Hyperspace - Revision history

Cholmondely: Added pretty picture

2026-02-17T18:58:02Z

Added pretty picture

Cholmondely: /* Hyperspace or Witchspace? */ Added cim's note with his G5 conundrum

2025-02-11T23:46:40Z

‎Hyperspace or Witchspace?: Added cim's note with his G5 conundrum

Phkb: Updating BB links

2024-03-18T13:44:07Z

Updating BB links

Phkb: Updating BB links

2024-02-29T01:55:51Z

Updating BB links

Cholmondely: /* A Theory */ Added Ahruman's Coda

2023-06-19T18:17:52Z

‎A Theory: Added Ahruman's Coda

Cholmondely: More links. Various minor tweaks

2023-01-18T12:28:22Z

Cholmondely: /* BB discussions */ Added another

2022-12-28T23:12:16Z

‎BB discussions: Added another

Cholmondely: /* BB discussions */ Added another

2022-12-01T18:57:40Z

‎BB discussions: Added another

Cholmondely: Added note on Tsoj's version of BGS, tweaks

2022-10-18T19:21:24Z

Added note on Tsoj's version of BGS, tweaks

Cholmondely: Oops!

2022-10-16T16:34:00Z

Oops!

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:58, 17 February 2026
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		+	[[File:Wormhole effect (v.1.92).png\|thumb\|600px\|right\|New Wormhole effect from Oolite v.1.92 (best viewed animated in-game)]]
	[[File:Vanilla hyper effect.png\|600px\|thumb\|right\|Jumping through Hyperspace/WitchSpace: [[Vanilla game]]]]		[[File:Vanilla hyper effect.png\|600px\|thumb\|right\|Jumping through Hyperspace/WitchSpace: [[Vanilla game]]]]
	[[File:BGS Jump.jpg\|600px\|thumb\|right\|Jumping through Hyperspace/WitchSpace: newer [[BGS]] (v.2.5.1)]]		[[File:BGS Jump.jpg\|600px\|thumb\|right\|Jumping through Hyperspace/WitchSpace: newer [[BGS]] (v.2.5.1)]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:46, 11 February 2025
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	Terminological Exactitude is further challenged by the use of the term "Interstellar Space" for the region where one is stranded in a misjump. Admittedly, one can see stars even if they seem to be unreachable. But the appearance of the space seems unlike what one would expect a [[Generation ship]] to encounter as it made its way from one star system to another.		Terminological Exactitude is further challenged by the use of the term "Interstellar Space" for the region where one is stranded in a misjump. Admittedly, one can see stars even if they seem to be unreachable. But the appearance of the space seems unlike what one would expect a [[Generation ship]] to encounter as it made its way from one star system to another.
		+
		+	Cim posted [https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=199607#p199607 this] in 2013: We wouldn't call it "witchspace" if it behaved in an easy-to-understand way...
		+
		+	An analogy which doesn't involve too much multi-dimensional physics: the witchdrive tunnels through into witchspace to a depth roughly proportional to the amount of energy (fuel) put in to making the wormhole, and then from that anchoring point you head in the direction of the star at your destination as a second anchoring point which is on the "surface" of witchspace. Now, the speed you can travel through witchspace is proportional to the depth you're at, so the time taken to travel that distance - rising at a constant rate - is proportional to the area of the triangle described, which is proportional to the square of the distance travelled. ("depth", "surface", and "area" all being crude analogies for properties of witchspace which are not fully understood even by top researchers, of course)
		+
		+	(If you drop out of witchspace half way, in a misjump, then you've covered 75% of the area of the triangle to get that far, so the jump takes 75% of the time)
		+
		+	If you want to see something even stranger, theorised to be caused by quantum effects in the witchspace medium, fly to [[Sector5/Usinribe\|Usinribe]] in the southeast of chart 5, and fill up your fuel tank. Note that Teusatve to the south is slightly out of range. Then jump to Enonis, then on to Rareat, then to Eszaan, around that arc, without refuelling. Teusatve is now just in range of your remaining fuel.
		+
		+	(Yeah, we trust the entire coherence of Galcop space to a drive technology we aren't entirely sure how it works. Try not to think about it too much, is my advice.)

