Jump gates

[Pagan priest]

Here is the text from the last paragraph of page 35 of the original JTAS #24 (see below).
While you are correct it does not call out lanthanum for the jump grid (network of wires in the hull) in the hull (and on page 36 discusses the lanthanum jump coils in the drive itself) it most certainly does state that the wire network is required "to maintain the jump field", and that damage to this network is "a primary cause of the loss of ships in jump".

Written by Marc Miller himself, and published long before anything for MT was published by anyone!

From this, it would seem that to use a Jump Gate would require that a ship have an operating Jump Drive, but would not necessarily require the ship to expend the fuel associated with making the jump. Fuel use would be standard for Power Plant operation for the period. Which would make the use of Jump Gates restricted to jump capable starships, but could be used to allow a J-1 ship to jump several parsecs.

When I have thought about this in the past, I have considered using the X-boat routes as the points connected by pairs of Jump Gates, rather than allowing a Jump Gate to simply fling a ship to any point within range. Thus, systems not part of the X-boat system would still need to be serviced by ships traveling through their own onboard Jump Drives.

 

[BlackBat242]

From this, it would seem that to use a Jump Gate would require that a ship have an operating Jump Drive, but would not necessarily require the ship to expend the fuel associated with making the jump. Fuel use would be standard for Power Plant operation for the period. Which would make the use of Jump Gates restricted to jump capable starships, but could be used to allow a J-1 ship to jump several parsecs.

When I have thought about this in the past, I have considered using the X-boat routes as the points connected by pairs of Jump Gates, rather than allowing a Jump Gate to simply fling a ship to any point within range. Thus, systems not part of the X-boat system would still need to be serviced by ships traveling through their own onboard Jump Drives.

That sounds good - there might be something in the material of the jump gate pairs that creates a form of quantum entanglement between tyhe pairs.

And needing the jump drive to activate the gate is a reasonable feature.

 

[Pagan priest]

That sounds good - there might be something in the material of the jump gate pairs that creates a form of quantum entanglement between tyhe pairs.

And needing the jump drive to activate the gate is a reasonable feature.

Based on the post from which I was quoting, a ship in jump space has to have an active grid, or it will be destroyed when it enters Jump Space, so the gate could be activated and something could be sent into jump space, it just won't come back out.

 

[Enoki]

From this, it would seem that to use a Jump Gate would require that a ship have an operating Jump Drive, but would not necessarily require the ship to expend the fuel associated with making the jump. Fuel use would be standard for Power Plant operation for the period. Which would make the use of Jump Gates restricted to jump capable starships, but could be used to allow a J-1 ship to jump several parsecs.

When I have thought about this in the past, I have considered using the X-boat routes as the points connected by pairs of Jump Gates, rather than allowing a Jump Gate to simply fling a ship to any point within range. Thus, systems not part of the X-boat system would still need to be serviced by ships traveling through their own onboard Jump Drives.

That would mean that you could have a J-1 X-boat that is jumping J-6 through a gate. That would cut down the cost and size of the boats, make them go further between stops, vastly improving the whole system. It also means the boats need a fraction of the fuel they previously did making refueling them cheaper and faster. The whole system would benefit greatly from this.

 

[mike wightman]

That would mean that you could have a J-1 X-boat that is jumping J-6 through a gate. That would cut down the cost and size of the boats, make them go further between stops, vastly improving the whole system. It also means the boats need a fraction of the fuel they previously did making refueling them cheaper and faster. The whole system would benefit greatly from this.

Now that is a very interesting idea...
the saving of jump 4s worth of fuel would allow for a power plant to provide the power to the jump drive and an m-1 drive...

 

[whartung]

I have considered using the X-boat routes as the points connected by pairs of Jump Gates, rather than allowing a Jump Gate to simply fling a ship to any point within range.

You probably don't need the Jump Gates to work in pairs, but, for all practical purposes they will need to be paired up.

If the benefit of the jump gate is removing the fuel load on the ship, then its easy to see, with wide adoption, commercial ships with no jump fuel at all.

Plonk a J3 drive in there, and rely on the jump gates. While a ship could be flung to whatever parsec they wanted, if there's no Jump gate in the destination system, they're not coming home.

You can also see this as strategic value for fleets. You can, say, equip a combat fleet with J-6, but only fuel for J-3. They can use Jump gates to fling them into contested space, with their tanks full, from 6 parsecs away -- that's quite a range. They can only J3 out, but that's usually not a problem. The benefit is they get to come in ready to rock and roll without having to gas up before engaging.

Depending on how gates are constructed, you can see during an extended conflict, new gates being pushed toward the front.

 

[sageryne]

I really like the idea of jump gates. I envision this would be similar to Babylon 5, where you have both ships without a jump dive that solely use the jump gates, and other ships with jump drives like regular Traveller. I would change one thing, I would require a jump gate at both ends (paired). These are built by large "explorer ships" (like the Cortez) that have their own jump drives and carry the components to a new system.

