Hyperspace & Comms

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

Hyperspace & Comms

I've been thinking about this--that we've seen communications being used while a ship is in hyperspace....

Obviously, sensors are used while in hyperspace. Page 59 of the First Edition core rule book, under Mishaps, says, "Starships are equipped with gravitic sensors to sense small masses and, if one is dangerously close to the ship and its path, cut the hyperdrive, throwing the ship into normal space."

Also, there are EU references where a ship can cut out its hyperdrive early, on purpose--meaning that a ship is not locked into going to its destination once it enters hyperspace. It can stop somewhere along the path. For that to happen, there has to be some method of figuring where the ship will exit--and that probably involves sensors. Of course, I could see an argument that this is completely figured from the NaviComp plot, "You'll be here in two hours, there in three." Same could be said for the buzzer that goes off announcing arrival at the destination.



Hyperspace Comms Signal

My thought though is, if the ship can receive signals while in hyperspace, the ship is not completely cocooned off from anything outside its hull. And, therefore, , the ship should be able to transmit and receive some sort of comms signal while in hyperspace.



Meson Comm?

Maybe this is easy, using standard comms.

Maybe this isn't easy, and a special comm is needed, like the Imperial Hyperradio.

If you want a dedicated comm that a ship could conceivably use in hyperspace, I'd say that some Star Wars tech version of Meson communications is used. A meson is a massless theoretical particle (not unlike the graviton). Because it is massless, it could conceivably be hurled faster than light with little problem (and it may, in fact, be the basis of the Hyperradio), and the transmission will not get garbled with the distorted effects mass and gravity have on a hyperspace trip.



No Combat. Yes Communications.

Page 55 of the First Edition Core Rulebook says, "Ships in hyperspace cannot fire at each other, so there is little to worry about while en route." It doesn't say anything about barring comms. And, firing weapons takes a lot more than just targeting.

So, I can see Hyperspace communication (now that I've worked it out) as something that does not go against the rules of the WEG D6 game and is acceptable technology in the SW universe in general.

[Zarn]

Hyperwave transceivers.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hyperwave_transceiver/Legends

Distinct from subspace radio, which also was FTL.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Subspace_transceiver

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

Doesn't say anything about their use during a hyperspace journey, though. That's the question.

[Zarn]

Under the HoloNet entry:

"A message was first broadcast from a planet, a vessel in hyperspace, or from another point of origin; from there, it was then routed from the point of origin's transmitter through potentially millions of hyperwave transceivers suspended in hyperspace to a HoloNet relay, where it was sorted, identified and logged by the relay's computer, and then routed further via appropriate transceivers to its destination."

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[Mamatried]

I would think any form of communications signals will be very distorted if travelling in/through hyperspace, and thus a ship transmitting any comms signal would need to have the crew roll for communications, maybe with higher difficulties.

[OuttaWindu]

[FVBonura]

In my campaign sensors can work in hyperspace but seldom provide anything more useful than detecting a mass shadow in the direction of travel to trip the emergency collision braking system. You are essentially in another dimension with radical physics receiving sensor data from that dimension not realspace.

Having said that, I just finished Timothy Zahn's "Vison of the Future" and found something interesting about Chiss technology, in chapter 27, that might help you. I haven't figured out how this fits in my campaign yet so this might be a good place to discuss/explore that.