Anyway, here is a short summary of the options:

USUAL DISCLAIMER: The ideas I'm going to explain are not mine, they are just borrowed by Science Fiction books, with little adjustments where needed. :-)

FIRST PART: SOME EXAMPLES

Since everybdy here knows well what's the feeling of playing with the Classical Hyperspace but nobody has played with athis type of model, i wrote three short stories which should illustrate the general behaviour of the model, and some of its adavantages. These examples are also written to show how navHS and Realspace can interact between them, so don't be surprised if you find inside them even some realspace situations. Moreover, note that some of the features described here are only some options of this model, so we can vote later on them, if they became a controversial point (in the unlikely event that this model is accepted, of course :-)).

While you are out of a gravitational well, you set your autopilote and engage your hyperdrive; the loud roar of your thrusters is suddenly replaced by the soft humming of your hyperdrive. Your ship is now running towards the star you decided before.

Suddenly your hyperscanner detects a ship; it is heading towards you, and despite all your manouvers he still keeps an interception route, so its intentions are probably hostile; ok, let's prepare for combat; unluckily you have no hyperspace missiles (they are too massive for your small ship), but your lasers has been fitted just now with a brand new hyperwave generator; you can beat him also here in hyperspace! What's that? Another minor hyperspace signal? Shit, he's even more armed than you in hyperspace! An hyperdrive missile is coming against you, while he keeps at safe distance!

He must probably be a killer who wants your skin, otherwise he wouldn't risk to destroy a ship travelling in hyperspace (so losing any chance to detect cargo after ship's destruction) without trying to capture your ship or to drag you out of hyperspace.

Maybe it's better to fight in the relativistic space; so you turn off the hyperdrive; your signal disappears from your enemies' hyper- scanner, and all the hyperdrive missiles lose track (since they were locked on your hyperdrive signal; luckily he hasn't that new model of hypermissile with even sublight capabilities); of course if you turn on the hyperdrive they will be able to track you again.

Your enemy now can wait for you to turn on hyperdrive again, can decide to look for another victim, or can decide to sample the area in which you disappeared, trying to face you in a relativistic combat; Of course sampling a vast area of space to find you would be not so simple, but maybe a piece of software which keeps track of the last known hyperdrive position of each ship would help him a lot.

Unluckily, he has that damned software with him, so he is able to track you and engage you in combat; at least in realspace you can use your missiles! Yes, you are lucky (or skilled) enough to be victorious, but your ship has been heavily damaged: the hyperdrive lose half of its speed, your life support won't work for too much time, and your fuel is very low; you definitely can't reach your previous destination! Luckily enough there's an inhabited star at few light years from here... you should be able to repair damages there, but there's little information on it, so you hope not to find something odd there....

Note: when you have got damage, you have been forced to do an unexpected stop in a nearby system; that cannot happen with InstHS, since you first jump to your final destination, and then you start the planet approach; if you get any damage during a fight your best chance is to continue on the established route since jumping towards anther destination will force you to start over the manouver; with NavHS you can be attacked while in travel, so, if something is not going in a way you like, you can always decide to shorten your travel changing the destination.

The Empire said me "Hit that factory on Ross 128!"; now i have this small fleet at my commands and I have to cross the Federal border to reach Sol... those bureaucrats think that it's simple! I should avoid the strict patrolling on the Federal border, then I have to drive my fleet till Ross 128 avoiding any detection, hit the factory, and flee before the fleet on Sol is able to arrive.

Well, luckily a friend of mine is a smuggler between Federation and Empire, and he knows a Federal patrolling ship whose pilote is bribable; maybe my little fleet will be able to pass through without troubles.

Ok, now we are inside the enemy lines, and the border is behind our backs. Anyway we are flying at a slow speed to reduce the chance to be detected by occasional patrols; flying inside enemy space is not a joke even avoiding common trade routes.

