FTL vs. megascale Flight

[Uncle Shecky]

Is Faster-Than-Light Travel necessary now that we have the megascale advantage for Flight?

 

Here's a comparison:

10 pts. FTL gives a movement of 1 LY/year and costs 0 END.

 

1" Flight (assuming no minimum power cost) is 2 pts. Add megascale: 1" = 10 trillion km (approx 1 light year), for +3.5 and 0 END for +0.5. You get a movement of 1 LY/phase at 0 END for only 10 pts!

 

Seems like megascale is "the only way to fly."

 

I know the FAQ says you need megascaled senses to travel around accurately with megascaled Flight. It doesn't mention megascaled senses and FTL, but I would assume it would be the same: you'd better be able to see really far if you don't want to hit anything.

 

Maybe turn mode could be more of a problem for megascaled Flight? I haven't figured that out yet.

 

I'm just spit-balling here. Any comments?

[TheEmerged]

Just a couple of general ones.

 

1> I think any GM that's been with this system for a while will tell you that one place HERO can (and usually does) break down is whenever you have a power with a low base cost and a high level of advantages. In my experience, any power with a base below 10 or more than +2 advantages needs to be looked at closely.

 

If nothing else, you just presented an excellent example of why In My Opinion you shouldn't be able to apply Megascale to a movement power of fewer than 10 hexes. I just feel the need to point out the phenomenon behind your example is in no way limited to Megascale.

 

2> Personal Rant! Personally, before 5th Edition I'd seen some people that adopted the FTL Travel costs to create a power called "Campaign Movement". In a modern campaign this would be Supersonic Speed, for example.

 

The more I play with Megascale, the more I wonder if that would have been a better way to go.

[Agent Escafarc]

For my Star HERO game I'm using Megascale Flight linked with EDM instead of FTL but it's more of how I conceive of Hyperspace than an opinion of which is better.

[Armitage]

Re: FTL vs. megascale Flight

 

Originally posted by Uncle Shecky

Is Faster-Than-Light Travel necessary now that we have the megascale advantage for Flight?

 

Here's a comparison:

10 pts. FTL gives a movement of 1 LY/year and costs 0 END.

 

1" Flight (assuming no minimum power cost) is 2 pts. Add megascale: 1" = 10 trillion km (approx 1 light year), for +3.5 and 0 END for +0.5. You get a movement of 1 LY/phase at 0 END for only 10 pts!

 

With FTL Flight you could fly to the Moon or Mars in a few minutes.

With MegaScale Flight you would overshoot the target by a light year or more. Unless you bought the extra +1/4 Can Be Scaled Back to 1"=1km, of course.

[Aroooo]

Originally posted by Agent Escafarc

For my Star HERO game I'm using Megascale Flight linked with EDM instead of FTL but it's more of how I conceive of Hyperspace than an opinion of which is better.

 

Thats along the same lines as how I built my B5 jump gates. From effect to power. Since there are no ftl engines in B5, having the gate apply the megascale advantage to a ship's normal flight made the most sense - despite the fact that it was a more expensive way to build the power.

 

Aroooo

[Lisa Nadazdy]

You COULD argue that unless FTL travel is bought, all regular movent powers are limited to the Einsteinian laws of physics...

[Zaratustra]

I still think FTL should be bought as Extra-Dimensional Movement with Extra Time. Much less frustrating when you find out the star is 10000 light years away, not 1000 light years away, and you will need ten weeks instead of one to get there.

[Aroooo]

Originally posted by Zaratustra

I still think FTL should be bought as Extra-Dimensional Movement with Extra Time. Much less frustrating when you find out the star is 10000 light years away, not 1000 light years away, and you will need ten weeks instead of one to get there.

 

I still think it depends a lot on how space travel is defined in your universe. For a Trek setting, I'd use FTL. For Star Wars, your example above works. I think Star Hero and TUV did a good job of breaking down the various possibilities and modeling them in Hero terms.

 

Just my thoughts...

Aroooo