100d - losing your marbles

[Andrew Boulton]

I had a thought in the shower this morning...

Y'know how gravity is often visualised with marbles and a rubber sheet? Imagine if in jumpspace gravity is repulsive. Rather than pits in the sheet, gravity sources would now produce bulges. Let's represent them with a couple of upside-down bowls, one for the planet you're jumping from, the other for your destination. Now let's use a couple of marbles to represent the entry and exit points. If you try to put them inside the 100d limit they just roll off. Now, at the start this is happening while you're trying to jump, which is why it's dangerous - imagine trying to jump on or off a moving bus. The end point, however, has already rolled off by the time you get there, which is why you simply appear at the 100d limit.

Thoughts?

 

[mike wightman]

I like it a lot.

 

[BytePro]

How I first pictured it 30 years ago

Of course, gravity doesn't fall off in a way that works well with 100D so my ultimate model uses density instead (correlated to the Universal Gravitation Constant ). That model fits extremely well with the wording used in the LBBs and the JTAS articles.

 

[travlar]

That seems reasonable to me. I'd be tempted to allow ships to try to jump in to within the 100d limit anyway, but with possibly extra fuel usage, and definitely a high chance of a mishap. (Probably not a normal misjump, maybe just damage.) As far as fitting with what the rules have, I think something at least similar to what you have there is best.

 

[aramis]

That seems reasonable to me. I'd be tempted to allow ships to try to jump in to within the 100d limit anyway, but with possibly extra fuel usage, and definitely a high chance of a mishap. (Probably not a normal misjump, maybe just damage.) As far as fitting with what the rules have, I think something at least similar to what you have there is best.

One of the editions (I forget which) implied that being redirected out to 100D was somewhat traumatic for the ship...

 

[Andrew Boulton]

One of the editions (I forget which) implied that being redirected out to 100D was somewhat traumatic for the ship...

<checks>

SOM. My model works better that way!

 

[Carlobrand]

I tend to visualize off the curve. Jumpspace does not map perfectly to normal space within the curve. Imperial physics fails utterly within this realm - there are no equations to describe it, no way to predict what will happen when a ship jumps within that area. You can enter the desired jumpspace level easiest from the flat, but if you try to do it from the curve, your "vector" and that as yet utterly unknown mapping might insert you into an undesired jumpspace level, perhaps even into a level that does not intersect with this universe at another point. You could find your power plant running out before your jump drive returns you to normal space, leaving you to die before you re-enter normal space. You could find yourself trapped in a spatial realm with physics hostile to life - or even matter - when your jump drive finally shuts down. Or, you could find yourself stranded in another universe, someplace with identical physics, but of course utterly unknown to you - and no sure way to reverse the trip and get home.

Grandfather's advanced technology and understanding of jump physics could perhaps use the method to arrive predictably at distances of up to 36 parsecs, perhaps even to find and explore parallel universes. He might even have ways to make use of the strange properties of jump space for industrial processes known only to him, achieving the gods alone know what. However, it is far, far beyond anything the imperfect Imperial understanding of jumpspace physics could ever achieve.