	== Fiction ==		== Fiction ==

@@ Line 80: / Line 80: @@
 *[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12528 Status of shields, energy and laser temp after a jump] (2012) - more rooted in the [[Dark Side]] than the 2010 debate just beneath.
 *[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8232 Why do temperatures, energy banks & shields not reset in the witchspace tunnel?] (2010)
-*[http://oolite.bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=89513#p89513 Captain Hesperus on Witchspace] (2009)
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=89513#p89513 Captain Hesperus on Witchspace] (2009)
 :'''Language'''

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[File:Vanilla hyper effect.png|600px|thumb|right|Jumping through Hyperspace/WitchSpace: [[Vanilla game]]]]
 [[File:BGS Jump.jpg|600px|thumb|right|Jumping through Hyperspace/WitchSpace: newer [[BGS]] (v.2.5.1)]]
-[[Image:Bgs hyper effect.jpg|600px|thumb|right|Jumping through Hyperspace/WitchSpace: older [[BGS]] (v.1.10.9) <br><font color="Red"> STOP PRESS! </font> [[User:Tsoj|Tsoj]] has modified the newer BGS to allow use of this spiderweb witch-space tunnel as well (2022). Click [http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21187 here] for download: this effect is chosen using [[Library OXP]]'s "Config for AddOns" on the docked [[F4 page (ship and system interfaces)|F4 screen]].]]
+[[Image:Bgs hyper effect.jpg|600px|thumb|right|Jumping through Hyperspace/WitchSpace: older [[BGS]] (v.1.10.9) <br><font color="Red"> STOP PRESS! </font> [[User:Tsoj|Tsoj]] has modified the newer BGS to allow use of this spiderweb witch-space tunnel as well (2022). Click [https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21187 here] for download: this effect is chosen using [[Library OXP]]'s "Config for AddOns" on the docked [[F4 page (ship and system interfaces)|F4 screen]].]]
 Hyperspace, also called '''witchspace''', is a dimension through which hyperdrive/witch-space drive equipped ships can travel instantaneously from one star system to the other. There are limits to the maximum distance that can be traversed in one jump.
@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 A witchspace malfunction occurs when the metric of the intertube is not perfectly balanced, which can happen due to hardware failure (slightly bent wire, build-ups of dust, or uneven load due to centrifugal force) in the witchspace drive’s field generator coils. This causes an “unravelling” of the field which dumps the traveller somewhere along the realspace path of the intertube; it is more likely to do so in the presence of large quantities of radioactive isotopes, incidentally of the very type used by the thargoids in their unrelated and badly-understood interstellar drives. Unfortunately, the only way to detect an unravelling condition is to enter the blue hole and see whether you end up where you expected to. This explains the importance of regular [[Maintenance]].
-Witchdrive fuel is used to create the entire intertube immediately before entering it, rather than for actual travel; for this reason, none is recovered in the case of “falling out” of the intertube [http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=35219#p35219 Jens Ayton (2007)].
+Witchdrive fuel is used to create the entire intertube immediately before entering it, rather than for actual travel; for this reason, none is recovered in the case of “falling out” of the intertube [https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=35219#p35219 Jens Ayton (2007)].
 === Coda to the Theory ===
 The complex mathematics and physics of witchspace intertube generation (which I do not have the time or space to relate here) do not allow for witchspace jumps to arbitrary locations. The target of a jump must be near a sufficiently large mass – such as a star – and must be marked by a large and complex network of equipment arranged quite some distance from said large mass. The witchspace beacon, incidentally, is not part of this equipment, it merely marks the “termination focus” produced by their arrangement.
-Ending up in interstellar space is only possible by means of an “unravelled” intertube between two planetary systems [http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=35670#p35670 Jens Ayton (2007)].
+Ending up in interstellar space is only possible by means of an “unravelled” intertube between two planetary systems [https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=35670#p35670 Jens Ayton (2007)].
 == Other theories of what Witchspace is ==
-*[http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=35219#35219 Witchspace: possible to exit?]
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=35219#35219 Witchspace: possible to exit?]
-*[http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=35670#35670 Witchspace Wake]
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=35670#35670 Witchspace Wake]
