Post by Iota on Sept 13, 2008 7:21:42 GMT -5
((something i wrote along time ago when i used to RP in SWG))
As with most modes of travelling a route should be predetermined before setting off on your little endeavour half way across the galaxy. Why well simply there are a few things that could well make you go boom just as you are happily nestled in the cockpit sipping on your warm brew waiting to drop out at Corellia ready to hit the beaches and avoid the rain.
The Galaxy
For RP purposes a trip from Tatooine to Dantooine would not be as one straight line. The fastest and safest route would be a series of small jumps from Beacon to beacon until finally arriving at the their destination. So a trip from Tatooine to Dantooine would first consist a run along the Corellian Run. This would take them to their first major check point at Corellia, and therefore their first jump would be to Corellian Space; (in fact if we were to stay true to the Gazetteer, the first minor check point would be at Druckenwell though as of yet we can’t place Storyteller Props or Planets in space.) After exiting Hyperspace at Corellia the next series of jumps would be to Dathomir then perhaps Yavin before finally arriving at Dantooine.
Hyperdriving
Starships using a hyperdrive would need to process a fixed routine. Once a Navicomputer plotted the navigation course the ship would then precede to match that plotted course and then activate its hyperdrive. The vessel would then accelerate so quickly that the stars outside would stream into stretched parallel lines scorching the space when they made the ‘jump’ to hyperspace. To an observer outside the vessel this would also be observable as the ship accelerates so ferociously that it would blur into a line before disappearing altogether.
Upon initiating and entering hyperspace, the vessel would leave the conventional ideal of existence, or real space. This was known as pseudomotion, and would occur when the extreme acceleration ends in a motion where the predictable philosophy and velocity become irrelevant. When in hyperspace transit, the entire universe is funnelled into a blue-coloured 'tunnel' of high-speed blur, effectively cutting off the ship from the normal methods of scanning and detection.
Re-Entering Real Space
Hyperspace initiation and traversing of a vessel would by completed by submitting a destination and co-ordinates to a navicomputer either by manual input or by a series of transmissions received from a wireless frequency from a base or command point. This is among the few ways the Ghost Squadron transits when escorting or patrolling its flights and space lanes, as this would allow all pilots to receive the same co-ordinates during a Sortie. Coordinating these calculations was a dangerous task due to the many obstacles in space, coming too close to a Black Hole or Star would result in a jolt from hyperspace because of their gravitational pull. Intrasystem hyperdriving was quite uncommon, but was sometimes used strategically to surprise an enemy.
Because hyperspatial navigation was extremely difficult, routes that were often travelled were close to major inhabited systems. Thus in the event of a problem, the possibility of communicating with a nearby planet could be a great help in a difficult situation. These problems were usually slight mistakes in calculating the coordinates or either not having very new data - such as of dead or newly-formed stars - included in old databases. Trying to find a ship that had re-entered real space at the wrong location was a nearly impossible task, as the many who sought the legendary Katana Fleet learned.
Dangers and Hazards
If moving at speeds many times faster than the speed of light there were many dangers. Any collision or interference no matter how small could prove fatal the gravitational pull of a star could prove in particular devastating. Therefore a course would need to be plotted outside the gravitational well of these huge celestial bodes.
Gravitational generators could be constructed and placed to mimic and create an artificial 'interdiction field' which would immediately stop hyperspace travel of a vessel in certain areas by imitating the fringes of a stars gravity, this was useful for forcing ships to exit hyperspace whilst en route and preventing those ships from leaving the real space in this zone thus becoming an effective tool in Space Combat. Also the more questionable organisations, such as pirates could pull large asteroids into trade routes by the use of the this tactic were able to provide a means to stop shipping lanes as well as provide a temporary base or shield.
Black holes were a constant menace. At least a few vessels each year were destroyed by the several "wandering" black holes in real space. Their near infinite gravity wells could be catastrophic to craft that pass too close.
Effects on the Ship Systems
Along with navigational hazards, there would also be the difficulty in communicating with ships I hyperspace. Since the ships have exited real space and in a since do not exist in the conventional sense they would go long distances being completely cut off from communications with real space. Subspace and Conventional Radio were made useless, as the speed would completely distort the wavelengths leaving nothing but static discharge when used. The use of Hypercomm signals did go someway in communicating in some instances but the further away from the Core the ship was the increasingly likely the signal would be lost. Also even when able to receive this transmission, it was usually so difficult to actually decipher the message and return a communication that it could only sometimes be done by planets in close proximity or ships sharing the same voyage.
These same difficulties also effected ships sensor systems. It was almost impossible to maintain a sensor lock on a vessel travelling in hyperspace, which made escape to lightspeed a very robust retreat option in most hostile engagements. The only option available for pursuing these fleeing or sometimes lost vessels was generally to plot several courses along the target's last known trajectory, and try to guess where the ship would exit hyperspace for course corrections. This however was usually a futile method since most ships wishing to avoid any pursuit would plot a series of short jumps before initiating a long jump to a completely different vector before those pursuing them could follow. The best option at combating this was to place homing beacons on the ships yet with large distance jumps even the more fantastically expensive HoloNet-equipped tracking devices were not always able to track vessels.