What? A contact on the hyperscanner? A small fleet in transit! They are weaker than us, but they could inform daddy of our presence! They are scrambling! Probably they detected us and decided to split their forces to have the best chances to deliver information of our presence; so I give the order to scramble and intercept as well.

The battle is quick, since we are superior; they are almost all destroyed but some of them launched some messenger torpedoes. My ships are hunting for them too, so I hope to have destroyed them without problems but the emission of their hyperdrive is so weak that someone could have been undetected from the hyperscanner.

Well, it's useless to worry about the unavoidable; so let's hunt for that damned factory on Ross 128! Now we are arrived, and we turn off the Hyperdrive just before the misjumps risk is too big. Now we must fly with normal engines, but after some hours we'll be near enough to bombard our target.

What's that? Hyperspace signals! A fleet! Shit! One of the torpedoes must have been escaped our hunt and reached Sol, and now daddy is carrying a big stick! Well, anyway we have one hour of advantage, so we can arrive at the factory and bombard it before they can intercept us. After, if they want to engage in battle, we can slingshot near the sun to be almost undetectable, and then scatter, so to arrive in an area where turn on the hyperdrive before they are able to reach an equally gravity-free area to engage theirs and chase us; or they could decide to patrol the external area, so to follow us if we engage hyperdrive, but we would be free to raid the internal system.

But that's the future; now keep an eye on the enemy; ok, they are arriving near the minimum distance from the sun; now they must turn off the Hyperdrive, otherwise they will suffer so many misjumps that their fleet will be wiped out.

Now what? They are continuing in hyperdrive! They are in front of us! And my hyperscanner detected only two misjumps! For the heaven's sake, they must have fitted those new model of hyperfield stabilizers! Now we have to dig our way through them!

Note 1: A fleet from Sol is arrived, since your presence in the federal space has been detected and transmitted (with the messenger torpedoe); that couldn't happen with InstHS, due to its delay. Note 2: You have had to some evasive manouvers to avoid being detected by the enemy; particularly, you have been forced to find a hole in the border patrols; this thing could not exist in a IstHS, where you can jump directly on your target without having o worry about brders.

"Find and destroy the Pirate's nest who's hampering all the traffic near Sol"; it seems a simple task... Well, what do I know about it? Nothing! Maybe, I should gather some infos about those pirates, first. Let's go to Sol to gather infos.

Hey, how much traffic around Sol; maybe i should speak to some of these ships arriving or leaving... Yes! one of the traders has been able to reject an attack and saw the enemy heading toward alpha centauri! He said the ship attacking him was alone and heavily armored...

Well, let's listen some gossips in bars around Sol: mmmhhh... another trader, attacked in the same area, saw another heavy ship fleeing towards Ross 128; probably they use some avasive manouvers, to avoid someone is able to detect their real base following their ships. Hey, wait a moment! This guy in the bar is telling me that he knows the coordinates of the nest from which he barely escaped! What? They are near Van Maneen star?!? It is just the opposite direction! Strange, probably it will be better to investigate more...

Let's go to Alpha Centauri; while on the route i speak with some ship captains; what? Yes, one of them saw a heavy ship coming from Sol, suddenly changing his route towards a place near Wolf 424! And the captain remembered the coordinates where the route change happened! Maybe going in that area could help....

Ok, I'm in the area where an evasive manouver planned by pirates is supposed to take place; let's turn off the hyperdrive and stay silent in the deep space; i'll wait for some time (stardreamer on), till... Yes! A ship changed suddenly his direction towards Wolf 424! Ok, let's wait he is distant enough from me! I have a very good scanner, and hopefully his ship will be filled with weapons instead of hyperscanners, so i can follow him without a great chance to be noticed if i'm keeping at respectful distance (if only i had also better engines to reduce far more the chances to be detected!)... Shit! He detected me anyway!

(after the battle, in or out of the hyperspace)

It seems these ships have also good scanners... Maybe I should continue to gather infos! Hey, another ship's captain told me that around Ross 128 some other ships changed their direction! Now I have enough data for a rough triangulation; ok, the base seemed to be based on Wolf 424, since all the ships seemd t head towards the star, but the triangulation shows an area of deep space near it.