-*[http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7148 Explanations Wanted]
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7148 Explanations Wanted]
-*[http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17877 Canon question about the Witchdrive].
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17877 Canon question about the Witchdrive].
 == Hyperspace or Witchspace? ==
 {{QuoteText|Text=The confusion about the hyperspace/witchspace terminology comes from the original Acorn version manual and novella. [[Ian Bell]] & [[David Braben]] used ''hyperspace'' as their term of choice in the [[The Space Traders Flight Training Manual|Manual]]. [[Robert Holdstock]] used ''witchspace'' by habit in his [[The Dark Wheel|novella]]: it's found in many of his other SF novels, if my memory serves me correctly. Subsequent versions of the game's in-game text and documents have mixed both. It's now reached the point that Mr Braben's later versions of the game mix both terms pretty randomly.
-|Source=([http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=73284#p73284 KZ9999 (2009)])}}
+|Source=([https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=73284#p73284 KZ9999 (2009)])}}
 Whilst some individuals have rigidly stuck with the use of either one term or the other - and some have used one for the tunnel and the other for the region where one is stranded in a misjump - overall the use of the two terms is utterly confused, which will undoubtedly reflect their use amongst the billions of people in the thousands of systems of the 8 galaxies!
@@ Line 50: / Line 50: @@
 == Fiction ==
-*[http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=9649 Derelict] by Ganelon
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=9649 Derelict] by Ganelon
 == Links ==
@@ Line 75: / Line 75: @@
 === BB discussions ===
-*[http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21345 How to cross VOIDS in Oolite!] (2022) Analysis of the Thargoid presence in Witchspace/Interstellar Space
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21345 How to cross VOIDS in Oolite!] (2022) Analysis of the Thargoid presence in Witchspace/Interstellar Space
-*[http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21312 Stuck in Interstellar Space] (2022)
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21312 Stuck in Interstellar Space] (2022)
-*[http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=19289 Ideally Imperfect OOniverse: Calibrated Hyperspace jumps].  BB Thread (2017-8): ''why'' do traders/convoys make their way out to the Witchpoint beacon and jump from there?
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=19289 Ideally Imperfect OOniverse: Calibrated Hyperspace jumps].  BB Thread (2017-8): ''why'' do traders/convoys make their way out to the Witchpoint beacon and jump from there?
-*[http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12528 Status of shields, energy and laser temp after a jump] (2012) - more rooted in the [[Dark Side]] than the 2010 debate just beneath.
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12528 Status of shields, energy and laser temp after a jump] (2012) - more rooted in the [[Dark Side]] than the 2010 debate just beneath.
-*[http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8232 Why do temperatures, energy banks & shields not reset in the witchspace tunnel?] (2010)
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8232 Why do temperatures, energy banks & shields not reset in the witchspace tunnel?] (2010)
-*[http://oolite.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=89513#p89513 Captain Hesperus on Witchspace] (2009)
+*[http://oolite.bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=89513#p89513 Captain Hesperus on Witchspace] (2009)
 :'''Language'''
-*[http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20993 Terminological Exactitude: Hyperspace, Witchspace & Interstellar Space] (2021)
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20993 Terminological Exactitude: Hyperspace, Witchspace & Interstellar Space] (2021)
-*[http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17299 Inconsistent Language] - Witchspace or Hyperspace? (2015)
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17299 Inconsistent Language] - Witchspace or Hyperspace? (2015)
-*[http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=34866#p34866 Inconsistent Language] - Witchspace or Hyperspace? (2007)
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=34866#p34866 Inconsistent Language] - Witchspace or Hyperspace? (2007)
 :'''Proposal'''
-*[http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=258390#p258390 Alderson Drive physics] (2017) - jumps either way can only be made at the Witchpoint Beacon - this would have severe consequences for misjumps
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=258390#p258390 Alderson Drive physics] (2017) - jumps either way can only be made at the Witchpoint Beacon - this would have severe consequences for misjumps

