[gunslinger6792]

So I've been wondering how exactly do jump nodes work? Obviously the ships seem to have some sort of limited FTL drive but why do capital ships require jump nodes for longer distance travel?

[Sololop]

I find Freespace subspace theory to be quite interesting. You can read up on it on the wiki, posted below.

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Subspace

[Kie99]

Short answer ships can go FTL within a star system using subspace because of the star's gravity field, to go FTL outside of that they need nodes.

[gunslinger6792]

Thank you both for the information it makes things a bit more clear.