FSD Lore: why hyperspace is my pet peeve.

[Myv.hs]

The FSD has always been an Alcubierre drive in my mind, and I find it explains very well why mass effects the charge time and speed of supercruise around planets; the Alcubierre drive shapes space around the ship, contracting spacetime in front and expanding it behind, and Gravity's distortion of spacetime can impede that of the FSD. And that's all very nice Sci-Fi in my mind. But then with the concept of hyperspace, we fall into what some call science-fantasy. For me, Sci-Fi requiers little to no suspension of disbelief, while Sci-Fantasy is like Prof. Farnsworth's smell-o-scope.
Hyperspace is something that you can't leave, it's the name for all the dimensions you can't point in with your finger. They are there at all times, and only exist as axis in which the elementary components of the universe can vibrate.

So what could replace this concept of hyperspace mode for the FSD? In what way could supercruise and hypercruise be different?
The ideal solution in my mind is for hypercruise to be a short strong burst of supercruise. Supercruise is manual because it's still moving at speeds that humans could deal with: At 1C, it takes 8mins to go from SOL to Earth, a hundred times faster is still within human ability.
But for you to travel between SOL and Proxima at 1C would take 4.6years, and compressing that to 10 seconds is 1.2x10^7 times faster, well out of human ability to react. Thus the computer stops the jump after the exact amount of fuel needed to travel that distance is consumed, and the large gravity well of the celestial body you arrive that can also help dissipate the massive spacetime distortion of the alcubierre drive's hypercruise while also acting like a funnel to help arrive on target.
This way the FSD is doing basically the same thing, hypercruise just computer assisted, with it's trajectory and fuel use locked in before the start. (Since having the FSD do two completely different things was my second pet peeve).

I guess I had to complain about something.. and this isn't even about changing the gameplay of the FSD... just ditching the word hyperspace... anyway, what do you guys think? Do you cringe when people jump into hyperspace? Are you a pedantic ahat like me that wants to keep their Sci-Fi and Sci-Fantasy separate? Should I even care? Discuss.

 

[Kellan Fell]

The Alcubierre Drive works fine for supercruise but as anyone who's made the Hutton Orbital trip will tell you, you're limited to around 2,000c as a top speed. Although this is quick, it's not really fast enough for the big jumps. My assumption has always been that just like the Alcubierre supercruise sees you riding in a bubble of "normal" space/time whilst the drive warps the continuum around you, the Jump drive is just a further warping of space time that lives up to the "frame shift" name by simply changing the frame of reference of space/time to an alternate set of dimensions from our usual 3 (or 4), to a different set where C is the slowest you can travel. Based off String Theory there are anywhere between 11 and 22 dimensions in space/time, so folding up the 3 we use and opening an alternate 3 would explain why although we can see a ship in supercruise, one in hyperspace seems to disappear and re-appear at the destination. Also why the visuals change and why a 6 LY jump and a 50 LY jump all take around the same 15 seconds in hyperspace.

 

[Myv.hs]

by simply changing the frame of reference of space/time to an alternate set of dimensions from our usual 3 (or 4), to a different set where C is the slowest you can travel. Based off String Theory there are anywhere between 11 and 22 dimensions in space/time

That's not how dimensions work. Hyperspace, aka the dimensions you can't point in, are always there, they are fundamental dimensions needed to explain gravity, electromagnetism, weak and strong force. The 3 dimensions we're used to would be have anything in them if the higher dimensions didn't exist. It's like Hyperspace is a box, and space is the volume inside the box, you can't leave one to go into the other.
And while the supercruise mode of the Alcubierre drive is limited to 2000c, that can be a software/sustainable distortion limit, in theory, there is no limit to the speed at which space can move though space, and the Alcubierre drive is about moving space through space.

The thing is, to me Sci-Fi isn't space-gobledygoop, and "simply changing the frame of reference of space/time to an alternate set of dimensions from our usual 3 (or 4)" is. What you're saying is fantasy with a science spice, not fiction based on scientific theory. That's my issue.

 

[Myv.hs]

The 3 dimensions we're used to would be have anything in them if the higher dimensions didn't exist.

The 3 dimensions we're used to wouldn't have anything in them.

I guess I can't edit posts yet.

But just to further my point. In nearly every aspect I feel that Elite Dangerous is a Sci-Fi game: rail guns are based on real science, lasers causing thermal damage makes sense, ship flight is physics based, Scooping the stars for hydrogen, the kind of stars in the galaxy, the layout of the milky way, these are also things closely mirroring out understanding of science. Hyperspace is where the games stops being fiction based on science, and becomes fantasy. There's nothing wrong with that, but when you've got 99% of it right, and all you need is to change a few words in the lore... my OCD is triggered.

 

[Vasious]

Part of it comes from the old games, there was no Super Cruise, just the Hyper jump into "witch space" and back out into real space.
A jump through "witch space" what ever and where it is was dangerous, hence the name, a kin to the Bermuda triangle like superstition.

It would also take a week or so to make the jump.

Travel in system was conducted with reaction thrusters, and in FE2 and FEE would take weeks and months but with time acceleration.

This would not work for a Multi player game so, the FSD and Super Cruise was created and the Alcubierre Drive matched up.

The FSD then allowed for travel in system in reasonable time frames, and the use of the FSD in Witch Space speed up the Week long jumps to the 45 seconds jumps we have.

So they are both

Plot Devices so to speak, that allow players to travel distances in timeframes suitable for a game without time acceleration.

If Elite Dangerous was the first game in the series it may have been that it would have been all a Alcubierre Drive for both intra and inter systems, even if it was still a "jump" between systems.

But as they had the old legacy of Witch Space, they neatly combined the two.

Whilst "Witch Space" may not have any grounds in Science (I wouldn't know or have a clue about higher dimensions beyond Flatland, so maybe if Witchspace is sideways movement in the 7th 8th or 9th dimension) vs the FSD that have an mirror in the Alcubierre Drive , we do get the cool in fiction of there being Technological advances in Elite

Ships relied on Reaction thrusters and a hyper drive.
Then the FSD was invested which changed the way not only do they travel in system but also in Witch Space
And You Have Three Generations of Technology working in the same ship, two of which are two different means of Faster than light travel invented independently in fiction.
That is quite rare for Sci Fi or Science Fantasy

 

[Hydrino]

Yes, just ditch the word Hyperspace. There is no hyperspace in ED travel. You can see the star to which you are "jumping" via Frame Shift Drive compression, long before you exit the jump. Literally like jumping over or through space, not into an imaginary "hyper" space.

Alcubierre/FSD works for both intra-system and inter-system travel. One is a lower-energy, smoother distortion of space-time and takes longer. The other is a super energy consuming mega-compression of space-time that allows more-or-less instantaneous "jump" to another star.

But knowing that, we could still call it hyperspace. Travelling at hyper-velocity through space-time.

 

[Salawat]

If it weren't for capital ships... You probably could disregard the whole hyperspace stuff... But it IS stipulated that capitals have to use ye Olde hyperspace tech for moving around.

Since you seem to be comfortable with String Theory and dimensions you can't point your finger at, just remember that it's more than possible for there to be a higher level of abstraction that trivialize 4 (though I'd argue an elementary 5 to accommodate a further coordinate axis based on probability, but I'm no PhD) dimensional manifold traversal.