One of the things I used in creating the GURPS Spaceships design was an assumption that getting to the high speeds required an 'upshift'. It was sorta based on extrapolation of the Rules (specifically Rule 5c).
In essence, the extremely high speeds (and associated accelerations) of speed drives relied on a 'gravity warp' (for lack of a better name) screwing with the laws of physics (inertia and momentum for starters). As the Limit implies, the gravity wells of stellar objects disrupt the formation of the grav-warp (with the dry mass of the vehicle being a large factor in the upper bounds of speed inside a gravity well). Thus, to reach the top speeds quoted for speed drives you need to be away from large objects.
This is a good thing, as if a speed drive vehicle could reach top speed in the Earth-Luna area we'd have lots of accidents.
Acceleration Drives are proof that the grav-warp field doesn't need to be the method of propulsion as well, and in this case I can see them being useful for the small and fast (racers and military vehicles) or the large and powerful (bulk cargo haulers).
The Frontier feel comes from the fact that outside Earth-Luna the population of Fenspace is massively spread out. There are only a few places outside planetary systems that have more than about a few hundred people all together in one spot.
Remember, even at closest approach the average car (0.1c max) would take ~3 hours to go from Earth to Mars. Add launch, departure, arrival, and landing you probably have another 2 hours minimum on top of that. This is more like a typical airline flight, not something someone would go "I know, I'll go visit Mars" to themselves on the spur of the moment.
Much. These are Fen we're talking about.
Plus there's the fact you're going to be all by yourself for much of that time, without another vehicle within several lightseconds of you on average. And you don't have much room to move around in a car, which may have cruise control but not an autopilot.
Basically, if you want comfort you'll need a bigger vessel. That means going slower. And given how spread out the Fen are in general (the Main Belt is really bad for this) you're going to need a day for travel each way at least.
Inside planetary systems (Earth-Luna, the Jovian system, Venus and Mars orbital), the gravity wells would slow things down between the bodies and stations, as would ATC.
This effectively spaces people out a lot.
In essence, the extremely high speeds (and associated accelerations) of speed drives relied on a 'gravity warp' (for lack of a better name) screwing with the laws of physics (inertia and momentum for starters). As the Limit implies, the gravity wells of stellar objects disrupt the formation of the grav-warp (with the dry mass of the vehicle being a large factor in the upper bounds of speed inside a gravity well). Thus, to reach the top speeds quoted for speed drives you need to be away from large objects.
This is a good thing, as if a speed drive vehicle could reach top speed in the Earth-Luna area we'd have lots of accidents.
Acceleration Drives are proof that the grav-warp field doesn't need to be the method of propulsion as well, and in this case I can see them being useful for the small and fast (racers and military vehicles) or the large and powerful (bulk cargo haulers).
The Frontier feel comes from the fact that outside Earth-Luna the population of Fenspace is massively spread out. There are only a few places outside planetary systems that have more than about a few hundred people all together in one spot.
Remember, even at closest approach the average car (0.1c max) would take ~3 hours to go from Earth to Mars. Add launch, departure, arrival, and landing you probably have another 2 hours minimum on top of that. This is more like a typical airline flight, not something someone would go "I know, I'll go visit Mars" to themselves on the spur of the moment.
Much. These are Fen we're talking about.
Plus there's the fact you're going to be all by yourself for much of that time, without another vehicle within several lightseconds of you on average. And you don't have much room to move around in a car, which may have cruise control but not an autopilot.
Basically, if you want comfort you'll need a bigger vessel. That means going slower. And given how spread out the Fen are in general (the Main Belt is really bad for this) you're going to need a day for travel each way at least.
Inside planetary systems (Earth-Luna, the Jovian system, Venus and Mars orbital), the gravity wells would slow things down between the bodies and stations, as would ATC.
This effectively spaces people out a lot.