On Fri, Jul 28, 2017 at 09:04:19PM -0400, Jeff Zeitlin wrote:
> Now, The Question: What are the political and economic ramifications
> of this drive vs. the standard drive?

The first one is that this seems another example of "jump drives are
cheaper", indirectly.  A J1M6 ship will be much cheaper and will have
the same range and speed (as well as very much more cargo room)
compared with a standard rules J6 ship.  If the fuel requirements are
otherwise the same as standard, there seems to be no reason to ever
use a greater drive than J1.  Just carry more fuel tanks and hop back
into jumpspace for another week.

The next consequence seems to be that you get to choose how long to
spend in unspace, up to your drive's maximum.  If you can choose to
stay for only seconds to hours instead of days, you get virtually
instantaneous in-system travel (outside 100D limits).  The only cost
is some hydrogen, the most common substance in the universe.  This may
also have tactical combat implications.

A third is that some design systems permit accelerations greater than
M6.  Normally that doesn't matter since the implications don't matter
that much.  Under these rules such accelerations would translate
directly into jump speeds greater than 6 parsecs per week.  That would
have more long-range implications.  I'm not sure what base system
you're assuming, so I don't know whether this is relevant or not.

- Tim