SpaceBadger
SOC-14 1K
Just to be clear, this is an idea I'm working on for M23U, not O23U.
There are a lot of things that I like about stutterwarp, but at least as many things that I dislike. One thing holding me up from commencing with ship design IM23U is trying to decide exactly what to use for insystem travel and what to use for interstellar travel. I've thought of using some realistic maneuver drives (not Traveller reactionless!) but they are too darn slow and use too much fuel/reaction mass for what I want, plus adding them would invalidate all published ship designs.
I went to sleep early this evening due to a headache and painkillers, and woke up a little while ago with the inspiration to just use everything I like about stutterwarp (including ship design specs, so I can still use published ship designs) while changing or re-fluffing only the stuff that I don't like. I get to have my cake and eat it, too.
My reasons for posting about it here are: to share the idea in case it would be helpful to others who share my likes/dislikes re stutterwarp; and to get some comments/feedback on implications or details I might have missed.
Things I Like About Stutterwarp:
- cannot be used to land and take off from planets
- goes really fast insystem, but not FTL insystem
- 7.7 ly limit so you can't just point your ship and go anywhere, but have some constraints on FTL travel
- published ship design system
- pseudo-velocity prevents use to accelerate kinetic kill weapons to near lightspeed
Things I Dislike About Stutterwarp:
- electron tunnelling warp micro-jumps introduce a lot of non-intuitive effects to combat, communications, etc which aren't really the kind of game I want to play
- hmm, I guess that's really about it? So I guess I really do like stutterwarp except for some of the complications imposed by the way the drive is described as working
My New Alternative Drive System!
- works just like stutterwarp in mechanics set forth in "Things I Like..." above
- instead of electron tunnelling, it uses a different kind of handwavium that gives same pseudo-velocities as equivalent stutterwarp equipment, but without the complications to combat and communication that are required by the warp micro-jumps "now I'm here, now I'm there" - it just goes fast!
- needs cool name - gotta find and re-read Anderson's "The Star Fox" as it had a drive somewhat like this, IIRC
TLDR: Wow, that was really a lot of thinking out loud just to get to the point that I can still use published stutterwarp designs with some re-fluffing and a new name, while getting rid of the warp tunnelling effects that I don't like.
Any suggestions, or implications to this change that I might have missed?
Maybe I should just go back to sleep and see if I have any more "brilliant" ideas, hmm.
There are a lot of things that I like about stutterwarp, but at least as many things that I dislike. One thing holding me up from commencing with ship design IM23U is trying to decide exactly what to use for insystem travel and what to use for interstellar travel. I've thought of using some realistic maneuver drives (not Traveller reactionless!) but they are too darn slow and use too much fuel/reaction mass for what I want, plus adding them would invalidate all published ship designs.
I went to sleep early this evening due to a headache and painkillers, and woke up a little while ago with the inspiration to just use everything I like about stutterwarp (including ship design specs, so I can still use published ship designs) while changing or re-fluffing only the stuff that I don't like. I get to have my cake and eat it, too.
My reasons for posting about it here are: to share the idea in case it would be helpful to others who share my likes/dislikes re stutterwarp; and to get some comments/feedback on implications or details I might have missed.
Things I Like About Stutterwarp:
- cannot be used to land and take off from planets
- goes really fast insystem, but not FTL insystem
- 7.7 ly limit so you can't just point your ship and go anywhere, but have some constraints on FTL travel
- published ship design system
- pseudo-velocity prevents use to accelerate kinetic kill weapons to near lightspeed
Things I Dislike About Stutterwarp:
- electron tunnelling warp micro-jumps introduce a lot of non-intuitive effects to combat, communications, etc which aren't really the kind of game I want to play
- hmm, I guess that's really about it? So I guess I really do like stutterwarp except for some of the complications imposed by the way the drive is described as working
My New Alternative Drive System!
- works just like stutterwarp in mechanics set forth in "Things I Like..." above
- instead of electron tunnelling, it uses a different kind of handwavium that gives same pseudo-velocities as equivalent stutterwarp equipment, but without the complications to combat and communication that are required by the warp micro-jumps "now I'm here, now I'm there" - it just goes fast!
- needs cool name - gotta find and re-read Anderson's "The Star Fox" as it had a drive somewhat like this, IIRC
TLDR: Wow, that was really a lot of thinking out loud just to get to the point that I can still use published stutterwarp designs with some re-fluffing and a new name, while getting rid of the warp tunnelling effects that I don't like.
Any suggestions, or implications to this change that I might have missed?
Maybe I should just go back to sleep and see if I have any more "brilliant" ideas, hmm.

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