META: FTL fast transit of Fenspace
09-02-2012, 05:50 PM
How well known/how well used is the FTL "fast transit" method of getting around the Outer Solar System?
This is based on the idea of heading straight out to the Limit (about 40AU from Sol), moving around the Solar System while outside the Limit at FTL speeds (500c), then diving back through the Limit when you are at the closest distance between the Limit and your destination. Instead of flying straight-line (maybe dodging Sol) all within the Limit. For extra fun you go straight up (or down) from the plane of the ecliptic, to avoid anything else that might be in the way.
This is analogous to going sub-orbital on Earth, using a speed drive which can do 250mph in atmosphere - instead of flying there the hard way you just go 50mls straight up, fly at space speeds sub-orbital to your destination, then 50mls straight down - probably a leisurely hour to get anywhere on the planet. (And two hour in customs at each end. [grin])
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Quote:How well known/how well used is the FTL "fast transit" method of getting around the Outer Solar System?
It's known, but it's not used.
The Limit is 40 AU out from Sol. Based on the mass-variable speed drive engines that are most common in Fenspace it takes anywhere between 2 and 23 days to reach from the inner system. Pretty much everywhere worth going to in Fenspace is already within 12-24 hours flight time, usually less the faster the engine. So taking a multi-day detour to go FTL to shave off a half-hour on the transit is... well, yeah.
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So, Outer System travel only, I guess.
Allegedly Pluto and Neptune are 13AU apart at their closest point, and Neptune is 28AU out, so about 12AU from the Limit, with Pluto bobbing in and out (about 28AU to 46AU). So, I guess some of the time it might be worth it to get between Pluto and Neptune. Given their long orbits it might be a good idea for years (decades?) at a time.
Uranus is about 18AU out, so 22AU to the Limit, so I guess depending on their orbital positions it might be worth using FTL in travel involving Pluto or Neptune.
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Yeah - this trick is only really useful for traveling between stations in the outer system, such as Hades (orbiting Pluto) and Ultima (parked almost directly on the Limit near the "south pole," once it's built).
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robkelk Wrote:Yeah - this trick is only really useful for traveling between stations in the outer system, such as Hades (orbiting Pluto) and Ultima (parked almost directly on the Limit near the "south pole," once it's built).
And of course its useful to know from which direction to approach the solar system if you are arriving from outside the system (like from Nostromo).
(edit)
The funny thing with Nostromo is that it takes just four hours (at 500c) from Nostromo to the Limit, but days to reach the inner System from the Limit.
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Sounds familiar to any Spelljammer player - follow fast phlogiston flows like around the Krynnspace-Realmspace-Greyspace triangle and the majority of your time is almost always traveling inside the shells of the crystal spheres. I wonder where the D&D fen have been lurking, Mystara had its own version of airships and space travel even after the Spelljammer setting got the axe, and there was Eberron as well. Maybe they're with the Wizards?
'Cause when you're with the Wizards, no one thinks you're strange!
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Most likely they are not that numerous because a lot of D&D Fans think Spelljammer was really awful. 
And Handwavium is more "technical" than "magic" in using it.
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There were still enough of us that there should be some sign... just look at the Beyond The Moons website, there's lots of contributors. I suppose technically Wave Convoy and his Pyramid Ship count, though far from crewing it with undead he maintains my ferocious hatred of the entire concept. Hence having coopted the Vampire Slayer who didn't forget the S as one of my supporting cast, just in case of zombie apocalypse Infinities. Hmm, how many SJ volumetric 'tons' would the Gnarlicurl be...
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*scary idea* an UNDEAD biomod? That would be one of the ultimate Jokers.
ClassicDrogn Wrote:There were still enough of us that there should be some sign... just look at the Beyond The Moons website, there's lots of contributors. I suppose technically Wave Convoy and his Pyramid Ship count, though far from crewing it with undead he maintains my ferocious hatred of the entire concept. Hence having coopted the Vampire Slayer who didn't forget the S as one of my supporting cast, just in case of zombie apocalypse Infinities. Hmm, how many SJ volumetric 'tons' would the Gnarlicurl be... I think a SJ spacial ton is 10 cubic yards (2700 cubic feet), and for something to count as having a spacial tonnage it must have one dimension at least 25 feet. So, if you install a Spelljamming Helm, it wont care how dense the material of the Gnarlicurl is, or how much its mass is, just its volume. [grin]
Sounds a bit like how speed drives calculate the maximum speed within the Limit, based on ship size. [grin]
((Would I have had something to do with the project to convert SJ to 3rdEd? Nooo... [grin] ))
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HRogge Wrote:*scary idea* an UNDEAD biomod? That would be one of the ultimate Jokers. I thought that was what happened to Oscar Vykos?
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As representative of the Undead Biomods, I would like to take offense. But sadly my (as yet only half developed) nemesis is a sort of undead Joker, so I cannot...
