If we were to discover a magnetic monopole substance...

Man, you could easily do FTL with any number of forms of exotic matter.

The problem is that exotic matter is physics shorthand for "Shit that doesn't exist". Just pick on and roll with it for your game.

FTL = Time Travel.

Everything = time travel.

WUUU-

look at these faggots. speculative science is very much Veeky Forums.

user, close your eyes.
It's the future.

No, tachyons are just exotic matter bullshittery.

A magnetic monopole would be a theoretical atomic construct wherein there is less negative/positive matter present as a whole.

for example, while protons are technically a monopole, they are balanced out by electrons, and decay when they do not have them.

Basically, we have to find something that has an influence on the electromagnetic spectrum without having some particle which counters it.

I mean, if we had protons and no electrons, we would already have a magnetic monopole. the issue is getting rid of those pesky as fuck electrons which are literally maybe everywhere.

Again, this is theoretically possible with higher order quark structures, which would be imbalanced even with an electron.

the issue is, once you have your troll physics magnet spaceship, how fast can that shit go?

And thinking about it, I may have answered my own question. the electromagnetic effect only travels at the speed of light, as with any other information,

so basically we could have really fucking effective STL spaceships, but never FTL.

well, really effective until you collide with one random atom in space which obliterates your entire ship with it in a nuclear explosion.

Protons don't decay, at least not on a reasonable timescale or because they don't have electrons.

North Pole magnets with no South Pole do not allow you to go faster than light. They aren't even related phenomena, except that magnetic monopoles look kind of like tachyons.

>I mean, if we had protons and no electrons, we would already have a magnetic monopole
If they were magnetic charges, then we'd already have magnetic monopoles. For something to be a magnetic monopole, you would need it to emit a magnetic field the same way an electron or proton emits an electric field.

Also, with no negative mass or space manipulation, physical things are still limited by the speed of light.

You could start to produce Magmatter with it

orionsarm.com/eg-article/48630634d2591

and with that a Conversion Drive can be used:

orionsarm.com/eg-article/46411e9d02b29

but no FTL.

Shit like this is why I don't run space games, I can't explain the science behind it, and someone always asks.

my favorite FTL is an inertialess drive in from an empty black box that works as long as you don't look inside it, with the design famously delivered by a time traveler that nobody has seen since. If a player asks about it then their character is free to get inside of the box during a jump and vanish forever.

>those proton eaters would be hunted like wales for their monopoles
That sounds like a reasonable idea, except for that they are intelligent, can FTL jump and fire ion cannons as functions of their "biology", control the entire galaxy, and murder squishy-meat-based civilizations as a matter of course.

Whaling as an industry functioned because most whales eat things much smaller than themselves, can barely hurt a ship, have to surface for air, and didn't really understand why the thing chasing them had infinite stamina. The eaters-of-cold-protons are far less placid.

larping as armchair physicists is Veeky Forums

Exactly. How, exactly, are you going to hunt these things? Your tech level is "space shuttle with a FTL drive bolted on". Their tech level is "unknown but significantly higher".

Besides, the monopoles aren't stable. That's why you need the giant cyclotron bit. You can't kill it and pluck the monopole out. The monopole is generated.

Space shuttles with FTL drives bolted on at the disposal of a human and human-AI faction with interstellar is a horrific prospect on its own, and the way the story is set up the Eaters don't seem engineering focused, more naturally spacefaring. Also, blowing up worlds as a matter of course doesn't hold much water when two out of three species can either talk them out of it or intercept their shot. And ultimately, humans can stay in jumpspace, and start making AI that can do the same, no matter how 'creepy' it gets, and pretty quick is becomes an arms race the Proton Eaters already demonstrated their anxiety over. Their planet killer was insufficient, and you don't fire a planet killer covered with a insult to a species culture if you don't think it might miss.

Those Proton Eaters aren't ready to fight a hyperspace war, its beyond their capacity, and they missed their shot.

>the way the story is set up the Eaters don't seem engineering focused, more naturally spacefaring.
You ever hear the story of the blind men and the elephant?

>lso, blowing up worlds as a matter of course doesn't hold much water when two out of three species can either talk them out of it or intercept their shot.
It would have worked perfectly. They didn't count on humans being stupid enough to not see through the bug's lies and motivations.

> and pretty quick is becomes an arms race
Probably, but they have a million year head start. They don't have to worry about biology or politics or slowing down, or at least, not the way we do. What's the plan? How do we catch up quickly?

The Bugs will kickstart us, but only for their own ends. And we know it. And they know we know.

