History Main / NoWarpingZone

* In RykSpoor's ''Grand Central Arena'', Sandrisson Drives, even when inactive, interfere with each other, which wouldn't be an example of NoWarpingZone except that drives jump from the volume of a solar system to the artificial “Spheres” which are much smaller. A smallish number of ships occupying a Sphere can entirely prevent jumping from anywhere in the solar system.

** Much of the plot of ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 2'' is driven by the fact that the Exile used a Mass Shadow Generator, presumably based on the same technology. It destroyed a planet.

** [[FridgeLogic But what about the gravity well of the whole galaxy?]]
*** The gravitational acceleration imposed upon the Earth by the sun is .0006g. If I've got my math correct, the galactic gravitational field imposes an acceleration of ~2.1 x 10^-11g, a difference of a little over seven orders of magnitude. That's a wide window for working in one environment but not the other.
*** Its also stated that "[[HandWave singularity]]" that prevents the hyperdrive from working only extends out to a few tens of billions of kilometers from the Sun. At that range the Sun's gravity is on the order of 10^-8 to 10^-7g. Still giving a relatively large span of three or four orders of magnitude.

** [[FridgeLogic But what about the gravity well of the whole galaxy?]]
*** The gravitational acceleration imposed upon the Earth by the sun is .0006g. If I've got my math correct, the galactic gravitational field imposes an acceleration of ~2.1 x 10^-11g, a difference of a little over seven orders of magnitude. That's a wide window for working in one environment but not the other.
*** Its also stated that "[[HandWave singularity]]" that prevents the hyperdrive from working only extends out to a few tens of billions of kilometers from the Sun. At that range the Sun's gravity is on the order of 10^-7 to 10^-6g. Still giving a relatively large span of four or five orders of magnitude.

*** The gravitational acceleration imposed upon the Earth by the sun is .0006g. If I've got my math correct, the galactic gravitational field imposes an acceleration of ~2.1* 10^-11g, a difference of a little over seven orders of magnitude. That's a wide window for working in one environment but not the other.

** There does not, however, appear to be any limits on where a spacecraft equipped with Jump Engines can ''enter'' or ''leave'' hyperspace.

* Murray Leinster's short story "First Contact" was published in TheForties, before the exact nature of outer space was known. The human-piloted starship in that story could only travel faster-than-light in a ''total'' vacuum. Even the slightest wisp of atmosphere or nebula would be enough to prevent it.

[[AC:MMORPGs]]

The most common variant is a region surrounding a massive object as big as a star system or as small as a ship.

The most common variant is a region surrounding a massive object like a planet, sun, or solar system. Or as small as a ship.

* ''StarTrekVoyager'' introduced the Omega Directive, which instructed that Omega Molecules be destroyed upon discovery- and even overrode the PrimeDirective. Why? Because Omega Molecules had nasty habit of exploding--and when they did, they created a huge void where FTL travel and communications didn't work, potentially crippling to TheFederation.
** Potentially crippling to ''every spacefaring race within a few thousand light years.''
** An episode of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' centered around the dangers of warp travel in high traffic areas due to adverse environmental effects. That's right, warp travel is environmentally unfriendly, in '''space'''.
*** In the sense that "warp drives erode the fabric of space-time with the risk of catastrophic {{Negative Space Wedgie}}s emerging as a result". Later episodes HandWave the issue with the explanation that this issue has been fixed.

* ''StarTrekVoyager'' introduced the Omega Directive, which instructed that Omega Molecules be destroyed upon discovery- and even overrode the PrimeDirective. Why? Because Omega Molecules had nasty habit of exploding--and when they did, they created a huge void where FTL travel and communications didn't work, potentially crippling to TheFederation.
** Potentially crippling to ''every spacefaring race within a few thousand light years.''
** An episode of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' centered around the dangers of warp travel in high traffic areas due to adverse environmental effects. That's right, warp travel is environmentally unfriendly, in '''space'''.
*** In the sense that "warp drives erode the fabric of space-time with the risk of catastrophic {{Negative Space Wedgie}}s emerging as a result". Later episodes HandWave the issue with the explanation that this issue has been fixed.
* In ''StarTrekTheMotionPicture'', Kirk says that the urgency of their mission means they have to take the "dangerous" risk of engaging warp drive while still within the solar system. When they did so, they created an accidental wormhole that caused Lieutennant Ilia's breasts to bounce in slow motion. Oddly, Trek had never described intra-system warp travel as dangerous before, or since.
** The wormhole was caused by the ''Enterprise'''s improperly tuned warp engines, not by any danger specific to insystem FTL.

