Speed in hyperspace

[vong]

I am going to base my travel time on the 2ed RE book's hyperspace chart.
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[ifurin]

shortest travel time or longest? this sounds like an interesting idea.

[Whill]

As some have tried to demonstrate, the actual speed of some jumps seems so incredibly high, so in the Star Wars galaxy, there might not be any maximum speed/minimum time for any jump (in ideal conditions).

Since all physical things in realspace cast a hyperspace gravity shadow, the speed of a ship in hyperspace is mainly based on how well-known the course is, and factors can effect it like space phenomena and the movement of that phenomena as the galaxy rotates. Sure, an astrogator can speed up the trip or slow it down, and as a result that may effect the chances of a mishap happening. So empty space may allow virtually unlimited speed in hyperspace, but space is really far from empty, especially when you are considering the size of a ship moving the the vast number of light years a jump could have.

In our measly little primitive planet, we currently possess the technical know-how to create a ship that can move near the speed of light. But a tiny speck of dust in space could completely obliterate it when moving that fast into it. So that speed is impractical until we can build more space-worthy vessels.

In Star Wars, the ships may not be that vunerable to every tiny space partical, but when crossing that many lightyears in a heartbeat, you very much increase your odds of coming across something that could destroy the ship fast, so you have to navigate around space obstacles. This plotting of a course through hyperspace is what determines the time it takes to get there.

If you want to be more realistic, then navigating through the core worlds would be much more difficult then navigating through the outer rim, because the core is more densly packed and the outer rim has more "empty" space. But the game shows that moving from core world to core world are short travel times, and the rational is because the routes are older and much more well-travelled, not really because they are closer together.

So with how well-known a course is a main guideline, I completely agree that the speed of a ship through hyperspace should be the speed of the plot. If you just suspend your disbelief a little, there are many possible "explainations" for why the trip was longer or shorter then the "norm." If you're considering something as far-fetched as travelling hundreds of thousands times the speed of light, you can just wing it and it should be ok. 8)
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[Chandra Mindarass]

My explanation was always based on Hyperspace routes. The Corellian Run, the Perlemian Trade route and other big corridors are like big, 6-dimensional rivers, on which even the earliest settlers travelled. They might even accelerate ships through cosmic wind. Which also explains why only one half of the galaxy is explored, while even the other side of the Colonies is almost devoid of known civilisations. My guess is that those huge routes also get LOTS of maintenance and thus allow even faster travelling. Smaller routes might have traffic jam problems, forcing ships to move slower than they could, resulting in longer trips, while some remote areas might actually have no maintained Hyperspace routes, which is the reason why it takes so many days to get to Gamorr or others primitive worlds on the border of Wild Space.

All those "facts" leave me with enough air to say the trip took +/- 50% of what seems logical or even more, depending on the plot.
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[TrueGrit]

There are very neat, technical discussions of this kind at: www.stardestroyer.net

[Rerun941]

I've done some looking into this myself...

First, I ignored all of the Astrogation Gazetteer charts as published and instead referenced the Lords of the Expanse Boxed Set.

In it, there's the statement: "Were one to travel from one end of the Rimma Trade Route to the other in a Star Destroyer at maximum velocity, it would take at least six weeks to make the trip."

The Rimma Trade Route runs from the Abregado-rae in the Core to Kal'shebbol in the Kathol Sector close to Wild Space. There are several published galaxy maps that confirm this distance.

Looking up the "maximum velocity" of a Star Destroyer, we find it has a hyperdrive multiplier of x1.

Bear in mind that this is a MAJOR trade route. It's been known and mapped for millenia. Travel through it should be very fast.

Even so, you're going from the core to the edge of the galaxy a little too fast, in my own opinion. I think the time should be increased to 8 weeks (2 months) and therefore 16 weeks (4 months) with a x2 hyperdrive. The trip would basically exhaust the consumables of a typical tramp freighter.

I would expect similar travel times for the other major trade routes and slower travel times as you branch off into lesser known routes, using the galaxy map as your guide.
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[Chandra Mindarass]

I really like these thoughts, but I stopped approaching Star Wars with such concepts as logic and physics and since ANH clearly shows a rather short trip from Rim to Core, so there had to be some kind of tailwind for the Falcon. I handle this a bit like in old-school AD&D: There are different types of terrain, each with a different speed modifier. A road doubles your movement through the surrounding terrain. I haven't written that down, but this is what happens in my head, when a player asks for the estimated travel time.
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[Rerun941]

[garhkal]

I think speed of plot + 1 hour is good.
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[Doomhead]

set for ludicrous speed...



Aw, buckle this! Ludicrous Speed! Go
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[Whill]

"We've gone plaid!"
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[YodaWI]

We can't stop, we have to slow down first!!!!
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[vong]

classic awesomness!
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