I'm disturbed by how potential Rolf targets friends are dropping by the activity wayside here.
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OOC Black Knights/Byakuren Discussion
- Thread starter Wes
- Start date
@Fred While I don't think what you've written really needs changing; for future reference I think you should keep something in mind in case you write something about travelling to a gas giant again. Because the hyperdrive tech uses the roche limit / hill sphere of a planet as their FTL limit, gas giants have much larger FTL limits than terrestrial planets and actually reaching them takes a bit longer than when trying to reach the smaller habitable planets most folks visit; you can't almost instantly do stuff with ships in the viscinity of a gas giant like we can around terrestrial planets where the FTL limit is barely a few light-seconds under normal circumstances.
Odin's FTL limit radius would be 36,743,599 km (0.2456 AU) more-or-less, and some gas giants would have FTL limits over 1 or 2 AU in radius (it depends on the relative sizes of the planet and its star, as well as their distance from each other); which is the closest Asamoya would be able to micro-jump. Still, even at that distance Asamoya's max STL speed would only require another six-to-eight minutes for Asamoya to reach Odin, assuming she can accel/decel to and from max speed more-or-less at a comparable rate to other Star Army large ships like the Heitan-class, if not faster.
Odin's FTL limit radius would be 36,743,599 km (0.2456 AU) more-or-less, and some gas giants would have FTL limits over 1 or 2 AU in radius (it depends on the relative sizes of the planet and its star, as well as their distance from each other); which is the closest Asamoya would be able to micro-jump. Still, even at that distance Asamoya's max STL speed would only require another six-to-eight minutes for Asamoya to reach Odin, assuming she can accel/decel to and from max speed more-or-less at a comparable rate to other Star Army large ships like the Heitan-class, if not faster.
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Fred
Retired Staff
That's what was going on in my head. Maybe I glossed over it too much? ^_^;
I didn't seem to be crucially important given the non-combat situation. You do have a good point as my mental picture was probably not on the appropriate scale.
I mean, I'm the one that came up with the idea of Hill spheres limiting FTL travel in the first place... I should have this nailed down... though I'll admit I mostly shot for how it'd apply at a smaller planet like Earth. Bigger planets like gas giants are a bit more unwieldly to deal with. Delay times to escaping can be a good narrative tool. Wait times to plot progression is sort of less so except to build tension/insert contextual preparation time.
I didn't seem to be crucially important given the non-combat situation. You do have a good point as my mental picture was probably not on the appropriate scale.
I mean, I'm the one that came up with the idea of Hill spheres limiting FTL travel in the first place... I should have this nailed down... though I'll admit I mostly shot for how it'd apply at a smaller planet like Earth. Bigger planets like gas giants are a bit more unwieldly to deal with. Delay times to escaping can be a good narrative tool. Wait times to plot progression is sort of less so except to build tension/insert contextual preparation time.
*nods*
Personally, I think the mistake everyone made when you guys were retconning ship speeds and FTL tech and stuff was that you limited only max speed; what I think you should have done was also limit the max accel/decel for a given tech-level, ie 10 Gravities or something for new low tech races, 100 gravities for mid-level tech and 1,000 gravities for advanced tech races. Currently ships can accelerate at several hundred thousand gravities and stop on a dime with no enforced limit based on tech level... but with hyperdrive fold there is no real need to travel at high fractional lightspeed velocities like .4c anyway. Under most circumstances you wouldn't need to more more than a few thousand km/h to leave a planet, dodge weapons fire or to fight space battles. High velocity travel STL travel should be available if needed, but its use should be limited by large accel/decel times with long-range travel usually being accomplished by FTL travel.
Also, more realistically the max speed shouldn't be limited by the armor mounted by ships (at least not how it is currently; with heavier armor making ships slower. If anything, heavier armor should make your ships be able to have a higher max speed but accelerate slower because of increased mass. Because the heavier armor is protecting against impacts from interstellar particles hitting your ship at high velocity it should theoretically allow you to travel faster more safely by protecting hardware and people from radiation). Though another method of limiting max speed would be based on the strength of a ships shields; the stronger the shields, the more they can deflect particles at high speed and the faster the ship could go (ie it could be based on base shield strength, with 50 SP ships able to travel at .5c and 25 SP ships able to travel at a max of .25c, or it could be based on the shield threshold instead or some arbitrary limit based on tech level or something).
