Re: FTL Jumps and making it tricky...

Roger Books wrote:

> A campaign without jump points is rather difficult, there is no such
> thing
> as a rear, everything is frontline.  That makes choke points
impossible.
> It also means that in reality, unless your intelligence told you where
> your opponent was going, the attacker would always be able to muster
> overwhelming force.
>
> We are getting ready to play with jump-lines instead of jump points.
> You may only jump between certain systems however you may arrive any
> distance you wish out.  It just takes longer to get to your
destination.
>
> We'll see how it works.
>
> Roger

Seems to me, that the size of the jump point makes the difference.  Each
has its own
effects on campains.

A "point" sized jump point, is very easy to protect.  These types are
small enough
for a ship or station to cover the entire point area with it's weapons. 
This makes
point defenses cheap.  (TFG's Starfire uses this type.)

A "cloud" sized jump point, is on the order of a million miles across. 
Ships could
arrive anywhere in the cloud.  This makes point defenses very difficult
and
expensive.   (Michael McCollum's books "Antares Dawn" and "Antares
Passage" are of
this type.  In the books one jump point was covered by 60 massive armed
stations.
Very cool books, I hear he is working on another book in this series.)

A "system" sized jump point, ships may arrive anywhere in the system. 
Though they
are usually limited to the outer fringes in most settings.  (Most
hyperspace type
drives -- including the Tuffleyverse -- are of this type.

Donald Hosford