Favorite type of FTL?

[rhoenix]

As I'm working on my story (still), I wanted to get some outside opinions on everyone's favorite piece of soft sci-fi Handwavery Tech.

Warp Drive / Hyperdrive - essentially (insert explanation here) to move the ship past the speed of light.

Jump Drive / Wormhole - similar to Homeworld 2, or Freespace. Basically, you plot your coordinates, wave a rubber chicken, and you're suddenly now somewhere else

the Warp - as I understand it from Warhammer 40k, to travel FTL one has to shift the ship into another dimension, filled with large things that like to fuck with or eat ships. Good travel time, though. Similar to Warp Drive, except with teeth.

[Aaron]

I voted "other", I liked nBSG jump drive. Which uses an unknown device to instantly hop to one set of coordinates to another.

[Batman]

I voted "other", I liked nBSG jump drive. Which uses an unknown device to instantly hop to one set of coordinates to another.

Sounds like a generic jump drive a la option 2 to me.
Anyway, Warp/hyperdrive for me.

[Darth Tanner]

I agree, my vote for the warp/hyper drive.

40K warp is as you mentioned very dangerous because of the monsters but even a more general setting where the 'other' layer of space is not infested with things that want to use my intestines as a skipping rope still is quite dangerous as any mechanical failure on the part of the engines could leave you stuck in a non-universe.

Jump drive is much safer but still there is the problem of my atoms being one place one second and a few hundred light years away in the next. (isn't Homeworld 2 a more 40k style system?) This just gives me the image of transporter failure in that my atoms being spread across the universe in a glorious explosion or you get the co-ordinates wrong and end up inside a planet. Altohugh I assume it gets around the whole issue of disintegration/replication you get with transporters.

Plain old faster than light conventional drive will suite me fine. Also it strike me as far more interesting as while on-board you get much better scenery, and in regards to your fan fic more ability to interact with the rest of the universe while your travelling.

[D.Turtle]

The type I like the most is having (natural?) fixed jump points spread through out a solar system that you have to reach with conventional drives. The jump between each jump-point/wormhole is instantaneous, but the travel times to and from them is the main factor. This of course better supports having more semi-realistic spaceships and combat.
It also leads to interesting possibilities with having multi-system chokepoints (A network of solar systems has only one "access-point" to the rest of the galaxy). It of course also leads to the possibility of having extra-galactic travel.

An example of a story using this method is "Interstellar Highway" of the TBO universe.

[Atlan]

The FTL drive from Futurama: it's not the ship that's moving, the drive moves the universe around the ship!

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I like the "jump" type, such as in nBSG. There's a nice simplicity to it.

Favourite of the type was the "traveling without moving" depicted in Dune, where the Heighliners just faded out/in. There's a certain elegance to that, I think.

[phongn]

nBSG jump drives are fun, but I like the fixed jump-point system, since that nicely creates terrain in space.

[Xon]

Revelation-space FTL, because every time you chance going faster than c you risk retroactively annihilating yourself from existance.

[phongn]

Revelation-space FTL, because every time you chance going faster than c you risk retroactively annihilating yourself from existance.

Is that the old "relativity, casualty, FTL, pick two" argument?

[18-Till-I-Die]

I have always liked, and widely used, the concept of a Space-Fold Drive. It's so perfectly simple yet very effective, provided you have the technology to 'cheat' the outrageous energy requirements.

So i picked 'other'.

[Stark]

Isn't spacefold (at least, Macross spacefold) just a 'jump' point-to-point, like option 2 and nBSG?

[Arrow]

I went with jump/wormholes. I especially like the idea of gate systems involving wormholes (ie SG-1 supergates).

[VF5SS]

Isn't spacefold (at least, Macross spacefold) just a 'jump' point-to-point, like option 2 and nBSG?

Foldo!

I like folds mainly because of the effects and sounds associated with them.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Yeah, space folding in Macross was awesome.

[LaserRifleofDoom]

Arg! I have to choose? They're all so good in different ways.
Hyperspace lets you have dramatic possibilities regarding travel times and having routes (and mid route interdiction). The Warp adds to that with toothy monsters trying to eat you when you travel.

But jumps have a great simplicity. And ( moreso if you use fixed points) they can create all sorts of dramatic possibilities and causus belli in their own way.

[Major Maxillary]

Two words; String theory.

[Crazedwraith]

NBSG jumpdirve. Solely because of the Adama Drop.

[Catman]

Wormhole drive for me.

[Stark]

Yeah, space folding in Macross was awesome.

What do you mean our fold drive is gone? What kind of idiots rebuilt this thing? Where are my antigrav drives? Why is Hong Kong over our gun? Who is that silly boy? Why are we being followed by giant green penises? Macross was cool.

[Catman]

Damn, I thought that I could edit these.

Well, if you need a further explanation form this, it's that I think that a Wormhole drive is more realistic.

[Stark]

So you chose the most 'realistic' (ho ho) type in a poll about handwavium science fiction? You, sir, fail the thread.

[Balrog]

Would B5's Hyperspace fall under The Warp option? I've always liked that, plus unlike the Immaterium there's no daemons lurking about ready to consume your soul.

[18-Till-I-Die]

Isn't spacefold (at least, Macross spacefold) just a 'jump' point-to-point, like option 2 and nBSG?

Nah i mean like "real" space-folding. Space-folds are more like, in practice...well, in current sci-fi the most easily comparable thing would be say a Stargate. In fact i'd imagine that's what it'd look like.

In older literature, the concept of a Hyper-Tube from Lensmen basically sums up the idea. It's like a corridor, an interem space between two seperate points in the universe, traveling through it vastly decreases or even negates the distance between the destination and starting points.

The movie Event Horizon was based around it. The idea there being that this inebtween 'limbo' existed in a space-fold which is like teh Warp in 40k. I was thinking the less violent Lensmen-version fold drive though.

Like wormholes it's one of those things that "possible but improbable" AFAIK.

[RedImperator]

Damn, I thought that I could edit these.

Well, if you need a further explanation form this, it's that I think that a Wormhole drive is more realistic.

Which is like saying pink magical fairies are more realistic than blue magical fairies.

My personal favorite is the Maeda drive. Ship is converted into pseudomaterial which moves at c to its destination, with time not advancing for the crew during the transition. Yeah, I'm plugging my own piece of handwavium--I'm entitled (though I'm pretty sure others have come up with the same thing before me). Of course, it's not FTL, so it's useless to you.