The definitive guide to the Generation Ships (Elite Lore)

Zieman

Zieman
Good summary, Drew.

My impression of the GalNet article (or rather the Dev Update telling about it https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=209834) is that in E: D the Generations Ships may be FTL capable, enabling 'lost' colonies to be found almost anywhere in the Galaxy. Contradicts the earlier lore, but as travelling just about anywhere is so easy, you need 'content' everywhrere...
 
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Mephane

Mephane
Thanks Drew. I was under the impression that the generation ships in Elite would be far outside the bubble, thus mostly stuff for explorer to eventually find. But apparently it's more like these are still within the heart of the Federation, and yes it would be interesting to see what kind of stories unfold from them emerging upon already colonized systems. Some of them, of course, might also reach one of the systems in the bubble that are currently mostly barren and empty, and if we don't interfere, they might never know that right next door there is a huge interstellar human civilization... :D
 

Zieman

Zieman
Mephane said:
Thanks Drew. I was under the impression that the generation ships in Elite would be far outside the bubble, thus mostly stuff for explorer to eventually find. But apparently it's more like these are still within the heart of the Federation, and yes it would be interesting to see what kind of stories unfold from them emerging upon already colonized systems. Some of them, of course, might also reach one of the systems in the bubble that are currently mostly barren and empty, and if we don't interfere, they might never know that right next door there is a huge interstellar human civilization... :D
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We can wish. :)

Let's see how the events begin to unfold.
 

Kicks

Kicks
For 100,000s of years, the Generation ship had been traveling through the galaxy. Generations upon generations had lived, died, and warred on her. Earth, their supposed origin - was now more myth than reality. However, Captain Palmer felt he was nearing something. His hand quivered over the green TRANSMIT button. He couldn't believe they had got this far... the log data chronicled all the strifes and troubles that had befallen the vessel since THE LAUNCH. The log was not even required reading anymore as it would take many lifetimes to get through. A fastidious group of men called The Keepers had extracted choice works from the Log and fashioned it in to an easier-to-read 3000 page tome, they called the Bible. Captain Palmer didn't know if it mentioned this particular destination.

Sweat brimming on his brow, he pressed the button. "This is the good-ship Descartes, a generation ship from Earth. We picked up a signal here. Over."

There was a crackle over the waves... and a reply was heard.

"This is Hutton Orbital. Would ye be wanting some mugs?"
 

Sentenza

Sentenza
There is no point in generation ships if you already have FTL - their only reason of existence is that you can only travel at sublight speed.

A range of about 100ly from Earth is about what I would expect, assuming a respectable average speed of 0.1c. Now the problem is - assuming we find a ship traveling at relativistic speed in normal space, what exacly are we supposed to do? Snap some pics and post them on galactic facebook? We can't literally touch it...
 

Willa Allason

Willa Allason
I take it to mean that the generation ships have a slower version of Supercruise, but not full hyperspace to different systems. The galaxy is still a very big place at that speed, especially if you are surveying and looking for an Earthlike, but reaching well outside the Bubble is feasible.
 

BattleMetalChris

BattleMetalChris
Mephane said:
Thanks Drew. I was under the impression that the generation ships in Elite would be far outside the bubble, thus mostly stuff for explorer to eventually find. But apparently it's more like these are still within the heart of the Federation, and yes it would be interesting to see what kind of stories unfold from them emerging upon already colonized systems. Some of them, of course, might also reach one of the systems in the bubble that are currently mostly barren and empty, and if we don't interfere, they might never know that right next door there is a huge interstellar human civilization... :D
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One of the really old Terry Pratchett books, 'Strata' (the precursor to the Discworld books, Sci-fi themed involving circa 30th century spacefaring humans encountering the Discworld swimming through space, it's a great read) whereby colonists in Generation ships wake up a thousand years after their launch to find that in that time technology has rendered their journey completely redundant and the bubble of civilisation has long since overtaken them. They agree not to wake up the still-sleeping ships due to the suicidal disappointment most of the crew of the other ships experienced on their discovery.
 
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Zieman

Zieman
Sentenza said:
There is no point in generation ships if you already have FTL - their only reason of existence is that you can only travel at sublight speed.
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True that.


Sentenza said:
A range of about 100ly from Earth is about what I would expect, assuming a respectable average speed of 0.1c. Now the problem is - assuming we find a ship traveling at relativistic speed in normal space, what exacly are we supposed to do? Snap some pics and post them on galactic facebook? We can't literally touch it...
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Here's hoping for some Lighthuggers (and anything in between), so the possible volume of space where to find them would reach near 1000 LY from Earth.

Don't worry about the speed, Frame Shift Drive will take care of that - you just approach them just like any other Nav target and return to normal space relative to it.
 

DNA-Decay

DNA-Decay
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More cowbell, mate.
 

DNA-Decay

DNA-Decay
I had a buddy who pitched "Lord of the Flies - in Space"

A huge cryo ship en route to Alpha Centari has a meteor / catastrophic systems failure and all the parents cryo tubes fail and the kids get decanted into a huge broken spaceship - instead of a desert island.
All the Lord of the Flies stuff happens - the dead pilot hanging by his parachute in a tree being the captain in low conciousness cryo like in Dark Star. Final sequence where the kids chase down to the beach to kill, happens during automated re-entry. Fire and explosions etc. and instead of a boat and civilization on the beach, at landing they've been overtaken for a hundred years by better faster ships.

I Wonder who holds film rights to Lord of the Flies?
Would be a cool reboot.
 

Sentenza

Sentenza
Zieman said:
True that.



Here's hoping for some Lighthuggers (and anything in between), so the possible volume of space where to find them would reach near 1000 LY from Earth.

Don't worry about the speed, Frame Shift Drive will take care of that - you just approach them just like any other Nav target and return to normal space relative to it.
Click to expand...

Yes, but when you enter normal space they are still traveling at 0.1c and you are not.
 
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