You Know What Would Be Cool?

M

Miracynonyx100

Swabbie
Banned
Imagine a WC ship that was about the size of a frigate, had the crew of a corvette (a handfull or two of crew), was shaped like a football with a ring around it and a pylon or two or three to connect it to the hull. It would be loaded with engines and reactors and carry a bung-load of torpedoes or some kind of antiship missile.

It would have an engine not unlike Alcubierre's concept of a warp-drive in which it would stretch space behind it and contract space in front of it (the rings would have the "warp-drive"). It would be safer than a morvan/hopper drive (mentioned in the movie), and would have a great degree of latitude where it could go. It would be unbound by jump points, and assuming it was fast enough it would have great practicality. It would also have a jump drive as a back-up as well, so it could do both.


Using matter-anti-matter, quantum zero point energy, and exotic power sources to drive it, it would make a spectacular ship.

Just a thought,
Vicky Kent.
 
Miracynonyx, you just described the Vulcan ships from every episode of Enterprise

surakshranscreendn7.jpg
 
I was actually inspired by Alcubierre's concepts which proposed a so-called induction ring.

Victoria Kent
BTW... I'm not a huge fan of the TV Series "Enterprise"
 
The idea behind long-distance FTL travel in Wing Commander is quite a bit different.

The concept of FTL in the Wing Commander universe involves using antigravitons to enter jumpspace, whether you are passing through jump space at a naturally occurring jump point (jump drive) or forcing your ship into jump space (Morvan drive).

FTL by selectively stretching and contracting space is a very real idea, but it just does not mesh into Wing Commander. It would be like having jump points in Star Wars. Certainly a plausible FTL method, but just not the method that that particular universe uses.
 
I think it would bring down the strategic movement of fleets... There would be no point in taking jump points if you can just bypass it

It's a great idea, but it would kill the WC tactical thinking in favour of star trek/wars
 
Nomad Terror,

I'm not sure there are any rules within the WC Universe that necessarily say that an Alcubierre-Style FTL Drive can't work...


Houkiboshi,

Even Star Trek and Star Wars required tactical thinking...

Not to mention, there are some systems that are inaccessible by jump-point, like the Dallas system
 
Miracynonyx100 said:
Nomad Terror,

I'm not sure there are any rules within the WC Universe that necessarily say that an Alcubierre-Style FTL Drive can't work...


Houkiboshi,

Even Star Trek and Star Wars required tactical thinking...

Not to mention, there are some systems that are inaccessible by jump-point, like the Dallas system
Click to expand...

Yes, there is a really deep tactical/strategical way of thinking (that I enjoy), but it's vary diferent from the one that gives its "soul" to WC

I'm a big fan of Star Trek, Babylon 5, Stargate, Andromeda and (spacially) Star Wars... I just think it would take away the core of WC... Just like putting WC ships in Star Wars... I don't think it's a very good idea
 
Houkiboshi,

You do realize this FTL ship would be a very highly specialized design in the WC Universe... it would be highly specialized. It would not be a type of propulsion system you could just fit onto any other wing-commander ship, right?

Victoria Kent
 
How long do you think it would take fore everybody to use it on full scale?

Look at the torpedo, at the start of the war, there was nothing like a Battleship... A Supercruiser...

They had centered their fleets on the BB, and the carriers where nothing more than a support vessel. How long was it before the carrier became the centerpiece of the Confed and Kilrathi fleets?

I know what you mean, believe me, but it would start a fundamental change in fleet doctrine. It always happens. Look at the real world

How long would it take before we have a bunch of "Vulcan" ships in TCSN?




Hell… I fell like a geek… :D
 
I'm not arguing that such a ship could not exist in Wing Commander. I am saying that such a ship *should* not exist in Wing Commander.

Wing Commander has a very unique (or at least less generic) form of FTL travel that is very limited in application, whether we are talking about hopper drives or jump drives. In either case, after a jump there is an amount of time that has to be spent in Realspace before a jump can be made again, whether it's waiting for jumpspace to repair itself or navigating to the next jump point.

To create a ship that uses a form of FTL propulsion more similar to the generic "hyperspace" idea seen in most science fiction would be, as I and Houkiboshi have said, just like putting WC-type FTL technology into Star Wars. It's fine on its own, but it just doesn't belong.
 
Miracynonyx100 said:
I'm not sure there are any rules within the WC Universe that necessarily say that an Alcubierre-Style FTL Drive can't work...
Click to expand...
No idea what those are, but you might be interested in reading LOAF's Jump FAQ that he wrote some time ago.

Miracynonyx100 said:
Not to mention, there are some systems that are inaccessible by jump-point, like the Dallas system
Click to expand...
My understanding is that the Dallas system listed on the Prophecy map is some sort of running in-joke among the Origin staff. Can't remember exactly what the meaning of it is, maybe they were having a go at Dallas Snell?
 
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Houkiboshi,

The whole fleet to adopt it? Dude, the thing is as big as a frigate (not a 620 meter frigate...), has the crew of a corvette! The thing's almost all engines, and torpedoes and missiles and stuff. It would take a great leap in the technology to go from a vessel with a Corvette's crew to a ship with a Destroyer's or a Cruiser's crew, and definetly a big leap to be able to fit even a light-carrier's compliment.

And to be honest, I don't think Action Stations should be considered canon. It was a prequel, and most prequels are riddled with errors. For example, in 2634, Banbridge was the highest ranking officer in Confed, and like 33 years later he's a 4-star, and while he may be old, a 90-year old former five star, now four-star Admiral is a bit odd!!! In fact, once you get five stars (which is distinctly an *American* rank), you keep it for the rest of your live unless stripped of rank, retire, or die. Maybe if Banbridge's SON was the Admiral seen in the WC-Books, maybe that would be a bit more plausible. But the idea of battleships being the heart of battlegroups is patently ridiculous, it's something out of WW2, definetly not the 27th century. Carriers have been around since WW2, and have established themselves as the heart of the battlegroup-- they're here to stay. Phase shields (at least the kind that need torpedoes to be penetrated) weren't around until the 2650's (That's when the Gilgamesh, Waterloo's, and various other vessels seen in WC2 started to pop up).


Nomad Terror,

Why *shouldn't* it be part of WC? The FTL drive I was thinking of wasn't anywhere near as fast as a jump drive. But it would be pretty safe compared to other FTL type drives like a D-drive, and would allow travel between star systems even if they're not connected by jump points.


Houkiboshi,

I see no reason why an FTL ship isn't "WC". The D-drive is a FTL drive mentioned in Privateer II which works much like a warp-drive (albeit a lot less safe)


Wedge009,

From what I read in LOAF's Jump FAQ, there isn't any rule that prohibits a faster than light device. In fact it even mentions a faster than light device known as a D-drive, while not the same as the Alcubierre concept, it definetly allows FTL travel.

However, reading the Jump FAQ, I honestly don't think anything in the WC Movie should be considered canon... The scylla anomaly, the morvan drive (which was never in any of the WC Games, and if it was it wouldn't have been considered that spiffy when the Steltek created it's own jump point), the Charybdis quasar (quasars to the best of my knowledge are super-energetic galaxies, not phenomena found in our galaxy) and I'm not sure if even Bill Forstchen's books mentioned antigravitons in Jump-Engine use (it wasn't mentioned in the games)... Action stations shouldn't have been canon either to be honest like I said above, for the reason that like most prequels, they made a number of errors. But back to the WC Movie, it was one of the worst movies I ever saw, and I really like the games, but the movie was a total disappointment, and me and my friends wanted our money back.
 
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