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Favorite means of FTL travel? (GIF Heavy)

Favorite FTL travel?

  • Hyperspace (STAR WARS)

    Votes: 70 21.1%

  • Warp (Star Trek)

    Votes: 87 26.2%

  • Slipspace (Halo)

    Votes: 18 5.4%

  • FTL + Mass Relay (Mass Effect)

    Votes: 83 25.0%

  • Navigating Warp (Warhammer 40K)

    Votes: 45 13.6%

  • FTL Jump (Battlestar: Galactica)

    Votes: 22 6.6%

  • Other (Explain in post)

    Votes: 7 2.1%
  • Total voters
    332
SolidSnakeBoy

SolidSnakeBoy

Member
May 21, 2018
7,342
I'm offended Stargate is not in the poll. Like how does Halo beat it for a slot? It's probably the fastest out of all of these. The Ori make huge ones too so, it's not like they can't scale. They are also transgalactic which most of these can't even do in a reasonable time frame.
 
DBT85

DBT85

Resident Thread Mechanic
Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,260
ExtremelyBitter said:
Starburst in Farscape was always cool to me, largely for being a biological approach to the issue instead of just out-teaching it. Not a great gif but:
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I like you.
 
Avitus

Avitus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,908
40k

because it's closer to actual exploration/sailing as we know it. Your passage is not safe, nor is your destination guaranteed, and the time it takes to travel even the same route can vastly differ.
 
Z-Beat

Z-Beat

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
31,842
The one I'd choose is probably hyperspace from Star Wars. It has the fewest downsides and is the most reliable.

The most INTERESTING is Event Horizon, where you build an engine that folds space and travels through a hole poked between the two points but it takes a shortcut through hell and you all go crazy.
 
Flaurehn

Flaurehn

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,359
Mexico City
I also love the Astral Gates from Cowboy Bebo which are an amalgamation of most of these but have this feeling of "early FTL travel"

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SupremeWu

SupremeWu

Banned
Dec 19, 2017
2,856
Without knowing which is fastest, Warp in Star Trek seems like the easiest. It takes about 3 seconds to plot a course and hit whatever warp speed you want.

All the others either you seem to need to calculate forever or you rely on giant external machinery
 
Vulcano's Assistant

Vulcano's Assistant

Member
Oct 29, 2017
13,481
"Hyperspace (Ringworld)" you mean!

Joking aside, maybe Farcasters from Hyperion are my favorite because of the ludicrous and decadent extend to which they are used. Like people having rooms in different parts of the galaxy. Want to take a shit? My toilet is on a desolate planet looking at the ocean; just walk thru this door and you'll be there instantaneously.

My least favorite is Old Man's War approach of jumping to a different universe that is 99.999999% the same, technically leaving everyone you knew behind even if they still exist on this new universe that is nearly the same.
 
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BossAttack

BossAttack

Member
Oct 27, 2017
42,958
Darkonda said:
That's supremely fucked... Didn't think I'd ever find a universe worse than Berserk's. Do you automatically go to "hell" when you die?
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No.

Disclosure, my knowledge of 40k is not as in-depth as many others here. First, that caption is being a bit cheeky, it exaggerates a bit for humorous effect but not by much. Death is still death.

The Warp is basically an alternate dimension of psychic energy, it is constantly shifting due to the emotions and thoughts of other living beings especially those with psychic powers. Chaos Gods are given form and birth from these emotions. Traveling through The Warp is fucking dangerous as hell since you are essentially travelling through hell to then pop out at your destination. And to travel the Warp you need powerful astropaths who have enough psychic power to guide a ship through hell whilst not losing them self to the Chaos Gods lurking within or to the concept of Chaos itself which are mushy human brains just cannot comprehend.

Oh, and Warp travel is only possible because the immortal God Emperor of mankind psychically serves as a guiding voice and beacon for all astropaths traveling the warp. The Emperor is kept immortal by sacrificing THOUSANDS of psykers everyday beneath his golden throne.

Long live the Emperor!
 
