[Black Wolf]

This is something I've never fully understood - Was the ancient subspace tracking technology neccesary to know where the lucifer was going to be in FS1, or was it more directly neccesary for the final encounter - ie. Without it we would not have been able to attack Lucy at all. I know that the Ancient revelation that "In subspace they cannot use their shields" would have been important, but was subspace tracking a requirement of subspace combat? It's for a bit of shivan related internal fiction I'm doing up for TI, so it's not amazingly important I know right away, but if you know, please post.

[Nico]

the way I understoof it, there's a lot of subspace levels, and the traclker allowed the GTA ships to jump in the one the lucifer was using. or something.

[karajorma]

I need to play FS1 again but I've always figured that they needed the tracking to figure out how the Lucifer was getting to Sol. Once they tracked it to DS the tracking wasn't needed any more.

That said it's been a while since I played FS1.

[Goober5000]

I have two theories on what sensors were like before subspace tracking.

1) Once a ship jumped into subspace, it vanished from sensors.  You had no idea where it went, and you had to start over scanning more or less the whole star system to reacquire long range sensor lock.

2) When in subspace, traditional sensors don't work correctly.  The last mission in FS1 would fly like everybody was in FS2 stealth mode.  This would obviously make aspect lock for the Harbingers impossible.

These two are not mutually exclusive, but I think the first one is more likely to be the governing factor.

[Blaise Russel]

These two are not mutually exclusive, but I think the first one is more likely to be the governing factor.

Indeed. Hence: "In subspace, they cannot use their shields. And into subspace, they can be tracked."

So, uh, yeah.

[TopAce]

I always thought it(subspace tracking) is for allowing ships to navigate and fire inside subspace.

[Hippo]

if you think of subspace nodes as blocks of swiss cheeze... (seriously) they both have many corrisponding holes, but somehow subspace keeps the two peices of cheeze spinning, so that subspace trackign allows the ship to figure out exactly what hole the first ship went through, and the subsace dives adjust for this opening...

can you tell im hungry?

[an0n]

No. The tracking works by keeping track of which subspace frequency the target ship is 'in'.

When ships enter subspace, they're oscillating at a certain frequency. Ships with different frequencies (through design or simply a lack of more precise engines) can't interact at all in subspace, they can't see each other or hit each other and what-not. The tracker allows you to match the targets frequency and follow it into the same 'level' of subspace.

Now, wether the frequencies differ from ship to ship or if all Terran ships have one, Vasudans another and Shivans a third is another matter entirely.

[SuperCoolAl]

Now, wether the frequencies differ from ship to ship or if all Terran ships have one, Vasudans another and Shivans a third is another matter entirely.

Hence the different coloured subspace entry portals!

Lucifer was in an 'nth dimensional tunnel', tracking allowed GTA\PVN ships to be in the same dimension (n) as lucy

[an0n]

Yeah, but there could also be variations from ship to ship. So if two Terran ships entered at the same time, minute imperfections in their drives might mean they'd be seperate in subspace.

[Hippo]

Originally posted by an0n
No. The tracking works by keeping track of which subspace frequency the target ship is 'in'.

When ships enter subspace, they're oscillating at a certain frequency. Ships with different frequencies (through design or simply a lack of more precise engines) can't interact at all in subspace, they can't see each other or hit each other and what-not. The tracker allows you to match the targets frequency and follow it into the same 'level' of subspace.

Now, wether the frequencies differ from ship to ship or if all Terran ships have one, Vasudans another and Shivans a third is another matter entirely.

Exactly! Each hole in the cheeze being another frequency that will still get to the same place.

[Setekh]

Originally posted by Venom
the way I understoof it, there's a lot of subspace levels, and the traclker allowed the GTA ships to jump in the one the lucifer was using. or something.

I thought this way too. If they didn't have tracking, the bombers would have jumped in after the Lucifer and turned up an empty subspace conduit - because they're in the wrong level.

[Ace]

Originally posted by Setekh


I thought this way too. If they didn't have tracking, the bombers would have jumped in after the Lucifer and turned up an empty subspace conduit - because they're in the wrong level.

Yup, what an0n said here is just what Venom stated, but with a little more detail.