Lanespace And You

Private development area, away from the nimwits, retards and dithering idiots.

Er, I mean, normal users. Yeah. Those guys.
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Arcalane
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Lanespace And You

Post by Arcalane »

I noticed I never really put up a decent description of how Lanespace/FTL works in metagames, mechanically speaking. So here we go!

Intrasystem FTL In The Metaverse
In short, for a ship to use the most commonly used form of FTL travel, it opens a rip in space, and flies into that rift, which leads to subspace. Subspace is a dimensional layer which does not even slightly obey the conventional laws of physics and geometry as we understand them. After travelling through subspace at sublight speeds for the required distance (which is much shorter than standard sublight travel), it opens another rift back into realspace and flies out, the rift closing behind it as it departs. This uses a pretty hefty amount of energy for obvious reasons, so ships can't jump very often. These drives tend to have their own backup systems and are considered to be automatically installed on all ships, with no mass or cost requirements.

Energy requirements are such that FTL travel between solar systems using just this technique is incredibly impractical; it would require vast amounts of energy for the trip, be it either short jumps or one longer one, and the logistical concerns, travel time, and route planning are still problematic. Trips through the 'space still take quite a while in realtime, but much less than they would at conventional sublight speed.

That's not to say other forms of FTL travel can't or don't exist, it's just that the use of ripdrives/whatever people want to call them is so widespread that scientists have never really recieved much funding for other areas of investigation. Attempting to research other forms of FTL propulsion is generally regarded as ridiculous or impractical.

The exact origins of this technology are unknown - it was said to be a top secret military/government project, turned up after an archaeological dig uncovered something in the Sol system.

Unlike lanespace, subspace is so complex and diverse that two ships will rarely ever meet even if they jump to and from the same locations at the exact same times. This is due to complexities with the emission frequencies of ripdrives. Ships can jump in a group and stay together in subspace by synchronizing their drives, but would otherwise arrive at the same time together anyway, unless something unfortunate happened to either or both during the trip. Convoys often do this to ensure group integrity more than anything else. Inexperienced pilots also do this when flying by the wing of a more experienced pilot, to ensure nothing goes wrong.

One of the common fears when it comes to subspace travel is sublight propulsion loss or power loss, for obvious reasons. In the both cases, rescue is unlikely, and many early explorer ships were lost this way. Without sublight propulsion, a ship cannot physically propel itself out of the rip it would make when trying to drop out of subspace. Even if the ship does make it out, an unplanned drop out of subspace could strand them hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from their start or destination - though they rarely end up completely leaving a system.

More recent designs tend to incorporate automatic failsafes and booster drives that can safely eject a spaceship from subspace in the event that it loses standard propulsion or main power. Due to the difficulties of navigating, stationary facilities are never assembled within subspace. The first few attempts to monitor subspace using satellite-like structures resulted in predictable failures; the satellites simply vanished into subspace. Sometimes, these "landmarks" happen across today's travellers, but most have drifted far off course.

Intersystem FTL In The Metaverse
To travel long distances, one needs to find a more efficient method of travel, or find places that are naturally supportive of ripdrive travel. Sounds pretty preposterous and unlikely, right? Well, these places do exist, and to Humanity, they're called Lanespace Nodes. Lanespace Nodes are areas of space that have significantly weakened barriers to special corridors of subspace, which link two nodes together (hence why they're called lanes) permanently.

These lanes must be traversed using conventional drives like subspace, but are all roughly the same length, and link solar systems together like bridges, allowing vast interstellar distances to be covered in a matter of hours or days.

Ships using a node all travel along the same lane, regardless of drive emission frequency, time of entry, and precise entry location. In this regard, they are often considered quite safe and secure compared to intrasystem subspace travel - traffic along lanes is fairly frequent, and semi-stationary navigation/message beacons periodically drop in and out of the lane from realspace every hour or two, able to relay distress signals from stranded vessels should an emergency occur.

The lanes are so large, in fact, that they could play host to several fleets and full-on battles, but due to the fragile nature of subspace, there is an unspoken rule that every spacer observes, regardless of his or her upbringing: Nobody fights in lanespace. It is said that even the smallest of reactor explosions invites the utter destruction of all parties within the lane regardless of allegiance, and to possibly render the lane impossible to traverse for weeks or even months.

In reality, it's not quite that bad, but still, everybody follows the rule.
Last edited by Arcalane on Sat Oct 16, 2010 6:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Proofreadin'
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Arcalane
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Re: Lanespace And You

Post by Arcalane »

I tried to write it nice and simple but it turned into rambling exposition. I didn't finish it properly either.

Also, it probably needs a few diagrams. Any takers?
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HorseMonster
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Re: Lanespace And You

Post by HorseMonster »

You really don't need to be that specific about everything. If you just explain it in terms of game mechanics most people will fill in the blanks themselves, hell most people probably won't even ask how in-system travel works fluffwise.
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Arcalane
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Re: Lanespace And You

Post by Arcalane »

Probably not no. But at the same time I felt it was relevant to start going into these things to stop people from getting stupid ideas, like fighting all of their battles in lanespace and whatnot.
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Re: Lanespace And You

Post by HorseMonster »

Why shouldn't people fight in lanespace if they want?
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Arcalane
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Re: Lanespace And You

Post by Arcalane »

Because explosions destabilize it. With predictable results.
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