Jumpships & Travel

A couple basic concepts need to be covered before we get into the meat of Jumpships and Traveling throughout the galaxy.

  • Units must be moved by Jumpships. Clan units will use Clan Jumpships.  All other units will use IS Jumpships.
     
  • NBT does not simulate the use of Dropships in the league environment. They are assumed technology. You will notice that Clan JS carry more Units than there IS counterparts. This is due to the improved Clan technology on their Dropships, allowing for more economical transport abilities.
     
  • Jump Distance: Set at 60 light years subject to the range restrictions under Normal Jumps. Whether a jump takes 1 ly or the full 60, the Jumpship must use its full charge to make the jump. The distance limit on all long-distance special jumps is 500 ly.
     
  • Charging Jumpships: All jump types are instantaneous.  After a jump is completed, the solar-sail will deploy and recharge the Jump Engines.  This takes an average of 3 days, depending on the Star Class of the current system. Every system has a Star Class assigned to it. It is based upon the strength of the system star. The stronger the star, the faster you Jumpships recharge; the weaker the star, the longer it takes. The following is a breakdown of the Star Classes and the number of hours difference that they make. 

    Star Classes Table

    Spectral Class

    Star Subtype

    0

    1

    2

    3

    4

    5

    6

    7

    8

    9

    B

    -22

    -20

    -18

    -16

    -14

    -10

    -8

    -6

    -4

    -2

    A

    -18

    -16

    -14

    -12

    -10

    -8

    -6

    -4

    -2

     

    F

    -14

    -12

    -10

    -8

    -6

    -4

    -2

     

    +2

    +4

    G

    -6

    -4

    -2

     

    +2

    +4

    +6

    +8

    +10

    +12

    K

    -2

     

    +2

    +4

    +6

    +8

    +10

    +12

    +14

    +16

    M

    +2

    +4

    +6

    +8

    +10

    +12

    +14

    +16

    +18

    +20

 

Jumpships Types

  • Combat Jumpships (Light, Medium, Heavy): These are the Jumpships used to take Units into enemy territory and launch battles.  Mediums are the most common, followed by Lights and then Heavies.
     
  • Command Flagships: Flagships are Jumpships that have been modified to handle the extreme Command and Control functions that are needed to handle Planetary Assaults.  Only Flagships may launch the Planetary Assault type battle. In every other respect, they are the same as a Medium Jumpship. Each unit will receive a set number of starting Command Flagships as well as a FlagCap. The unit may not exceed their units FlagCap at ANY time. After an unsuccessful PA, the Flagship used cannot re-PA the same planet for a period of 4 weeks.  Another Flagship will need to be used, or the same Flagship can PA another planet. 
     
  • Non-Combat Transports: These Jumpships are primarily responsible for the moving of Units, Industry and Charge Stations within a units own space.  They may only load & offload to friendly planets that are not locked by combat (not to other Jumpships or battle locked planets) or to another transport.  These Transports carry many more Units than the normal Combat Jumpship, but they may not be used in ANY combat situation.

    Industry may be carried at a rate of 1 million per 2 Unit slots.  1 Charge Station may be carried per Transport.

Clan Jumpships and Unit capacity:
IS Jumpships and Unit capacity:
  • Hunter – 15 (Light)
  • Tramp – 30 (Medium)
  • Star Lord – 50 (Heavy)
  • Carrack – 75 (non-combat Transport)
  • Aegis – 30 (Flagship)
  • Magellan – 12 (Light)
  • Invader – 24 (Medium)
  • Monolith – 40 (Heavy)
  • Merchant – 60 (non-combat Transport)
  • Kyushu – 24 (Flagship)

 

Charge Stations

A charge station is a space station located in-system. Its purpose is to gather energy from the planets star and store it. When a Jumpship arrives, this energy is transferred to the Jumpship and it can immediately jump again. The total time for using a chain of Charge Stations to jump is one day, with a limit of 7 charge station jumps allowed before you have to have a normal system re-charge.

Charge Stations may be moved by means of Transports. There is a 25% fee when loading and unloading a Charge Station.

 

Types of Jumps:

Certain jump types require ‘ally’ status with another unit for them to work. This means either Full Alliance or Military Alliance settings.

Combat Jumps

Only Normal Jumps and Surgical Strike Jumps are actually used to intentionally launch battles. These are the only Jump types that can be used to reinforce a planet that is under attack (within the 24 hour window).

NORMAL JUMP – 60 LY to an ally planet, an unassigned planet or one of your own. In the case of enemy planets all of them at 30 LY or less can be jumped to. If there are none within 30 LY the range is extended to find the closest one out to the full 60 LY. This is done for each enemy unit with planets within the 60 LY range.  Normal jump types include All Raids, Recon, Pass Through, and Planetary Assault jumps. The Dynamic Starmap lists all legal jumps from each planet.  If the planet’s owner does not have you marked as an ally there is a 15% chance that you will go unnoticed. If not, a Trespass Dispute will result.

SURGICAL STRIKE JUMP – Merc ability only.  120 light year limit. The Surgical Strike Jump is an Attack jump.  It is designed to get a Merc Jumpship behind enemy lines for a specific battle or purpose, and then back out to friendly space.  Thus, once the battle is reported (win or lose) the Merc Jumpship is automatically returned to the planet of origin.  In and out. Planetary Assaults may NOT be launched with this jump type.  This is a Round-Trip Ticket.

