Jump drive, are they ...

Arqentus

Spaceman
I've been wondering about something for a while. Somebody care to explain the logic between the jump points. Becouse maybe it's me, but the more i think about it, the more illogic the jump system is...

A jump is something that in theorie requires a lot of energy. Yet, here we are adding the same jump drive on every ship, regardless of size. After every jump, our ship arrive's with the same energy reserve, the same shield strength etc as before the jump ... Only the fule tank is lowered a bit.

Isent it more logical that there need to be:

a) Jump drive's based on the ship size ( small, medium, large, cap ship size ).

- Sinds the size of a ship, may determin if it needs more energy/fule. But also, how is the jump done ... I'm bringing this point up, becouse if for example, the jump drive create's a field around the ship, or opens a worm hole or something like that, it's a mather of logic that the ship size need to be taken in account for a jump, and it's enery/fule needs.

b) Jump drive's need to take in fysical space ( aka less cargo space ).

- Jump drive's take away cargo space with the Jump Drive itself & the fule tank.

c) After a jump your enery needs to be low, and your shields also?

- Or is the fule you use, the only thing powering the jump drive. In that case, dont you need to be able to extend your jump fule tank ( at the cost of cargo space? ).

d) Isent a Fighter that's stationed on a Carrier, going to be better armed, more armor, or more speed, becouse it lacks a jump drive ( more space, less weight ), and the jump fule tank ( again more space, less weight ). Resulting in more room for systems like a larger reactor, shield generator and other things?

- This example also add's another intresting point in regards to owning a carrier or cap ship with fighter bays. Go for the more armed, but jumpless fighter, or visa versa.

e) if a jump drive's fule tank can convert the fule to energy for the jump, why isent it possible to use the jump drive's subsystem to convert fule into energy for your ship? Aka, a quick way to refill your empty enery reserve bar.

Point (d) brings up a intresting point alone, sinds it allows the militairy fighters ( who are on stations, carriers, cap ships, planets ) to be more powerfull, then there civilian counterpart, who are in more need for a jump drive ( unless they own a carrier, transport ).

Anybody care to comment on this.
 
Somewhere in there is a 'warp capacitor', which is (so far as I have been able to figure out) where the fuel for your jump drive is stored. This fuel does nothing but power the jump drive, and no systems are powered from the jump drive and its warp capacitor.

Fuel is topped off when you land, and is paid for in your landing or docking fees.

I have been flying a Galaxy, so can only tell you that that ship has a warp capacitor capable of carrying enough fuel for six jumps.

Most of the fighters in the other WC games (well, up to WC4- I am not sure about the WCP era fighters) are indeed -not- jump capable. There ones that come to mind otherwise are the Excalibur, the Dragon, and the bombers.

-thehawk
 
If i look here on the big Starmap of Wing Commander, is there a explanation for jumppoint and jump drives.
The jumphole is a natural anomalie with antigravitons. It was found by Dr. Akwende. The Jump Drive produce antigravitons and make a hole in the universe where you can then perform a jump. The buoy is a satellite that knows and mark the location for the jump(hole)point.

C ya, Grusim
 
Thanks ...

Based on only this faq alone, i see already a few dozen possible missions, left over parts of civilisations ( Utara ) etc ...

And just like i suspected, it's possible to add the following items:

Jump Drive Antiprotons Containment Vessel I, II etc ... allowing ships to move one or multi jumps.

Also, another item, is the Ramscoop ( anti-matter refulling ).

Spiritplumber, you dont heapon to have seen where in the py file's the system has the hardcoded 6 jumps ( fount a privateer_jump file, but as far as i can see, it doesent hold the jump limit data ). If we can modify it, we can add Containment upgrades in the game.
 
LOAF, you've just confirmed for me why the movie sucked so bad.

None of it hangs together at all with anything else.
 
That's an interesting comment, given that the 'jump science' article in The Terran Confederation Handbook is an almost word-for-word reproduction of the one from the Wing Commander III-era Bible.
 
Yeah, but I noticed it in the FAQ. Everything flows together, quite nicely, la dee da dee da...I could actually believe it, sort of.

Then comes the Pilgrims. Sticks out like a sore thumb, and generally just feels...off. Nothing there connects to anything else.

Like trying to put the Force into Star Trek.
 
The backstory for the Pilgrim abilities (also in the TCH) is pretty well done (and comprehensive). What about it is confusing you?
 
The cool thing about Blair is that he was a normal guy who happened to be good at flying. When they put the Pilgrim stuff in the movie I was like.... PAGING MARK HAMILL, YOU ARE IN THE WRONG FRANCHISE!!! (Yes I know that it wasn't him acting but you get the idea).

Part of the reason why WC appeals to me more than ST or SW is that there's no mystical junk attached.
 
It's not really remotely mystical... he's just good at math.

I've never understood the indignation over the Pilgrim stuff -- it's nowhere near the level of retcon that, say, Wing Commander IV engaged in by suddenly inventing the Border Worlds. ("Oh, yeah, remember all those planets you were defending for the Confederation? They were *secretly* 'border worlds'...!")
 
Mm, BW wise you DID get the idea that Gemini was at least semi-independent earlier on, so why not other systems? And OK on "just being good at math" or at least being intuitive about it, it's just that they really make it look more like "use the force" in the movie, which I didn't like. If the Pilgrim "space adaptation" (which is a lot like an archer fish not needing to know vector math to shoot water at flies I guess, so it makes sense in that context) is explained in more hard-science terms in the novels, then I'm all for it. The movie made it look like it was something supernatural, is all.

This said thanks for reconciling me with it :)
 
The TCH certainly does a good job of explaining the fake science behind the Pilgrim abilities (which, mind you, have absolutely no effect on his everyday flying -- it makes him better able to calculate jump coordinates... which is relevent in, what, six missions in the whole if his career?)

Gemini was pretty clearly established as being part of the Confederation. The Confederation political and military centers are... what, 2/5ths of the 'unique' bases in the game? (and, of course, it still is part of Confed - Gemini is 'all blue' on the 2681 map).
 
I had made the wild guess that the Border Worlds were the colonies caught in the crossfire along the Confed-Kilrathi border. Those systems were bitterly fought over with heavy losses on both sides. Not Gemini, although it's easy to make the assumption that Gemini is a part of the BW, seeing that the Kats are just a few jumps away from Clarke quadrant and often make raids deep into Gemini.
It was mentioned in WCP that one of the pilots is a Border Worlder, one of the few survivors of one of the first colonies obliterated by the Kats at the start of the war.
 
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