That's an even better idea. No potential loss of jump drive tech with that, I just wonder if that can be controlled thoroughly. You could also use that perhaps for rapid charging for jumps in a tactical situation. Devote more power to weapons and shields, then jump out and get a recharge.
The way Ryk explained how a jump drive works, made me think that jump gates would be largely impractical. However, Adien's Supercharger (seems like as good of a name as any, might be nice to have it in the story officially as such) seems like it could work. One could also use asteroids with a cylinder cut through the middle as a mobile supercharger.
Seems like the amount of energy could be tuned to not require a second gate, but it brings up the issue of how does one get back quickly if they make long range jumps without a second gate. Do they carry a disposable spare with them that works like the long term ones but that takes much more time to build and charge and probably self-destructs (one way or another) after use? Do they throw an antimatter bomb out the back and pray that their timing/aim is good enough?
Well I think a single pair is all that is practical right now. if mini jump drones could find other settlements out among the star's we can talk about additional gates. but with the auto jump sequencer as is the Jump gate idea is only really practical over really large range like 1000LY.
I wouldn't think a gate for Earth/Tanna would need to be very big, and I don't think they need it to be honest. and I like the idea of loads of 1LY Jumps for the potential for Intelligence between Earth/Tanna.
We can talk hollowed asteroids after we save most of the Core from the Jung, and then it becomes a battle of hitting behind the front lines. I do like the Idea Nuclearman, but I worry about the accuracy. The Two Gate system I suggest is a throw and catch system, because I imagine its not going to be an exact science flooding a jump field with additional power for correct directionality over 1000LY (the ZPED fields to catch and the Shields to allow the ship to "arrive" at a stand off point of say 5KM from the gate. otherwise you are sending a Ship to an area about 50-60 LY diameter of where you want to go and no idea where you will come out... Scott has been through that kind of scenario enough to say he is not happy with it.
I'm not sure it would be that inaccurate, though it depends on how the accuracy scales with distance. There's a fair chance that it would be in the 0.1 to 1.0 light years if the scaling isn't too bad. That's accurate enough to aim for the space between between solar systems, then use the ships jump drive to do jump in-system. Greater inaccuracy just makes it harder to find spots close by. I would imagine the practicality requires single digit light year accuracy. Seems like it would be difficult to find a convenient spot that is 60 light years from the edge of any star system.
One of these days I'll see if I can't find a downloadable database of nearby star positions (say within 1000 or so light years) to play around with. The Delaunay triangulation of such a point set would provide the answer to what a practical max error rate would be.
The issue with jump gates is not their feasibility, it's how to protect them. They cannot be just floating in space and cannot be defended effectively once their location is known. Jung vessels may jump to the PC...
The idea for the jump gate is that it generates a field that overcharges a ships jump drive. The Jung would need to have a jump ship first to use it. (It speeds up transit from say 100-1000 jumps over 3 days to 2 months to just 1 Jump)
If the Jung get a jump ship then chances are you will be able to turn off the field (ie have a signal to use the gate) and neutralize the threat of it being used.
The Jung need to get close to knock it down. The Alliance would be patrolling the area with Jump ships.
Only need 1 pair of Jump gates but the Sol Gate could be mobile (jump equipped asteroid with a hole in it).
... and then you could put an iris over the jump gate so that incoming ships that didn't send the proper authentication code would go splat! Oh, wait a minute. Wrong forum. sorry. 🙂
A mobile jump-gate seems like the way to go to avoid jump gates being too easy of a target for the Jung. If you can put a jump drive on an an asteroid, should be possible to put one on a jump gate as well.
The solution is then to have both gates change their position often and for them generally to be located somewhere in the space between star systems. It would be rather difficult to find a jump gate that could be located roughly anywhere within a sphere that is 10s of light-years across. This seems reasonable since it probably requires a ship with a jump drive to even use a jump gate, so needing a few jumps to get to the final destination wouldn't be too unreasonable.
Alternatively, the jump gate could use its jump drive like the Falcons, and rapidly jump in-system, jump (or receive) a ship, then jump out-system. This could perhaps be done in as little as seconds via automation. Though if the gate jumps in front of the moving ship, it could perhaps be done in the time it takes for the ship to pass through the gate, which could be tiny fractions of a second, but it would require a fair bit of coordination/precision/accuracy which might not be practical.
As for something like an iris, you can do something like it... you just have it change the destination at the last second so the unauthorized ship get's sent on a path that takes it right through a uninhabited moon. I would say a star or black hole, but they probably have enough gravity to cause the ship to drop out of jump too soon. Though it's probably better to not allow them to use the jump gate in the first place, ie the gate won't activate for them.
