so this drive can
be
> anything you want it to be.  I prefer jump/displacement drives myself,
based
> on theoretical physics.

And I prefer Traversable Wormholes (ie neither end of the wormhole
can be moved at FTL velocities, so initial exploration is slow,
and you can get all sorts of nice time dilation effects, but I
digress...).

But yes, I understand what Joachim means - as long as it goes fast,
who cares just how fast.

>  You could also say your ship [...] latch on to a passing space cow

My favourite name is "The Really Fast Drive Despite What The Nice Mr
Einstein Said". Hmm... Anyone built Full Thrust ships out of Lego?
Anyway...

> If all that matters is going really fast by just hard acceleration
while
> less than light speed, you will probably not outrun the majority of
the
> weapon systems available.

You may not outrun individual laser pulses, but you will get out
of their effective range, which is what really counts.

  Not to mention the incredible forces placed on
> your crew or the possible effects of your drives output in it's
> environment(imagine the target signature generated by reaction mass
type
> drives propelling a few hundred thousand tons of technology under hard
> acceleration or even gravity waves by a gravity drive - it's like
saying,
> "Here I am, please shoot me!").

In FT though, it matters not a whit. Stealth doesn't affect how easy
you are to be hit. In reality, the matter is quite different, but
even a moderate space drive is going to put out a large enough signature
to be detected if you are within weapon range.

> >That's what FTL means to me.  Getting away from
> >the people who are shooting at me.  So while I like the idea of
> >minimum times for the effect, or the idea that the effect continues
> >not only during the acceleration phase but also during the
> >decelleration phase, I can't justify it enough to actually use it.

If you want to be able to use FTL to do that, then the system is
fine as it stands. I prefer it to be not so easy to get out of a
tight situation. People then think harder about avoiding getting
into such situations, and a well thought out surprise attack isn't
ruined when the victims FTL out after the first turn.

-- 
Be seeing you,
Sam.