Discussion diferent type of FTL

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by girisuherman, Feb 13, 2020.

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What type of FTL you like ?

  1. Jump drive

    2 vote(s)
    28.6%
  2. Hyper drive

    3 vote(s)
    42.9%
  3. Point jumper

    1 vote(s)
    14.3%
  4. Thaldron System

    1 vote(s)
    14.3%
  5. Ram Drive

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  6. Flicker core

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  7. Tidal engine

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  8. Negative Drive

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. girisuherman

    girisuherman ∆ Hiki Bear ∆

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    I was writing a novel with scfi theme and can't decide what type of common FTL method, a human in future has explore hundred solar system with lots new material they managed to create dozen different FTL drive but didn't found any alien out there, because expansion gone too fast law is kinda lacking on outer ring. everyone with funds can built they own spaceship with FTL drive and you know the rest.

    Jump drive: they create bubble around the ship allowing it survive on higher dimension, they just using energy to skipping huge space in straight line, when energy run out the ship dropped to normal space.
    -Pro: reliable and safe
    -cons: energy hungry, slow, take time to recharge.

    Hyper drive: using natural chaotic energy path spread across universe, practically allowing ship teleported anywhere. Hyperspace very-very complicated and sometime there is storm in pathway.
    -pro: Very fast and efficient energy usage
    -Cons: slightly wrong calculated vector can make ship go straight to The Between

    Point jumper: pull the space until they connected, when space snapped back ship will be trapped inside space bubble for some time in semi materialize (dependent on how far they travel).
    -pro: instant travel and short time invulnerability
    -cons: need exotic matter and dozen other matter for starting reaction

    Thaldron System: create temporary worm hole that connected 2 space, there lot different way to create wormhole but most of them work with same method how long the tunnel is depend on how unstable the wormhole. Its mean 1% stability mean shorter and higher change you will change to space dust.
    Pro: very energy efficient and easy to maintain.
    Cons: whole system take lot of space and need coordinate to jump

    Ram Drive: rigid and low tech FTL method, create special field that bend space around the ship. Allowing ship break light barrier, this drive speed only depend on how big thrust the ship engine generate.
    Pro: very cheap drive and very easy to maintain.
    Cons: slowest FTL, little gravity anomaly can knock ship out FTL and drive was taking lot space.

    Flickering Core:strange way to FTL without mass limit, with rapid micro jump allowing ship moving faster that light without breaking light barrier and this core allowing ship moving without engine.
    Pro: allowing ship FTL with critical mass and giving omnidirectional movement without turning the ship
    Cons: require unique power core, third slowest FTL and easy affected by gravity anomaly.

    Tidal engine: create special space anomaly behind and front the ship and practically dragging anything on middle anomaly. Bigger the wave faster ship moves, and allowing number of drive work together create bigger wave.
    Pro: allowing massive fleet moving together, very high maximum mass and very comfortable
    Cons: second slowest FTL, very terrible energy efficiency and depend on number.

    Negative drive: removing you self from universe and rebuild it at targeted location.
    Pro: fast way to go anywhere in instant
    Cons: one wrong decimal will be removing you from universe forever.

    so what did you think? what most common used drive on civilian, military and pirates?
     
  2. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    I think most people couldn't care less about the technobabble of Sci-fi, so you can probably roll a die and pick whichever.
     
  3. Deleted member 155674

    Deleted member 155674 Guest

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    Jump drive, go with the safest
     
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  4. SerialBeggar

    SerialBeggar Hate your family? Got no friends? Gimme your stuff

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    I've read references of this method in a couple novels, but I don't know if it has a name. It involves repeatedly generating a micro black hole in front of the ship for only a micro-second. During the very brief interval the micro black hole exists, it pulls the ship towards it. After a while the ship is going fast. I forget if one can go FTL, though.
     
  5. Arcadia Blade

    Arcadia Blade ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ You can do it!!

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    Humans rather pick the safest methods rather than the dangerous ones even if the materials are godly costly. Unless your poor so effeciency would be the next thing. All the things listed would be like doing an auction.
     
  6. deepon

    deepon One who inevitably awakens

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    Let's assume a tiered society structure, of high-class nobility, army, middle class civilians, low class civilians, the poor/scavengers. Merchants can fall in any of these depending on business. Now you can divide the FTL drives into these 5 categories according to your pros and cons. The rich don't care for price, efficiency, etc. They want comfort, luxury, bragging rights, etc. So a highly sophisticated , advanced, latest FTL drive that provides safety and comfort at a great monetary cost. Army would prefer something robust and reliable. Cost would be dividing factor depending on rank and unit. Middle class would use cost effective mass transportation with some amount of safety, even if not very comfortable. Low class would be the same except even more cheaper but dangerous option. Finally the poor will go with the diy option, possibly extremely dangerous, highly cost effective, easily replaceable parts found in junkyards, an older tech that is no longer used.
     
