Methods vary, yeah. Humanity used to use, and my nation still uses, drive rings that convert ships into a tachyon particle beam which is fired at their destination, more or less. The ring also rotates around the ship far faster than would be necessary for 10m/s^2 gravity, which is harnessed by special inertial fields to provide artificial gravity throughout the ship
We've decided space is indeed an ocean and ships and navies can be designed as such.
edited 15th Sep '11 10:32:07 AM by SOCR
How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all?. . . Part of me wants to scrap the amphibians. They're very difficult to work with.
Maybe some nice Killer Space Monkeys instead?
edited 16th Sep '11 1:11:15 PM by Diamonnes
My name is Cu Chulainn. Beside the raging sea I am left to moan. Sorrow I am, for I brought down my only son.Well, gents, since we're on the subject of interstellar travel, I've come up with a form of FTL travel for the Kin. I couldn't think up one from scratch for these guys, so I went with one I had used for a different civilization in AGOG. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the concept of capillary space!
Interstellar Travel & FTL technology
Being an industrious and expansionistic people, it should come as no surprise that the Kin have a well-developed starfleet. All but the smallest of their vessels are capable of travelling at faster-than-light speeds, which they accomplish by a method they refer to as ‘intravenous transit’, or ‘tunnelling’. Essentially, members of the Kin’s science castes have discovered that there are certain places in the galaxy where the fabric of reality has ‘worn thin’, for lack of a better term, and by subjecting these regions of space to a controlled burst of certain energies, it is possible for a properly-shielded ship to slip through this weakened barrier and enter the realm which lies beyond—a strange sublevel of existence known alternatively as capillary space or simply otherspace.Within otherspace there exists a complex, winding network of spatial corridors which span incredible distances, thereby connecting stars, systems and clusters that are light-years apart to one another; and furthermore, the flow of time in otherspace is divorced from the flow of time in regular space—one could spend weeks or even months traversing the labyrinthine capillary network of this dimension, and yet upon exiting otherspace one would find that exceedingly little time had passed in the real world since one had first started one’s journey. Because of these unique properties, ships travelling through capillary space can traverse incredible distances in a very short span of objective time.
However, while this so-called tunnelling is rather convenient in that respect, it is not without its drawbacks. Most obvious of these is the staggering degree of time dilation involved in otherspatial travel; a trip which takes only a few minutes from the perspective of an outsider can take weeks or months from the perspective of a starship’s crew, and as such measures must be taken to ensure that the vessel has enough food, fuel and amenities to last the journey—if a ship runs out of a fuel while travelling through capillary space, it will almost certainly never come out. Furthermore, capillary space itself is dangerous; this plane of existence is filled with forces and energies that can very easily destroy an unshielded vessel within moments of it entering otherspace, and even a ship that has been adequately shielded from the hostile environment will find itself courting disaster if it deviates from its path along one of the safe corridors. Worse, it is possible—though fortunately a very rare occurrence—for one of these corridors to collapse for a brief instant; if a ship happens to be travelling through the corridor when this happens, at the very best it will find itself shifted to another corridor heading to the wrong destination…and at worst, the ship will be destroyed outright.
Because of the dangers associated with travel through otherspace, certain vessels—such as the colossal hive ships which are tasked with colonizing new worlds for the Ark Reach Overcolony—opt to forgo this method of transit in favour of travelling to their destination in real space at sub-light speeds; it will take them much longer to get where they’re going, yes, but such tardiness is preferable to taking the risk of losing both the ship and its precious cargo of colonists and terraforming materials to the whims of otherspace.
As one might expect, piloting a vessel through otherspace is not something that the Kin take lightly; such a task is entrusted only to the best of the very best, for it requires both superlative skill at the yoke of a starship and unflagging concentration and attention to detail. The technologies involved in shielding vessels from the effects of otherspace, as well as entering otherspace in and of itself, are a closely-guarded secret that the Kin are reluctant to share with the other races of the galaxy for a number of reasons, and to date no other species has been able to successfully replicate this particular means of FTL travel; acquiring said secrets could make for a good plothook, potentially.
And there we go; not sure if it quite fits the tone we're going for here, but hey—something's better than nothing.
Any comments/criticisms/questions regarding this technology/method of travel?
The Danse Macabre Codex
Sounds good to me. I guess I'll follow the leader.
Folded Space Travel
The Dotur employ a curious method of FTL travel known as "Folded Space". The exact specifications are not well known, but it is speculated that a Fold-Drive create a sort of ultra-dense, perhaps infinity dense, matter. This matter drags or folds spacetime around the ship into a sort of black hole-esque gravity well. The FTL ship is then believed to use the gravity well to create a potentially infinite slingshot effect, using the well's gravity to fling it forward at ridiculous speeds, but dragging the gravity well along with it as well, which uses the well's gravity to fling it forward even faster, while dragging the well along...to an infinite extent. Exiting Folded Space is dangerous, but an experienced pilot has enough expertise to cancel the well and release the ship at far enough distances to slow down sufficiently. How the gravity involved does not tear the ship apart is not known, and neither is how the ultra-dense matter is created, nor why the ship skirts the edge of the well as opposed to being sucked in. Dotur scientists are a rather secretive bunch, and the politicians are even worse.
