Terminology:FTL travel

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thumb_arrow_up.png Terminology

FTL travel or also called faster-than-light travel and supraluminal travel.

Faster-than-light travel

FTL travel is a general term to describe travelling faster than lightspeed.

There are two principle means of faster-than-light travel.

The oldest, historically speaking, is the Jump drive. While extremely expedient and efficient, the Jump drive is only capable of travelling between systems connected to the so-called "jump network". Areas without jump points are inaccessible to jump-capable ships. Those areas which were colonised before the discovery of jump, and then found to be disconnected from the jump network, were termed "Sundered".

More energy-costly, but more versatile, is the much newer SPEC drive. Though faster than light, SPEC travel does not begin to match the speed of jumping. Most efficient for in-system travel, SPEC drives are also very useful for reaching non-jump-capable systems, and for scouting new regions of space.

See also