Travel Time & Difficulty

Regarding Hyperspace Travel

Hyperspace is an alternate dimension, but coterminous with Realspace. Travel is much faster, but far from instantaneous. The safest routes are the Hyperspace Lanes shown on the map. The Major Lanes are extremely fast and easy to travel. The minor lanes are slower, but still safe and well-mapped. Plotting jumps outside these lanes is slower still, and more difficult, but can be safe if the jumps are small.

The Time Calculations

Route, Distance, Drive. These three factors determine how long it takes to travel in Hyperspace. There are two Travel Times to calculate, Base and Final.

Base Travel Time's calculation is simple: (Route x Distance - Astrogation a or + Astrogation h) in hours reduced by any Astrogation t.

Final Flight Time's calculation is also simple. (Base Travel Time x Hyperdrive Class - Pilot a or + Pilot h) in hours and either increased by Pilot f or decreased by Pilot s.

Route

There are three Route types to choose from: Major, Minor, Unmapped.

Major Hyperspace Routes are clearly marked and can be entered from any system along it's path. Travel through a Grid Square takes twelve hours of Hyperspace Travel. Base Difficulty is Trivial ( - ).

Minor Hyperspace Lanes are marked and mapped, and updated semi-regularly. Travel through a Grid Square takes 18 hours. Base Difficulty is Easy ( d ).

Unmapped Hyperspace Jumps are the main means of getting to off-route planets, and take a significant amount of time and effort. Travel through a Grid Square takes 24 hours. Base Difficulty is Average ( dd ).

Distance

For ease of navigation, the galaxy is mapped along a grid. Everything is always in motion, but is generally stable in location within it's grid position. Travel is measured by Grid Squares on a Navicomputer, rather than by sector or region which are largely political or historical delineations. Even the smallest Jump covers at least a portion of one of these grid squares, which are actually 1.5 megaparsecs across. As such, Astrogators use a baseline of 1 even when calculating the jump from say, Caamas to Alderaan, and receive a b for their efforts. Mapping routes through multiple Grid Squares increases the difficulty of the Astrogation check, and adds a setback die to the Piloting check.

Drive

Finally, the quality of the Hyperdrive, as rated by Class, determines how close you can skim towards gravity wells, mass shadows, and obstructions in Hyperspace. The wider the birth granted to these obstacles, the longer the journey. The lower the class the better the Hyperdrive. Multiply the travel time in hours by the Hyperdrive's Class.

The Mechanics

Parts. Astrogation. Piloting. These are the three factors to account for in any jump.

Parts

Parts Needed are simple: a Navicomputer (or substitute) and Hyperdrive are absolutely necessary for proper calculation and plotting of the jump as well as the actual jump itself. If either is damaged, the difficulty is upgraded once. If both are damaged, the difficulty is upgraded twice. If either is destroyed, no jump is possible.

Astrogation

Astrogation is the necessary skill. A successful Astrogation check allows for a ship to chart the route to reach the desired star system without incident. A failed Astrogation check means the route cannot be found without incident.

Additional s symobls allow for a more accurate jump or faster calculations, getting closer to the destination than the system's edge or reducing the time for the Astrogation check by half respectively. Multiple extra successes can be applied in different ways.

Meanwhile, every a symbol can reduce the travel time, identify stopover points, or business opportunities. In reducing travel time, a a decreases the base time by an hour. When identifying stopover points, a a can identify a point to resupply. In business matters, an a can identify an opportunity to defray the cost of the journey (in terms of fuel and supplies) by 10%.

t will aid a jump in one of three ways: a large time reduction, a large cost defrayment, or an information revelation. In the case of a time reduction, a t reduces travel time by 25%, to a minimum of 1 hour per Grid Square in the route. As far as cost defrayment, a t will reduce fuel and supplies used by 50 percent - it's easy to find work for a ship with a hyperdrive. Finally, in terms of informative revelations, a t can reveal a hyperspace path towards the destination that counts as 1 step better in terms of Route, but has no effect on Major Routes.

Meanwhile every h can be spent to invert the effects of an a symbol. Journeys can be made to last longer, cost more, or deny stops.

Piloting

First of all, ships often don't need a pilot for Hyperspace jumps. Autopilot does a fine job. You won't be late or early, but you do get there.

If one chooses to Pilot their ship through Hyperspace, one check is plenty. A single s symbol means the ship arrives on time, without incident.

If the check succeeds, any extra successes decrease the Final Flight Time by 10% to a minimum of 1 hour per Grid Square traveled. Alternately, the extra successes can be applied to accuracy of the jump, landing the vessel closer to its destination.

If the check fails, all is not lost. The course is plotted, the ship is en route... but every f symbol that is uncanceled increases travel time by 10% or decreases accuracy at the end of the jump - the pilot gives obstacles a wider berth than is necessary and adds to the time or drops out earlier than necessary by a split-second or two and is nowhere near the destination.

On the light side, every a shaves an hour off of the Final Flight Time or decreases the cost of the fuel by 10% as the pilot shaves down on small adjustments.

Further hhh can be spent to have a ship component be overtaxed and damaged one step. Finally hhhhh can be spent to drop a ship out of Hyperspace unexpectedly, at a spot other than their destination, damaging either the Hyperdrive or Navicomputer.