There is another way of trying to track vessels in Hyperspace. Using the fierce radiation bursts accompanying a ship when initiating a jump it could be detected by aligning sensors close by and are usually placed along the edges of systems. This was how the Rebel base on Hoth was able to prepare for the oncoming attack when Admiral Ozzel mistakenly took the Executor and its battle fleet out of hyperspace too close to the system, rather than approaching stealthily from outside the system. This interesting phenomenon was Cronau radiation but again was only useful in sectors where sensors had been placed.
Navigation
Due to the immense danger of stars and their gravitational well hyperspace courses would need to be plotted with considerab;e thought. Very few beings were able to react to travelling at the speeds faster than light other than some of the most powerful Jedi and in the conventional sense the use of any onboard sensor or information from communications was useless. Even subspace sensors, which operated along an alternate dimension and propagate faster than light, could not keep up with the vast speeds of hyperspace travel. Therefore, precise and accurate advance knowledge of the celestial bodies along the route was necessary in the form of navigational computers. These devices, also known as nav comps or navicomputers by spacers, contained detailed star charts and the ability to make astronavigational calculations quickly from one point to another before a jump was taken.
While pilots would have had basic understanding of astronav skills to operate a nav computer proficiently, they didn't need to know the complex physical equations necessary for hyperspeed travel. The internal library charts had to be periodically updated, of course, as systems move slowly around the galaxy, stars explode and are born, and so on, and so a dedicated explorer and cartographer corps still existed millennia after the first star lanes were plotted.
Communications
Though hyperspace travel had been the primary function of this phenomenon, which made the galaxy ever smaller, it was not the only use. As technology evolved it soon became possible to send packets of signals through hyperspace at faster speeds and longer distances than was able with the usual conventional subspace transmitters and was in fact faster than using hyperspace with any form of vessel. The HoloNet further improved this technology using a series of connected network points using hyperspace beacons to relay and broadcast enormous collections of data across the galaxy, allowing near instantaneous full-holo transmissions from virtually any subscriber to another. This use of the HoloNet was rigorously controlled and maintained by the Galactic Empire. It was supremely expensive to maintain and therefore usually limited to Government Officials, Bureaucrats, Royalty and the Wealthy. News-Reports, Media and a host of other broadcasts were transmitted and repeated on local sector-based subspace networks therefore allowing every level of society able to attain this information and not just those with the more expensive hypercomm systems, there was however a delay.
As with most modes of travelling a route should be predetermined before setting off on your little endeavour half way across the galaxy. Why well simply there are a few things that could well make you go boom just as you are happily nestled in the cockpit sipping on your warm brew waiting to drop out at Corellia ready to hit the beaches and avoid the rain.
The Galaxy
For RP purposes a trip from Tatooine to Dantooine would not be as one straight line. The fastest and safest route would be a series of small jumps from Beacon to beacon until finally arriving at the their destination. So a trip from Tatooine to Dantooine would first consist a run along the Corellian Run. This would take them to their first major check point at Corellia, and therefore their first jump would be to Corellian Space; (in fact if we were to stay true to the Gazetteer, the first minor check point would be at Druckenwell though as of yet we can’t place Storyteller Props or Planets in space.) After exiting Hyperspace at Corellia the next series of jumps would be to Dathomir then perhaps Yavin before finally arriving at Dantooine.
Hyperdriving
Starships using a hyperdrive would need to process a fixed routine. Once a Navicomputer plotted the navigation course the ship would then precede to match that plotted course and then activate its hyperdrive. The vessel would then accelerate so quickly that the stars outside would stream into stretched parallel lines scorching the space when they made the ‘jump’ to hyperspace. To an observer outside the vessel this would also be observable as the ship accelerates so ferociously that it would blur into a line before disappearing altogether.
Upon initiating and entering hyperspace, the vessel would leave the conventional ideal of existence, or real space. This was known as pseudomotion, and would occur when the extreme acceleration ends in a motion where the predictable philosophy and velocity become irrelevant. When in hyperspace transit, the entire universe is funnelled into a blue-coloured 'tunnel' of high-speed blur, effectively cutting off the ship from the normal methods of scanning and detection.
Re-Entering Real Space
Hyperspace initiation and traversing of a vessel would by completed by submitting a destination and co-ordinates to a navicomputer either by manual input or by a series of transmissions received from a wireless frequency from a base or command point. This is among the few ways the Ghost Squadron transits when escorting or patrolling its flights and space lanes, as this would allow all pilots to receive the same co-ordinates during a Sortie. Coordinating these calculations was a dangerous task due to the many obstacles in space, coming too close to a Black Hole or Star would result in a jolt from hyperspace because of their gravitational pull. Intrasystem hyperdriving was quite uncommon, but was sometimes used strategically to surprise an enemy.