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:17, 19 June 2023
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	Witchdrive fuel is used to create the entire intertube immediately before entering it, rather than for actual travel; for this reason, none is recovered in the case of “falling out” of the intertube [http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=35219#p35219 Jens Ayton (2007)].		Witchdrive fuel is used to create the entire intertube immediately before entering it, rather than for actual travel; for this reason, none is recovered in the case of “falling out” of the intertube [http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=35219#p35219 Jens Ayton (2007)].
		+
		+	=== Coda to the Theory ===
		+	The complex mathematics and physics of witchspace intertube generation (which I do not have the time or space to relate here) do not allow for witchspace jumps to arbitrary locations. The target of a jump must be near a sufficiently large mass – such as a star – and must be marked by a large and complex network of equipment arranged quite some distance from said large mass. The witchspace beacon, incidentally, is not part of this equipment, it merely marks the “termination focus” produced by their arrangement.
		+
		+	Ending up in interstellar space is only possible by means of an “unravelled” intertube between two planetary systems [http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=35670#p35670 Jens Ayton (2007)].

	== Other theories of what Witchspace is ==		== Other theories of what Witchspace is ==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[File:Vanilla hyper effect.png|800px|thumb|right|Jumping through Hyperspace/WitchSpace: [[Vanilla game]]]]
+[[File:Vanilla hyper effect.png|600px|thumb|right|Jumping through Hyperspace/WitchSpace: [[Vanilla game]]]]
-[[File:BGS Jump.jpg|800px|thumb|right|Jumping through Hyperspace/WitchSpace: [[BGS]] v.2.5.1]]
+[[File:BGS Jump.jpg|600px|thumb|right|Jumping through Hyperspace/WitchSpace: newer [[BGS]] (v.2.5.1)]]
-[[Image:Bgs hyper effect.jpg|800px|thumb|right|Jumping through Hyperspace/WitchSpace: [[BGS]] v.1.10.9. - and cag's recent version of BGS offers this as an option]]
+[[Image:Bgs hyper effect.jpg|600px|thumb|right|Jumping through Hyperspace/WitchSpace: older [[BGS]] (v.1.10.9) <br><font color="Red"> STOP PRESS! </font> [[User:Tsoj|Tsoj]] has modified the newer BGS to allow use of this spiderweb witch-space tunnel as well (2022). Click [http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21187 here] for download: this effect is chosen using [[Library OXP]]'s "Config for AddOns" on the docked [[F4 page (ship and system interfaces)|F4 screen]].]]
 Hyperspace, also called '''witchspace''', is a dimension through which hyperdrive/witch-space drive equipped ships can travel instantaneously from one star system to the other. There are limits to the maximum distance that can be traversed in one jump.
@@ Line 52: / Line 51: @@
 *[[Witchpoint]]
 *[[Force Misjump]]
-*[[SOTL Exploration]] is an Oolite Scenario oxp - you are genuinely exploring a new galaxy! The witchspace jump is very different, and can easily wreck your ship if you are not careful!<br>
+<div style="clear:both"></div>
-Hyperspace travel is dangerous - especially in a ship as improvised as the Shaula-class. When you activate the hyperdrive, an additional instrument display will be projected on to your HUD (see right!).
+[[File:Sotl-hyperspace.png|400px|thumb|right|Jumping through Hyperspace/WitchSpace: [[SOTL Exploration]] <br>You need to steer your ship during the jump with this one!<br> SOTL is an Oolite scenario, incompatible with normal Oolite]]
      '''Above''': progress to destination. This starts with you leaving the gravitational influence of your current system, then travelling through hyperspace, then entering your destination system. If you need to drop out mid-jump, this will determine where you end up.