Ok, now i'm the area indicated by the triangulation... Turn off the hyperdrive, and wait (stardreamer on). Oh oh! A signal in this almost desert area! and now it disappeared! Yes, my cencomp module has been able to detect the exact point! Let's attack!!

Notes: 1) The previous coords were clearly a trap, but other informations have been able to give you some doubts about its validity. 2) The nest was an undetectable one; a larger one could have been detectable due to his gravity field, or it could have been in orbit around Wolf 424 or hidden in some asteroid belts or on some desert planet. 3) The mission has been resolved by triangulation; but also gathering infos has had his own importance; and it could have been resolved also following enemy ships (just suppose you had better hyperdrive, so your chances to be detected were smaller) or trying to infiltrate enemy organization (that would require a completely different tale... :-)) 4) With InstHS triangulation would have been impossible; and, for the same reason, many informations (like "he went in that direction") would have been totally useless.

SECOND PART: PRACTICAL BEHAVIOUR

In the previous part I showed some situation difficult or impossible to obtain with InstHS; in this part I�ll try to explain with abundance of details how this model of NavHS works. In the next part I'll write down some additional equipment which could be used in this model.

- General description

When you are far enough from a gravitational well (In other words: far from a star system), you can engage the "hyperdrive", obtaining a sort of FTL (Faster Than Light) effect (IE: 1 light-year each 30 minutes; originally they were 10 min for Ly but for game balance i think it is better in this way; best hyperdrives will travel at 20 min per Ly, worst ones at 30 or 40); it could seem we need a long time to complete a travel, but the use of autpilot and stardreamer could greatly help (1 hour = 3600 sec = 36 sec using the 3rd speed of the stardreamer).

-Limitations

If you engage the "hyperdrive" in a gravitational well you risk a misjump (IE: damage or destruction of the ship), with a chance depending how deep you are in the well and how fast your hyperdrive is going (if you are engaging it only at a tenth of its maximum speed you can have a better chance not to misjump). So if you are in the gravity well, and you are chased by an enemy, you can try anyway to flee in the hyperspace... at your own risk. Random misjumps can happen very rarely also while travelling in open space.

- Appearance

OPTION I: HS Appearance [ Now there is a question: what should be the appearance of the external space during this FTL speed? We could use two models: A) It could look like the normal relativistic space, in which you move faster; of course this possibility can be considered only if we have an algorithm to calculate realistically the appearance of the stars in the background so that, if you want, you can fly to a star just pointing your ship towards it. Of course there will light distortions, but we can avoid them speaking about "optical compensators"; if you want to do some calculations before or after leaving the hyperspace we can show a distorted screen until calculations are completed, justifying it with "time to adapt the optical compensators". B) It could be similar to an empty space where you can see only other ships in hyperspace (and maybe something hidden in the hyperspace) and be able to detect only the intense gravitational fields. In the same way as above, the "entering in" and "exiting from" sequences can be used to perform calculations. ]

In both the situations, changing direction in the hyperspace would mean to change direction in realspace (so if you were pointing towards a star, and after you steer of 90 degree you will change direction of 90 degrees also in realspace and you will be travelling in a direction which is at 90 degrees from your previous one). But if you want to point to a certain star you just select it in the galaxy screen and a target pointer will tell you in which direction to go; just tun on the autopilot and you will be travelling towards it; and your current position would be always visible in the galaxy screen, so you don't risk to get lost. You will know you are near a star or a planet (regardless they are on the galaxy map or not) from their gravity field (it will be showed in the hyper-scanner: see below).

- Piloting

While the hyperdrive is on, the ship will be piloted like in Elite. Thrust forward to increase hyperspeed, thrust back to decrease it. Maybe some controls to trim the exact speed should be thought (maybe CTRL + thrust on /thrust off); i'll explain later why.

