[LuaPineapple]

We've seen at least three of cases of mis-jumps in the show and it can be caused by something as unlucky as cosmic radiation flipping a single bit

Obviously Cylon computers are inferior to a Pentium I, seeing as the Pentium I had bit parity checking.

That said, it has been suggested that the cost for FTL travel is tied to the volume of space displaced, hence why the Galactica retracts its flight pods when possible. (i.e. Almost never, since **** always hits the fan in BSG.)

If this is true, why jump the volume of a Basestar, which is pretty big with all that empty space between the pointy bits, and then pay again for the volume of the raiders? It makes more sense to pay just for the cost of jumping the Basestar.
(Same idea as why you don't send each page as a separate envelope when you want to send someone a report.)

[MR_T3D]

they're frakking machines, efficiency matters a helluva lot more to them.
that and karaojorma.

We've seen at least three of cases of mis-jumps in the show and it can be caused by something as unlucky as cosmic radiation flipping a single bit

Obviously Cylon computers are inferior to a Pentium I, seeing as the Pentium I had bit parity checking.

That said, it has been suggested that the cost for FTL travel is tied to the volume of space displaced, hence why the Galactica retracts its flight pods when possible. (i.e. Almost never, since **** always hits the fan in BSG.)

If this is true, why jump the volume of a Basestar, which is pretty big with all that empty space between the pointy bits, and then pay again for the volume of the raiders? It makes more sense to pay just for the cost of jumping the Basestar.
(Same idea as why you don't send each page as a separate envelope when you want to send someone a report.)

cylons *are* a lot older than the P1...

[Rainman]

Speaking of jumping into reactors... there has been a really annoying question that i haven't understood and really bothers me when i think about it: Why not jump a raider/FTL capable missile right into galactica? Honestly this would piss me off if i saw it and the show would have ended half way through the miniseries but isn't it a logical weapon? I'm not even talking about kamikaze, just program an FTL to jump, tie a bomb to it, and go. Its an expensive weapon but so are nukes and all the money lost with downed raiders makes it worth it.
Same goes for the colonials. We saw how much damage a raptor jumping away about 20 meters from the hull did, why not program an autopilot to jump into a basestar/resurrection ship, then its a done deal? I feel like crap asking this question and i know it would ruin the show if implemented but is there any other reason not to do it?

[General Battuta]

It's probably difficult to program a jump with that degree of accuracy.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Not difficulty as more accurate jumps were shown.  Thing is there is no eveidence of damage being done when a ship jumps into a solid object.  Yea you end up with a solid object in your hull and a raider sized area would be useless but unless you hit a critical system that's it.  Also those accurate jumps always seemed to involve stationary objects not moving ones.  That might be where the real difficulty lies.  By the time you program the jump the target isn't there anymore and you need to reprogram resulting in an endless loop unless the target becomes stationary. 

[Ace]

On the subject of jumping into another object, RDM stated that what happens is similar to a transporter accident.

Of course in S3 and 4 there's the whole 'sucking into the FTL' effect, which seems to be what causes damage to Galactica when a ship jumps out.

For instance "sucking in the flames" makes sense with New Caprica if the air in an area around the ship was also teleported and the thunderclap is from the atmosphere filling in and its sonic boom. The 'spatial shearing' seen on Galactica when jumping out of a flight pod isn't really consistent with that.

So overall assuming an opposite of jumping out when jumping in:

The center of the jump into a solid object would be teleporting into it, so both would be fused. Right around that would be the shearing effect that would cause structural damage.

Overall, you don't jump into a ship as it's instant suicide, jumping nukes into a ship aren't all that effective as the nuke wouldn't work (even the fissile materials on an atomic level get fused with the structure of the ship), and what shearing effects occur are probably about as effective as a nuke detonation. (Galactica was pretty screwed and on her last legs at that time)

[NGTM-1R]

Speaking of jumping into reactors... there has been a really annoying question that i haven't understood and really bothers me when i think about it: Why not jump a raider/FTL capable missile right into galactica? Honestly this would piss me off if i saw it and the show would have ended half way through the miniseries but isn't it a logical weapon? I'm not even talking about kamikaze, just program an FTL to jump, tie a bomb to it, and go. Its an expensive weapon but so are nukes and all the money lost with downed raiders makes it worth it.
Same goes for the colonials. We saw how much damage a raptor jumping away about 20 meters from the hull did, why not program an autopilot to jump into a basestar/resurrection ship, then its a done deal? I feel like crap asking this question and i know it would ruin the show if implemented but is there any other reason not to do it?

Galactica is a moving, manuvering target. You'd have to be on the field observing it directly to even start on having that kind of accuracy. If you are, Galactica is either fighting you, which will ruin your accuracy because hey, you're getting shot and there's a lot of stuff going on (I'm not sure you'd be able to pinpoint the exact location of Galactica itself when it's behind one of its flak screens), or getting ready to jump away, which it can do faster since it's calculating a jump to a fixed point that doesn't demand pinpoint accuracy and you're calculating one to a moving point.

