Battletech Lore - What is a Jumpship?
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- Опубліковано 14 гру 2024
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In today's episode we talk about the main "vehicle" of interstellar travel in the Battletech universe, aka the Jumpships. Enjoy!!!
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#Battletech #Jumpship #Dropship - Ігри
Jump ships: so important it’s a war crime to attack them.
Pretty much shooting yourself in the foot by attacking these. Capturing them is infinitely more valuable.
Without them interstellar travel stops. I mean it just grinds to a halt, and that means billions die from starvation, disease, etc. There are aspects of BT that defy reason but the unspoken understanding after the succession wars started that thou shalt not destroy critical, irreplaceable infrastructure makes sense to me. It was in fact modeled on what happened during the so-called dark ages, after the fall of Rome
Hello Grim.
Ah, Jump Ships. A technology that was sadly near-destroyed during the various Succession Wars. Being reduced to barely a handful of ships per year at various surviving production facilities.
Without the Jump Ship, you have NO interstellar civilization. Without them, each system becomes totally isolated from all others, and has to rely upon its own resources to survive. In most cases, this is a death sentence for the planet's population.
When I played the game (from its first publication and release), I realized that interstellar trade, and the projection of 'power' across the stars, was going to be more like the ancient days of sailing ships. Where, in some cases, a unit dispatched to deal with an issue, would arrive months after the situation had resolved itself, for good or ill.
Even 'staging' units in key spots, only limited the ability of things to get 'out of hand' in a minor way. One only has to see the overwhelming force needed to subdue the Periphery States, to see just how much the Star League relied upon Jump Ships... massive fleets of them, to move huge numbers of Mechs and other war material around.
But, also, I looked into what was published and realized that there was NO way that interstellar shipping could work if shipping was performed like the pre-container period. Thus, I was able to convince my fellow players that containerization was the optimum method of shipping anything between the stars.
Having done that, I worked up a series of containers for shipping almost anything one could think of. The smallest of which was the 10x10x40 foot 'Standard' Container. Everything 'scaled' from there. 10x20x40, 20x20x40, and even 40x40x40 sized containers.
To prove my points, I built scale containers, and disassembled Mechs, and then allowed people to fit what they could into the various sized containers... letting them see for themselves that in most cases, this was the most efficient way to pack things for transport. I even went so far as to have a friend build a standard container with an open 'top' and fill it with scaled people, rooms, corridors, bathrooms, etc. Showing how much space there was on a 'personal' level.
Doing this, my friend and I stumbled upon the 6 mm scale and ran with it (this was sometime during the mid-1990's). 1 mm per foot seemed about 'right' for Mech scaling to terrain, even though 30 meters per hex width was a bit 'off'. This 'skewed' the maps. In effect, enhancing height over width. But, the numbers worked, so we left things 'as is' and did not try to re-invent the map scaling. A case of 'better the devil you know'. (Besides, if you scaled the map hexes to the Mechs, a 'normal' sized figurine would be inside a roughly, 8 inch wide hex).
Another example of 'explaining things by example' was actually showing people how large the scale was 'in game'. I did this by visiting a rather large parking lot and setting up flags every 30 meters across its length. In getting permission to do so, I interested the Security personnel of the rather large mall complex in the game, and they, on their own initiative, built a Mech Sized scaffold (since part of the mall was undergoing a rebuild, Security was able to convince the construction company to allow it for a weekend) to give vertical scale to the problem. All of this, pretty much silenced those in the gaming group about the 'piddling' ranges for weapons, and 'anemic' movement profiles.
Making the players drive across the parking lot at various speeds, pretty much impressed everyone as to just how 'fast' Mechs really were, striding across the maps 'in game'.
But, you don't have to do things this way. You could set up hazard warning triangles along a long and straight road, hopefully near a 4 or 5-story tall building for 'scale', and let people drive along it at various speeds to get a 'feel' for just how fast most Mechs are.
I don't know about you, but a LOT of people really just can't mentally grasp just how far a mile, or kilometer, really is. A long, flat road, with flags set at 1 mile, or 1 kilometer, does tend to put things into perspective. And marking '1 hex' width with warning triangles does help with that realization.
