Star Cruiser/Spaceflight ponderings:
1 ly = 9.46E15 m, 1 AU = 1.50E11 m
warp 1 = 1 ly/day = 1.10E11 m/s = 110E6 km/s
interstellar/deep space speed (1 MHz stutter => 110 km jumps)
warp 1 = 0.645 AU/day = 1.1E6 m/s = 1100 km/s
interplanetary/near space speed (1 MHz stutter => 1.1 m jumps)
If warp 1 will move a ship 1 hex per 30 s turn, each hex is 33000 km
(NOT 600000 km as stated in the books). Also, one AU is 4500 hexes
(NOT 250 as stated in the books).
warp 1 will move 1 hex/turn
2 hexes/minute
120 hexes/hour
2880 hexes/day (= 0.64 AU/day)
Sol's surface is at 700000 km = 21 hexes from Sol's core
Sol's 0.1 G gradient (maneuver efficiency cutoff) is at 11.6E6 km =
350 hexes
Sol's 0.1 mG gradient (FTL efficiency cutoff) is at 366E6 km = 11100
hexes = 2.47 AU (3.8 days travel at warp 1).
In effect, the 0.1 G gradient is at 3.16 times the 1.0 G gradient
and the 0.1 mG gradient is at 100 times the 1.0 G gradient.
Another star's cutoff radius is (Sol's radius * sqrt(Stellar_mass in Sol's))
Earth's surface is at 6380 km (within 1 hex)
Earth's 0.1 G gradient is at 20000 km (starships may not enter Earth's
hex)
Earth's 0.1 mG gradient is superceded by Sol's, but is at 638000 km =
11 hexes anyway
I.e. normal travel time to/from the FTL gradient and Earth is
2.29 days/warp = 55 h/warp
THUS, the scales given in STAR CRUISER are completely bogus.
THUS, we will not have the problem with long range missiles (since each
hex is only about 0.1 lightsecond, we can have reasonable control over
missiles at ranges of up to at least 50 hexes, i.e. a 5 second delay. Of
cause, I still think that missiles need considerable amounts of autonomy,
and remote piloting is more like assigning targets and pressing "fire enable")
On the subject of stutterdrive inertia, I feel that if you WANT to introduce
inertia, you could motivate it with:
1) The stutterdrive frequency cannot be changed from 0 Hz to <n> MHz
instantly - it must be gradually tuned over a period of time.
2) Neither can the stutterdrive tunneling distance be changed from
zilch to <whatever> with the flick of a switch.
This requires a Stutterdrive ship to 'accelerate' and 'decelerate' more or
less as in Newtonian maneuvers. Of cause, if you do NOT want this, you can
claim that the times involved are VERY small compared to the game scale.
As to the problem of ships doing 180's in space, consider this:
The Jerome drive propels a ship in a certain direction, usually along the
long axis of the ship (this is not stated anywhere, I just made it up, but
I think it seems reasonable). To change stutterwarp travel direction, you
have to rotate your ship. This is obviously easier for small ships than for
very large ships.
A quick-and-dirty rule for this is that any ship whose LARGEST profile is
positive must spend (move or not-move for inertialess universes) that number
of movement points between each facing change. Believe me, this makes a
battleship a LOT less agile than a fighter.
I have never considered Power Plant effectiveness compared to Real-world
systems, so I refrain from commenting on those.
Yngve