To simplify things for my own campaign, I would overlay the government owned jump gate network on the X-boat network. I would also have jump gates work like jump drives, every jump still takes one week. The jump gates would be located just beyond the 100 diameter limit (from the world or sun). I would limit my jump gates to a maximum jump-4 (like X-boats) and set the arbitrary maximum ship size to 50,000 dTons. Most big military ships would have their own jump drive (for tactical and strategic flexibility), but the Hadrian Class Battle Riders could move from system to system using the gates. Ships with jump drives could still use the gates, which would make sense for faster travel (i.e. a jump-2 far trader could more rapidly cross the sub-sector using jump-4 gates).

My jump gates would built like a space station with jump drives for a jump-4, 50,000 dTon ship. The only difference is that it doesn't move. It just has station keeping thrusters.

The jump gates themselves would be look exactly the same as the Babylon 5 ones (since there is already good imagery for them). They would have a control centre that also acted as the station for the X-boats. They would have a large repulsor bay (to be used as a tractor beam) for pulling in the x-boats for refuelling. These control centres would also have large transmitters for sharing the data from the X-boats. The jump gates would have significant defences due to their high value and the fact they would be a target in any conflict.

One key component is there would be a series of tankers constantly shuttling fuel from the gas giant or other source of hydrogen. I would retcon that all X-boat network worlds have gas giants. The gates would have some huge spherical hydrogen tanks attached to them.

I like the concept of jump gates being like the Panama Canal or Suez Canal. In keeping with that idea, the cost to transit them would be based on your size. I still have to work out what the cost would be, but it would be equivalent to the refined hydrogen you use, plus a percentage of the amortised cost of the jump gate.

This would definitely increase the flow of traffic along the X-boat routes. I can see high population worlds off the X-boat routes to pay the cost to have their own jump gates installed to connect them to the X-boat network. This would not be consistent, as some worlds would not be able to afford the cost.

I recognise this would change the economics of the Traveller universe, but my campaigns have never revolved around GDP of worlds. My campaigns revolve around cool adventures. Taking jump gates from system to system until the PCs leave and go off to a remote world just sounds like more fun.

 

[sageryne]

One more point, in my mind, there would be a dedicated jump gate for each connection. So, in important systems, there might be three or even four jump gates. They would be relatively close together (with enough room for ships to manoeuvre). This could speed up transits, as ships don't need to refuel. This area would be tightly controlled by "Space traffic control" to move ships out of the arrivals area to make room for departures.

In reading some of the other posts, I agree there should be some sort of "recharge" time, so the jump gates couldn't be jumping every 5 minutes, say one hour between cycles (assuming there is sufficient fuel available).

That is enough time for an X-boat to jump in system, transmit its information to the next X-boat, and then they would jump. At crossroads systems, that could mean one boat arriving and then several leaving.

I also like the idea that ships travelling via gates would still need their own lanthanum grid and jump drive plant to protect them while travelling through, they just don't need the fuel to "open" the jump.

 

[Pagan priest]

I really like the idea of jump gates. I envision this would be similar to Babylon 5, where you have both ships without a jump dive that solely use the jump gates, and other ships with jump drives like regular Traveller. I would change one thing, I would require a jump gate at both ends (paired). These are built by large "explorer ships" (like the Cortez) that have their own jump drives and carry the components to a new system.

To simplify things for my own campaign, I would overlay the government owned jump gate network on the X-boat network. I would also have jump gates work like jump drives, every jump still takes one week. The jump gates would be located just beyond the 100 diameter limit (from the world or sun). I would limit my jump gates to a maximum jump-4 (like X-boats) and set the arbitrary maximum ship size to 50,000 dTons. Most big military ships would have their own jump drive (for tactical and strategic flexibility), but the Hadrian Class Battle Riders could move from system to system using the gates. Ships with jump drives could still use the gates, which would make sense for faster travel (i.e. a jump-2 far trader could more rapidly cross the sub-sector using jump-4 gates).

My jump gates would built like a space station with jump drives for a jump-4, 50,000 dTon ship. The only difference is that it doesn't move. It just has station keeping thrusters.

The jump gates themselves would be look exactly the same as the Babylon 5 ones (since there is already good imagery for them). They would have a control centre that also acted as the station for the X-boats. They would have a large repulsor bay (to be used as a tractor beam) for pulling in the x-boats for refuelling. These control centres would also have large transmitters for sharing the data from the X-boats. The jump gates would have significant defences due to their high value and the fact they would be a target in any conflict.

One key component is there would be a series of tankers constantly shuttling fuel from the gas giant or other source of hydrogen. I would retcon that all X-boat network worlds have gas giants. The gates would have some huge spherical hydrogen tanks attached to them.

I like the concept of jump gates being like the Panama Canal or Suez Canal. In keeping with that idea, the cost to transit them would be based on your size. I still have to work out what the cost would be, but it would be equivalent to the refined hydrogen you use, plus a percentage of the amortised cost of the jump gate.

This would definitely increase the flow of traffic along the X-boat routes. I can see high population worlds off the X-boat routes to pay the cost to have their own jump gates installed to connect them to the X-boat network. This would not be consistent, as some worlds would not be able to afford the cost.

I recognise this would change the economics of the Traveller universe, but my campaigns have never revolved around GDP of worlds. My campaigns revolve around cool adventures. Taking jump gates from system to system until the PCs leave and go off to a remote world just sounds like more fun.

You read my notes!