Why FTL Travel when there is Megascale Flight?

[whitekeys]

Let's assume a 4 SPD. 9 meters of flight, with +2 1/4 Megascale (that's 900,000 km every 3 seconds). So 29 AP and 3 END per phase. Let's make it 0 END, so 34 AP.

 

Just to be cheeky, I'd like to point out that you forgot to calculate the cost of SPD, which would be an additional charge of 20 points necessary to go the velocity you calculated, and which wouldn't reduce based on any limitations you put on. You don't need a SPD of any value in particular to buy FTL.

 

 

FTL is to Megascale Movement what Combat Luck is to Resistant Defense. One is basically a shorthand limited case version of the other.

 

I feel like the atmosphere rule is a big difference. Though you could extend Hugh Neilson's thought and put some more limitations on the power, like Only In Space to attempt to acheive parity between the powers. We'd need more build comparisons to figure it out. Like what propels you in the atmosphere - does it work in outer space? What of the intervening "stuff" that exists in the atmosphere - what effect does that have on you travelling at such high velocities? It seems to me that, while it could have been done away with and replaced with MegaScale Flight, FTL was meant to represent a cliche sci-fi standard of space travel for which you wouldn't need to ask questions about the physical effects of travelling at such high speeds or what if you hit something? That's probably why Steve wrote it in a somewhat vague fashion, and just left it up to the GM to determine stuff like turn modes and acceleration/decceleration.

[Hugh Neilson]

Just to be cheeky, I'd like to point out that you forgot to calculate the cost of SPD, which would be an additional charge of 20 points necessary to go the velocity you calculated, and which wouldn't reduce based on any limitations you put on. You don't need a SPD of any value in particular to buy FTL.

Supers with FTL are considerably more common than Supers with less than 4 SPD, at least in my experience. Make it 2 meters base flight and slap another x10 on it and the price would go down considerably.

[Matt the Bruins]

I like the distinction between relativistic flight and movement that, by its nature, would have to break the laws of physics as we know them in the real world.

[Tasha]

Just to be cheeky, I'd like to point out that you forgot to calculate the cost of SPD, which would be an additional charge of 20 points necessary to go the velocity you calculated, and which wouldn't reduce based on any limitations you put on. You don't need a SPD of any value in particular to buy FTL.

 

 

 

I feel like the atmosphere rule is a big difference. Though you could extend Hugh Neilson's thought and put some more limitations on the power, like Only In Space to attempt to acheive parity between the powers. We'd need more build comparisons to figure it out. Like what propels you in the atmosphere - does it work in outer space? What of the intervening "stuff" that exists in the atmosphere - what effect does that have on you travelling at such high velocities? It seems to me that, while it could have been done away with and replaced with MegaScale Flight, FTL was meant to represent a cliche sci-fi standard of space travel for which you wouldn't need to ask questions about the physical effects of travelling at such high speeds or what if you hit something? That's probably why Steve wrote it in a somewhat vague fashion, and just left it up to the GM to determine stuff like turn modes and acceleration/decceleration.

 

FTL can have a ton of different Special effects. ie Teleportation style drives (where you disappear from one place and appear in a different place), Warp Drive, kind of like flight, but faster and has a turn mode, Slipstream drive/Hyperspace where the ship opens a portal to a reality where STL drives move you superliminal speeds. Basically FTL  Travel doesn't concern it's self with why the power works, just how far you can go in a specific period of time.

[Tasha]

But don't take it away - just look at what happened when Instant Change was merged into Transform, Regeneration was folded into Healing and Transfer was recognized as Linked Drain and Aid. We must only add, never subtract, powers. Oh, and make it simpler and slim down the rules while you're at it

I like to think that Megascale Movement enchances FTL.

 

You COULD also Turn the system into 4 powers that you add advantages and limitations to achieve everything that the whole power section does. Doing so makes things much harder for the player to construct powers and still not make the rules take up less space. I believe that it would make the rules more convoluted and harder to find the options you were looking for.

 

BTW Regen in 5e sucked because for it to be Healing with Constant and with extra time, it required an exception to the "Healing is non cumulative" rule. Healing not being cumulative is a stupid rule anyways, but powers that work a certain way ex when used to build a particular effect are flawed. Also, it wasn't a very easy to remember construct, I could never remember what advantages and limitations needed to be on healing to turn it into Regen. Just having the power took the same amount of space and was much more intuitive to look for in the power list.

[Hugh Neilson]

The 5e Regen exception was an issue because the period of time before Healing "reset" was completely undefined. 5er defined it, and made it possible to construct Regen which followed all of the Healing rules. but that would have a cost in terms of backward compatibility.

 

In any case, it does not seem to matter what the change is - some like it and some do not.