Up to now, one could ask why am i bothering to make things complex, since we could obtain the same things using the "classical" hyperdrive; but now comes the differences:

- Detection

When you engage the hyperdrive you emit an instantaneous perturbation in the hyperspace which enables other ships to scan for your ship in a wide range (IE: each ship at a distance from you not greater than the theoretical limit of about 1 light-year will be able to detect you). The scanner capable to detect hyper-perturbations (we could call it hyper-scanner) will automatically take place of normal scanner once you engage hyperdrive; the hyper-scanner will show enemy ships, other objects in the hyperspace (see below), and gravitational fields (in green the areas where misjumps are less probable than 10%, in yellow areas where they are less probable than 50% and in red the areas where misjumps are more probable then 50%). Of course, the real distance at which an enemy could be able to see you could depend on the class and quality of their hyperscanner.

-More info about hyper-scanner ranges

As I said before, the hyperscanner is able to detect things up to a limit of 1 light year. This is A LOT of space (space is so BIG), so to fly in it properly we need at least three levels of zooming, and since a light year is about 63300 AU (which is HUGE), the different zooming levels should have a large difference between them; we could call them Long Range, Fight range and Short Range (and an optional Close Range): 1) Long Range: this is the maximum range of the hyperscanner (which for an excellent hyper-scanner is about 1 L/y). Here you can detect all the ships in hyperspace and large gravitational fields; you CANNOT detect ships with hyperdrive turned off, at any distance, unless they are so massive to be detected from their gravitational field (IE: Ships as massive as Star Destroyers or Doom star; generally, only large pirate's nests and military fortresses will be so massive). 2) Fight range: As I will explain later, this model could offer the chance to combat also in hyperspace (anyway this is one of the options, so we can cut it if people here don't like it); when ships come close enough to you (IE: they arrive in the Fight Range; you know, in hyperspace dimensions are contracted and all the other "psuedo-physical" stuff :-)) you are near enough to exchange hits (see below for more detailed hyper-combat info); if we choose not to combat in hyperspace, we can refer to this as the Medium Range (incredible! :-)). Now, how much should be "close enough"? Since a light year is about 63300 AU I'd suggest to use as maximum radius of the Medium range 1/25 of Light year (which is 2532 AU). This range is long enough to be covered in 72 sec with a "normal" hyperdrive at its maximum power. 3) Short Range: In the previous ranges, the gravitational field of a star is detected but its dimensions are too small to be showed on the scanner; a whole system must be necessarily displayed with a single dot; so, for the system approach maneuver you use this Short Range (which could be 1/25 of the Medium range: 101.28 AU); to make a comparison, Pluto's average distance from Sol is around 40 AU so the amplitude of Sol system is about 80 AU so the whole Sol system will be displayed in the front half of the scanner and you can choose the exact route. OPTION II: [ 4) Close range: This is an optional range which could help in case you have to aim to a precise point in the deep space (and you know its exact position, of course). This would have a radius of 1/25 of Short range (4.05 AU) so that you can deactivate your hyperdrive only at few sec/light from your target. ]

Note 1: Normally, the autopilot and the mechanism I�m going to explain below will do all the hard work, so messing up with the zooming levels will be needed only in particular situations, and *never* during the fights (with the mechanism I�m going to explain your scanner will change automatically on the fight range when it is needed). Note 2: the constant 1/25 has been chosen as a compromise between the number of zooming levels and the ability to drive towards your target; if the constant would have been too little (IE: 1/100), we might reduce the number of zooming levels, but we would have serious problems trying to drive towards the target, since the resolution would be too small to be sure the target is getting into the zooming range.

