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Author Topic: Updated Hypergate travel times  (Read 19122 times)

Kedamono

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Updated Hypergate travel times
« on: January 13, 2009, 03:20:58 am »

I looked at the current table and I didn't like the fact that it took 255 days to get to Pluto from Neptune, even though they are relatively close together. So I revised the table to take into account the relative distances. I also noted that the travel times noted on the table were roughly 6 days per AU, which helped a lot in correcting the travel times to each world.

MercuryVenusEarthMarsJupiterSaturnUranusNeptunePluto
Mercury04693055114180234
Venus40252651110176230
Earth62032449108174228
Mars95302146105171225
Jupiter3026242102584150204
Saturn5551494625059128179
Uranus1141101081058459066120
Neptune18017617417115012866054
Pluto234230228225204179120540

I had to assume that travel time was in days, based on the statement that it took 1/250th of normal travel time.

So what do you think sirs?

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------------------------  "Another one of them new worlds.  No beer, no women, no pool parlors - nothin'.  Nothing to do but throw rocks at tin cans and we got to bring our own tin cans."  ---- Ship's Cook, United Planets Cruiser C-57D        Forbidd

Kedamono

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Re: Updated Hypergate travel times
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2009, 01:29:04 pm »

And now I've added Ceres to the table:

MercuryVenusEarthMarsCeresJupiterSaturnUranusNeptunePluto
Mercury0469163055114180234
Venus025122651110176230
Earth03102449108174228
Mars072146105171225
Ceres0143998164218
Jupiter02584150204
Saturn059128179
Uranus066120
Neptune054
Pluto0
« Last Edit: January 13, 2009, 03:18:53 pm by Kedamono »
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------------------------  "Another one of them new worlds.  No beer, no women, no pool parlors - nothin'.  Nothing to do but throw rocks at tin cans and we got to bring our own tin cans."  ---- Ship's Cook, United Planets Cruiser C-57D        Forbidd

BerkaZerka

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Re: Updated Hypergate travel times
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2009, 08:45:43 pm »

;D Pretty good work Kedamono, though Hypergate Travel Times are in Hours, not Days  :-[

I note that you are not the first to ask, so it makes me want to take a look at the section to see how we can better explained it – though we’ll have to put it in when we do another printing.

Give me a few moments and I’ll post a rundown of how I calculated the Hypergate times – though you can certainly use your own times if you wish.

BZ
« Last Edit: January 13, 2009, 09:30:15 pm by BerkaZerka »
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BerkaZerka

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Re: Updated Hypergate travel times
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2009, 08:56:54 pm »

OK, after checking the section, I see that ‘In Hours’ has accidently been dropped from the table and does not appear anywhere in the text – rats :(

That said – many thanks for bringing it to our attention, we’ll be working on a fix – easy for the PDF, might be a while for the hardcopy…

Anyway – The Hypergates travel times are in Hours, and reduce the distance between them to 1/250th that of normal.  Further, they all pass through the Sun, whose gravity powers them, thus making the distance between each gate constant, regardless of the alignment of each planet and moon in relation to each other – it goes gate to Sun, Sun to gate.

To get the time in Hours, I took and added together the orbital distance (from the Sun) of each connected planet or moon, then divided by 250 to get miles, then again divided by 60,000 MPH (standard ship speed) to get Hours.  (((Distance A From Sun) + (Distance B From Sun) /250) /60,000) = Hypergate Time In Hours.

BZ

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Kedamono

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Re: Updated Hypergate travel times
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2009, 10:12:41 pm »

The reason I lit on 6 "time units" per AU is that the math works out the same and it's easier.  ;D

Earth is 1 AU, or 6 hours from Mercury, thereabouts.
Mars is 1.5 AUs or 9 hours from Mercury. See how they start lining up? Your times from Mercury to all the planets worked out to 6 hours per AU, which is why I revised the table to match that value. I also used the semimajor axis of each planet's orbit to work out the distance.