  7. Nightow1

    Nightow1 Well-Known Member

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    The Humanax/Flinx Series by Alan Dean Foster.

    That might be under his "Tidal Engine" though. The "Ram Drive" or "Flickering Core" is probably the Warp Drive.

    @ OP

    I would say let your universe determine the drive. For example, if there is supposed to be a lot of unexplored space, then things like your "Ram Drive or Flickering Core" is less likely because the ship will travel through the intervening space, so they will map it. However with things like Wormhole drives or Slipspace drives, you actually "jump" past the intervening space, so they might not know what is really there.

    Then there is the problem of combat. If ships are randomly jumping all over the place without going through the middle space, the chance of a fight is very low and only if they bump into each other by pure chance. And there might be no way to pursue if the other ship just "teleports" out to somewhere.

    So you need to balance the need for the unknown with your need for action since the more exotic forms of FTL might deny space combat all together.

    Though David Brin cheats by making FTL choice a species/lineage/tech limitation preference. So the Uplift series has all of them. lol.
     
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  8. girisuherman

    girisuherman ∆ Hiki Bear ∆

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    That great idea thank you!
     
  9. aegis062

    aegis062 Chaotic Demon Emperor

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    from those you mentioned you could also go for gate method where a regular ship just passes the gate and the gate inside is moving at light speed like the jump point method except the gate creates the tunnel instead of a bubble. the con would be that you can't change direction while the gate is open, but pro is that the destination is already predetermind so it's unlikely that you would FTL into the sun.

    I think if your going to create civilization that can FTL pirates would vary from civilian FTL to military FTL since there could be pirates that hijack military vessels or company carriers with state of the art weapon and FTL drives.

    Civilian vessels would vary from low class for the poor, middle class for those with more money and high end vessel for the rich and private vessel for wealthy powerful business men and politicians of high echelon.

    military vessel would vary from size since every vessel would have different purpose like scout ships would be one of fastest as they are lightest ship with med lvl armor unlike a warship.an assault ship would be the fastest as it only carries personnel and ammo ready for invading enemy ships or harassing them also used for precision strikes and evacuation of all personnel.
     
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  10. Simon

    Simon [The Pure One's Chief Steward][Demon Beast]

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    Some of those options can be merged.

    Jump/hyper drive can be the same, you go to a chaotic higher dimension, that's effected by storms.

    Thaldron drive should be large instillation the create safe tunnels through the chaotic higher dimension.

    Ram/point can be the same, if you can bend space around the ship, you should should be able to bend it in front as well.
    I.e warp and coaxial warp from star trek.
     
  11. Ai chan

    Ai chan Queen of Yuri, Devourer of Traps, Thrusted Witch

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    The one that has micro black hole formed in front of the starship so that it pulls the starship forward is bad science. It's called it black hole starship, but real physicists don't support the idea itself. What they do consider is the one where the micro black hole is placed behind the starship.

    This is what is commonly referred to as 'black hole starship'. What it does is not pull the starship forward, but explosively propel Hawking Radiation backward in order to propel the starship forward at near light speed. The black hole is then continuously fed by a stream of particle beam to maintain its speed. The theory for this one is sound. The problem is, it's not really doable. In the first place, you need a lot of mass and energy to create a micro black hole that can emit enough Hawking Radiation to push the ship forward. Then you need to maintain it using onboard systems. That is assuming you have enough energy to maintain it in the first place. That is even assuming that a human body can sustain that kind of sudden acceleration.

    Names aside, the ones most commonly used by civilians would usually be something that is cheap and not hard to maintain by the average Joe.

    The military would choose something that is efficient and robust, so that they don't get stranded in space from a bump with an asteroid.

    The pirates would use various types, basically anything they can get their hands on, and so their drives will be mostly be a mixed bag of different drives that they themselves find hard to maintain. Mostly because they aren't trained for maintaining those drives or they don't have the spareparts to maintain them.

    That's why, Ai-chan consider it Mary Sue when a freelance vagabond can run a military ship for years without suffering breakdowns since they won't have access to military spareparts. The Rocinante of The Expanse is run by freelancers with no ties to MCRN, but the design of the ship itself is nothing arcane and the drive itself is commonly available and understood, so they just need a standard dock to maintain it properly.
     
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  12. wtfkjp

    wtfkjp ASDFGGWP

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    Here's a scifi fanatic review for all of those
    *none of those are save and/or probable to be used as common FTL. except flickering

    1. Jump drive: you cant just jump straight from one point to another and not encounter a blockage. your bubble that keeps your ship intact can only keep you safe in hyperfast travel, but not collisions, if it could then you might just as well destroy stars and planets along the way intentionally breaking everything and causing bigbangs or blackhole (which is more impossible to happen unless god tier shielding bubble), and if you think about it, someway or another two ship going for jumpdrive will eventually hit each other as they cross path and kills everyone on it. no one but psychos would use it.
    but these problem could be fix by "automatic stop/deacceleration" on detected collision. then "jump drive" would just be nothing but continuous short distance travel and fuck up your engine for constant jumping.

