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The Great IMTU Poll, Part III

FTL Drives

  • Total voters
    98
G

Golan2072

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Couldn't resist it


Two questions in this one:

FTL Drives

c++ I have the technical specs on jump drives right here...

c+ Jump drives work sort of like this...

c Well, we have jump drives, but I never had to explain them.

c- FTL drive mechanics are a bit different out here.

c-- We ride the sky in real slow beasties.

---

Jump Tonnage

jt++ Jump torpedoes are not only canonical, but absolutely necessary for survival as we know it.

jt+ Jump boats are do-able, economical in many cases, and cool.

jt Jumpships under 100t might exist in experimental form -- but there are various problems with the design.

jt- Jumpships under 100t are too small, or they open too big a can of worms.

jt-- Small jumpships destroy Traveller.

jt? What's a jump torpedo?

-jt+ Depends on my mood.

---
Other Great IMTU Polls: I, II, IV, V
 
As in Poll II, my answers are a bit mixed:

FTL Drives

c+/c- Jump drives work sort of like this, and the technology is a bit different from Impie Standards...


Jump Tonnage

jt/jt+ Jump boats are do-able, economical in many cases, and cool -- but there are various problems with the design.

So I voted c+ and jt+
 
Scooped!

Whaddayaknow, you can do multiple questions in a poll? :D

Meanwhile: c+ (thank you, DGP, for supplying the technobabble)

And I will admit: jt?

I can imagine what a JT is, and I'm sure JTs have caused monumental flamewars on the TML, but... in which edition do they come up, and what precisely is wrong with them? (Can you tell I'm really only into CT/MT?)
 
-C/C there is jump drive IMTU and the universe of Traveller, I have a good understanding how it operates in my universe. It does not stop me from breaking the rules every so often. However, to explain the first notation, Jump Drive is not the only game in town. If you want FTL there are other options.

jt, jump torpedoes, why not, just making them unreliable is my objective. Pity the poor sod who would climb into one when there is not enough air or food or water, IMTU.
 
C+ I try not to get tied down to 'it works this way', but I have a general idea of what I will and will not allow to happen with Jumps.

Jt+ IMTU, Jump Torpedoes as such are out, but Jump Boats are possible by shoehorning the drive and tanks from a 100T hull (the smallest unit it is possible to build) into a small craft hull. I'll save you the maths - you can get down to a 15T automated SOS beacon/Messenger Buoy (English joke) a 20T lowberth/cargo Interstellar Lifeboat or Delivery Buoy, or a 25T/30T cabin boat. Not for the claustrophobic, and below 25T there is no space for a M-Drive.
 
C+ I don't have a good near-scientific explanation about how it works (interdimentional travel? tearing holes through the space-time continuum?), but I can tell you the exact game implications of the J-Drive.

JT- due to the force of habit, though I'm open to suggestions in that area; my greatest concern is about how cheap, automatic, low-tonnage jump-drones would effect interstellar communications.
 
C++ ... I'll post the field equations and wiring diagrams to my website after I finish converting it from tables to CSS "div"s (another week to go). In the meantime go here and here for some technobabble.

Regards PLST
 
Originally posted by Employee 2-4601:
my greatest concern is about how cheap, automatic, low-tonnage jump-drones would effect interstellar communications.
Click to expand...
Not a lot, using my shoehorn method.
IMTU, important messages are transferred by 200T J6 X-Boats. J6 requires a minimum of about 70-80T of hardware even for a drone - bringing it close to the canon X-Boat size (if you like those things) - and IMTU drones are not deemed to have enough security to transfer messages of political/economic/military importance.
Inconsequential messages OTOH are, well, inconsequential.
 
c+
of course, my players never seemed interested in specifics...they just wanted to break stuff
file_23.gif


but knowing roughly how things work is always useful so you can throw surprises at them...

"I throw a wrench into the closest lanthanum coil bank."

(throws a few dice and chuckles...)
"Okay, the pirate's jump drive is disabled...but not before the feedback throws everything within 20 meters into jump space. Hope you can survive at least s week in your tourist duty vacc suit."
toast.gif


jt/jt+
I sort of turned things on its head IMTU, with drives starting out large and fuel hungry, but getting smaller and more efficient. Eventually sub-100 ton craft with jump drives do exist.
 
"C" because I like jump drives, and if I want to use them I can go get someone's explanation for them, but I like to be able to violate canon if I want, i.e. make a higher jump progression at lower TLs (e.g. a jump-12 drive at TL-15), and also make new types of drives: not only TL15-J12, but also in that same universe have Star Trek warp drives appear at TL-18 with similar performance.

"-jt+" because I want to be able to choose, but otherwise don't much care.
 
C++ but some decided non-canon aspects. For example, jump time is a discrete function of tonnage, 100 ton ships take 1 week, larger ships take longer at certain break points. Smaller than 100 tons the time starts going up again. Theoretically it is a delta function at 100 tons.
So 100 ton ships go "faster".

jt they exist, but are expensive and much less efficient. It has to do with the stabiltiy and strain on such a small "jump bubble." As part of the c++ non-sapient navigation, e.g., computer control, doesn't work too well for even the easiest of ship tonnages 100 dton.
 
c+ -> if it exist the player are gonna ask how it works, because surely they will try to tamper with it.

jt+ -> just because you can do it, that doesn't mean that is also useful or economical.

My explanation is quite canonical, just with the addition of some cthuloid element for the iperspace.
 
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