- Hyperscanner's practical use

The use of different ranges is quite tricky and it would be very unpleasant to change continuously from one to the other, especially during the action, so i worked on a way to simplify its use; it works in slight different ways depending whether your hyperdrive is on or off:

1) Hyperdrive Off a) Whatever scanner was active before, if a new object arrives in the range of realspace scanner, this scanner became immediately active substituting the hyper-scanner. b) If new signals are detected in your Short Range scanner, it became immediately active, unless there are signals in your realspace scanner and it is active. c) If new signals are detected in your Fight Range scanner, it became immediately active, unless the Realspace or Short Range scanner is activated, and there are signals in it. d) If new signals are detected in your Long Range scanner, it became immediately active, unless the Realspace or Short Range or Fight Range scanner is activated, and there are signals in it.

2) Hyperdrive On a) If a gravity field enters into the Short Range, it will become immediately active, and the hyperspeed will be automatically reduced to its minimum (unless autopilot is on); this has been done to avoid that, while you are travelling towards a system, you arrive at a so high speed to travel through it too quick to stop the ship (a normal hyperdrive at maximum power travels 35 AU per sec), so being subject to a misjump. The previous exact speed control has been designed to permit to increase the speed also in this small area requiring very low hyper-speed. If an hyperdrive ship enters into the Short Range nothing will happen (suppose you are fighting and an enemy ship comes very near to you; you don't want to be distracted by a sudden change of the scanner) b) If a new signal enters inside the Fight Range it will become immediately active, unless the Short Range scanner is active and there are gravity fields in it. c) If a new signal enters into the Long Range it will become immediately active, unless The Short Range or Fight Range scanner is active, and there are signals in it.

Note 1: It would be useful to put some lights to inform you if something new is happening in the scanners which does not activate automatically; so if you think that all the ships in realspace are harmless traders, when the light about the Short Range turns on, you will know that something is happening at the Short Range (maybe an enemy army approaching the system) and you can check it. Note 2: I intentionally left the Close Range out of this scheme; it is too narrow to be helpful, and it can only be confusing. The Close Range is thinked to be activated only by the player, when needed (like attacking someone who decided to hide in the immensity of space but has been detected by your cencomp module). Note 3: The Stardreamer should be reset to normal time each time a new unexpected signal enters into one of the scanners (so you can check what's happening, particularly if a new ship seems to be hostile); but you should be able to turn it on again as soon as you checked what's happened (unless, of course, you are clearly under attack).

- Hyperscanner's limitations

As I said before, even the best hyperscanner is not able to detect any ship with its hyperdrive activated at a distance greater than 1 L/y, but there are much more limitations; in fact each scanner has its maximum range of detection (it is of 1 L/y only for the best scanners), but that's its radius only in optimal conditions, which means: a) The hyperdrive you are trying to detect is running at its maximum power; b) The mass (or size? matter for discussion) of the ship you are trying to detect is very large. c) You are lucky. This conditions means that, if someone is running at low power with a small ship, he could be undetected by your scanner; or even if someone is running at maximum power but he is near the edge of your detection radius he could be undetected anyway. To design practically this thing we can draw the Long Range scanner in this way: the inner part of the scanner (50% of its range? Less? More? Matter for discussion) is filled with a color, while the most external part is filled with a brighter color. You will know that a ship will be detected without any doubt if it is in the inner part of the scanner, while its detection is uncertain (with a chance depending on the distance, the power of the drive, and the mass of the ship, and of course a random parameter) if it is in the outer part. If you think it is not too complicated we could use TWO parameters to give the quality of a scanner; its minimum and maximum range; of course if you don't like this idea, the minimum range will be simply a fixed percentage of the maximum range.

Note: This tricks with hyperscanner give the chance to insert several new maneuvers like following people without being detected, or evasive maneuvers to fool chasers, or trying to avoid enemy patrols, and so on. Interesting enough, there's never the absolute security to detect other ships or to pass undetected between enemy patrols. OPTION III: [ We can anyway decide to insert particularly advanced equipment, if somebody prefers to be completely undetectable or to detect another ship with no doubts (for plot or personal reasons). Anyway, as far as i know, nobody here likes too much cloaking devices (or, at least, PERFECT cloaking devices), so the hyperscanner system without anything of this type should work well anyway. ]

- Combat

I have some ideas also for fighting in hyperspace (in an Elite-like style; it would be anyway physically consistent, since you are not fighting in realspace); anyway, combats in HS can be completely omitted, or they can simply be kept more difficult using the OPTION V or they can be used only with the eventual limitation of a jammer or something similar. Realspace combats are ALWAYS included.