    2. this is viable, but using chaotic vector is improbable, to teleport to place means you control where to go, chaotic means you cannot control. this basically a one way teleport to anywhere. it can be even inside a planet,black hole, or worse. a star.

    3.same a jump drive, its basically compressing everything in between. compressing high density planets/start or worse black holes, i cant even think of anything what could possibly happen

    4. thaldron system, i like this one, i like this one a lot, but you cannot create an artificial worm hole in far away place with nothing. its like
    i have a hammer in house a, and there is a nail protruding in house a and house b. if you use the hammer inside house a only (that means, without in anyway contact to a nail in house b) no matter how hard you hammer, youll only hit nail in point a.

    5. ram drive is basically raming everything but unstable when there is a gravity shift. i guess this is possible, but humh.... this is possible but really, planets and a huge perimeter of stars have gravity pulls, so this would be much more dangerous than it sounds

    6.I guess this one have them figure out way out of what i talked about in jump drive. short constant jumping without wearing off your engine (as there are none)

    7. basically pushing a big momentum(wave) enought to destroy many system's revolution along the way. enough to bounce of that innocent plannet revolving an innocent star away from it's system and becoming an asteroid. this sounds scarier than ramming FTL

    8. fuck law of conservation of mass i guess...


    now then, the reason i like thaldron is that.. it is possible. IF the other endpoint has also a machine that creates artificial worm hole. its like the FTL gates in mass effect and cowboy bebop. you can enter one gate and exit another gate, but this means the end point has been explored. because there should be someone to be there to build that gate as an exit.. BUT this answers what your "most common FTL" out there
     
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  13. Fallion

    Fallion [Indolence Personified]

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    Jump drive for legal merchants, civilian and military transports, mining vessels and such. So definately the most widely used, safe, reliable and available.
    Energy is by far the most available resource in the world, it can be generated anywhere and anytime.
    A couple of minutes or even hours of charging up for a jump wouldn’t matter for most of those vessels since they’re often operating on a fixed schedule.
     
  14. girisuherman

    girisuherman ∆ Hiki Bear ∆

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    i like this one :aww:
     
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  15. userunfriendly

    userunfriendly A Wild Userunfriendly Appears!

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    Um...FTL violates causality. Sorry, Einstein says we’re stuck in a slower than light universe.:cry:
     
  16. wtfkjp

    wtfkjp ASDFGGWP

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    thanks!

    also what i have in mind is, gate for long distance travel to another galaxy or alike. flicker for short distance travel (by short, i meant light years distance travel of measurement). so everyone has flicker ftl/short distance jump drive (like a car in modern era), and can use gate (like airport in modern era, you need identification or stuff to use the gate)

    and then. for your bad guys, they fit to use tidal engine because.. dude only evil people use those. they cause chaos on which ever they are, so what the matter if a planet gets destroyed by massive wave momentum or bounced off its ring. also this can get you further distance as they don't care what they hit and can hit a fast speed if they will to. it feels like an armored car or a tank in modern era, but faster.
     
  17. aegis062

    aegis062 Chaotic Demon Emperor

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    the laws of physics are more like theory of physics as it is very arrogant to think that we know everything about physics in our universe. there are still many things we don't understand about earth much less black holes and other galaxies to assume that physics in our solar system applies to the universe.
     
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  18. userunfriendly

    userunfriendly A Wild Userunfriendly Appears!

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    However the speed of light is also the speed of causality. Interestingly enough, the universe has a speed for events. Besides, General Relativity is an inferred law, based on our observations of the universe. Time does slow down near a gravity field, scientists have measured it. Space bends around a gravity field, they’ve MEASURED it. General Relativity puts FTL in the realm of fiction...or fantasy....

    Have you thought about a fantasy novel? Of a magic civilization so advanced they’re planning to travel to the stars? Magic in this universe is used to manipulate physics...like Mahouka.o_O
     
  19. aegis062

    aegis062 Chaotic Demon Emperor

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    while I understand that scientist have some understanding towards light speed, gravity, and time we cannot wield it nor can we harness it thus my saying that we don't really understand it as we haven't truly experimented these thing. we can't really get close to a black hole nor have we traveled at light speed so we can't really tell it's effects. we have measured them as you say, but it doesn't mean we understand them. I don't know how to properly explain it, but it like showing numbers to a toddler he can measure the number see it width and height, but it doesn't mean he understands what it means or how to use it. do you get me?
     
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  20. userunfriendly

    userunfriendly A Wild Userunfriendly Appears!

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    Yes, but unless we throw away 300+ years of investigation into the physical universe, the speed of light is absolute.:(