Turning away from mass driver weaponry is as likely as dodging a laser, in that sense. Not too easy, though I suppose when you're a light second away, there's room to dodge lasers, too.

Mass drivers are about as fast as missiles and beam weapons definately are instantanious... going by what i see in the combat screen. Also the speed of the ships seems also to be faster than some of the slower moving missiles! Crazy eh?

Actually, they can't go faster than c, nothing really can. What can happen is shortening distances through folding space, whatever that means    Seriously though, GC's propulsion system uses hyperdrive to "fold" space and thus travel "faster" but with below-c speeds. Of course, traveling in-system and fighting battle in "folded" space is kinda strange, but then it's a game. Heh.

I meant intercepting fleets (which leads to battle) while in hyperspace or whatever. Folding space in a manner that allows you to intercept another fleet already with its own "folding" of space can't be an easy thing if you know what I mean   

To get its bearings?! Humm. Flying blind?! Humm. In order to fold space, don't you think you *must* know what you're doing?  
We can't really discuss how the model works, because basically it doesn't It's designed to be simple, not really solid.
But we digress...

The difference being that in ST impulse engines are used for normal space travel (including in-system travel, but GC's star system model doesn't help there). That's my biggest gripe with the propulsion techtree branch, ion and impulse engines are so out of place there...

Iceman, for the record, I was talking about a system (the Alcubierre drive... it's on wikipedia if you want to know more) that isn't a creation of scifi, but an attempt by a mathematician to run Einstein's equations in reverse. It has some wierd energy requirements, but it's not primarily fantasy like most Sci-fi's methods of interstellar propulsion (including star trek).

Also, if you checked the tech descriptions, you'd realize that the ion engine and impulse drive techs aren't that much out of place. The ion drive is merely a stable way to move a ship through warped space, and is strapped to a hyperdrive... increasing the real space speed that is then multiplied via hyperdrive.

I'm aware of what modern Ion drives are. The issue mentioned in the tech description is stability, so however much weaker it is thatn conventional realspace engines, if it can be used while using a hyperdrive but other engines cannot, it has very practical applications.

There are plenty of ways to justify it not being a step backwards, the biggest one being that the ion drive is an ADDITION to the hyperdrive engine, not a self sufficient engine in and of itself.

In the sense that the Alcubierre drive is theory, yes, its entirely imaginary at this point. However, it's got much more firm roots in science than, say, Star Wars' hyperdrive or Star Trek's warp drive, and doesn't rely on imagined (though technically possible) phenomena like a "slipstream" or "hyperspace". Because it's based on physical laws and constraints (ie, it is not rules out in current theories) and is theoretically possible (the negative energy requirement could possible be met by the "dark energy" that is fueling the universe's expansion), it is infinitly more realistic than some method of faster than light travel that relies on pieces of the universe we either have no knowledge of or don't exist entirely. Calling a theoretical technology and an imaginary technology equally fantasy isn't fair or accurate at all.

Also, if you checked the tech descriptions, you'd realize that the ion engine and impulse drive techs aren't that much out of place. The ion drive is merely a stable way to move a ship through warped space, and is strapped to a hyperdrive... increasing the real space speed that is then multiplied via hyperdrive.

Oh but I did, I have the habit of only posting about what I know. The thing is, the propulsion is *still* HD, whatever "normal" propulsion you have underneath the HD field. Why do you have HD, then HD Plus, then ion and impulse? Does it make any sense to you? The descriptions are there for fluff purposes, and not doing a very good job at it in this case (the only real difference being the same old lower size - with extra components? - , higher cost).
So what do you think is the normal propulsion system with the basic HD?
Let me remind you that we're in an age where humans discovered fusion, and the HD is a byproduct of that discovery...

(Alcubierre drive or Warp Drive...)

They leave the technical specifications of the technology intentionally vague, for plot reasons.

Actually i do believe Startrek provide detailed schematics of all their technology to keep all the fans happy. Although i have not personally read any of it.

So long as you don't watch the original series of Startrek, all the startrek warpdrive technology is kept pretty much above board script wise.

Are you sure that such schematics actually explain the physics involved?

i have no idea, but i'm sure they would have had to have done a good job to shut those freaky fans up!

Depends on the setup... keep in mind that I'm arguing based on the assumption of an Alcubierre warp drive, which may or may not be remotely like what Stardock ultimately decided to based hyperdrive on.

Actually, after giving it some thought, I've concluded at an Ion Drive would be useless for travelling through warped space (again, assuming an Alcubierre style warp bubble). A warp drive doesn't merely fold space, that folding (one way at the front and the opposite in the back, hence the need for exotic matter) actually moves the ship, without actually moving it! It gets around the light speed limitation by essentially moving spacetime itself, not accelerating the ship. The ship inside the bubble would feel no acceleration and would experience no wierd relativistic effects from said acceleration. You would actually need no kind of engine other than the warp drive to move somewhere.

Why Ion drive would then be useless is that such a system (if I understand it correctly) doesn't really care if the acceleration is before or after the use of the warp drive... so why not use more powerful engines to accerate before the jump rather than some weak little Ion drive?

A possible counterpoint to this, though, is that even really powerful fuel based systems are going to run out of fuel eventually. Most rockets burn if up pretty quick, and coast a lot of the way to their destination. An Ion drive would last as long as it's components and energy source, and with a cold fusion reactor attached to it, who knows how powerful they could get?

Also, as for a warp field collapsing... again, totally speculative, but chances are that a warp field could dissapate fairly quickly after being formed, if not immediately. I don't think there would be any adverse effects... the ship would be encased inside the bubble in unwarped space, so no tidal forces or additional gravity would be acting on it.

I read a paper on the feasibility of the Alcubierre drive, and one of the problems with it is that there is no way to tell what's ahead of you, and barring some REALLY sophisticated and powerful sensor equipment, you wouldn't be able to accurately plan out such a journey ahead of time (especially over, say, parsecs of space and several weeks of transit). The solution? Multiple, smaller jumps, checking your heading each time, which you might end up doing anyways if the warp bubble collapses fast enough, anyways.

This post reminds me of a question... does anyone know if gravity is instantaneous or not? in the sense that it takes 9 minutes for light to reach earth from the sun, so if the sun suddenly vanished, we would not know it for 9 minutes! so i wonder what lenght of time would pass befor we felt the gravitational effects of the sun vanishing?

That is quite possibly one of the best questions I've read on any forum in along time. I hope somebody comes up with the answer....