Trouble

Trouble

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,134
Seattle-ish
I like the Embassytown model where FTL is done by traversing to an alternate universe where the rules of space and time are different. Most humans have to be sedated for the entire trip to avoid going insane.
 
TheMadTitan

TheMadTitan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
27,215
Going with Mass Effect because it's on the list, but pretty much anything that requires some sort of slingshot, gate, or whatever for long distanc FTL travel. Mass Effect isn't the only series with those sort of things, but it's the one I voted for.
 
Darkonda

Darkonda

Member
May 23, 2018
1,204
BossAttack said:
No.

Disclosure, my knowledge of 40k is not as in-depth as many others here. First, that caption is being a bit cheeky, it exaggerates a bit for humorous effect but not by much. Death is still death.

The Warp is basically an alternate dimension of psychic energy, it is constantly shifting due to the emotions and thoughts of other living beings especially those with psychic powers. Chaos Gods are given form and birth from these emotions. Traveling through The Warp is fucking dangerous as hell since you are essentially travelling through hell to then pop out at your destination. And to travel the Warp you need powerful astropaths who have enough psychic power to guide a ship through hell whilst not losing them self to the Chaos Gods lurking within or to the concept of Chaos itself which are mushy human brains just cannot comprehend.

Oh, and Warp travel is only possible because the immortal God Emperor of mankind psychically serves as a guiding voice and beacon for all astropaths traveling the warp. The Emperor is kept immortal by sacrificing THOUSANDS of psykers everyday beneath his golden throne.

Long live the Emperor!
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😐 Thanks for explaining. So just a tiny bit less fucked than Berserk's world.
 
sir_crocodile

sir_crocodile

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,486
"Bloater Drive" from Bill the Galactic Hero.

The ship is pointed towards the destination, gaps between the atoms of the ship expands to unthinkably large proportions until the front of the ship has reached the desired destination, then it shrinks down there
 
Vulcano's Assistant

Vulcano's Assistant

Member
Oct 29, 2017
13,481
You know, in retrospect I think Star Wars' approach is probably the one like the least because it is a little boring. At least Old Man's War has caveat to it, a twist that is relevant to the plot even if I am not fan of the concept. Many of these other universes at least seem to care that FTL is a solution to a big problem caused by laws that still exist, but Star Wars treats it like a theater curtain changing the scenery and sucks some of the excitement out of space travel.
 
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Stinkles

Stinkles

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
20,459
Stephen' King's The Jaunt short story describes a C violating transit for human beings that is effectively stargates between points-

MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD

the twist is that passengers have to be sedated for transit- conscious attempts in early testing led to Irrecoverable psychic damage- those who even survived emerged as inchoate and plainly traumatized- a permanent and horrifying condition.

although the inmates who were used as Guinea pigs to try and discover the problem usually emerged as gibbering and incoherent, one emerged and gasped "it's eternity in there " and never spoke another word.

the inventor's son, a born daredevil holds his breath to bypass the sedation- he arrives light years away at his father's lab- utterly insane - his eyes showing that they'd witnessed something too terrible to contain. He shrieks to his dad,, "It's longer than you think, Dad! Longer than you think!" before clawing his eyes out as he is wheeled away.
 
Darkonda

Darkonda

Member
May 23, 2018
1,204
Vulcano's Assistant said:
Berserk is not too bad. Heck it even has quite a handful of charterers that are good people. Are there even any good guys in W40K?
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That's the thing. Some of the good guys are involved or have been involved with apostles/demons and they're destined for hell just because of that. If the Idea of Evil is canon that tells me everyone is fucked no matter what lives they led.
 
Stantastic

Stantastic

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,493
i mean 40k wins just by virtue of being more that a flashy teleportation.
the fact that its also the primary connection to literally all the evil ever imagined by anyone ever, its guided by an by the physic powers of an undead god king, and the fact that humanity was this close to having an infinitely safer and more efficient alternative before the Horus Hissyfit happened it just a bonus.
 
