Re: FT: FTL Smorgasboard

Brian Bilderback wrote:
> 
> Roger Books <books@jumpspace.net> wrote:
> 
> >Well, you can start with the HH Universe, where they have two methods
> >of FTL.  Warp points and shorter distance alternate place.
> 
> And how are the two different methods applied in that universe?  Are
there
> specific reasons to prefer one or the other in any given situation?

The 'Wormhole Junctions' are limited by requiring an actual natural
phenomenon.  One of DW's justifications for the wealth of the Manticore
system is that Manticore controls a wormhole terminus that leads off
to X endpoints (where X is a number that escapes me at the moment), and
since travel through a wormhole junction is instantaneous, you can 
cover hundreds of lightyears very quickly.  The control of the junction
is even more important because, the junction wormhole is the only part
of the system that lets you get to any endpoint i.e. if you enter at 
any endpoint, you appear at the junction terminus, always.  If you
enter at the junction terminus, you can end up at any of the end points,
depending on your entry vector and other things that aren't really
explained.

However, wormhole junctions are really rare, and most ships travel
through hyperspace using their grav drives.  There, though, you 
can take advantage of 'terrain' effects, and, by configuring 
your drive in certain ways, you can boost your effective speed many
times over.

So, in general, commerce travels by the junctions whenever possible
to get as close as they can, then they proceed on normal drives the
rest of the way.  From a Manticorian military standpoint, protecting
the Junction and its terminals is a key part of Manticoran foreign
policy since, if ships can leave Manticoran space instantaneously,
ships can enter Manticoran space just as quickly, without warning;
and having an enemy battlefleet in your home system (in a universe
which allows high speed ballistic attack) is essentially a death
sentence.

JGH

-- 
*** Jerry Han - jhan@warpfish.com - http://www.warpfish.com/jhan ***
	  "Up, up and away, away from me -- It's alright...
  You can all sleep sound tonight, I'm not crazy... or anything..."