Folded space is fairly safe, but the amount of precise computer navigation needed is enormous. The path most be established as clear before a jump, and obstacles detected while in FS must be avoided carefully. Minor computer failures of any kind are designed to initiate a failsafe, but some ships are still lost, never able to leave the infinite gravity cycle errors known as "overshoots".
Travel in Folded Space is actually experienced shorter than the outside galaxy. The exact dilation effect is believed to be somewhere around 4.59 hours to each day.
edited 17th Sep '11 10:51:35 PM by rabbitRider
Your legacy shall drift away, blown into eternity, like the sands of the desert.Space Travel
The Qan'sqo utilize a peculiar method of interstellar travel, one that is seldom seen in other rases. Owing to the high concentration of ferrous and radioactive metals on their homeworld, Qans'qo spaceships (frequently known among spacesport jargon as 'grav-hoppers') are essentially 'slingshotted' from planet to planet. Around most Qans'qo colony worlds are a series of chutes with reversing magnetic polariteis. A properly fitted ship that enters one is essentially propelled forward in a manner similar to a railgun, and, in a frictionless environment, a Qans'qo ship can approach the speed of light. Many Qans'qo ships are also equipped with solar sails that utilize the constant stream of particles from nearby suns to allow for course adjustments, and conventional fuel-based rockets to maneuver in orbit or in atmospheres. Time-dilation equipment aboard the vessel slow time accordingly so that the crew ages only as fast as the rest of the universe. Currently, the H'kd'ragh Clan (Clan of the Suns Ascendant) holds sway over the specie's space program, and as such they have become very wealthy indeed.
This post was thumped by the Codfish in a Derby Hat
Okay, let's see if this turns out right...
Voidburrower Method
Travel in space is always, at least in the beginning, a dangerous, slow business. For the Molo'Qraaat race, no exception was made. The voyages to their single moon, and the asteroid field beyond that, were all perilous, driven by chemical exhaust engines and a thirst for resources away from a still-healing world. The radiation of their sun effectively made manned travel beyond that belt nigh-impossible.
And then, one of their stellar crafters (all creators of things, including scientists and engineers, are called crafters) came up with an idea: What if they could somehow bypass all that? The immediate response from the others was a resounding "How?"
In answer, the crafter spoke of localised readings which had been detected over the years both on the home world and in space, peculiar brands of radiation and energy not found anywhere else by their instruments. Once sufficient resources had been put together, these areas were properly scanned. To the wonderment of the crafters, these emissions had sources, depressions in the fabric of space itself. The next step, in their eyes, was to make these depressions something they could interact with. For this, they created a device renamed the Voidburrower, adapted from a failed weapon system, and retooled to fire at a specific range of concentration. When the depression farthest from any settlement was picked, and the device was fired, this dip in reality was blasted right through, into a whole different kind of space. One that the Molo'Qraaat would come to call Io'Tsaal, the Highest Lands.
Since then, the crustaceal race has gone on to work exploring this new space, creating larger devices to punch indents, then holes in. The hole lasts long enough to get something through, before matter and energy washes back in to partially fill it, hence why there aren't masses of portals long after a Molo'Qraaat fleet has left. Once inside, the ship's crew make the requisite calculations for time, distance, and other extraneous variables... And then move with the energy currents found within as a secondary result of the Voidburrower's firing.
At irregular intervals, the device needs to be fired, so as to clear the path forward. This has the side effect of damaging any other paths or capillaries nearby, perpetuating the Voidburrower's need of use. While not always efficient, the result of moving at high speed within Io'Tsaal makes up for it. Star systems which would take centuries to reach with the crude propulsion used before could now be arrived at in only a few months.
Getting out of this space is slightly fiddlier. First, determining the exact position of the craft in question. Then creating a "hill" in realspace, and bursting it open. The hazard to this is that any ship passing too close will get its shields and comm systems overloaded by the exit explosion. Slightly lesser is the disorientation suffered by both ship systems and crew after re-entering realspace, which lasts mostly only a few minutes, but in worst case scenarios can shut down a ship for over an hour, and knock individual crew members unconscious.
As for what's in there when ships go in, but only come out years later (if they come out at all) much lighter, the Molo'Qraaat aren't saying. Rumour speaks however of stations and outposts constructed within Io'Tsaal, but how this is done is yet unknown, if the rumours are true at all...
"He could not know it. For it was not all a joke."But we lack characters, and the details are not all sorted out. ..
I fear that I cannot join in just yet. Some issues have come up. Sullen, rest assured I will not abandon AOAN again, though that will be all I will be capable of doing.
According to SOCR it will be acceptable for me to join late; my sincerest thanks for that.
My name is Cu Chulainn. Beside the raging sea I am left to moan. Sorrow I am, for I brought down my only son.Indeed; in my opinion, there's still a great deal of stuff which could be ironed out before we begin.
The Danse Macabre CodexMy reasons need no explanation; suffice it to say, I am not getting Skype—and if that ends up being a requirement to play this game, as you seem to be implying, then you can count me out.
edited 25th Sep '11 11:26:43 AM by SullenFrog
The Danse Macabre Codex
This post was thumped by the Eldritch Flyswatter of Horror
If players can please merge all available info into one post for quick access, it'd be appreciated; I'll put a link to it in the OP
How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all?

I've added the blurb for the Kin's shell to one of my previous posts; with that, the biology section should be complete.
Now then, I must ask—just what is the method our empires will be using to achieve FTL travel?
The Danse Macabre Codex