OPTION IV: HS Combat [ If you have proper equipment you can fight also in the hyperspace: For example: A) You could fire hyperdrive-equipped missiles, which locks on the hyperdrive signal of the ships; B) You could have your laser fitted with a hyperwave generator (a small hyperdrive field which envelopes the laser beam); besides we have also the chance to decide if using an "instantaneous" laser, like in relativistic combat, or a bullet-like laser like in Elite (for Amiga); in the first case we can say "the hyperspace field enveloping pure energy (no significant mass) is instantaneous for all practical needs" or conversely we can say "that's just an hyperdrive field like the others, so the speed is only little greater than the one of the ships". Just as we like. C) You could also fire to and destroy enemy laser beams if we like; we could say without problems: "the hyperwaves of two lasers interferes between each other for enough time to leave the beam behind, out of its hyperwave"; if we don't like this feature we can say "hyperwaves are too short and weak to interfere with anything for a reasonable period of time".

Since the option of fighting in hyperspace is not essential we could also put an option menu to select if you want to fight in HS or not. ]

OPTION V: Microjumps [ Another *very interesting* feature (which can be omitted, anyway, cause of its complexity) could be the idea of "micro-jumps": The basic principle is that the "hyperdrive" is not obtained by a "constant" field, but by small quantistic jumps performed at a very high frequency; of course if the jumps are in phase the two ships will be visible to each other, but if it happens that the phase of jumps is slightly different the two ships will start to "vanish", because part of that time the ship *is not there*; if the phases are opposite, the two ships will be unreachable to each other also if the scanner shows that in theory they are very near. This feature could offer a lot of ideas for equipment and programs capable to put your ship (and/or your missiles) in phase with the enemy one, or, conversely, to keep your ship in the opposite phase of the attacker's one. Anyway this has also the drawback to add more difficulty to the piloting of the ship while in hyperspace (you need at least one more control to adjust the phases). ]

- FTL Comms

This hyperspace model could offer also an idea for FTL comms (except, of course, using courier ships or messenger torpedoes); do you remember that hyperspace signals progresses instantaneously for 1 light year? So theoretically you can communicate FTL in that range (practically you can communicate only in a fraction of L/y: 1/2 1/3 or 1/4); when a ship is out of that range, can't communicate with planets (only with ships inside the range of 1 light years); but it can anyway send a request for help or important messages to planets with the help of messenger torpedoes (a hyperdrive missile equipped with a message instead of the warhead); of course a messenger torpedo is as slow as hyperdrive (slower than a "normal" hyperdrive, since its hyperdrive must be very basic to be crammed into the torpedo), and could be intercepted, so the message could not arrive or (if it is not encrypted) could become publicly known, also if it is supposed to be secret.

OPTION VI: Instantaneous FTL comms between solar systems. [ Moreover, we can choose if it is possible to have instant FTL comms between different systems, partial instant FTL comms, or none at all. Just suppose that the bandwidth of the "hyperspace" is enough to be convenient for systems to establish repeaters, if you want to have instant FTL comms. Just suppose that the bandwidth of hyperspace is small and difficult to exploit, so that only advanced systems are able to establish a repeaters' net, if you want to establish instant FTL comms only between core systems. Just suppose that the bandwidth of the hyperspace is so small (1 bit/sec or less) to make not convenient to establish repeaters, if you don't want FTL comms at all. If you want to use the repeaters, keep in mind that they also could be considered a valuable resource, with connections to the plot. ]