I can't really think of much technological reason why a ship shouldn't be able to keep accelerating past .4c if their engines are still working, beyond particle radiation due to high-speed travel within a solar system. Although for RP reasons making .5c or .6c the limit that shields can protect people from particle radiation would probably be a good idea for manned ships (missiles and probes probably should be permitted higher accel and should keep a .9c+ limit so they can actually outrun stuff in combat) -- after about .5c, you start getting noticable time dilation which would make things wierd to roleplay.
Even the smaller FTL limits of earth-like planets would take longer to travel and have some more impact if we didn't have the current utterly ridiculous accel/decel for our spaceships; I can accept that ships have some kind of exotic mass-cancelling fields or something that makes such acceleration possible but it makes the battles around planets utterly insane. There is utterly no way for flesh-and-blood fighter pilots to properly navigate and dog fight each other when travelling around at .4c and you'd never be able to eyeball your targets; every race would either have to have some sort of high-speed brain interface like SPINE and only control their fighters by that means during combat, or else fighters would have to be computer controlled. If acceleration and beam-weapon ranges were more limited, we could have battles closer in and more like how they are depicted in SF shows and movies, rather than at ungodly long ranges of hundreds of thousands of kilometers in order to allow enough reaction time for people to actually do something. As is, in battles around a habitable planet it would only take a couple seconds for a ship to reach the hyper-limit and run away if they wanted.
Also if we han limits on accel, then afterburner tech and the like could be brought back in some form; use of afterburners would increase acceleration and allow ships to reach their max speed faster at the cost of fuel/power, but not increase the ships max speed.
...okay enough random ranting. Feel free to ignore me
Personally, I think the mistake everyone made when you guys were retconning ship speeds and FTL tech and stuff was that you limited only max speed; what I think you should have done was also limit the max accel/decel for a given tech-level, ie 10 Gravities or something for new low tech races, 100 gravities for mid-level tech and 1,000 gravities for advanced tech races. Currently ships can accelerate at several hundred thousand gravities and stop on a dime with no enforced limit based on tech level... but with hyperdrive fold there is no real need to travel at high fractional lightspeed velocities like .4c anyway. Under most circumstances you wouldn't need to more more than a few thousand km/h to leave a planet, dodge weapons fire or to fight space battles. High velocity travel STL travel should be available if needed, but its use should be limited by large accel/decel times with long-range travel usually being accomplished by FTL travel.
Also, more realistically the max speed shouldn't be limited by the armor mounted by ships (at least not how it is currently; with heavier armor making ships slower. If anything, heavier armor should make your ships be able to have a higher max speed but accelerate slower because of increased mass. Because the heavier armor is protecting against impacts from interstellar particles hitting your ship at high velocity it should theoretically allow you to travel faster more safely by protecting hardware and people from radiation). Though another method of limiting max speed would be based on the strength of a ships shields; the stronger the shields, the more they can deflect particles at high speed and the faster the ship could go (ie it could be based on base shield strength, with 50 SP ships able to travel at .5c and 25 SP ships able to travel at a max of .25c, or it could be based on the shield threshold instead or some arbitrary limit based on tech level or something).
I can't really think of much technological reason why a ship shouldn't be able to keep accelerating past .4c if their engines are still working, beyond particle radiation due to high-speed travel within a solar system. Although for RP reasons making .5c or .6c the limit that shields can protect people from particle radiation would probably be a good idea for manned ships (missiles and probes probably should be permitted higher accel and should keep a .9c+ limit so they can actually outrun stuff in combat) -- after about .5c, you start getting noticable time dilation which would make things wierd to roleplay.
