Re: [VV] FTL

On the analogy of FTL modes being like horses & riverboats - Tier 1
nations could invent a FTL mode using jumpgates, spaced every few
parsecs, that allow travel like the riverboats but MUCH faster.  Routes
can go to any starsystem, but setting up the routes is expensive and
would best be between resource-rich systems & industrial/population
centers.  Plus, travel on the jumpgate routes requires a special ship
that can travel ONLY on the routes and nowhere else.  

In short, Tier 1 nations invent railroads.  

Scenario 1:  A young, tall, blonde, Tier 1 officer aids an oppressed
Tier 3 culture in attacking a jumpgate carrier used by the Tier 2 allies
of a rival Tier 1 nation.  After the successful attack, the officer,
dressed in the robes of a Tier 3 leader, receives the cheers of his Tier
3 comrades...

"LAW-RENCE!  LAW-RENCE!  LAW-RENCE!"  

Screnario 2:  A Unity jumpgate carrier transports a large gang of
peasants and their securty soldiers to a distant system to toil as
forced labor.  At a remote gate, the carrier pulls off the line to allow
a priorty express carrier to pass them.  The express carrier, with a
command pod attached, zooms past, and the Unity soldiers let out a
patriotic cheer.  An old woman in the labor gang bitterly mutters...

"Yes...That's Strelnikov."

JBrewer@webtv.net  

"Always strive to be a good person.  If you can't do that, at least
strive to be someone other than an asshole."  

Further thoughts on FTL modes.	The analogy is horses and riverboats. 
It's
somewhat faster and a lot cheaper to take a boat than a pack horse--if
the
river goes where you want.

Many stars will not have "rivers" to them, though, which means that the
Tier 2 nations which occupy such stars will have an easier time
defending
them from Tier 1 -- or more accurately, Tier 1 will find it just as hard
to
get to those stars as Tier 2 finds it to get to any.

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