Oh, can you imagine if this engine was used for a Warhammer 40K MMO... with a full-scale Eye of Terror.
What is Witch Space everyone talks about?
- Thread starter CookieJarviz
- Start date
Oh, can you imagine if this engine was used for a Warhammer 40K MMO... with a full-scale Eye of Terror.
It used to go something like this if you didn't have serious upgrades on your ship. Laser fire-"Whats happening!"-Shields down-"Thargoid!" Dead. First time was one of those gaming moments you remember for the rest of your life. I hope FD make the Thargoids equally chilling this time around.
I have many fond childhood memories of Witch Space... but it always ended badly. Funny how such a simply game mechanic can stick with a guy for LIFE.
[I played on an Atari800 (which i still have and works)- and when the thargons got me it always ended in "weorrr! woop! woop! Thd-thd-ththththththththththth- dead"]
So, you had hyperdrive, which was a wormhole tunnel sort of drive that drilled a tunnel through a higher dimension between your starting place and your destination. simple. What was outside that tube was hyperspace. If you were fortunate, you stayed on one side of the tube wall, and the hyperspace stayed on the other. Sometimes you could misjump (in FFE having your jump drive reach 0% mid jump was a guarantee), and break out of that tube, but that just meant you emerged somewhere random in the real universe.
That wasnt Witch space, though. Witch space was a HYPER-hyper-space.. like another dimension higher than the one we tunnel through. We didnt know how to reach that level (which would allow for faster/farther travel), but the Thargoids did (somethings even hinted the Thargoids lived "up there"). They could attack us mid jump by yanking us UP to that witchspace, where they would attack us.
To if hyperspace is the 5th spatial dimension, witchspace is the 6th. And a place we dont want to go. But sometimes get dragged there, kicking and screaming (thus the witch reference)
[I played on an Atari800 (which i still have and works)- and when the thargons got me it always ended in "weorrr! woop! woop! Thd-thd-ththththththththththth- dead"]
So, you had hyperdrive, which was a wormhole tunnel sort of drive that drilled a tunnel through a higher dimension between your starting place and your destination. simple. What was outside that tube was hyperspace. If you were fortunate, you stayed on one side of the tube wall, and the hyperspace stayed on the other. Sometimes you could misjump (in FFE having your jump drive reach 0% mid jump was a guarantee), and break out of that tube, but that just meant you emerged somewhere random in the real universe.
That wasnt Witch space, though. Witch space was a HYPER-hyper-space.. like another dimension higher than the one we tunnel through. We didnt know how to reach that level (which would allow for faster/farther travel), but the Thargoids did (somethings even hinted the Thargoids lived "up there"). They could attack us mid jump by yanking us UP to that witchspace, where they would attack us.
To if hyperspace is the 5th spatial dimension, witchspace is the 6th. And a place we dont want to go. But sometimes get dragged there, kicking and screaming (thus the witch reference)
Resurrection!
Anyways stumbled to this thread after some deep archive scavenging.. thx for that quote, now I'm scarred for life.. Anyways Witch space sounds ALOT of immaterium of wh40k and the good 'ole "Dimension of pure chaos" (cookie for the guy/gal who gets the reference) And I truly hope that FDev makes (if they implement hyperspace gameplay) it VERY dangerous and scary, altough some more macabere picturing might raise that esrb rating
Adults only elite dangerous sounds awesome 
Or hello. Space exploration should be dangerous, thats the whole point of being an explorer. Currently I almost feel as much as an explorer in ED as when I go get some groceries. The latter is actually more dangerous, come to think of it. There is this part in the pavement where I can misstep if I am not careful.
Something out there.
It doesn't follow the novel descriptions but I'd always imagined that the use of hyperspace tunneling was dependent on witch space to work and was meant to get pilots into and out of it as quickly as possible to minimize the side effects of long term exposure. But always felt that witch space itself was just like the hyperspace dimension as its used in Babylon 5 and that the thargoids do not use tunneling but shift into witch space and travel through it to their destinations, then shift back to real space. They detect the hyperspace tunnels as intrusions into their realm and when one appears very close to their ships, try to collapse the tunnel to waylay the pilot.
It doesn't follow the novel descriptions but I'd always imagined that the use of hyperspace tunneling was dependent on witch space to work and was meant to get pilots into and out of it as quickly as possible to minimize the side effects of long term exposure. But always felt that witch space itself was just like the hyperspace dimension as its used in Babylon 5 and that the thargoids do not use tunneling but shift into witch space and travel through it to their destinations, then shift back to real space. They detect the hyperspace tunnels as intrusions into their realm and when one appears very close to their ships, try to collapse the tunnel to waylay the pilot.
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Exploration is ED isn't exploration.
It's sight seeing. Lol
Other than human error, exploration is the safest of all careers in ED.
It's sight seeing. Lol
Other than human error, exploration is the safest of all careers in ED.
