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Astrogation: plotting new routes
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worfbacca
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 27, 2015 4:25 pm    Post subject: Astrogation: plotting new routes Reply with quote

Any official or house rules on plotting new hyperspace routes?
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 27, 2015 5:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Even the scouts book lacks info on that.
For me, i generally make the astrogation difficulty rather high usually setting it in the higher Very Difficult level or heroic. And i make them periodically drop out of hyperspace, to scan their whereabouts.
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Savar
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 27, 2015 6:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Read something about micro jumping to your destination to plot longer jumps.
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CRMcNeill
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Joined: 05 Apr 2010
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.

PostPosted: Fri Feb 27, 2015 7:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Savar wrote:
Read something about micro jumping to your destination to plot longer jumps.

You could also run at lower speeds in hyperspace. If the gravity sensors on a ship's drive are sensitive enough to pick up a mass shadow in time to drop a ship out of hyperspace when it is using a x1 hyperdrive, a x10 or x12 drive would have a lot more time to detect a mass shadow and drop out of hyperspace with plenty of warning. It'd take a lot longer to travel from A to B than using the standard hyperdrive method, but a lot safer than simply jumping blindly at full speed. Any ship equipped with a backup hyperdrive could use this method to scout a new course, with their main drive still available to help them backtrack once they have a new, mapped out course established. It would be tedious for the ship's crew, naturally, but also opens up possibilities for random scouting mission encounters.
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.

PostPosted: Fri Feb 27, 2015 7:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maybe scout ships could be equipped with a dedicated Pathfinder drive that replaces the Backup.
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.

PostPosted: Fri Feb 27, 2015 8:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Scout/Survey Hyperdrive
Model: Incom Pathfinder-Type Exploration Hyperdrive
Cost: 10,000 credits plus installation costs
Weight: 10 metric tons (replaces Backup Hyperdrive)
Availability: 3
Hyperdrive Modifier: x6
Notes:
-Designed for efficient operations at low speeds. Reduce consumption of Consumables by 50% when using this drive.
-In game terms, the drive's sensor rating is Search 2 (rounds)/2D.
Capsule:
All hyperdrives are equipped with a dedicated Crystal Grav-Field Trap sensor that scans space immediately ahead along the ship's flight path, looking out for mass shadows that indicate the presence of dangerous obstacles. These sensors are relatively basic, scanning only a few seconds ahead (2 rounds, modified by the ship's hyperdrive modifier). This is generally just enough time to engage the drive's automatic cut-out before the ship crashes into the mass shadow and is destroyed.

A Scout/Survey Drive, however, takes a different approach. Equipped with a small cluster of Crystal Grav-Field Traps, it integrates with the ship's onboard sensors, allowing for more in-depth analysis of detected mass shadows. In addition, because of the drive's slow speed, the ship's crew can detect mass shadows as much as a minute away (2 rounds @ x6 = 12 rounds), time in which the scout ship's crew can get a basic read on the nature of the mass shadow (stellar object, planet, artificial, etc.) it is approaching, and plan accordingly.

In addition, the sensor will also detect the presence of mass shadows that the ship will pass nearby that are not of sufficient strength to engage the ship's hyperdrive cut-out. Getting a sensor read on such mass shadows is more difficult than analyzing mass shadows directly in the ship's path (+5), but it can alert the crew to new and previously unknown phenomenon that would otherwise have passed blindly by, and that can be very useful to a scout.

Obviously, at such slow speeds, a ship operating on a scout/survey drive will not go anywhere quickly, and the ship's crew will often spend lots of time focusing on other activities (training, etc). However, the drive is much safer to use when operating outside of known hyperspace lanes, and also gives the ship's crew a basic ability to sense the universe around them even while in hyperspace.

For obvious reasons, scout/survey drives have also become popular with smugglers, who use the drive's early warning capability to detect and avoid naval interdictions and blockades.
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Last edited by CRMcNeill on Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:28 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Kytross
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Plotting the course is simple. The location of the stars are known, how they move is dictated by Newtonian mechanics. Plotting the course is merely applied mathematics. The difficult part is all the things that can't be seen from lightyears away.

Rocks, rogue planets, gravity fluctuations, eddies in hyperspace, there are a thousand ways to be pulled out of hyperspace and stranded. You're traveling multiple times the speed of light and you hit a big enough dirt particle. Force still equals mass times acceleration.

Anyway, charted courses are all but guaranteed to be free of these obstacles.
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Whill
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Joined: 14 Apr 2008
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Glad to see you guys are batting this around. I've had an idea for a PC template, Hyperspace Scout, and plotting new hyperspace courses would be their job, or at least background.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 2:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

crmcneill wrote:
Savar wrote:
Read something about micro jumping to your destination to plot longer jumps.

You could also run at lower speeds in hyperspace. If the gravity sensors on a ship's drive are sensitive enough to pick up a mass shadow in time to drop a ship out of hyperspace when it is using a x1 hyperdrive, a x10 or x12 drive would have a lot more time to detect a mass shadow and drop out of hyperspace with plenty of warning. It'd take a lot longer to travel from A to B than using the standard hyperdrive method, but a lot safer than simply jumping blindly at full speed. Any ship equipped with a backup hyperdrive could use this method to scout a new course, with their main drive still available to help them backtrack once they have a new, mapped out course established. It would be tedious for the ship's crew, naturally, but also opens up possibilities for random scouting mission encounters.


Do sensors other than gravity, work while in hyperspace?
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 2:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

garhkal wrote:
Do sensors other than gravity, work while in hyperspace?

No. Ships in hyperspace are flying blind, apart from the hyperdrive's integrated gravity sensors.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 5:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So perhaps a new form of sensors could be made specifically for astrogation scouts.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 6:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

garhkal wrote:
So perhaps a new form of sensors could be made specifically for astrogation scouts.

Did that already (see above). The trick is to come up with something based on existing rules and limitations.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

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