KDR_11k

KDR_11k

Banned
Nov 10, 2017
5,235
Darkonda said:
That's supremely fucked... Didn't think I'd ever find a universe worse than Berserk's. Do you automatically go to "hell" when you die?
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As a human, no*. Unless you've been claimed by Chaos before death. As an Eldar (space elf) though, you gotta use a soul stone to hold your soul in place after death or it will be taken by Slaanesh, the Chaos god of excess, both of pleasure and pain. Those who lose their souls to the Warp are stuck there for all eternity though.

Other species are different matters, for example the hive minded Tyranids have such a strong combined mental presence they can blot out the Warp entirely in a wide area, stranding all Warp-using species in sub-light speeds. Meanwhile the Orks are a species engineered for fighting the greatest horrors of the universe and just consider the Warp an entertaining place where the things you kill respawn so you can kill them again...

*) There are indications that this might change as mankind is headed for a psychic awakening, becoming fully connected to the Warp and probably fucking the entire galaxy in a single moment.
 
chalkitdown

chalkitdown

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,218
The FTL jumps in Battlestar Galactic are my fav purely because every jump had a detrimental effect in the ship to the point where it was beginning to tear it apart.
 
Trisc

Trisc

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,485
Stinkles said:
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I was gonna say Slipspace, since I love the idea of both sides of a conflict using the same means of navigation, but with a clear technological gap being drawn: the UNSC brute force ruptures open while the Covenant's technology is almost surgical in its precision.

But hey, if Mister Chief himself is gonna say otherwise, who am I to speak against him?
 
Qikz

Qikz

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,471
KDR_11k said:
As a human, no*. Unless you've been claimed by Chaos before death. As an Eldar (space elf) though, you gotta use a soul stone to hold your soul in place after death or it will be taken by Slaanesh, the Chaos god of excess, both of pleasure and pain. Those who lose their souls to the Warp are stuck there for all eternity though.

Other species are different matters, for example the hive minded Tyranids have such a strong combined mental presence they can blot out the Warp entirely in a wide area, stranding all Warp-using species in sub-light speeds. Meanwhile the Orks are a species engineered for fighting the greatest horrors of the universe and just consider the Warp an entertaining place where the things you kill respawn so you can kill them again...

*) There are indications that this might change as mankind is headed for a psychic awakening, becoming fully connected to the Warp and probably fucking the entire galaxy in a single moment.
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Warhammer 40k lore is so dope. I should read up on it more (I don't play the game as it's too expensive).
 
Mivey

Mivey

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,820
Well, Star Trek wins it for me for at least having some basis in actual science. The energy or mass required for that kind of warp effect would be insane, but it's in principle not entirely magic
 
Gernau Morat Gurgeh

Gernau Morat Gurgeh

Member
Oct 31, 2017
10,045
I'm partial to warp travel, in the sense that you have to literally go to hell for interstellar travel, and even then it doesnt always work. You might come out of the jump centuries after you went in. Or even arrive before you left, at which point your friendly local inqusitor would probably like a word.

Xia said:
Corpses can't live, silly human.
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dhm0cyDViu2qikS55TGIBxcEGYBgVgCIuapVHf981Oc.jpg
 
FF Seraphim

FF Seraphim

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,702
Tokyo
Going with Star Wars it looks cool. 40k looks cool too but you know the chance to be utterly destroyed and tortured by daemons turns me off
 
Turin Turambar

Turin Turambar

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,780
The thread has mentions of Homeworld, Dune spice, Iwar 2, the Culture and the silly Lovecraftian W40k lore. I approve.
 
Dirtyshubb

Dirtyshubb

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,555
UK
BossAttack said:
No.

Disclosure, my knowledge of 40k is not as in-depth as many others here. First, that caption is being a bit cheeky, it exaggerates a bit for humorous effect but not by much. Death is still death.

The Warp is basically an alternate dimension of psychic energy, it is constantly shifting due to the emotions and thoughts of other living beings especially those with psychic powers. Chaos Gods are given form and birth from these emotions. Traveling through The Warp is fucking dangerous as hell since you are essentially travelling through hell to then pop out at your destination. And to travel the Warp you need powerful astropaths who have enough psychic power to guide a ship through hell whilst not losing them self to the Chaos Gods lurking within or to the concept of Chaos itself which are mushy human brains just cannot comprehend.