* In ''StarWars'', you can't use a FTL drive while within the 'mass shadow' of a planet or star. Entering a mass shadow while traveling FTL will pull you out of hyperspace, which in the case of a star, is a very bad thing. There are also ships, called interdictors, capable of generating artificial mass shadows that can yank a ship right out of hyperspace no matter how fast it's traveling. They were difficult to maneuver while performing this function and attracted space debris.
* In ''BabylonFive'', there are places in the hyperspace universe that aren't safe. [[spoiler: some of these are actually Shadow and Vorlon bases.]]
** There does not, however, appear to be any limits on where a spacecraft equipped with Jump Engines can ''enter'' or ''leave'' hyperspace.
* ''{{BattleTech}}'''s Kearny-Fuchida drives don't take well to gravity. At the same time, recharging the drive via solar sail obviously ''requires'' the ship to come out of jump reasonably close to a star to collect energy, and most [=JumpShips=] aren't capable of any great sublight acceleration. This results in commercial traffic mostly using a given system's zenith and nadir 'jump points' several AU away from its star and safely above or below most of the clutter in its orbital plane; if actual recharging stations happen to exist in-system, this is where they will be positioned as well. It's possible to jump closer to or from a star by judicious use of Lagrange points (where the star's gravitic pull and that of another celestial body ''just'' about cancel out), but since the smaller bodies obviously keep moving around, this requires highly accurate and up-to-date navigational charts and makes for riskier jumps even then.
* As noted on HyperspeedEscape: ''EscapeVelocity'' doesn't allow you to enter hyperspace too close to the center of an inhabited system.
* In ''{{Traveller}}'', a starship using its jump drive too close to a planetary body or star (within 100 diameters) has an increased chance of misjump.
* Teraport interdiction zones in ''SchlockMercenary'', enforced by a generated field that makes the wormholes more unstable. They can also be [[LensmanArmsRace circumvented]], by using a teraport cage to block the field. Or just bulled through by using [[TimTaylorTechnology truly ridiculous amounts of power]].
* ''EveOnline'' offers several possibilities to drop a No Warping Zone on your enemies, or where you expect your enemies to arrive.
* ''{{Elite}}'', possibly the TropeCodifier of "mass-locked" warp drives.
* In ''{{Spelljammer}}'' ships travel in straight line at the spelljamming speed (10^8 miles/day) but drops to the "tactical speed" if they need to maneuver or something big enough (10 [[UnitConfusion space tons]] for standard engines) is close enough.
** A common tactic to prevent a HyperspeedEscape is to launch large amounts of chaff in the vicinity of your enemies. A common tactic to deal with pursuers is the same: evader crawls at the tactical speed one locking radius from a jettisoned mass, but pursuer must either slow down for twice this distance or try to circumvent and risk to go off the course; if evader slows down again and steers while pursuer is still locked and can't catch up, it probably got away.
* The video game ''Solar Winds'' displays "Can't hyperjump - Danger near" if you try to go FTL while there's another object on screen (enemies, planets, asteroids).
* In the computer game ''[[SinsOfASolarEmpire Sins of a Solar Empire]]'', ships are unable to conduct "phase jumps" within a gravity well of a stellar object, including stars, planets, asteroids, etc. There are exceptions to this rule, mostly for the Vasari race, whose phase jumping technology is much more advanced than human (either faction).

* ''MasterOfOrion 2'' has Warp Dissipator (prevents enemy ships from HyperspeedEscape) and Warp Interdictor (slows down all enemy ships around the system so that they must lose 2 extra turns to get in or out).
* In ''{{GURPS}}: Banestorm'' the titular banestorms have screwed up the local laws of magic so badly that teleportation takes a penalty of -25. Not strictly impossible, but in ''GURPS'' a skill level of 20 is extraordinary.

* In the ''{{Champions}}'' super-hero Tabletop RPG, characters or vehicles can purchase FTL Travel as a Power for only 10 Character Points. They are prohibited from using it in an atmosphere. (Curiously, there's no restriction against using FTL Travel while on the surface of an airless world. You could theoretically spend a few points on FTL Travel, a minimal amount of Flight, and enough Life Support to survive until you fly out of the atmosphere, then engage your FTL Travel and destroy the moon by ramming into it.)

* Averted in the reimagining of BattlestarGalactica, at least in the traditional "cant warp near a planet" way. In one episode, as part of a sneak attack, the Galactica jumps into the atmosphere of a planet, falls like a stone for a while while launching its fighters, and jumps back out when sufficiently close to the planet that it is identifiable from the surface.

* In ''BattleTech'', you have to be about 7 AU from the Sun before you can jump. It's possible to jump into the system far away from the sun but any object at the desired location will cause a mess.

* In ''StarTrekTheMotionPicture'', Kirk says that the urgency of their mission means they have to take the "dangerous" risk of engaging Warp Drive while still within the Solar system. When they did so, they created an accidental wormhole that caused Lieutennant Ilia's breasts to bounce in slow motion. Oddly, Trek had never described intra-system warp travel as dangerous before, or since.

* Teraport interdiction zones in ''SchlockMercenary'', enforced by a generated field that makes the wormholes more unstable. They can also be [[LensmanArmsRace circumvented]], by using a teraport cage to block the field. Or just bulled through by using [[TimTaylorTechnology truly rediculous amounts of power]].

*** In the sense that "warp drives erode the fabric of space-time with the risk of catastrophic NegativeSpaceWedgies emerging as a result". Later episodes HandWave the issue with the explanation that this issue has been fixed.