Engine Technology
Handwavium can do many interesting and useful things, but perhaps the most useful as far as the Fen are considered is that it lets us slip the surly bonds of gravity and escape the well. Applied to mundane engines, and occasionally other things, the 'wave usually produces space craft drives of many different types.
There are two main types of engines in Fenspace. Slower Than Light (STL) drives which are used to tool around inside the Limit, and Faster Than Light (FTL) drives which let you get away from it all.
Faster Than Light
FTL drives all operate on the same basic principle, although it may be expressed in different ways.
Slower Than Light
STL drives, while slower than light, are much faster than anything current state of the rat hardtech will let us do. They typically fall into one of two categories: Acceleration drives and Speed drives.
Acceleration drives are do not have a maximum speed that they can achieve[1][2], they do however have a maximum acceleration which limits how fast they can gain speed. All hardtech engines are acceleration drives and as far as we know this will always be so. Acceleration drives are rated by giving their acceleration in Gravities (Gs).
Speed drives have a maximum speed, which is inversely related to the mass of the ship. In layman's terms the larger the ship, the slower it is. Speed drives are generally described by giving their maximum speed in terms of a percentage of c[3].
Based on the ship's class there are some general guidelines about how fast it should be, more or less:
- Space Port: very slow, typically between 0.01c and 0.02c or worse.
- Space Vessel: generally from between 0.02c to 0.04c but can be higher, or lower.
- Space Ship: from around 0.04c to 0.08c.
- Space Craft: typically between 0.09c and 0.11c.
- Safety: We have no idea, and we're kind of scared to find out.
Known Drive Types
Notes
- ↑ Assuming you don't run out of fuel or remass
- ↑ Also, don't forget to turn around when you're halfway there so you can start to brake
- ↑ Which should give you some idea of how far beyond hardtech we're talking about.
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