I can't get my head around pre standard tech stages

[Simon.may]

I can't figure how you build a ship with a prototype hop 1 drive. Surely they must exist. As I see it when you take a TL17 Hop drive with a potential of 1 and apply the prototype stage modifiers it's potential becomes 0 (at TL15) or non-functioning.

I then thought perhaps you could nexus two ".8" potential drives together but as I discovered I believe the rules as written would mean I would join both drives together first which in affect would give the ganged drive a potential of 2 but then the stage tech level would impose it's limit of 80% of 1.

And that ganged solution would also not work because even if I could join two drives with .8 potential it says elsewhere in the rules that drive potential is rounded down.

Am I wrong to think at before Hop 1 drives become standard at TL17 their would be research vessels testing the drive technology from TL14 onwards. As far as I can tell you only build a prototype hop 1 drive by down staging a TL19 hop 2 drive which would only be possible at TL17 which is when Hop 1 drives become standard anyway.

Oddly enough this problem could have had a "sort of" fix. :CoW: If Hop 2 drives were discovered at TL18 the corresponding prototype (with potential 1) would be available at TL16, which is effectively one tech level earlier than a standard hop 1 drive.

Is my take on this concept correct or am I missing something, somewhere?. Any critique is welcome.

 

[aramis]

Hop 0 is 9 Pc.

 

[robject]

You can use Wil's approximation if you like.

My approximation is that research Hop drives "don't work" - although that doesn't mean they ALL don't work. That just means the referee has to step in.

The same situation exists for research Jump drives. Jump-1 at TL8 just "doesn't work" - but the above caveats still apply.

 

[aramis]

You can use Wil's approximation if you like.

My approximation is that research Hop drives "don't work" - although that doesn't mean they ALL don't work. That just means the referee has to step in.

The same situation exists for research Jump drives. Jump-1 at TL8 just "doesn't work" - but the above caveats still apply.

My answer was based upon asking Marc last year.

 

[robject]

Occam's Razor: it's a lower-performance and perhaps less-reliable, less-safe, bulky, Hop drive.

Rob's Switchblade: it is exactly what the referee says it is, and nothing more.

 

[Epee]

...or perhaps they only exist in the lab on a quantum level; not scaled for practicle use yet.