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Post by Kage2020 on Feb 17, 2004 19:08:16 GMT -5
I personally view the KE argument for ships to be untenable and that, after all, all ships are required to have 'shielding' and that's something that I have always viewed as forming a part of the propulsion system. A rather obvious extension of Age of Sail imagery, with the EM fields projected by the warp drives forming various sails, etc.... The calculated jump sees the warp, waits for the appropriate current and jumps at the appropriate time. It calculates the optimal field configuration for the 'etheric sails' (Geller Field). But once in the Warp they have no way of really figuring out the changing configuration of the warp and, therefore, how to change the sails to keep with the current/'wind'. (Of course, there is the original descriptions of the screens from the Tormentum Malorum from Watson's Inquisitor/Draco which could 'visualise' the Warp... That throws a bit of a spanner in that particular work, but there we go.) The Navigator, on the other hand, is someone that is able to perceive and change the 'etheric sails' to as to follow the current, skip between them, and generally be more reactive. It is for this reason that they can travel faster, change courses to make use of local energy currents, etc. But we're getting slightly OffT here although it obviously has a bearing on the topic at hand. Kage
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Post by Zidagar Dinoman on Feb 18, 2004 8:20:39 GMT -5
1) Piloting a ship through the warp is entirely feasible as long as the voyage is short. Compare it to taking a ferry between two sides of a bay or sailing along the coast. You always have a refrence point, i.e. the land. Maps of these stable routes are often printed on human skill (Shadow Point).
2) Navigating long distances on routes not commonly travelled require a navigator. Only the military and large civilian vessels carry navigators. The rest of the civil and merchant fleet must use the more time consuming but safer shorter jump routes.
3) The Tau "tunnel" through the warp. The Tau capital ship creates a field much like a Gellar field, then jumps into the warp. It can't stay there, so it goes a fast as it can through the immaterium until it is finally expelled. The entire process is described as taking a rubber ball underwater and pulling it with a string. As it goes forward, it floats to the surface and pops out. (BFG tau fleet list).
-Zidagar Dinoman
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Raider
Scribe
The Anti-Christ
Posts: 53
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Post by Raider on Feb 19, 2004 0:52:19 GMT -5
I like the idea of Trading Cartels using Convoys with one lone Navigator in the biggest ship at the front and everyone else playing follow the leader.
Obviously this'd be extremely rare and unimaginably expensive, not to mention potentially dangerous. Possibly a desperate last-chance-grasp aiming to make a huge amount in a short period of time?
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Post by Kage2020 on Feb 19, 2004 17:59:42 GMT -5
ZD... Interesting points, but the third definitely doesn't really answer anything. It seems to be a 'quick fix' more than anything else. However, that's just an aside. <must get back to work> Kage
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