This could be better described as 'Quantum Tunnelling,' the speed of light being the barrier which the human race can now breach with the frameshift drive.
Maybe FD could implement a dual reality structure where the thargoids are not a matter species but rather an anti-matter or even a dark matter species that exist within a mirror galaxy and they have found a way to 'Phase Shift' between the difference and enter our matter galaxy. The Thargoids would be the most sophistaced species in the game and the most dangerous.
Could the drives a Capship use be bordering on a phase shift ? Maybe the Thargoids believe we are trying to develope the tech to enter their reality and after some intense observations they've decided 'nah, dont like the way these things operate'.
I'm sure whatever path FD take with this will be really good. Just wanted to share some ideas.
Could the drives a Capship use be bordering on a phase shift ? Maybe the Thargoids believe we are trying to develope the tech to enter their reality and after some intense observations they've decided 'nah, dont like the way these things operate'.
I'm sure whatever path FD take with this will be really good. Just wanted to share some ideas.
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What was the jump method called in Frontier Elite 2? I seem to recall it opened up a hole, which bad guys could follow you through?
Might be wrong, it's been two decades since I played Frontier.
Might be wrong, it's been two decades since I played Frontier.
What you are calling Warp in Elite is officially called Witchspace.
Warp is Star Trek. This ain't that.
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Probably my favorite response here.
Theres these witches with pointy hats who cackle a lot and fly around on broomsticks.
I've had a read through of this thread and it's interested me. I've not played any of the previous games, so my head-canon has always been thrusters = real space, supercruise = Alcubierre-based FTL drive (like Star Trek's) and spinning up the friendship drive involved dumping a pants-load of fuel into the FSD to throw you through (what I assumed to be) witch-space.
However, I don't think I can remember any specific in-game explanations that specify that you're jumping through witch-space. I'm aware of previous canon where Thargoids would pull you into witch-space, but I think previous games only used supercruise and in-game time dilation for travel? I had thought that with the FSD, humans had found a way to use witch-space for travel, as opposed to being pulled into it against their will by Thargoids.
As for cap ships, I'd assumed that since the FSD is mass-based, requiring exponential amounts of fuel to frame shift more massive vessels, the greater mass of cap ships and stations require far more power to jump; thence explaining the much slower transition and the visual effect of witch-space opening into real space that you don't get with smaller ships.
However, I don't think I can remember any specific in-game explanations that specify that you're jumping through witch-space. I'm aware of previous canon where Thargoids would pull you into witch-space, but I think previous games only used supercruise and in-game time dilation for travel? I had thought that with the FSD, humans had found a way to use witch-space for travel, as opposed to being pulled into it against their will by Thargoids.
As for cap ships, I'd assumed that since the FSD is mass-based, requiring exponential amounts of fuel to frame shift more massive vessels, the greater mass of cap ships and stations require far more power to jump; thence explaining the much slower transition and the visual effect of witch-space opening into real space that you don't get with smaller ships.
The "witch space" terminology was restricted to the original Elite game. In FE2 and FFE, the faster than light drive was called the "hyperdrive". The little spherical-with-lightning discharges that appeared whenever a ship jumped between two star systems were called "hyperspace arrival clouds" and "hyperspace departure clouds". "Witch space" got retconned out of the lore in FE2 and FFE, along with many other things (such as hundreds of alien races).
So, in effect, "witch space" equals "hyperspace". In ED, the two terms are now basically interchangeable, and refer to the old-technology stardrives that were supplanted by the Frame Shift Drive all ships currently use. Although, given the similarities between the "arrival cloud / departure cloud" of FE2/FFE and the "sphere of lightning" cloud that appears whenever a Capital Ship arrives or departs the scene, one could argue (and many have) that capital ships still use the old-style hyperdrives, rather than frame shift drives.
I believe you are correct, which is what makes Capital Ship entrances to Conflict Zones look and sound so damn cool.
On a more serious note, i remember reading somewhere in the lore that Capital ship engines where the original warp/hyperdrive engines. They operated on a simple principle similar to a rocket, the more fuel you put in the further your jump would be, it was just a case of hoping your didnt land inside a planet or star when the fuel ran out. As for our ships they have a Mk II hyperdrive now which burns a lot less fuel and uses sophisticated computer systems to plot the exit point at the next star, sometimes they get it wrong and you burn.
least its not stuck halfway through a planet like some early hyperspace ventures in the lore.
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Hyperjump/hyperdrive could also refer to some sort of interdimensional gate like a wormhole created by the FSD putting immense amounts of hydrogen and energy into the drives in order to warp the surrounding space with such an intensity that it is capable of creating a “wormhole“ or “spatial tunnel“ and thus shorten astronomical distances signficantly.
This might be as annoying as being interdicted in SC. Especially if you have other things to do.
This 'new' trend of people misunderstanding what witchspace is seems to be rife. You were right in your original thinking
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Incorrect but here, have a toffee