Because hyperspatial navigation was extremely difficult, routes that were often travelled were close to major inhabited systems. Thus in the event of a problem, the possibility of communicating with a nearby planet could be a great help in a difficult situation. These problems were usually slight mistakes in calculating the coordinates or either not having very new data - such as of dead or newly-formed stars - included in old databases. Trying to find a ship that had re-entered real space at the wrong location was a nearly impossible task, as the many who sought the legendary Katana Fleet learned.
Dangers and Hazards
If moving at speeds many times faster than the speed of light there were many dangers. Any collision or interference no matter how small could prove fatal the gravitational pull of a star could prove in particular devastating. Therefore a course would need to be plotted outside the gravitational well of these huge celestial bodes.
Gravitational generators could be constructed and placed to mimic and create an artificial 'interdiction field' which would immediately stop hyperspace travel of a vessel in certain areas by imitating the fringes of a stars gravity, this was useful for forcing ships to exit hyperspace whilst en route and preventing those ships from leaving the real space in this zone thus becoming an effective tool in Space Combat. Also the more questionable organisations, such as pirates could pull large asteroids into trade routes by the use of the this tactic were able to provide a means to stop shipping lanes as well as provide a temporary base or shield.
Black holes were a constant menace. At least a few vessels each year were destroyed by the several "wandering" black holes in real space. Their near infinite gravity wells could be catastrophic to craft that pass too close.
Effects on the Ship Systems
Along with navigational hazards, there would also be the difficulty in communicating with ships I hyperspace. Since the ships have exited real space and in a since do not exist in the conventional sense they would go long distances being completely cut off from communications with real space. Subspace and Conventional Radio were made useless, as the speed would completely distort the wavelengths leaving nothing but static discharge when used. The use of Hypercomm signals did go someway in communicating in some instances but the further away from the Core the ship was the increasingly likely the signal would be lost. Also even when able to receive this transmission, it was usually so difficult to actually decipher the message and return a communication that it could only sometimes be done by planets in close proximity or ships sharing the same voyage.
These same difficulties also effected ships sensor systems. It was almost impossible to maintain a sensor lock on a vessel travelling in hyperspace, which made escape to lightspeed a very robust retreat option in most hostile engagements. The only option available for pursuing these fleeing or sometimes lost vessels was generally to plot several courses along the target's last known trajectory, and try to guess where the ship would exit hyperspace for course corrections. This however was usually a futile method since most ships wishing to avoid any pursuit would plot a series of short jumps before initiating a long jump to a completely different vector before those pursuing them could follow. The best option at combating this was to place homing beacons on the ships yet with large distance jumps even the more fantastically expensive HoloNet-equipped tracking devices were not always able to track vessels.
There is another way of trying to track vessels in Hyperspace. Using the fierce radiation bursts accompanying a ship when initiating a jump it could be detected by aligning sensors close by and are usually placed along the edges of systems. This was how the Rebel base on Hoth was able to prepare for the oncoming attack when Admiral Ozzel mistakenly took the Executor and its battle fleet out of hyperspace too close to the system, rather than approaching stealthily from outside the system. This interesting phenomenon was Cronau radiation but again was only useful in sectors where sensors had been placed.
Navigation
Due to the immense danger of stars and their gravitational well hyperspace courses would need to be plotted with considerab;e thought. Very few beings were able to react to travelling at the speeds faster than light other than some of the most powerful Jedi and in the conventional sense the use of any onboard sensor or information from communications was useless. Even subspace sensors, which operated along an alternate dimension and propagate faster than light, could not keep up with the vast speeds of hyperspace travel. Therefore, precise and accurate advance knowledge of the celestial bodies along the route was necessary in the form of navigational computers. These devices, also known as nav comps or navicomputers by spacers, contained detailed star charts and the ability to make astronavigational calculations quickly from one point to another before a jump was taken.
While pilots would have had basic understanding of astronav skills to operate a nav computer proficiently, they didn't need to know the complex physical equations necessary for hyperspeed travel. The internal library charts had to be periodically updated, of course, as systems move slowly around the galaxy, stars explode and are born, and so on, and so a dedicated explorer and cartographer corps still existed millennia after the first star lanes were plotted.
Communications
Though hyperspace travel had been the primary function of this phenomenon, which made the galaxy ever smaller, it was not the only use. As technology evolved it soon became possible to send packets of signals through hyperspace at faster speeds and longer distances than was able with the usual conventional subspace transmitters and was in fact faster than using hyperspace with any form of vessel. The HoloNet further improved this technology using a series of connected network points using hyperspace beacons to relay and broadcast enormous collections of data across the galaxy, allowing near instantaneous full-holo transmissions from virtually any subscriber to another. This use of the HoloNet was rigorously controlled and maintained by the Galactic Empire. It was supremely expensive to maintain and therefore usually limited to Government Officials, Bureaucrats, Royalty and the Wealthy. News-Reports, Media and a host of other broadcasts were transmitted and repeated on local sector-based subspace networks therefore allowing every level of society able to attain this information and not just those with the more expensive hypercomm systems, there was however a delay.