Getting people to actually stand and walk around inside a 'standard' shipping container helps as well. Giving them a sense of the volume and area of a 9'6" high, 8' wide, and 40' long container. If you can afford the expense, building a 10x10x40 foot rectangle out of PVC piping can do the same thing. Especially if you drape cloth over it to give a sense of enclosure.
Just a few thoughts.
JumpShips. Probably the most important part of BattleTech. They allow interstellar transportation, without the K-F Drive there would be no Star League or Inner Sphere or Clans.
Totally agree. And as a offshoot of their development, it led to the HPG, allowing for interstellar communication.
Have he done a video on the K-F drives yet?
If so, I've been unable to find it?
When it comes to Scifi universe's, BT's FTL travel is one of the more Theoretically possible. But as your probably going to cover in your next Jump ships video, the KF drive and the whole jump process does have limitations.
If you could, and if other people want it, I would like to see you continue to do these, kind of like you do with the 40K ship/vehicle classes. A couple at a time is fine with me.
Yes the K-F Drive could easily be it's own video. Without it, no FTL, no JumpShips, no HPG, no Star League, no IS, no Clans, no...
I love the concept that there arent fleets of enterprises, but droppers and their space Uber
probably more realistic.
@@GrimDarkNarrator As a passionate participant in the industry, I foresee many a space tug with 4-6 mounts for mining, cargo, Materials processing, habitat, and bactry modules snapped on to suit the mission/expedition needs. Much like an omnimech can be customized.
I ran a comparison between Battletech Jumpships and ST warp factor, using Voyager for comparison. I came up with a max speed of 3 LY/day which ST can't keep up indefinitely, versus an average of 4.25 LY/day (instant 30 LY jump plus average 7 days recharge). In short, Hanse Davion can outrun Captain Kirk, Picard, or Janeway. HAHAHA!!!!
But the Federation outguns and outmaneuvers anything Battletech can put in space :D
@@GrimDarkNarrator Aw, you had to bring THAT up! :P
@Jose Luis Suddenly I have the German National Anthem on accordion playing in my head. "Guten tag..."
@Jose Luis Amen, brother!
@@battlespace13 Steiner scout squad says hi.
Never really got into the jump ships or the interstellar navies of Battletech. But I am loving the videos on the equipment and vehicles! Nice work GDN.
Thanks. Nice to hear.
First DropShips. Now JumpShips. Next WarShips?
That would be nice. The discussion on those should be...interesting?
Aren't warships just angrier jumpships ?
@@GrimDarkNarrator Yes.. and no.
A warship is a JumpShip with a Compact K-F Drive. And the carry a lot more guns. But they have transit drives which make them more like DropShips, though a WarShip cannot operate in atmosphere or land.
There is enough to differentiate WarShips from JumpShips and DropShips. Therefore, WarShips are a separate class of spacecraft, different and similar to JumpShips.
Thank you for sharing this lore
My pleasure!
battletech videos are the best👍
Thanks.
I really like the space music while you are talking stuff.
Glad to hear that.
I'd like to request a battletech lore video on the Rifleman IIC whenever you get around to it. Or possibly included in a dedicated IIC video explaining the lore behind them.
I'll add it to the list of possible topics.
clan wolf!
Have you done a video on the K-F drives yet?
If so, I've been unable to find it?
Not yet. I figured it would be kinda boring, but I'll probably get to it at some point.
Would love to see it honestly
@@johnbevan3630 Indeed. I still have no idea how they're supposed to work.
FTL or fold space? Etc...
I love this stuff!
Can you do one on Warships?
I did two videos on warships so far, with more to come at some point.
@@GrimDarkNarrator Cool. I ain't seen any, though. Cheers!
yay!
How many Jump Ships are secretly controlled by Comstar?
depends how loyal are the adepts of each great house.
And how many of those Comstar Jumpships are actually a compact core Warship, allowing Comstar to have a hidden transportation network? Let alone Comstar's advantage with communications means that Comstar Jumpships could receive Pirate point coordinates to a destination system, allowing Comstar ships to jump much closer to the target planet in Comstar-controlled systems
@@GrimDarkNarrator I read that as 'how many JumpShips does ComStar have that the Great Houses don't know about.' Which is lots, even if you don't count the only WarShip fleet the Inner Sphere had at the time of the Clan Invasion.
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Still waiting for the VICTOR
/sadface.