  • Exception – The Surgical Strike jump may also be used by a Merc to jump into an allied system that is within the 24-hour battle window.  It is not a round-trip ticket in this case. This is used so that a Merc could Merc Jump to the nearest Charge Station, and then jump up to 120 ly into an allies system to reinforce that planet against a PA or Raid launched against it.

Non-Combat Jumps

The remaining jump types are used to transport Jumpships and Units throughout the galaxy. None intentionally result in league battles.  None of these Jump types will work to a planet that is under attack.  Exception:  Special Jumps will ALWAYS work to a unit’s own Capital planet, under attack, locked down or not.

PIRATE POINT JUMP – Allowed only to Pirate and Periphery units. 120 light year limit (2 jumps), not seen upon entrance to the system jumped to. There are however, some penalties/costs for these highly specialized jumps. Costs are high and they also have a 35% chance of coming out slightly out of place and being seen by the owner of the system. This results in a Trespass Dispute. The Pirate jump is NOT an Attack jump. It is a Stealth Pass Through jump type and will result in a Trespass Dispute battle if detected. A Pirate jump also has the ability to steal a jump charge from an enemy Charge Station, thus enabling the Pirate to continue jumping, if the stealth jump is successful.  PPJ’s cannot interact with Battle Planets, even as a point of origin.

MERC CONTRACT JUMP – Allowed only to Merc Units. Jump is a One Way Ticket. In order to use this jump the Merc unit must be under contract to another unit. The jump can be to any planet in the contracting unit’s space. The contracting unit must designate the Merc unit as an ally. You may use the Merc Jump to return to your current Hiring Hall at any time (provided you have the funds and your Jumpship is recharged and not locked into a battle). 500 ly distance limit.

CLAN HOMEWORLD JUMP – Allowed only to Clan Units. Jump is a One Way Ticket. This jump is designed to get the incoming clans into the Inner Sphere. The origin planet must be clan owned, as must the planet of destination. The owner of the destination planet must have declared the jumping unit as an ally. 500 ly distance limit. The Clan Jump will only target planets above the Tukayyid Truce Line at present, though you may jump from planets below the line.

PERIPHERY LINK JUMP – Designed to give Periphery units access to the full circle of Periphery Space. If a Periphery Unit decides to use this type jump, then they are allowed to jump into the space of any other Periphery unit as long as they have to set as an ally (Military or Full Alliance). You may also jump to a Vacant Periphery units space as well. This jump is a One Way Ticket. This jump type is also used by Pirate units to jump to any Unassigned planet on the map.  500 ly distance limit.

COMGUARD DEPLOYMENT – Only usable by ComStar type units.  Designed to allow reinforcement of ComGuard forces throughout the Inner Sphere.  Destination planet must have ComStar forces present for jump to be legal. 500 ly distance limit.

 

Jump Costs:

Costs vary with size of the Jumpship and the type jump being made. Any Unit loaded on a Combat Jumpship qualify as Attack Units and are subject to increased maintenance costs. Flagship jump costs are the same as Heavy JS.  Transport jump costs are the same as Heavy JS.  For the full list of Jump costs, please see the Economics section.

 

Jumpship Fleets:

Fleet Management Screen – Jumpships may be organized into Fleets to allow for easier management.  A JS Fleet moves together, recharges together.  Through your Fleet Management screen, Fleets may be created, deleted, moved or modified. Fleets may be made up of any combination of Jumpships (Transports included).

  • Units are taken from the individual JS in the Fleet to be dropped on planets.
  • Jump costs are determined by adding together the jump costs for each Jumpship in the Fleet. 
  • The Initial Jump Charge of the lowest Jumpship is applied to the entire Fleet. After their first jump together, they are all equal. 

 

Jump Restrictions:

See Dynamic Starmap for more information.

FRIENDLY PLANETS – A friendly planet is defined as one that you own or one that is owned by one of your allies. Jump movement both to and from a friendly planet has no restrictions. You may come and go whether the planet in question is under attack or not, locked or not. The planet owner or ally cannot unload Units once the lockdown period has expired but they can always go there.  All friendly planets within 60 LY may be jumped to. 

ENEMY PLANETS – An enemy planet is defined as one that is not friendly. Jump movement to an enemy planet will usually result in a battle.  If a battle has been initiated on a planet, enemy JS may still come and go through the system, but must jump out to a friendly planet.  Thus they may NOT continue deeper into enemy space, using a battle locked planet as a staging point. All enemy planet at 30 LY or less can be jumped to. If there are none within 30 LY the range is extended to find the closest one out to the full 60 LY. This is done for each enemy unit with planets within the 60 LY range. 

UNASSIGNED PLANETS – Unassigned planets are considered friendly to ALL units, with the exception that Units may never be offloaded to them.

SUBSECTORS - All planets in the Kerensky Cluster, Terra, Strana Mechty, all Inner Sphere and Periphery Capitals are split into a number of sub-sectors. Each of these sectors falls under normal planet rules throughout the league.  Jumpships may move between any of the the sub-sectors without cost or loss of charge. The movement of the Jumpships represents the use of Dropships to move around the surface of the planet.

INACTIVE AND VACANT UNIT PLANETS – Travel via planets of Inactive Units and Vacant Units are limited to a 15 LY range.

 

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