Fold Space Drive Technology

[Ruckdog]

Just updated the blog! This time, I've attempted to put together an explanation of how FTL travel works in the Firestorm universe:

http://www.manbattlestations.com/blog/2016/05/13/firestorm-armada-technology-the-principles-of-fold-space-travel/

[Ryjak]

In my head canon, not only does each race have their own way of utilizing Fold Space (and thus different speeds and detectability) but they also have unique ways of using it for communication... If at all.  Thus, some races have to use couriers and scouts for messages, some communicate at the same rate as their ships, and some have near-instantaneous communication.

[Ruckdog]

In my head canon, not only does each race have their own way of utilizing Fold Space (and thus different speeds and detectability) but they also have unique ways of using it for communication... If at all.  Thus, some races have to use couriers and scouts for messages, some communicate at the same rate as their ships, and some have near-instantaneous communication.

Makes sense to me. I don't think anything in my article necessarily rules out anything you've said above. I've tried to keep things vague enough to allow some wiggle room for that sort of thing

[Ryjak]

For example, I invision the Tarakians use a Mass Effect Field, where you basically cheat physics with gravity manipulation to achieve FTL, instead of some kind of space warping technology like Star Trek... Whoops, I mean the Terrans.

[Ruckdog]

Ahhh...well, I suppose that is still possible, but I got the impression from the thread on the Spartan forums that all the races more or less achieve FTL using the same principles, just with different methods. Sort of like how in Star Trek the Federation uses M/AM reactors to power their warp drives, and the Romulans use artificial quantum singularities for their power sources.

Or, to use an automotive example, compare a Tesla Roadster, a Mack semi truck, a diesel Volkswagen Jetta, and a Ford Focus. All of them are vehicles, all of them can do 60 MPH down the highway. However, the manner in which they achieve that speed, the range for which they can maintain it, etc are all very different.

[Stephan]

Actually, I think the Sorylians are the origin of most of the races' FTL capability.  The Sorylians set jump gates everywhere (like in B5) and that's how human exploration got started.  The original fluff mentions humans getting shield technology from the "Saurians", who we later found out were a break-away faction of the Sorylians.  I believe this same contact is what introduced humans to jump gate technology.  The Aquans began exploring at STL speeds in generation ships.  Eventually, I don't remember how, a the actual jump drive was developed which made the jump gates unnecessary and really kicked off the wave of exploration and settlement which ended with the Dindrenzi breaking away.

[Ruckdog]

Actually, I think the Sorylians are the origin of most of the races' FTL capability.  The Sorylians set jump gates everywhere (like in B5) and that's how human exploration got started.  The original fluff mentions humans getting shield technology from the "Saurians", who we later found out were a break-away faction of the Sorylians.  I believe this same contact is what introduced humans to jump gate technology.  The Aquans began exploring at STL speeds in generation ships.  Eventually, I don't remember how, a the actual jump drive was developed which made the jump gates unnecessary and really kicked off the wave of exploration and settlement which ended with the Dindrenzi breaking away.

The Sorylians had developed wormhole travel, which was superseded by the more efficient FSD. According to the FSA 1.0 rulebook, it was the Terrans that invented FSD, circa 3159. Interestingly, the 1.0 rulebook states that the Terran satellite network was started four years before, in 3150. This almost suggests that FSD was an outgrowth of FTL comms research, not vice versa.