Even the smaller FTL limits of earth-like planets would take longer to travel and have some more impact if we didn't have the current utterly ridiculous accel/decel for our spaceships; I can accept that ships have some kind of exotic mass-cancelling fields or something that makes such acceleration possible but it makes the battles around planets utterly insane. There is utterly no way for flesh-and-blood fighter pilots to properly navigate and dog fight each other when travelling around at .4c and you'd never be able to eyeball your targets; every race would either have to have some sort of high-speed brain interface like SPINE and only control their fighters by that means during combat, or else fighters would have to be computer controlled. If acceleration and beam-weapon ranges were more limited, we could have battles closer in and more like how they are depicted in SF shows and movies, rather than at ungodly long ranges of hundreds of thousands of kilometers in order to allow enough reaction time for people to actually do something. As is, in battles around a habitable planet it would only take a couple seconds for a ship to reach the hyper-limit and run away if they wanted.
Also if we han limits on accel, then afterburner tech and the like could be brought back in some form; use of afterburners would increase acceleration and allow ships to reach their max speed faster at the cost of fuel/power, but not increase the ships max speed.
...okay enough random ranting. Feel free to ignore me
Nyton
Inactive Member
Hey guys sorry to be a buzzkill again but I need to background for a while. Much as I want to throw out some RP remarks I can never seem to get the time to focus my thoughts enough. 4 kids and searching for a job kind of takes my mind elsewhere. Plus a lot is going to happen this month which could be life changing. Apologies again. I'll try to at least stay read up.
CadetNewb
Well-Known Member
I do wonder if this is a harder decision than it should be, but I do know that I enjoy playing Nao and would like to see how she'd develop as the story goes. I'll attempt to come along and avoid the faster paced things.
Fred
Retired Staff
Status update:
@Doshii Jun Yukari has her orders. Like Khasidel said above, it'll likely take a few minutes to get Asamoya at a far enough distance to use FTL.
@Abwehran Commander @ShotJon @Kokuten Kotori is speaking to you guys.
Also, Shotjon, I do realize that Kokuten is the one which started this narrative and that you went along to cooperate OoCly. I'm not blaming you of anything and Kotori being upset likely doesn't carry long-term consequences with it. It's merely drama - just RP along with it. It also gives me an excuse to involve Abwehran Commander more.
@Doshii Jun Yukari has her orders. Like Khasidel said above, it'll likely take a few minutes to get Asamoya at a far enough distance to use FTL.
@Abwehran Commander @ShotJon @Kokuten Kotori is speaking to you guys.
Also, Shotjon, I do realize that Kokuten is the one which started this narrative and that you went along to cooperate OoCly. I'm not blaming you of anything and Kotori being upset likely doesn't carry long-term consequences with it. It's merely drama - just RP along with it. It also gives me an excuse to involve Abwehran Commander more.
Fred
Retired Staff
My assumption is that Asamoya investigated back when Nicholas Saiga asked it of her, and ended up making a query to the Samurai. Kôsuka, likely going on the angle "If it is for my daughter, then I will help" probably prepared a AI construct of herself for the occasion. She's a combat instructor, so, I expect her to be able to do that much.
Sorry for being out a few days. It's been "all packing, all the time" while we try not to stress about K's employer cocking things up.
I should explain the above. K and I are moving back to the other side of the state. We got our old jobs back, with the same wages, benefits and so on. This time, we're renting an actual house so our incoming little one has its own room (and so we can play host to guests — come visit!).
With that in mind, we're trying to pack and move despite having opposite schedules. It's not terribly fun, but we get by. I'll be back on SARP in a more complete capacity tomorrow, if not sooner.
With that in mind, we're trying to pack and move despite having opposite schedules. It's not terribly fun, but we get by. I'll be back on SARP in a more complete capacity tomorrow, if not sooner.
Fred
Retired Staff
Doshii being scarce shouldn't hinder the progress of Shotjon and Kokuten, for whom @Abwehran Commander just took over.
Go Go Drill Instructor Masako!
Go Go Drill Instructor Masako!
Abwehran Commander
Inactive Member
Nope :3c