- Comments

1) Note that, despite the ideas i put in the model and the complexities which could arise while your ship is docked and you are choosing the equipment, the piloting itself is as simple as it was in Elite; you activate hyperdrive just pushing a button, the hyperscanner replaces automatically the relativistic scanner, the forward thrust button increase hyperspace "speed", the reverse thruster button reduces it, the weapons are almost the same (also the weapons screen will be changed to hyperdrive weapons when activating hyperdrive), and if you are attacked the Fight Range scanner takes automatically place of the Long Range. Some maneuvers can be more difficult since they require the interaction of more zooming levels but in the 90% of the situations they will be performed by the autopilot, and when you decide to perform it on your own it means you have decided to use an advanced tactic.

OPTION VII [ 2) If you prefer to enforce the role of the relativistic combat we could introduce a way to drag the ship out from the hyperspace; Tone's suggestion was a hyper-jammer, my suggestion was a gravity-hyper-missile (or mine) which creates a gravitational distortion in the area, but I think Tone's suggestion is more exploitable (for example you could force your engines to work in a jammed area, even if with several drawbacks and/or damages). I strongly suggest the adoption of a jammer (at least because pirates are interested in the cargo, not in destroying your ship). ]

3) Moreover, we could use this model of hyperspace to enforce the plot, since a greater part of it could be played in the deep space; actually, with this model, you can place pirates' nests, military bases, fortresses, lonely planets, dark stars, black holes, wormholes, and whatever we like in the deep space, and you could meet them also by chance (if you are not on a trading route; maybe you left it during fights or you are trying to get to a planet with a twisting route, trying to deceive or detect potential chasers), or sampling a vast area of space (always remember that hyperwaves of ships are visible till 1 light year of distance); using the "classical" hyperdrive you would not be able to reach them unless you can't gather the precise coordinates somewhere; there would be a much less chance to locate a pirates' nest sampling, investigating, explore new areas (note that an "exploration" is much more complex with NavHS; it will be performed using the gravity detection feature of your hyperscanner; of course you will already know the position of visible stars but not everything in the space is visible), and so on.

4) We could introduce also some "random events" while in hyperspace; pirates could be found equally in the deep space or in the space around stars; you could travel through a region where a battle (of thousands of ships or only between two) is happening; you could meet a ship of an unknown civilization; the potential is limited only by our imagination.

OPTION VIII [ 5) Another idea (which we could use both for the plot and "random events") could be to hide things in the hyperspace itself; think what potential could have in the plot a hyper-civilization (I mean: a alien race which has evolved and lives in the hyperspace, for which the hyperspace is their realspace); but also not thinking of it, some military forces could hide bases in the hyperspace "anchoring" them in it. Anyway this idea could work only if the appearance of hyperspace (OPTION I) is chosen like a different universe. ]

6) Since a lot of people here are against a navigatable model of hyperspace, Porphyre suggested a compromise based on this: get rid of the stardreamer, use the "instant" HS model, and reintroduce the old torus drive of Elite (this time based on the same "physic" of hyperspace) working in a way similar to this hyperspace model; this could enable at least the Elite-like combats while in torus drive. I prefer anyway the navigable hyperspace model because its advantage is not only the Elite-like combat, but it offers also more chances for what can happen in the deep space both for "random events" and for the plot. It offers also the opportunity to find things in hyperspace itself (see above).

EQUIPMENT

This is only a short explanation of some equipment not usable with InstHS; due to their particular nature some of these devices can work only with NavHS (what might be the usefulness of an hyperscanner for the InstHS?). We might include many more but these should be enough to show the potential of the idea.

- Hyperscanner The hyperscanner has been described above; it should come in different models, each one with its own maximum range (no more than 1 Ly, anyway).

- Hyperfield stabilizers This device increases the stability of the hyperfield, so permitting to engage the hyperdrive nearer to a gravity well (IE: nearer to the star). It could come in different classes.

- Messenger torpedoes These massive missiles are essential to transmit messages at a range greater than the maximum distance permitted by the FTL model; they would take some hours (or days or months) to deliver the message to their destination and they could be intercepted, so their content could become publicly known (or it could not be delivered at all).