The situation with the RTF, were Galactica couldn't immediately jump away on completing calculations and had to stand guard while the civvies got out, was so abnormal that I don't think the Cylons ever realized pre-war they could use such a weapon successfully. After the colonies were gone, it seemed reasonable they could just mob a single Battlestar.

[Snagger]

It's probably difficult to program a jump with that degree of accuracy.

But the fleet manages to make enormous jumps without breaking formation or having collisions...

I had been thinking that the collision risk was the main reason for the raiders not jumping individually, with, perhaps, their basic biological brain being slightly less accurate than can be managed by the computers on the Fleet ships or by the base star hybrids.

[FraktuRe]

But each fleet ship is given specific coordinates from the galactica, so I guess they make damn sure of the positions

[Snagger]

Well, assuming the FTLs are 100% accurate, if every ship in the fleet is given the same single jump calculation from Galactica, they should reappear in their same relative positions.  But with hundreds of Cylons making their own calculations, the smallest variations would cause collisions regardless of the accuracy of the actual FTL engines.  But why not have a single hybrid make the calculation and pass the result to the raiders?

The only answer s because it's a great dramatic effect watching the swarm launch.

[Rainman]

True, there are a lot of good points being said over here. But the thing that's confusing me is that the idea of the FTL kind of changes warfare completely. The whole flak screen is pretty much useless if you can just jump past it. Also, you can probably build a pretty simple weapon that can be remotely controlled to jump into an enemy ship and literally obliterate it in no time. If you just strap an FTL onto a zeppelin-like ship carrying fuel or any other flammable/explosive material, then jump it into galactica, that's it, show's over. We know the colonial FTLs can jump a moving formation very far away with very good accuracy as was mentioned before, even when galactica jumps in late, it still comes in in perfect position. We also know that cylon FTLs are even better. So no matter how it's spun the cylons could easily just start jumping fighters into galactica and mess up the ship in no time. The number of fighters they lose due to the flak screen are huge, so why bother attacking like that? And these are the fighters here not specially designed vessels.

And also a point was mentioned about the flak screen distorting galactica's position- They lock it down with dradis not visually, and that's even more accurate and faster.

And when it comes to the suicide issue, they really don't need a pilot if they make a ship designed for this task, just a simple computer and remote controlling.

I think it's one of those things that come with making a show so complex, there are things that will always be unexplainable but if these are left alone and you concentrate on the important stuff, you realize how great of a story the show actually has.

[StarSlayer]

True, there are a lot of good points being said over here. But the thing that's confusing me is that the idea of the FTL kind of changes warfare completely. The whole flak screen is pretty much useless if you can just jump past it. Also, you can probably build a pretty simple weapon that can be remotely controlled to jump into an enemy ship and literally obliterate it in no time. If you just strap an FTL onto a zeppelin-like ship carrying fuel or any other flammable/explosive material, then jump it into galactica, that's it, show's over. We know the colonial FTLs can jump a moving formation very far away with very good accuracy as was mentioned before, even when galactica jumps in late, it still comes in in perfect position. We also know that cylon FTLs are even better. So no matter how it's spun the cylons could easily just start jumping fighters into galactica and mess up the ship in no time. The number of fighters they lose due to the flak screen are huge, so why bother attacking like that? And these are the fighters here not specially designed vessels.

And also a point was mentioned about the flak screen distorting galactica's position- They lock it down with dradis not visually, and that's even more accurate and faster.

And when it comes to the suicide issue, they really don't need a pilot if they make a ship designed for this task, just a simple computer and remote controlling.

I think it's one of those things that come with making a show so complex, there are things that will always be unexplainable but if these are left alone and you concentrate on the important stuff, you realize how great of a story the show actually has.

If your going to argue realism there would be no stealth, no human piloted fighters, battles would take place at a distances around 1 AU and generally be extremely lame.

[newman]

It's a sci fi show that has space fighters which utilize ww2 combat tactics and ranges. Try not to analyze it too much

[Scourge of Ages]

I've got it! Local FTL Damping!
All FTL-equipped ships generate a field around the actual drive, preventing any other drives from operating within the field. This field conveniently extends to just beyond the hull, and sometimes beyond (like to the inside perimeter of a flak screen). This prevents anybody from jumping right into it, and requires smaller FTL ships to vacate the vicinity before jumping.

Yes, that would work quite nicely. 

[newman]

Only certain scenes in "Daybreak" (s4) shoot that theory down.. Anyway, don't think about it too much

[Angelus]

Unlike Star Trek, BSG is hard to "analyze" as it doesn't have Techno babble ( thank god ).

But if i'd have to, i'd say it doesn't work because of T.S.S.S. 

[CooperHawkes]

TSSS  Turner Syndrome Support Society
TSSS     Top Secret Support System
TSSS     Tactical Simulator/Stimulator System
TSSS     Tannum Sands State School
TSSS     Trainer Stimulator Simulator System
TSSS     Tactical Software Support System
TSSS     Tactical SIGINT Support System

which one?

[Angelus]

The Script Said So