For the D&D crowd, I have tried to build the magical district in Marrduk (Ishkur District) as a Fantasy Magical City -since the city is the haunt of steampunkers and Goths, how sucessfully is a matter of debate.
Rakhasa Wrote:As representative of the Undead Biomods, I would like to take offense. But sadly my (as yet only half developed) nemesis is a sort of undead Joker, so I cannot...
For the D&D crowd, I have tried to build the magical district in Marduk (Ishkur District) as a Fantasy Magical City -since the city is the haunt of steampunkers and Goths, how sucessfully is a matter of debate. Unfortunately I've heard it said, "D&D is what you do, when you can't get enough Science Fiction". I think that paraphrases something else, but I don't know what.
Still, I've seen a D&D game that crossed-over with "Bubblegum Crisis 2033". Messy...
Just hire some robot wizards to make the place more realistic. [grin]
Magical bar room brawls...
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HRogge Wrote:*scary idea* an UNDEAD biomod? That would be one of the ultimate Jokers.
I believe it was Bob who came up with http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... E.21.21.21]this idea:
Quote:Handwavium can make an inert collection of wires and metal talk and move around of its own free will; look at all the fembots out there for proof. Imagine what it could do with - or to - a once-living body. Ritual works very well with handwavium, and zombies are (in fantasy fiction, anyway) often created by rituals. For a more technobabble justification, consider something similar to the Solanum virus from The Zombie Survival Guide. Either way, all one needs is one wack hougan with a supply of biomod guacamole, and the whole thing just gets weird...
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Raises some awkward possibilities...
How about a (mostly secret) group of AIs called "Guardians Of The Death", who have bugged the graves, and hand around observation duties in spare clock cycles between them, to make sure no one tries to use handwavium on the bodies of dead science fiction (or fantasy) authors?
Stops certain things that you don't want to happen before they even start...
Makes sure people don't go any further than animatronics and VR.
Or, is even considering this too dystopian for Fenspace?
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I... no.
I... NO!
I am NOT going to go into another (multipost) rant about the semirecent fad for zombies and torque everyone else off, so just leave it at "I vote no to zombies like ECSNorway votes no to ponies," though of course he's a more active writer than I am.
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Yeah. This was presented on the wiki as something to be stopped, not something to be encouraged...
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Rob Kelk
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them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
I'm definitely in favour of there being no zombies.
Science fiction has got some much more interesting things.
But, those probably don't suit Fenspace either.
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The magical district of Marduk, with all its necromances and voodoo priests (not hougans, becuase they are fen so have far more in common with Hollywood) was inspired by that plot idea of Bob's.
Attempts to create an actual Zombie without license is actually illegal in the city (and the part about the license, for some reason, tends to worry many SMOFs). Actually, Oscar and a team of medical researchers did make a series of Top Secret experients with handwavium and dead animals and humans (bodies donated to Science, though how they managed to convince some medical school to let the have then is a mystery) -each and every experiment had no result at all. It seems the 'wave only works properly with artifacts and living beings.
My personal opinion is that zombies and the like are possible only with actual Necromancy (that is, Magic). Since there is only one guy that has been confirmed to have acces to a true extra dimenasional grimorie, perhaps you paranoids should stop bothering perfectly innoccent Necromancers and Dread Priestesses in my city and ask some hotel Mogul that I will not name....
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What, the hotel mogul whose magery is aspected towards knowledge and communication, not the "black arts"? He can't help you either, even if he wanted to...
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Yes, yes, that's what they aways claim... Then, Bam! there is Mad Laughter and black robes and twirling mustaches and Dark Mistreses... And let me tell you, buddy, I can let the World Domination and the End of of All Hope and the relentless Undead Armies and even the mustache pass, but don't you even think on monopolyzing the market of Queens of Pain in tight leather clothing.
P.D. Wait, "whose magery"? Do you mean Noah acuatlly has learned some tricks form the Catalog, not only kept it hidden for security reasons, or lack of Manasphere or something????
Okay, I was just thinking about a normal biomod that results in someone looking like e Zombie... not using it on a dead person. ^^
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Well, there is already one known undead biomod, Oscar -and it was accidental: He mixed water, handwavium and blood, had a small accident, and instant Vampire. There are several dozen vampires, most of whom used similar methods, either accidentally or in purpose. If it happens to one king of undead,it can happen to more.
But a vamp is glamorus and such, not so much a Zombie. Still, there are many necromancer wizards and other assorted goths that is not so unlikely -but for then I would suspect that some king of Lich or Mummy is the more likely option. Liches, vampires, mummies, all have lines, plots and even their own series/books in the usual fantasy and terror sources. Zombies just ramble and sometimes ask for brains.
Incidentally, this was probably never going to come up anywere in the wiki or stories, but in my personal canon, there has been an Incan Mummy biomod living somewere in Marduk ever since I discovered Keychain of Creation.
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(sings) ...but we can be thankful and tranquil and proud, for man's been endowed with the mushroom shaped cloud... (lalala I can't hear you)
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