The simple solution is to point the "unauthorized" ship so it
I imagine a jump gate (structure or asteroid with a whole in it) would have limited maneuverability. Meaning that it would be in orbit of a planet or star, and maybe jump like the Karuzara using planetary assists to turn. it would be possible to plot its course and therefor be able to predict where it will be... but if it jumps regularly then the Jung cannot catch it, but might be able to spread out and wait for it to come to them. (why would the PC gate move? but it could)
The idea that it doesn't need to be at one location to keep it safe might include the option to leave it outside the fringe also.
I would pair the Gate with a few falcons (on rotating gate duty), to scout ahead of its route between locations. and provide warning of attack or latest Jung activity reports to incoming ships.
The iris idea is impractical as the only way a signal will come through is if a jump drone brings word first... which would make since i guess, having jump drones use the gate to communicate with PC/Core would make since. jumping an attack on gate imminent warning would make since, to warn off incoming traffic.
Also to make the jumpship drop out of jump at the gate, we rely on 1) the ZPEDs to creat the gravity like sink to draw the jump ship in, and 2) the Takaran Shields to interfere with the Jump field and bring the ship out of jump before it crashes into the gate itself.
If one gate is being attacked simply power both of the damn things down. no field to charge the jump, no ZPED as a sink, no shield to brake the jump. Also with the power the ZPEDs have I would hate to see the shields and Plasma cannon power on those gates (oh and it could jump away)
for incoming jumps that means that the receiving gate can power down the ZPEDs and the incoming ship could end up anywhere (possibly drawn to nearby gravitational hot spots (blackholes and such), or power down the shields and the ship would exit jump crashing into the receiving gate itself.
Pseudo-science!!!
What if unsubordinate Takaran nobles decide to get rid of Casimir and invade Earth via the jump gates? For me, the gates are too big a risk... They must be secure and mobile all the time at both ends...
Interesting concept, like the 2001 Space Odyssey monoliths that worked in a "similar" way...
What if unsubordinate Takaran nobles decide to get rid of Casimir and invade Earth via the jump gates? For me, the gates are too big a risk… They must be secure and mobile all the time at both ends…
Interesting concept, like the 2001 Space Odyssey monoliths that worked in a “similar” way…
There's a similar issue just giving them the jump tech in the first place. I'm inclined to agree that the gates should be mobile at both ends. It's just a matter of how mobile they can be. Since they'll be rather large, it's a good chance that the would be rather limited in how far they can jump.
There's still a risk of the Nobels attacking, but in theory, the Earth jump ships should be better crewed/commanded and more skilled in jump tactics than the Nobels'. Though the Nobels will probably have better tech. So numbers will probably play a large part.
I was thinking about it and I have come to the conclusion that the Zaruzara could act as the Sol Gate.
Hell the gate doesn't even need to be a circle you fly through, just two or three carefully positioned energy projection units on the surface of the Zaruzara could dump the additional power into a jump drive to speed it on its way. (it would also allow the Aurora and Celestia to jump into combat with nearly full jump energy banks - a light seconds worth to make the initial field for the jump prior to being hit by the energy projectors) The use of multi vessel tactics plays well with what we know of Alliance tactics to date.
Just need to put shields on all (or the part of it facing the PC) and ramp up its ZPED output at pre-planned times... set via jump-comm-drones for incoming traffic.
Mini Jump drones make the journey in a day? that's more then enough time to allow for two way operations. in cases where two ships would be crossing paths always defer to the first unit, or if both scheduled for the same time then the Sol gate takes priority (because its the warzone) when schedules clash, then the second jump is delayed 15 minutes as standard, additional 15 minute cycles being available when necessary.
Well I may have an idea on a tactical use of a jump capable fighter in an atmosphere (the 402s). If precise enough jumps could happen, fly three fighters in close formation with exactly equal distance from each other. Since we've seen how the jump drive displaces air and its shockwaves, we start getting into wave theory and constructive interference (very distructive to objects at the point of confluence). Could be used to take out hardened targets.
I like it! But its inconsistent with what we have seen thus far. We have seen windows blown out but its a large step up for something like you suggest. I expect it would be more effective against ground vehicles, flipping them over and such.
I do like the idea of jumping into Atmosphere and going to mach speeds then jumping at a target to hit it with both the jump displacement and the sound wave. but again, I have trouble seeing it damage a hardened structure.
The idea of a Hardened structure is that you can shoot standard weapons at it all day and it only musses up the paint job. the possibility of stopping a ground penetrating bomb or missile and continue to provide defense/support to opperations, and I am happy with how Ryk has shown that turret defenses on planets do not always go down with a single missile.
And that Hardened structures get cratered by plasma cannon fire from orbit. I really like that.
As far as a non-military use:
Instead of jumping shuttles with supplies, just jump the supplies in a jump capable container. You could supply external power to the unit for the jump to occur. Amazon, are you listening??
As far as military, how about equipping the KKV's with a jump drive. get it to 100x speed and then jump just outside the target - less waiting.
Also, in another thread, there was a inconsistency to weather or not you can jump through matter. If so, just jump a nuke into the center of an enemy vessel and boom.
