Tracking Through Hyperspace

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

What's the Word on tracking through hyperspace?

Is it possible?

Is there a WEG ruling on this?

Is it possible in the SW universe?





The Rogue One discussion touched on this. How does Vader track the Tantive IV to Tatooine?

Once you make the jump to hyperspace, isn't that supposed to mean you're "safe". No tracking possible?

Unless you've got a hyperspace tracker on your vessel, like the one the Imperials put on the Falcon when it left the Death Star for Yavin. Also like the one Obi-wan threw to the hull of the Slave I in Attack of the Clones.

But, then again...how does Boba Fett track the Falcon to Bespin?

[Sutehp]

In TESB, just after the Millennium Falcon manages to play "peekaboo" with the ISD Avenger, and incidentally after Captain Needa's...apology to Vader, Vader then orders the Death Squadron fleet to "calculate every possible destination along the [Falcon's] last known trajectory." So, while without a SS-Thread Tracker or similar device, you can't track a ship through hyperspace, but if you see which vector it's going as it enters hyperspace, then it may be possible to follow it, assuming the target doesn't change course while in hyperspace (which didn't seem possible before we actually saw Cassian and K2 actually do it in Rogue One when Cassian orders K2 to change course for Eadu).

Remember, none of the Death Squadron actually saw the Falcon enter hyperspace (because it hadn't) and were only going by the "last known trajectory." In contrast, the Tantive IV jumped while in full view of the Devastator, so it must have been relatively easy to calculate the Tantive IV's destination, which, as we all know, turned out to be Tatooine.

This brings up the question of why the Devastator didn't just shoot the Tantive IV down as it broke away from the Profundity, but that can be explained by the notion that the Profundity's bulk blocked the Devastator from having a clear shot, not to mention that the time between the Tantive IV leaving the Profunidty's docking bay and the Tantive IV jumping was less than a minute, so the Devastator might not have had time to shoot, especially if the Devastator's gunners had no reason to expect a smaller ship breaking away from the Profundity. And there's also the possibility that the Devastator wasn't going to fire on the Tantive IV without orders if there was even a remote possibility that Vader could have gotten onboard, which he very nearly did.
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[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[Sutehp]

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[garhkal]

[CRMcNeill]

The EU technobabble solution is in two parts. First, Hyperwave Signal Interceptors are a common ship's sensor that detects when a ship enters or leaves hyperspace, and can also detect its trajectory at that moment. The Improved HSI is mounted on Imperial capital ships and is even more sensitive.

The second is mentioned in book 2 of the Black Fleet Crisis: Shield of Lies. A ship is following another through hyperspace when its sensor tech informs the ship's captain that "the target's soliton wave has vanished" whereupon the captain immediately orders the ship to drop out of hyperspace, which it does, right on top of the target. The idea is that a ship traveling through hyperspace creates disturbances in the fabric of hyperspace itself (assuming solitons are the SWU equivalent of real-world tachyons), which settle over time, but can be detected by a following ship.

While WEG has no rules for this, the scenario is pretty clear. A ship equipped with a HSI or an I-HSI is within sensor range of another ship when it jumps to hyperspace. Roll Sensors against # Difficulty to see if it got a good read on the ship's trajectory. Then, shortly thereafter, the first ship jumps into hyperspace after its target. Onboard sensors track the soliton wave, and as soon as it vanishes, the crew of the pursuer knows their target has dropped into realspace.

That's what the Devastator did; close enough to get a trajectory for the Tantive from their HSI, then immediately jumped out to follow.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[MrNexx]

So, assuming we have a HSI (or are assuming such things are relatively available), how would we game this?

My inclination would be to use the Search function of Sensors to get information on the arc the ship was in previously, and set it about Very Difficult to get enough information to for your Astrogator to figure out what's going on.
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[CRMcNeill]

[garhkal]

[CRMcNeill]

As far as I am aware, the Difficulty to jump into hyperspace is entirely based on how well known the route is. Local conditions (gravity wells and such) may affect that Difficulty, but are not the starting point of the Difficulty.

That being said, your point has merit in that or more complex route (multiple trajectory changes and such) or more obscure one will be harder to predict.

Heck, I could even see characters deliberately inserting a few doglegs into their route coordinates, deliberately accepting the high Difficulty to help throw off pursuit.

"I know a few maneuvers..."
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[garhkal]

True, but one can also see the more well travelled the route, the LESS of a 'wake' is made when someone uses it, where as the less traveled the route the bigger wake is made when its used.. Sort of like when a car speeds down a WELL used dirt strip, less sand and debris is thrown up, but if that is not a normal path, a LOT more debris flows up behind the car..
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[CRMcNeill]

Actually, that doesn't really make sense to me. IMO, a better analogy for ships traveling in hyperspace would be a boat leaving a wake, or an airplane leaving behind a trail of disturbed air.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Zarn]

A soliton IS actually the "wake" of something. Without getting into math that I'm not sure I understand any more if indeed I ever did (and beyond the basic classes of solitons, I'm sure I don't), one might equate it to a spray of discrete 'wavepackets' that can interact with each other and escape from the interaction unchanged. So if hyperspace is, say, an immense bowl of marbles, then shoving a starship into that will displace the marbles in a particular fashion - and that movement can be tracked.

[garhkal]

Just like the 'wake' we see behind starships traveling in "Warp" in Trek...
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