Hyperdrive cannonshells

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2006-02-20 03:08pm

It seems any hyperspace based weapon is good weapon of terror, but has little to no tactical or stradegic value.

so the real question isn't "can they do it", but "why should they do it".

Lex · Post by **Lex** » 2006-02-20 06:57pm

you seem to forget that the galaxy gun was not special because of its range, rather because of its warheads, which i.g. destroyed Byss without ever bein in hypserpace

Spartan · Post by **Spartan** » 2006-02-22 12:47am

Just to add another point to why hyperspatial collision are so rare.

SWTC - Hyperspace wrote:

In preparation for the jump back to realspace the ship must reduce velocity to very near lightspeed, well below the time-reversal / antimatter threshold speed. It will cover great distances while doing so, and even more distance while it decelerates from lightspeed to rest. Even if it is possible to see a ship in hyperdrive, the transition back to realspace will take place far from inhabited space, on the outer reaches of the destination system or even further away. Similarly a ship jumping into hyperspace covers a great distance during the pre-jump acceleration phase.

So, it seems that vessels transition to high relativistic velocites well outside of their target star systems.

Cykeisme · Post by **Cykeisme** » 2006-02-23 04:27am

Ooh, that reminds me of a particular scene in Republic Commando which didn't initially make sense to me.

After destroying the Trandoshan dropship in one of the hangars of the RAS Prosecutor, Sev looks out of the hangar field and exclaims that he sees a Separatist Battleship. Scorch replies, "not even you can see into hyperspace, Sev" to which 07 replies, "no, I see it.. at the edge of the system!"
True enough, moments later a Lucrehulk comes to a stop just beside the Prosecutor.

Sev must have actually seen the ship approaching in realspace, just after reversion from hyperspace.

Spartan · Post by **Spartan** » 2006-02-23 09:41am

Hi, Cykeisme

I'm not disputing what you wrote but it seems pretty unlikely as the edge of a system should be several hours to days away at light speed. Unless those clone commandoes are helmets come equiped with FTL sensor there not way they could have seen that ship as it reverted.

Maybe the trooper in question had latent force sensitivity.

Cykeisme · Post by **Cykeisme** » 2006-02-23 05:09pm

Let's review the pertinent facts.
1) After reverting from hyperspace, the Lucrehulk is travelling at sub-luminal speeds, albeit high sub-luminal speeds.
2) The ship reaches the vicnity of the Republic ship within seconds.
If the ship was travelling at subluminal speeds, and it arrived within seconds, how could the reversion point have been light-minutes away?

The only problem here is Sev's terminology: the phrase "the edge of the system." It's possible that there is a defined edge to a star system in Star Wars (as opposed to our solar system, to which we don't draw a discrete line). If this is the case, the Republic assault ship may itself be pretty close to the edge of the system.
It's even possible that "the system" isn't a solar system.

Alternatively, I may have been mistaken about what was going on; the battleship may already have been waiting on the edge of the system for some time (which is what Sev saw), and made a short jump in-system.
I'm inclined to agree that Sev is such a badass that he really can see into hyperspace (latent Force sensitivity?), but that's a last resort.

Does anyone else have any other possible explanations for that scene in the game?

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2006-02-23 08:49pm

Does anyone else have any other possible explanations for that scene in the game?

The assault ship could have very well been "outside" whatever stellar system it was close to, thus rendering the terminology unusable without further data on the ship's position. Or he may have been referring to a planetary system, which would dramtically reduce the distance needed to travel.

Connor MacLeod · Post by **Connor MacLeod** » 2006-02-24 12:33am

Emergence from realspace involves sublight deceleration from near-c. This acceleration value can be quite massive, and the acceleration could be lethal to the crew or put alot of strain on the ship if the acceleration compensators can't handle it (as an example, this happened to a Vong ship in "Destiny's Way": it experienced a compensator failure during the jump process (I forget whether it was from or to) and its crew suffered the effects of acceleration to/from about .6c)

Given the tremendous accecleration, its possible that the actual "rate" at which a ship decelerates from the jump can vary widely. Warships might be able to make deceleration from near-c in a very short period (a couple of seconds, say.) while larger ships might need much longer (either because they have less efficient compensators, or their ships simply cannot handle the stress.)

Spartan · Post by **Spartan** » 2006-02-24 09:29am

Cykeisme wrote:

Let's review the pertinent facts.
1) After reverting from hyperspace, the Lucrehulk is travelling at sub-luminal speeds, albeit high sub-luminal speeds.
2) The ship reaches the vicnity of the Republic ship within seconds.
If the ship was travelling at subluminal speeds, and it arrived within seconds, how could the reversion point have been light-minutes away? Wink

True...true...and true. But that isn't what Sev said though.

The only problem here is Sev's terminology: the phrase "the edge of the system." It's possible that there is a defined edge to a star system in Star Wars (as opposed to our solar system, to which we don't draw a discrete line). If this is the case, the Republic assault ship may itself be pretty close to the edge of the system.
It's even possible that "the system" isn't a solar system.

He probably doesn't mean a Star System; cause the actual scientific edge on a star system would be the distance of the star's http://www.daviddarling.info/encycloped ... pause.html. About 100-150 au out from the sytems primary. Or your could use the star gravitaion foci, about 550 au out. But even speaking colqially, the edge of out Solar system would be at least past the orbit of Pluto. Way...way past visual range.

Alternatively, I may have been mistaken about what was going on; the battleship may already have been waiting on the edge of the system for some time (which is what Sev saw), and made a short jump in-system.
I'm inclined to agree that Sev is such a badass that he really can see into hyperspace (latent Force sensitivity?), but that's a last resort.

I guess it depends on the system, the Earth-moon is a system after all. But seriously nobody can see to the true edge of a Star system, hell not even Superman.

Cykeisme · Post by **Cykeisme** » 2006-02-24 08:41pm

Hmm.. so there's a few possible candidates.

One, it was never specified what sort of system the Corbantis System was, so it may be a planetary system.

The other.. well, Spartan, you sort of missed this: you refer several times to the distance between the center of a star system to its edge. Note, however, that the ship was not anywhere near the center. During the mission, you get to look out windows on opposite sides of the ship, and it's slowly rotating in space, yet you don't see a nearby sun.
As Noble Ire suggested, the Prosecutor may have close to the edge of the system already. Hence, a battleship "on the edge of the system" may not have been so very far away.
Also note that Sev was not using his naked eye.