# Idea for classifying FTL
**URL:** https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/idea-for-classifying-ftl/7778
**Category:** Space Stage
**Created:** [October 11, 2024, 3:15pm UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/idea-for-classifying-ftl/7778 "2024-10-11T15:15:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BurgeonBlas](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/BurgeonBlas)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2024, 3:15pm UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/idea-for-classifying-ftl/7778/1 "2024-10-11T15:15:45Z")
I have an idea on how FTL travel could work in Thrive:
FTL would be divided into four grades: Train, Plane, Cannon, and Carpet
Train grade would be FTL methods that require a start and end station and a direct connection between them (i.e. wormholes). This would be the first FTL method unlocked, and would not allow for FTL exploration
Plane grade would be FTL methods that require a start and end station, but can function without direct connections. This would allow FTL planes to travel between any two stations, but would not permit FTL exploration. It would be unlocked after train grade FTL
Cannon grade would be FTL methods that require a start station but no end station, allowing the FTL cannon to travel anywhere even if it is unexplored. This would allow for exploration to happen FTL. It would be unlocked after plane grade FTL
Carpet grade would be FTL methods that only require a ship, with no stations needing to be involved. It would be unlocked after cannon grade FTL
This system would allow for quick interstellar communication earlier into the game without making STL travel go obsolete so quickly, and it seems to make sense as a technological progression
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### Author:  [@Deus](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Deus)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2024, 5:52pm UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/idea-for-classifying-ftl/7778/2 "2024-10-11T17:52:19Z")
Too soon to really say anything about how the space stage will work, but that is an interesting way of setting up progression for a futuristic tech we’re not sure of.
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### Author:  [@tabat](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/tabat)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2024, 7:22am UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/idea-for-classifying-ftl/7778/3 "2024-10-12T07:22:50Z")
My idea for FTL in space stage was little similar, but it’s more of a hybrid between player choice (like in stellaris in older versions the player could choose between wormholes/warp/hyperspace travel)/and the technology development of your civilisation.
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### Author:  [@Deathwake](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Deathwake)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2024, 7:28am UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/idea-for-classifying-ftl/7778/4 "2024-10-12T07:28:37Z")
Definitely we need a no-ftl option
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### Author:  [@aah31415](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/aah31415)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2024, 8:54am UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/idea-for-classifying-ftl/7778/5 "2024-10-12T08:54:41Z")
Perhaps we could merge that and non-lawk to form some sort of a “speculatory option”?
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### Author:  [@hhyyrylainen](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/hhyyrylainen)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2024, 5:44pm UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/idea-for-classifying-ftl/7778/6 "2024-10-12T17:44:59Z")
I’m not a fan because while LAWK is the intended way to play the game, non-scifi tech would mean not being able to reach the intended end of the game.
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### Author:  [@Oncpapa](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Oncpapa)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2024, 6:28pm UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/idea-for-classifying-ftl/7778/7 "2024-10-12T18:28:52Z")
Maybe a seperate Technology As We Know It (TAWK) button would be appropriate for the later stages then? It toggled off might also allow some sci-fi tropes like plasma weapons or teleporters which are inaffective or impossible irl.
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### Author:  [@50gens](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/50gens)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2024, 7:13pm UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/idea-for-classifying-ftl/7778/8 "2024-10-12T19:13:15Z")
Future technology is, by definition, non tawk, technology as we don’t know it. If it contradicts science that we are aware of right now, it would be magic. We can’t rule out that ftl can exist in the future.
I don’t get why ftl is classified into 4 types. The first two and the last two would be the same type. If you need to build a stargate versus you can carry a stargate in your spaceship but need another gate to dial, there are no technologic differences between those two.
There would be two types of ftl, one that lets you travel in space in ftl and one that only lets you ftl to locations that you’ve previously discovered in stl. But there is a problem.
If you don’t have ftl the full package, how are we suppose to have space stage as we know it from every space sci fi that is fun to watch?
The milky way is 87 thousand lightyears across, right? That is a too long of a timespan for a civilisation. You couldn’t meet with aliens and have civilisations rising and falling that expanded across the galaxy. Pre ftl exploration should last for about a hundred years and we should mostly find desert planets, alongside signs of past alien life and interceipted ftl communications of current aliens. New civilisations should constantly emerge and old ones should ascend and dissapear.
It should be chaotic and non scripted. No civilisation should wipe out all the others because others should be able to ally each other and resist, and they shouldn’t keep you uninformed like a zoo hypothesis. There should sometimes be alien invasions and sometimes it should be silent, depending on game difficulty, and if there is an invasion it should be beatable. Home systems should have an asymmetric advantage. Maybe ftl is dangerous and 20% of the time the spaceships are destroyed, even after all the upgrades, therefore they would have weak supply lines even though you can gather resources on your own system without any problem?
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### Author:  [@aah31415](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/aah31415)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2024, 9:56am UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/idea-for-classifying-ftl/7778/9 "2024-10-13T09:56:46Z")
> [@50gens](#):
>
> Future technology is, by definition, non tawk, technology as we don’t know it. If it contradicts science that we are aware of right now, it would be magic. We can’t rule out that ftl can exist in the future.
So maybe instead something like “Plausible Future Technology” and “Sci-fi Future Technology” Divide?
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### Author:  [@50gens](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/50gens)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2024, 2:06pm UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/idea-for-classifying-ftl/7778/10 "2024-10-13T14:06:33Z")
Plausible according to whom? Didn’t Arthur C. Clarke said technology is indistinguishable from magic? If a society stage civ has anti gravity flying cars, it would be magic. As in literal sense. But if a late space stage has it, we can’t say if its plausible or made up. Because we don’t know it yet. We can only judge its internal consistency.
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### Author:  [@Deathwake](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Deathwake)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2024, 11:43pm UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/idea-for-classifying-ftl/7778/11 "2024-10-13T23:43:17Z")
That
> [@50gens](#):
>
> didn’t Arthur C. Clarke said technology is indistinguishable from magic?
Technology too advanced for you to understand. If it’s explained to you, it isn’t like magic. Additionally, in a story, sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology. That saying isn’t something you want to be basing your argument on.
> [@50gens](#):
>
> But if a late space stage has it, we can’t say if its plausible or made up.
If the cars are lifted by, say, ionic propulsion, the only nonsense magic part is the power source, if they are lifted by literal unexplained anti-gravity, it is made up. We can say that. It’s not that hard. If the questions we can’t answer are things like “What on earth is going to power this this? Only anti-matter could pull it off and that’s not safe to put in your car” then I call it plausible. If the questions we can’t answer are things like “That makes no sense under general relativity.” or “I think time travel violates causality but there’s literally no way of knowing right now.” than it’s sci-fi tech. In between there’s “I think we need a theory of quantum gravity to talk about this.” In between is the idea that the cars are lifted by negative mass. It might be possible, but it creates a lot of weird problems.
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### Author:  [@aah31415](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/aah31415)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2024, 7:38am UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/idea-for-classifying-ftl/7778/12 "2024-10-14T07:38:15Z")
As hhyyrylainen mentioned, the ascension gate is a sci-fi tech piece needed for finishing the game. I think we would need to make an exception for it.
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### Author:  [@Deathwake](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Deathwake)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2024, 7:53pm UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/idea-for-classifying-ftl/7778/13 "2024-10-14T19:53:00Z")
Yep yep, it’s a bit required.
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### Author:  [@aah31415](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/aah31415)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2024, 7:01am UTC](https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/idea-for-classifying-ftl/7778/14 "2024-10-15T07:01:05Z")
Maybe when you become asceded you will be able to give sci-fi tech to civilization on plausible tech setting?