On 6/8/26 13:23, Richard Aiken - raikenclw at gmail.com (via tml list)
wrote:
> Dear Alex Goodwin,
>
> Thank you very kindly for the detailed math. I had a vague feeling
> that it wouldn't be that simple, which is what prompted me to ask. 😇
>
> So I think I will aim at keeping the spirit of the idea while hiding
> the actual math (which I confidently expect would only bore my
> prospective players, who all come from a D&D background).
>
> I will rate drive fuel in hours of endurance at the ship's standard
> rated acceleration. This burn rate yields the travel times on the
> chart. If they want to reach Wherever faster than this, they can
> overpower their drives, to wit: for every hour less travel time for
> that particular journey, the hours of endurance expended will increase
> by TWO hours. The maximum reduction via this method is 30% of the
> original journey time.
>
> NOTE: In the setting that I am planning (a version of Fading Suns),
> ships have substantial fuel tanks (~25% of ship volume) but it all
> goes exclusively to their (fuel-hog) fusion cores. The standard
> endurance is a nice round 1000 hours (~6 weeks). FTL travel is
> accomplished through instantaneous jumpgates (self-powered and built
> by the setting's Ancients). What makes star travel slow is that
> jumpgates orbit their system primaries at 100 AU - tilted 90 degrees
> off the elliptic - and only activate if transit is attempted at very
> low relative velocity.
>
> Richard Aiken
>
> "Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein
> "I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with
> the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to
> men as Muhammed." Alexis de Tocqueville
> "We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us
> dangerous." Dean Winchester (fictional monster hunter portrayed by
> Jensen Ackles)
> "These men with me are here to vote. They care a lot less about dying
> than you do." Newton Knight (as portrayed by Matthew McConaughy, to a
> set of Redeemer poll watchers)
> -----

Richard,

It was a bunch of approximations.  I showed the working so someone else
(not necessarily you) could check my work - it boiled down to "reduction
in trip time of half of the percentage boost to acceleration".

Under that, a 60% boost to acceleration would be a 30% reduction in trip
time, a 40% boost to acceleration would be a 20% reduction, 20% boost
gives 10% reduction, etc.

As long as you've figured out something you can use in your game, all good.

Alex