On Tue, Oct 9, 2012 at 3:18 AM, Johannes Trimmel <[email protected] > wrote:
> On Tue, 9 Oct 2012, Onno Meyer wrote: > > Johannes replied to me: >> > Basically you need a race, an empire or some sort of guild or order, that >>> is the only source of FTL drives, and they need to be content with >>> charging acceptable fees and imposing only acceptable political measures >>> (like for instance no interstellar wars). >>> >> >> Wouldn't that lead to the Heighliners of Dune, rather than >> modules? >> >> > I think it can lead to both. I always assumed that in Dune there is some > technical or ecconomic reason to make FTL ships big. Take that away and you > can have an FTL module setup, with the same basic dynamics of power and > ecconomy. > > In Dune the hyperdrive was very expensive(a Guild 'Navigator' who was force-fed huge amounts of spice until it mutated/evolved them), but could move any sized ship any distance. This is what makes huge transports that move everything from cargo to luxury yachts in one trip. > > If you have modular FTL pods and can fit more then one in a usual lighter, >>> you could also have the situation that they are prone to failure and >>> there >>> are only few repairstations. >>> >> >> Then the FTL pod doesn't have to be a self-contained unit, >> it can do without navigation, power systems, etc. >> >> > It will most likely not have any sensors and such and no controls. You can > find reasons to put the computer that is used for navigaion into the unit. > Like maybe you need very precise calibrations, that need to be done in the > repairshop. Shipping it with a built in computer might make it more > reliable. > > The drive might also be very sensitive towards getting the wrong amount of > power at critical moments. Which does not really make a case for building a > power source right into the unit, but at least for the ship having a power > source soley dedicated for the drive, rather then plugging it into general > ship power. Power cells most likely. Maybe you can argue, that the drive > needs to be calibrated to it's power source at the shop too, so if the > power source is not particulary large, you can build it in too. > What if the FTL component is cheap but very weight inefficient? Say the FTL must weigh 40-60% of the total mass it could move, but there is nothing particularly expensive about it, it just needs some cheap components and some mass(Like a HS-Dynamo?) it might not even need much power, just dock, power it up from your cigarette-lighter, and jump. That even makes sense for a common type of derelict to find in a stable orbit around infrequently visited worlds... _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
