Re: Alternate Jump Drive:Request for Comment
Eric T Holmes
(30 Nov 2016 07:17 UTC)
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Re: [TML] Re: Alternate Jump Drive:Request for Comment Jeff Zeitlin (01 Dec 2016 01:06 UTC)
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Re: [TML] Re: Alternate Jump Drive:Request for Comment Jeff Zeitlin 01 Dec 2016 01:06 UTC
On Wed, 30 Nov 2016 07:14:16 +0000 (UTC), you wrote to Freelance Traveller: >Jeff: >I for one would rather see time scaled down for the higher jump capable ships but not on such a "drastic" level of cost. Maybe by using all the fuel available for a quicker jump, but it still could break the rules of the game by causing your enemy to out think your jump calculations. >If the full Jump Number is 150 hours, then there should be the capability for a Jump 1 ship to accomplish an in-system "micro-jump" in less time than the full Jump 1. >Back of the napkin calculations >Jump 6 accomplishing a Jump 1 ==> 150/6 = 25 hours (28 hours at 168 hours) >Jump 6 accomplishing a Jump 5 ==> 150/(6/5) = 125 hours (140 hours) >The question is, how do you go about determining the time for a micro-jump. Would it be proportional to a parsec's distance since this is considered the distance of a "jump hex?" >Thoughts.... I more or less deliberately picked the numbers I did; when "improving" one aspect of a technology, there should always be a somewhat compensating tradeoff - in the case of the Lyman Drive, for example, the improvement was much lower fuel costs; the cost was "More expensive to build and maintain, and no jump governors". Not quite a wash, as some of Ken's calculations show; you'd still have to make the choice. Here, the improvement is that jumps are _not_ fixed at the 150hr/one week mark; a more powerful drive can take a give ship a shorter distance in less time. The cost is that it takes more fuel than a stock drive would use for the same less-than-max jump, and multiple shorter jumps takes longer - even if there's no additional time needed for extraction/insertion - than the single max jump. I didn't consider microjumps; I'm also not going to at the moment. The reason amounts to "I like that some trips are going to be done on reaction drive". As soon as I start squeezing microjumps for extra juice, I lose any real rationale for limiting the use of the jump drive as an insystem drive. In fact, given my druthers, I'd even limit the stock j-drive's use in-system not just to any trip that would take more than a week on reaction drive, but to trips over a certain (not-yet-determined) distance. (I'm also not a fan of the controversial 'jump shadow' rule.) Now, all that said, I'm not a "my way or the highway" kinda guy. Almost the exact opposite, in fact; that's what Freelance Traveller is all about. If I toss an idea here - or in the magazine - and you want to fiddle with it and tweak it, by all means, have at it. Just please share.