- Hyperspace Decoy Something similar to a messenger torpedo, but with an overcharged hyperdrive, so that its signal can be confused with the one of your spaceship; anyway the overcharged hyperdrive will produce an unstable field which will progressively damage the decoy, and will self-destroy after some Light years.

- Cencomp module: hyperspace shut-down analyzer This device is essential to detect the point in which a ship turns off its hyperspace (so being able to chase it also in real space) In fact, since space is so big, having a general idea of the area would be enough to keep you busy for years looking for your target; using this module, a small dot on your hyperscanner will mark the exact point in which the other ships left hyperspace (of course the chance to detect the exact point depends on the distance the ship was from you when turned off the hyperdrive). This module could come in different classes, with diffent chances to detect thc correct point.

- Cencomp module: hyperspace perturbation comparator This module compares the small differences produced by different hyperdrives, giving you a reasonable chance to distinguish between the hyperdrive of different ships and/or decoys; this means that if you are chasing a ship, and you already detected its hyperdrive perturbation, you can distinguish that particular perturbation again (and so identifying a specific ship, or distinguishing it from decoys). Of course only a very limited number of schemes should be stored.

- Cencomp module: route tracer. This module is used in the galactic map; it would be used when you got an information about a route followed by a ship; it will display each on the galactic map one or more of the route informations each time you request it. It could be very useful to do triangulations.

OPTION IV: Hyperspace Combat [ - Hyperwave generator It generates a wave of hyperspace around a laser beam so that it could travel without bending and so be used also for hyperspace combat.

- Hyperdrive missiles Missiles thought to be used in hyperspace; very massive; most advanced versions should be able also to track a ship which turned off the hyperdrive, detecting its exit point, and then attacking it at sublight drive. ]

OPTION III: Stealth [ - Hyperfield compensator. They partially compensate the space distortion caused by the hyperfield and detectable up to 1 L/y; practically it reduces the chance to be detected by an hyperscanner, making you detectable only at a distance of few AU (enough to enter in a system undetected; when you are there you will have to use realspace manouvers to continue to be undetected). A wise approach might be to ask some major drawback to its use (IE: progressive damage and/or high energy requirements), so its massive use to hide a fleet in travel is not reasonable (I strongly suggest the adoption of some ideas about interferences if too much of this devices are working at the same time in the same area). Note: The use of the "hyperfield compensator" is incompatable with the "hyperfield stabilyzer", so when you turn on the compensator you lose the stabilyzer until you turn off again the compensator. ]

OPTION V:Microjumps [ - Cencomp module: pseudorandom sequence generator If you are trying to escape an attacker in hyperspace, your best chance to avoid enemy fire is to have a different phase from the one of your opponent; the "pseudorandom sequence generator" would automatically change the phase of your ship, in an almost unpredictable way. They should be of different classes of increasing complexity.

- Cencomp module: statistical phase sequence analyzer The "pseudorandom sequence generator" is only *almost* unpredictable; an intensive statistical analysis could help a chaser to find the correct sequence. That's exactly what this module does. Of course more complex "pseudorandom sequence generator" will take more time to be analyzed. ]

Option VII: HS jamming [ Various equipment for jamming the enemies' hyperdrive and, conversely, to escape to this devices. I've not cleared my mind about them, but at least a basic "hyperjammer" (which hampers the use of hyperspace in a certain area) could be certainly used. ]

Ok, that's all! (well, not properly all; i have some other raw ideas that can be used with this model, but i think i wrote enough to give a clear idea of how the system should work).

Note: in the first part (The examples) I could have written at least two completely different situations (how to fly in Hyperspace avoiding chasers using slow speed decoys and similar things, and how to do a stealth approach to the system, using the stealth system to arrive undetected in the range of the system and then using the realspace tacticts to avoid detection) but i've had not enough time. Sorry.

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