Re: Subspace Tech, unification of all forms of travel
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2015 4:42 pm
it would be nice to get back to the actual topic after 1/3 of the thread being something else?
Hrmm... my bad. I hope that you can use the majority of my contribution - it works as sci-fi fluff and can further support your work.Cornflakes_91 wrote:
Now you just need to unite this idea with how planets and asteroids anchor themselves naturally.Cornflakes_91 wrote:as to why stations are static regardless of their size (there could be an outpost smaller than a big carrier)
they artificially amplify the drag effect and "anchor" themself in space
Didnt i do that in the last paragraph?Flatfingers wrote: Now you just need to unite this idea with how planets and asteroids anchor themselves naturally.
Cornflakes_91 wrote:*rambling*
Maybe as a simplification for collision and representation purposes we could split subspace into discrete "bands" between which one has to explicitly transition.
inside the bands theres a fixed apparent velocity multiplicator compared to normal space.
(Maybe some continuous wiggle room to get some variable to tweak between drives with the same maximum band?)
Transitions between bands are comparatively hard (and dangerous?) So fewer and fewer ships will be able to transition into higher and higher bands unaided.
Some bands could generally be unstable/dangerous to use (eg the bands which provide speeds that would make it necessary to implent truly continous interstellar flight...).
Some areas could also have band stabilities different from the average.
One system could have a few bands more stable than usual, enabling ships that usually cant use those bands to use them and fly faster or with higher precision or not use some bands at all and move slower or with lower precision.
In some areas nothing is much faster than a tug, in some areas the same tug cant even move over useful distances because the bands it uses are highly perturbed.
This would also make for a good way to make carriers/transport ships/expedition ships different from locally fast ships.
A fighter might outrun everything in the bands it can reach, but the expedition carrier uses a higher band and just blazes past the fighter.
(Yes, i read a lot of honor harrington lately. Paint me influenced )
This...is a really interesting concept. Rather difficult to implement, but really cool idea.Cornflakes_91 wrote:the mechanic of unstable bands could also be used for fast travel disruption.
with missiles, mines, field generators that destabilise certain bands of subspace in a range around them.
with enough bands to use in general it would make for a good way to introduce adaption and out-teching your opponents.
one can adapt their drive to use bands the jammer doesnt cover, or if the jammer is covering lots of bands it likely wont have the strength to overpower a narrow-band, high strength drive.
the drawback of the narrow-band drive would be that its completely useless if your opponent has a matched jammer or the bands are naturally disrupted in that area