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+---- Thread: Interstellar jumps (/showthread.php?tid=168)
Interstellar jumps - JonO - 04-17-2011
The Rim's map is huge - 1,500,000 sectors in a 3D grid 1000 x 100 x 15. In it there are approximately 30,000 stars with 35,000 planets orbiting them. The stars are of all types including binaries and trinaries, standard colors - blue, yellow, red, brown, and black, and sizes from sub dwarfs to super giants. In addition there are various hazards and anomalies some of which are slowly moving from sector to sector.
At any given time a ship's captain can view a 9 x 9 map that is originally centered on the row/column/layer in which his ship is located. The data on the map is provided by his affiliation and the map can be scrolled in 3 dimensions to show what else is known about the area in which he's presently located. The representation of each type of star is tool-tipped to provide more data (like number of planets, if any) as soon as he cursors over the sector.
All affiliations are eager to increase their knowledge of space, so each will pay for data. Not much for an empty sector, but a great deal for discovering major dangers or the locations of artificially constructed habitats like ring-worlds.
Different sensors can scan sectors at different distances, so the cursor will change to show which ones can be read from the ship's present location
The map can also be used for navigation since clicking on any sector will feed those coordinates to the navigation programs.
Once the captain has selected his destination, he switches back to his main control screen and calls up his mult-i-pad to review his choices, check to make sure his jump engines are fueled and operating at full capacity and commits to making a jump. Since jumps can only be made from the furthest reaches of the sector (AKA Orbit M), any required in-sector movement is also calculated at this time.
In system movement will use up some of the time he spends on this turn, but the jump itself seems to happen with arrival being simultaneous with departure (That is only true for the ship and its crew, the rest of the universe can see days, even months go by while the ship is in hyperspace.)
The sector coordinates at the top of the mult-i-pod always reflect the most recent sector the captain clicked on his nav screen, but he can override, simply by typing in different ones. The fourth coordinate is the orbit he would like the pilot to try for, but the delta V the ship exits hyperspace with makes getting the right distance difficult. The higher the bridge crew's piloting skill is, the more likely the ship is to come to a stop at or near that orbit. The captain can, if he usually wishes to reach the inner orbits, set up his choice as a standing order.
If there is a problem with the jump and it cannot be made, the cause is shown in red, rather than white. Otherwise the captain tells the helmsman to plot the course, confirms his order to the pilot and then orders them to "make it so."