Also, you may want to rewrite the section on how the first wormholes were stabilized, because I got the impression that the first wormhole had its Sol end moved from Sol to Mars. This is the text that gives that impression:

Using this knowledge, mankind went into space and created a gate around the wormhole above the moon, allowing them to direct its other end to any point in the Solar System. A team of brave (and some say insane) scientists then traveled through - their control ship coming out in orbit above Mars.

So you could see why I thought the wormhole was moved and didn't go through the Sun. And technically, it takes nearly zero time to traverse a wormhole from end to end, they are always next to each other internally no matter how far away the ends are. You also have the problem of time travel, where one end of the wormhole is at a different time than the other end. That happens when you move one end.

So, let's not call it a wormhole, but a hypertube that has a set internal distance when it's first created, but afterwards the internal distance never changes. Yeah, that's a wormhole, but not.  ::)
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------------------------  "Another one of them new worlds.  No beer, no women, no pool parlors - nothin'.  Nothing to do but throw rocks at tin cans and we got to bring our own tin cans."  ---- Ship's Cook, United Planets Cruiser C-57D        Forbidd

BerkaZerka

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Re: Updated Hypergate travel times
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2009, 11:01:49 am »

I actually love to contemplate these sorts of things – sort of the ‘what if’ of science and physics.  Like what if someone really could lift 500,000,000 lbs, what would happen if they tried to pick up a battleship and swing it like a baseball bat?  Would it swing or crumple under its own weight out of water?  The later actually, but slamming someone with a battleship is too cool to let a little thing like reality get in the way, especially when you’ve already forgone reality in the first place to let the guy be able to lift 500,000,000 lbs ;D

Anyway, I mention this, because in the BHB rules, I intentionally avoided getting too detailed in things, trying to let simplicity rule the day.  I didn’t catch the AU correlation when calculating Hypergate Travel Times (though now that you point it out, I do think it’s pretty cool :)) – I was also quite liberal in my rounding of the numbers. 

I think this sums it up pretty well –
As for the Official Setting Material (already laid out in the book), it is intentionally left with some ‘whitespace’ – like the old-school game maps: “Here There Be Dragons”.  We didn’t want Forgotten Realms level minutia, where everything was detailed down to the whether the prince hangs to the right or left of his codpiece.

This leaves exactly this kind of opportunity for GMs of the game – set some stuff out on your own and customize the setting to your taste.  And by all means share it here :)

On this –
Using this knowledge, mankind went into space and created a gate around the wormhole above the moon, allowing them to direct its other end to any point in the Solar System. A team of brave (and some say insane) scientists then traveled through - their control ship coming out in orbit above Mars.

Yeah, I agree this could be explained better.  Because of this, it is actually one of the things we touch on in our forthcoming Starship Supplement.

Hypertubes vs. Wormholes – hmm… ‘Hypertubes’ does have a pretty cool ring to it ;D

BZ
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Kedamono

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Re: Updated Hypergate travel times
« Reply #6 on: January 14, 2009, 12:48:19 pm »

Yeah, I agree this could be explained better.  Because of this, it is actually one of the things we touch on in our forthcoming Starship Supplement.

Sounds cool. I've played SF RPGS since Starships and Spacemen which has a similar legacy as Bounty Head Bebop, and having a decent set of ship rules is nice, though only if you plan to have tactical shoot'em ups. And for that, I would recommend Attack Vector Tactical for realistic 3D vector movement.

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Hypertubes vs. Wormholes – hmm… ‘Hypertubes’ does have a pretty cool ring to it ;D

Well, if you like it, you have my permission to use it. I'm always willing to share.
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------------------------  "Another one of them new worlds.  No beer, no women, no pool parlors - nothin'.  Nothing to do but throw rocks at tin cans and we got to bring our own tin cans."  ---- Ship's Cook, United Planets Cruiser C-57D        Forbidd

BerkaZerka

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Re: Updated Hypergate travel times
« Reply #7 on: January 14, 2009, 08:45:23 pm »

Hypertubes vs. Wormholes – hmm… ‘Hypertubes’ does have a pretty cool ring to it ;D

Well, if you like it, you have my permission to use it. I'm always willing to share.

Awesome  ;D

BZ
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