Oh, and Warp travel is only possible because the immortal God Emperor of mankind psychically serves as a guiding voice and beacon for all astropaths traveling the warp. The Emperor is kept immortal by sacrificing THOUSANDS of psykers everyday beneath his golden throne.

Long live the Emperor!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
As someone who's knowledge of 40k is tiny, everything I hear about it is cool as fuck and makes me wish there was a high budget series or narrative based series of games.
 
pochi

pochi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,137
Definitely not Event Horizon.

Not FTL but I like the wormhole in Interstellar.
7pA5.gif
 
Banderdash

Banderdash

Chicken Chaser
Member
Nov 16, 2017
2,464
Australia
Battletech
Instantaneous jumps, but only to a distance of 30 light years. Then you've gotta put out a sail that collects solar power to fill your batteries. Depending on the strength of the sun in the system... you can be recharging for up to 2 weeks.
You can only jump to points in the system where the gravity won't mess with your ship, your drive, or your sail. And, because your jumpship is so fragile, it needs a separate ship to get to the planet... which can take a couple of days itself.

That said, I prefer Star Wars... i think it just looks visually better.
I liked it better on the old days though... when ships couldn't communicate whilst using it, that it didn't need a separate fuel supply, that you couldn't approach a planet whilst you were in it, and you couldn't enter it till you were clear of gravity wells.
 
ProstatePuncher

ProstatePuncher

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
5,800
My favourite method is turning off the light switch with my fully outstretched arm, then rushing to the bed to get under the covers before the monsters get me. They're too slow, though I still can't do it faster than the light going off. I'll improve, little by little.
 
Tacitus

Tacitus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,031
Darkonda said:
That's supremely fucked... Didn't think I'd ever find a universe worse than Berserk's. Do you automatically go to "hell" when you die?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Sort of.
The bad news is that your soul is flung into the Warp once it leaves your mortal coil where it'll most likely be torn to pieces by the denizens of the Warp.
The good news is that you'll be generally dead by this point and thus won't be cognizant any longer.
The ultra bad news is that if your soul is strong enough -ie. you're a psyker and can fling mind bullets at your enemies- you are cognizant and will feel every terrifying moment of your soul being torn to shreds.
 
Burt

Burt

Fight Sephiroth or end video games
Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,144
Stinkles said:
Stephen' King's The Jaunt short story describes a C violating transit for human beings that is effectively stargates between points-

MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD

the twist is that passengers have to be sedated for transit- conscious attempts in early testing led to Irrecoverable psychic damage- those who even survived emerged as inchoate and plainly traumatized- a permanent and horrifying condition.

although the inmates who were used as Guinea pigs to try and discover the problem usually emerged as gibbering and incoherent, one emerged and gasped "it's eternity in there " and never spoke another word.

the inventor's son, a born daredevil holds his breath to bypass the sedation- he arrives light years away at his father's lab- utterly insane - his eyes showing that they'd witnessed something too terrible to contain. He shrieks to his dad,, "It's longer than you think, Dad! Longer than you think!" before clawing his eyes out as he is wheeled away.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This was part of some short stories book that my 7th/8th grade teacher had on her shelf that I read (along with The Mist), and it always stuck with me. I don't really know why. Particularly vivid imagery, I guess. I couldn't even describe the cover of the short stories collection, but I could pick it out of a lineup without a doubt.
 
Stinkles

Stinkles

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
20,459
Burt said:
This was part of some short stories book that my 7th/8th grade teacher had on her shelf that I read (along with The Mist), and it always stuck with me. I don't really know why. Particularly vivid imagery, I guess. I couldn't even describe the cover of the short stories collection, but I could pick it out of a lineup without a doubt.
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skeleton crew!
 
Temp_User

Temp_User

Member
Oct 30, 2017
4,697
I voted Mass Relay but if i could have a write-in, it would have to be the Aeldari Webway. Not as comically dangerous as your regular WH40K Warp travel but at the same time not as sterile and boring as the others as once inside you still have to contend with broken routes, crazy killer clowns, dark elves and the occasional daemon incursion.
 
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