Difference between revisions of "Jump drive"
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Revision as of 10:15, 15 December 2008
A jump drive is a ship component that allows capital ships and certain sub-capital ships to travel between systems without a the use of a stargate. This is the sole means of inter-system travel for capital ships since they are too large to utilize stargates.
Contents
Performing a Jump
Executing a jump requires a team effort. No capital ship may make a jump without some help. Jump drives require a target that can be used as the focal point for wormhole generation. This is done by generating a cynosural field (colloquially known as a "cyno") which acts as a sort of pseudo-gravity well, enabling the jump drive to calibrate itself for the jump.
Cynosural Fields
Cynosural field generation requires the user have levels in Cynosural Field Theory. Remote generation of cynosural fields is not currently possible. Thus, capital pilots must rely upon another pilot to generate a cynosural field in the target system. When activated, cynosural fields act as beacons, allowing any pilot in the system to locate and warp to the field.
Jump drives rely upon out-of-band faster-than-light communications in order to calibrate and lock onto a cynosural field. Because of this, both the cynosural field generator and jumping pilot must be in the same fleet when the cynosural field is generated. This information is broadcast only once, when the cynosural field is activated. Thus, pilots entering the fleet after the field has been activated will not be able to lock onto the field. By relying upon FTL communications, only authorized pilots (those in your fleet) will be able to jump to the same field, preventing an enemy capital fleet from jumping to a friendly cynosural field.
Cynosural fields can also be generated on a continuous basis by using a Cynosural Field Generator. Such generators require an alliance to have appropriate sovereignty to use. These generators operate on a constant basis, broadcasting the appropriate calibration information out-of-band via the Alliance channel, allowing any pilot in that alliance to lock onto the generator's field.
Effects
Generating a cynosural field is a highly taxing operation. In addition to requiring a certain amount of liquid ozone to create the field, all the ships resources must then be concentrated on maintaining the field. This is at the expense of weapons, navigation, and defensive systems, all of which are disabled while the field is active. This leaves the generator extremely vulnerable to attack. Once the field collapses, the generator regains full control of their ship.
Field Placement
Nearly any pod pilot with a few weeks of training can activate a cynosural field. However, such pilots must understand that they have a great responsibility. Capital ships and jump freighters are slow and clumsy. When activated, a cynosural field acts as a large Capital Ships Here! sign, alerting potential enemies to the location of valuable prey. As well, activating a field too close to a collidable object can result in the jumping ship being bumped off the target location and making the ship vulnerable for a longer time.
This makes the placement of a cynosural field extremely important. Activating a cynosural field in a safespot is not a good decision as the beacon created by the field will alert all pilots in system to the location of the safespot. There are two generally accepted locations that are good for placing a field: friendly POSs and stations.
At a POS
Placing a cynosural field at a friendly POS generally ensures that there will be protection for the field generator and jumping ship. The turrets and other defensive equipment can be used to attack anyone approaching the field, giving the jumping ship enough time to get into the protective force field of the POS or to warp to another protected location. Cynosural fields cannot be activated within the protective force field. Additionally, the incoming jumping ship will not have the appropriate force field password set on jump-in, so placing the field too close to the force field may result in the jumping ship being forcefully ejected from the force field, leaving the ship highly vulnerable. Generally, a well accepted location to activate a field is about halfway between the force field and a grouping of turret/missile batteries.
At a Station
Another viable location for locating a cynosural field is at a station or outpost. The key here is to select a station with a large docking radius, but an area that is generally devoid of the actual station structure. Such locations are often found above or below the station or just off the undock point. When placing the cynosural field, the generator should be far enough into the docking ring such that the jumping pilot can immediately dock after the session timer expires, but far enough from the station structure such that the jumping pilot's ship won't be forcefully ejected from the station. This can be a vulnerable location for the field generator, however, as there are little or no protections at stations to prevent an immobilized generator from being attacked and destroyed.
Jump Fuel
Activating a jump drive requires additional resources beyond the capacitor to generate the wormhole used to complete a jump. These resources come in the form of elemental isotopes which provide the neutrons required to create the high-frequency neutron rays which initiate wormhole creation. Each faction has specialized their technology to a certain isotope type based upon those available from the naturally occurring ice in their part of the universe. The following table shows the correlation between faction and isotope variety:
| Faction | Isotope |
|---|---|
| Ammar | Helium-3 |
| Caldari | Nitrogen-14 |
| Gallente | Oxygen-16 |
| Minmatar | Hydrogen-2 |
| ORE | Oxygen-16 |
For capital ships, the base consumption is 1,000 isotopes per light-year of travel; jump freighters require a base 3,100 isotopes per light-year; and, black ops require a base 400 isotopes per light-year.
Completing the Jump
Once a field is up and within range, the jumping pilot can proceed with a jump. To jump to a field generated by a fleet member, right-click that member's name on the fleet overview and select "Jump to Member." To jump to an alliance cynosural field generator, right-click on your ship in space, select "Jump to", and then select the system to which you wish to jump.
Once the jump is initiated, the isotopes required are consumed from the ship's cargo hold. If not enough isotopes are available, then the jump fails to occur and no isotopes are consumed.
Jumping is bound by the same session change timer constraints as docking, switching ships, and using stargates. Thus, a jumping ship will have to wait thirty seconds after undocking before jumping and thirty seconds after jumping before being able to dock again.
Covert Jumps
Black ops ships have a unique ability to focus on covert cynosural fields. These fields require considerable skill to generate, but do not appear as an in system beacon, nor do they appear on scans. This allows a black ops ship to covertly jump into a hostile system with less chance of discovery on jump-in. However, black ops ships also possess the ability to detect covert cynosural fields, allowing them to find possibly hostile covert fields.
Skills
There are a set of three skills that specifically affect the use of the jump drive for all ships and one ship-specific skill that affects jump freighters.
Jump Drive Operation is required either directly or as a prerequisite to pilot any jump-capable ship and is a prerequisite for the following skills. Each level of this skill reduces the percent of capacitor consumed to perform a jump from 90% at level 1 to 70% at level 5.
Jump Fuel Conservation is not a required skill for any jump-capable ship, but reduces the jump fuel consumption by 10% per level, halving the jump fuel cost at level 5.
Jump Drive Calibration is required for both jump freighters and black ops ships, but affects the jumping ability of all jump drives. This skill allows jump-capable ships to cover more ground with each jump, reducing the number of jumps required. Each level of this skill increases the maximum jump range for a ship by 25% to a total increase of 125% at level 5.
Jump Freighters is another skill that is only required to pilot freighters with jump drives. Each of those ships benefit from increased levels in this skill, reducing their need for jump fuel by 10% per level. This benefit is multiplicative with the reduction from Jump Fuel Conservation.