Lords of Ether (20th Anniversary Edition) Operations & Logistics
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- Creating a Nation
- Creating a Transtellar
- Creating a Hero
- Advancement
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- Navies
- Agents
- Weapons of Mass Destruction
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- Mages
- Types of Magic
- Production
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- Operations & Logistics
- Reference Tables
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Armies
Air Forces
Travel Speeds
All space ships need drives.
All distances are measured in Great Leagues (GLs) and speeds are in Cosknots; 1 Cosknot is sufficient speed to cross 1 Great League in one week.
While traveling along BLUE lines, halve all numbered distances to reflect favorable conditions. On RED lines, double them for rough space. On WHITE lines, distances are as listed. For traveling outside starways, multiply distances by 10x. This applies both to speed and fuel requirements.
Eng 2 or Bio 5 allow ether sails that move you at 1 Cosknots with no fuel costs
Eng 5 allows ether sails that move you qt 2 Cosknots with no fuel costs
Chem 3 allows chemical rockets that move you at 2 Cosknots
Chem 4 allows fusion torches that move you at 4 Cosknots and allow a sprint option in combat
Chem 5 allows EAM drives that move you at 6 Cosknots and allow a sprint option in combat
Phys 4 allows AG drives that move you at 4 Cosknots and give a maneuverability bonus in combat
Phys 5 allows AG drives that move you at 6 Cosknots and give a maneuverability bonus in combat
Move 3 allows ships to be artificed with permanent enchants or magic materials that move a ship at 2 Cosknots and give a maneuverability bonus in combat
Move 4 allows ships to be artificed with permanent enchants or magic materials that move a ship at 4 Cosknots and give a maneuverability bonus in combat
Move 5 allows ships to be artificed with permanent enchants or magic materials that move a ship at 6 Cosknots and give a maneuverability bonus in combat
All additional engine caps increase the base travel speed of the first by 50%. So a TL4 +2 fusion torch ship goes 6 Cosknots, a +3 goes 8 Cosknots, etc.
Travel Fuel Costs
The cost for ships to travel can be significant; for every 20 GL a ship travels it must pay its BASE ether upkeep, pro-rated as appropriate and rounded up. Examples below:
A battleship has a base ether upkeep of 4 (as capital ships double their base ether upkeep), thus for every 5 GL (or fraction thereof) it travels it must pay 1 ether.
A single cruiser with +3 laser cannons has an batch ether upkeep of 3, however as this is a single ship (out of a batch of 2) and cruisers do not increase their base ether upkeep like capital ships do, it would pay 1 ether for every 40 GL of travel it undertakes.
A modified version of the cruiser above also has +1 fast; this specific added cap increases its base ether upkeep to 2 and its batch ether upkeep to 4. Thus a single one traveling around would burn 1 ether for every 20 GL traveled.
Fleets pool their ether travel costs together (and it can become quite significant!) but in no cases can a single move’s ether cost to travel anywhere be less than 1. Consider that the cost of firing up the space boilers.
Fuel Capacity
TL1-3 and ML1-3 stores ether in various forms of chemical reagents (such as starbat guano, gaseous ether, etheric clathrates, ethernol and Jet-E). Each point of ether stored in this way takes up 5,000 CP. Ships built at TL1-3 may store a single upkeep’s worth of ether, giving them an effective maximum unrefueled range of 20 GL.
TL4 stores ether in advanced chemical fuels optimized for plasma-fusion rockets and powerplants, which takes up only 1,000 CP per point. Ships built at this TL may store up to five upkeep’s worth of ether, which gives them an effective maximum unrefueled range of 100 GL.
TL5 and ML4-5 stores ether in various forms of ultradense and highly purified forms, such as etheric anti-matter and ether crystals. These only take up 1 CP per point of ether (but can be potentially rather volatile) and ships burning such concentrated ether can be loaded with an effectively unlimited amount of ether.
Etheric Geodes always take only 1 CP per point, but ships with geode reactors generally cannot be refueled on the run and thus need to return to some sort of friendly anchorage to have their cores refreshed once a year. During that year however they have effectively unlimited operational range.