Oolite Bulletins

Here's a theoretical question (it may be a might confusing):
If two ships were in two systems close to one another, like 4 light years apart, and both ships programmed their next destination as the other system, and they each decided to witchjump at the same time, and by some sort of coincidence both experience a witchdrive malfunction at the same time, would they meet each other in space, however high the odds are against them? And if they didn't, would they be able to meet each other eventually? Food for thought.

Depends on the handwavium. If the jumps are disturbed by a device on the same Thargoid ship then should be fall off from the wormhole at the same place. But if we use the famous principle: "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is" then we can drop the chance to zero.

The core game folow the second way, due to misjump places are addressed by the ids of the start and end systems of the jump, which is different if you go to the opposite direction. But if you make an OXP then you can check both cases to make equal for some events.

Hmm the problem here is the witchspace. As a physics get out of jail free card; it might be nearly impossible (nothing is truly impossible just insanely unlikely) or quite likely. Still it would make a good situation for a short story.

What about if there was no mis-jump. Since a ship always arrives by a witchspace beacon, it would be very messy if they both arrived at the same point at the same time.

The idea is that the ship opens a wormhole. Since that thing is not yet invented in real life, no one knows, how it may eventually work. What function has the beacon? Does it attract the worm holes end? Does it help to open the hole? Does it communicate with the ships hole generator (7LY away.. impossible) Or does the shop simply have to aim for a moving target (solar system, planet and beacon) very very precisely to go for a target 7 Light Years away and make a hit in a 1km circle? The game programmer is fairly free in his/her decision how to design the outcome.

ClymAngus wrote:

Still it would make a good situation for a short story.

That's why I was asking. If it's possible, no matter how, I could place it into a story. I've been thinking of one, and it's pretty good sitting in my head. Unfortunately, whenever I write it doesn't come out good. Maybe I'll try someday...

Huntress wrote:

I've been thinking of one, and it's pretty good sitting in my head. Unfortunately, whenever I write it doesn't come out good.

<chortles> I know that feeling! Do write it though - one fine day!

Well, I'm planning to write it this summer. Two whole months... hmmm, I should be able to write some. Then again, I may just stare at the screen deleting sentences over and over...

ralph_hh wrote:

The idea is that the ship opens a wormhole. Since that thing is not yet invented in real life, no one knows, how it may eventually work. What function has the beacon? Does it attract the worm holes end? Does it help to open the hole? Does it communicate with the ships hole generator (7LY away.. impossible) Or does the shop simply have to aim for a moving target (solar system, planet and beacon) very very precisely to go for a target 7 Light Years away and make a hit in a 1km circle? The game programmer is fairly free in his/her decision how to design the outcome.

FWIW, here is my handwavium:

The beacon is located at the entry point for all incoming vessels in a system. Entry points are defined by GalCop and all beacons are GalCop property. It constantly transmits its location through sub-space channels and all beacons are interconnected and form a kind of network. When you initiate hyperspace jump to a system, the ship's navigation computer locks onto the system's beacon signal and performs all required calculations so that the ship will travel in hyperspace and exit safely at the right exact moment in the exactly right location. The wormhole is purely ship-generated. Beacons can also be used for internal system-wide GalCop transmissions, like it happens in the Nova mission.

The question here is not can it be done. The question is what do YOU need the situation to do so we can fill in the blank bit of bollocks science.....

Huntress, i agree with ClymAngus.

Just gives us an idea what you need to happen and let us worry about how to explain that.

At the risk of drawing attention to a dormant OXZ idea that I've been mulling over for the past 18 months

The idea of making the reliability of witchspace jumps dependant on various environmental parameters would seem to have some relationship to the topic.

I won't say that this is in active development but I am currently taking steps towards making this a reality.

Well, there's not much else I can tell you. I don't really need to know specifics, only if it's possible or not. This type of scenario really doesn't have much bearing on my story, it's just how the characters meet up. Oh, here's some more questions: Do Thargoids go after escape capsules? If you used an escape capsule in deep space, would it ever reach a station safely? I mean, like after a misjump when you're in the middle of nowhere. I'm a really simple minded person, so I would prefer more simple answers. I will give you a simple plot (there's a lot of simple):
1. Character #1 is in a fight, decides to jump to the next system in order to escape. In order to avoid fire, character changes pitch instead of yaw, resulting in a misjump
2. In a nearby system, another character jumps to escape pirates. Really inexperienced dude, changes yaw, pitch and roll, and misjumps predictably.
3. Both happen at the same time, and they relatively jump at the same time (maybe a second or so apart. Don't want a ship sandwich).
4. It is perhaps possible that they wind up near each other, perhaps 50 km or so where they could find each other.

I don't really want to get any more detailed, as it will give spoilers. Just wanted to know if this could happen.
Thanks.

I think Thargoids shoot at anything that ain't Thargoid - even nav buoys, as I recall! An escape pod in interstellar space is in deep trouble. No need to rely on both pilots forcing a misjump - they happen anyway, often at exactly the wrong time! It's your story - if you want it to be possible for them to arrive at the same location in interstellar space, then it is possible! I once had the start of a tale wherein a pilot suffers a misjump and finds an abandoned ship in interstellar space.

Escape pod translates as 'Tinned Food' in Thargoid