Astrogation Maps

[CRMcNeill]

Considering that hyperspace routes are not straight lines, any hyperspace coordinates would be some variation on "From Tatooine, travel 13.685 lightyears on bearing 32.619 by 187.75, then travel 87.223 lightyears on bearing..." etc, etc. All but the shortest hyperspace courses are non-linear to avoid known obstacles, unless some guy on a blind jump got really, really lucky. The way I figure, there would be two ways to plot a new course (well, three, but the third is more by accident than intent).

1). A dedicated scout ship, equipped to stay in space for anything up to a year, makes a nano-jump, a fraction of a lightyear in length in the direction of a desired or predicted hyperspace route. Once the micro-jump is complete, the scout ship stays in realspace long enough to get a fix on its location and scan for obvious obstacles to hyperspace travel, then makes another micro-jump. The process is repeated over and over until the scouts either give up or find a way through to where they are headed.

2). A Force sensitive with Instinctive Astrogation makes a good roll and plots a course that shaves several hours off of the time of an existing route. As an added bonus, because the new route is unknown, it will be next to impossible for the Imperial Navy to intercept them with an Interdictor, unless they guess right and are waiting for them at the target system. The problem here is that the Jedi's alternate route is based on instinctive guidance of the Force, with no knowledge of how close they may have skimmed to any hyperspace obstacles en route. A route plotted with Instinctive Astrogation could stay safe for centuries or be lethal a day later. I equate Instinctive Astrogation to the hyperspace navigators' abilities in the Dune series, in that the ability only answers the question "What is a safe course if I jump right now?" not "What course should I take that will be a safe route for centuries to come?"

3). Not really a planned mode, but a ship suffering a hyperspace malfunction (or desperately trying to escape from the Imperial Fleet) makes a blind jump from Point A to Point B and somehow survives. Of course, because it was a blind jump, as with Option 2, they have no knowledge of potential hazards that they may have unknowingly just missed while in hyperspace.

Between the three, #1 is really the only safe way to plot a long-term route. Of course, it takes time and perseverance, and money, of course. In many ways, the logistics of pathfinding a new hyperspace route would be very similar to that of scouting a new planet (see GG8). Some scouts would be independent, working on a limited budget, but seeing a greater cut of the profits if they succeed. Others would be backed by corporations or governments, meaning they have regular pay and stronger financial backing, but are less likely to see a big cut of the profits that their efforts produce.

Ultimately, IMO, the task of deliberately scouting a new hyperspace route should be tedious and time consuming, much like how the scouts of the American frontier located trails through the Rocky Mountains while headed west: lots of guesswork and trial & error and unknown dangers. However, it does make a great background for an encounter, if scouts make a micro-jump and discover a pirate base or a secret military installation, or even a mass of giant space monsters that eat starships. It could even make a good campaign; a group of scouts out on a pathfinding mission who overcome 3-4 session length encounters and come out on the other end of the trip with a brand new hyperspace route that cuts hours or days off existing travel times.

There are also political factors to consider. For instance, an existing shipping company or local government may feel threatened by an alternate route, as it would bypass spaceport facilities owned by the company that turn a tidy profit, and will go out of their way to hinder any new routes (up to and including killing people who have scouted them, if the company is shady enough). The Empire could be opposed to the plotting of new routes for any number of reasons (such as the aforementioned secret base), or even to limit travel to known corridors within a sector to ease policing of said routes.

The Alliance, on the other hand, would look on alternate, unknown hyperspace routes as a goldmine, as they would allow Alliance ships safe transit over unknown routes, avoiding Imperial patrols and interdiction points. They wouldn't be able to pay well for them, but Alliance personnel are rarely motivated by the financial rewards.

There is a lot of potential for a campaign built around plotting a new hyperspace routes, as it can tie in with various instant adventures that involve encountering unknown worlds and the like, but the actual scouting of the new route should most definitely be kept as part of the backdrop.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[garhkal]

[CRMcNeill]

[Fallon Kell]

[garhkal]

Or sell it to more than one group.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Mikael Hasselstein]

[ZzaphodD]

[Mikael Hasselstein]

[Mikael Hasselstein]

Okay, a day of unnatural obsession with this question later:

I've figured out how to work with a Network Analysis program to take a list of weighted dyads (think: hyperspace routes that link two systems with no other systems in between and a figure measuring its length, say, in hours), and convert it into a matrix of shortest paths between two points that are linked by one or more such dyads.

This means that I'm an important step closer to figuring out how to make a grand hyperroute matrix based on fairly consistent principles. That means that I need to think about the turning the network data into a usable web interface. That will be awesome when playing with a laptop or a tablet.

However, I would like some help in thinking about how this works. I've come to the conclusion that 'hours of travel' should be the fundamental attribute of any hyperspace route. This matches what WEG has already done. I also think that (changing my opinion from earlier) that 'hours of travel' should be in direct proportion to difficulty of astrogation.

I know that we might envision where that relationship should not hold, but it would make the prospect of using network data fundamentally more difficult. If we keep them proportional, then I think I can create an engine that gives both a time-traveled figure as well as a target number.

In most cases, the target number and the time-traveled will increase depending on how many hyperspace jumps between systems you're planning. If you want an easier roll, you need to plot a shorter trip. You can always re-astrogate once you're there and keep on trucking.

Any comments?

[CRMcNeill]

[Mikael Hasselstein]

[CRMcNeill]

[Mikael Hasselstein]

[CRMcNeill]

[Bren]

I don't think travel from Sector to Sector will work. That isn't how the hyperspace routes are laid out. They are mapped like a network diagram seeming to go from planet to planet crossing sectors as needed. Some sectors have multiple routes, but also have planets not on a main route. Other sectors don't appear to have any main routes at all.

Although the main hyperspace routes are mapped like a network diagram, it is not clear that in traveling along a route with say 5 systems, that one necessarily travels from A-B-C-D-E to get from A to E. It often seems in the novels and films that a course can be plotted from A-E directly.