>Their planet killer was insufficient, and you don't fire a planet killer covered with a insult to a species culture if you don't think it might miss.
Look at you, thinking like a human. Who knows if those were insults? Who knows what the end goal is? Maybe this was a test. Maybe they'll just keep throwing rocks.

>Those Proton Eaters aren't ready to fight a hyperspace war
This being is like a thick hairy snake.

>You ever hear the story of the blind men and the elephant?
>This being is like a thick hairy snake.
You say it like its not mutual in the story. The Proton Eaters were taking potshots at earth years after terran FTL, as if a giant obsidian bullet to the homeworld would suffice to kill the human in the solar system, let alone the colonies.

Sure they could be pulling a Q-continuum sort of gambit, sure these could be cleverly designed drones of a type three civilization galactic, but they go around slaving wildlife to farm their protons, so probably not. Throwing more stones is just a recipe for escalation, and an underwhelming one at that going by prior results.

I admit its a leap to call the transcription an insult, but thats not the point. You don't take half measures with existential treats. If you are going to try to obliterate a species in an overt act of aggression, or something that very much resembles one, you don't give them a chance to fire back. If the Proton Eaters could do better the should have, if that's not their nature they're psychologically disadvantaged against terran life.

Ultimately its less of a hard scifi setting than it proposes to be because humans aren't already going full gamebreaker with jump space. When the core inhibitor on terran sourced FTL von Neumann swarms seems to be human (DM) squeamishness at the prospect an external, advanced threat can't count on a tech lead.

Give the Bugs and Humans those hundred years and the Proton Eaters will have TITANs breathing down their non-existent necks, because apparently all that stood between humanity and that prior to the encounter was impetus.

Really motherfucker? Really?

I wrote the story. I ran the game. I wrote the system that allowed that to happen and you want to argue with me?

>The Proton Eaters were taking potshots at earth years after terran FTL
Now see, I don't remember that bit at all and you think I would, because I FUCKING WROTE IT

First contact with the Bugs and the Eaters of Cold Protons was via the PCs. The "potshots" detected were way the fuck elsewhere, centuries or millennia ago. Some other civilization got blow away and we just heard the gunshot in the darkness.

>as if a giant obsidian bullet to the homeworld would suffice to kill the human in the solar system, let alone the colonies.
Yeah, right, because you can pull finished plastic goods out of your ass on a colony world, right? EVERYTHING depends on Earth. If Earth goes, the colonies have [life support] days left. They might be able to mine ice or water for air and food and "the Martian" some food but then what? Mount a resistance via ships with no spare parts? Run a research program? This isn't Star Trek. Space is hostile to human life everywhere you go.

>Q-continuum sort of gambit
These things are smarter than TV science fiction writers, user. Hell, I'm smarter, because I don't have to write "good stories" that fit how our brains want stories to go, to sell ratings.

>Throwing more stones is just a recipe for escalation
Yeah, are you scared of all the flies you've swatted? Flies are going to get organized any day now.

>You don't take half measures with existential treats.
I love existential treats. I buy them from the Ice-Nine van every time it rolls around our city.

A giant near-c missile is not a half measure. It is a final solution, only dodged because humans are stupid and easily tricked by and desperate. And even then, it's just an opening salvo. Miss the hornet and it stings you. You won't die. And humans are no hornets.

>If the Proton Eaters could do better the should have
Resource allocation. Finish the job with the minimum effort and leave.

>Ultimately its less of a hard scifi setting than it proposes to be because humans aren't already going full gamebreaker with jump space.

So the logic is "FTL travel = instant type II-ish civ"? Unpack that suitcase of shit a little more for me, because I ain't seeing it. How much does the game change if we get FTL tech tomorrow?

>. When the core inhibitor on terran sourced FTL von Neumann swarms seems to be human (DM) squeamishness at the prospect an external, advanced threat can't count on a tech lead.
I too can use buzzwords. Now, what exactly are you trying to say here?

Could we build a von Neumann bot tomorrow?

>How much does the game change if we get FTL tech tomorrow?

For FTL to be possible, at least one of our core assumptions about physics needs to be wrong.

The consequences of any hypothetical FTL technology depend on exactly WHICH Law of Physics we toss in the garbage in order to make it possible.

what does a tachyon look like then???

given energy efficient FTL we could start on Von Neumann probes immediately, replicating, arming, and jumping across the galaxy.

Specifically, if a form of matter has negative energy density. Or hell, if gravitational and inertial mass were to be found to differ in the slightest in any material.

We would never found out you idiot, oil is making our masters too much money :)

any significant mass at the speed of light would flood its destination with radiation