You're fighting in B-8. Your ship is taking damage because you're fighting Eldrad. That's also the reason why you can't @#@$@!!!! hit him. Next thing you know, your ship explodes. You're back in your home station in another system.

I'd like to hear OOC perspectives of how they see the eject and recovery systems. I personally think of it as my character is paying top dollar for the best eject and recovery system, which includes a wormhole and intrasystem jump iniator with a simple navcomp. And it has only one destination: home.

Any other opinions? I like this but it doesn't fully sit well with me.

..I think TPG finally slipped up when they debuted the Raptor without a viewport... those cockpits are just for show!! all fighters are remote-piloted via early 21st century computer technology :@ (think about it...)

That doesn't make sense given you can rehome anywhere.

Hrm.

1. Cloning. When you die your body is cloned at the last station you were in. PROBLEMS: How come the Itani Military doesn't make 10 million Chuck Norris clones and obliterate the Serco empire? (I know, I know, it would only take one, but I digress...) This explanation seems implausible to me unless you implement some kind of metaphysical "spirit" thing, like a clone can only be useful if it's "imbued" with a soul. I don't like explanation #1.

2. Virtual presence. Like thurisaz said, you're not really *in* the ship, you are mentally controlling it. (But mouser has a point - how come you have to TRAVEL with your ship-avatar to another place before you can re-home there?)
I like this explanation, since it goes along with the basic premise of the game: Your ship is your Avatar. However, why can't we just suddenly choose to respawn in Divinia when we died in Ukari? Perhaps invoking some kind of "your vital stats are transmitted at lightspeed", so you can respawn in Divinia if you're willing to wait the 376 years it would take light to travel that distance. Which is why you can respawn relatively quickly in the system you died in. BUT, I don't know how to get around the whole "Last homed in Bractus but I died in Dau" thing.

3. Warpout Ejection System. Upon hull decompression, you're "teleported" via some kind of personal warp ejection system safely back to the last station you were in. This makes the most sense, but - how come we can't just build a bigger one of these things and warp from Eo to Odia? So this one is implausible as well.

I'd say that something like #2 is pretty easy to "suspend disbelief" on, as long as we make it so that whichever system you die in, That's where you have to respawn.
What if you die in a system that has no stations or factions friendly to you, you say?
Well, then, you have to wait a few minutes of realtime while your "signal" makes its way back to the nearest friendly station.

That seems kinda stupid, tho. No one will wait 5 minutes to respawn.

What about: the same system that allows intergalactic communication also allows your signal to piggyback back to your "home" station? One can only assume that there are beacons in every sector of known space with special beacons at WHs that allow instantaneous communication over channel 100 and such. Let's just say your "signal" is transmitted over those.

However then I don't see how to avoid the electronic transfer of home stations to any station you please to have. Perhaps it's just galactic law or somesuch. I dunno.

On cloning, I see it as there being laws restricting cloning and protecting the rights of clones so that any "lawful" agency doesn't create massive cloned armies. Though that doesn't make it so it -can't- be done, just less favorable in the public eye.

I think your body doesn't travel in ship. So, we have our "homing station paradox".

1. You never leave your initial station (or your home planet). But how come you have to TRAVEL with your ship-avatar to another place before you can re-home there (as Leebs asked)? Maybe setting home station involves data exchanging between your ship's comp and station server. Or maybe it's just UI bug and it will be fixed soon(tm)

2. Maybe there is another transporting system between stations? That means you can instantly teleport to another station (via some kind of teleporter cabins). So setting home station means that your ship comp asks destination station's server to enable teleportation of your body from one station to another.

3. Ships ARE REALLY remote-piloted via early 21st century computers (as thurisaz mentioned). Itanies, Sercos and UITs don't waste their pilots, but use US!!! Guild Software servers don't emulate the game universe, they just receive and transfer data to the future (or to the parallel Universe). Devs try to hide that fact and that's why they don't answer "the death quetion" and that's why they preventing us from setting our home station anywhere.

Oh, BTW, in the final briefing of Perimeter you are actually been informed that you were used that way. Though in English version this explanation is not included (damn Codemasters cut 1/2 of Perimeter scenario)

PS. Traditional note: Sorry for my poor English :)

The problem is for those of us who walk around in bars and stuff? How do you explain that away? I may be sitting in say Latos but I'm in the Makchuga?

That's why I like the escape pod theory.

And stop reading Ender's game and Ender's Shadow >_>

I've always RPed that it's teleportation, it's the only thing that would make sense based on how fast it happens. Once your ship reads that your ship is getting close to being unable too sustain life it pulls you out.

maybe it's teleportation. Works for me... Think of it as a 'quantum presence', that upon distruction is forced back to the last point of 'sync/certification' (ie homing). Your in the ship, but a quantum copy is linked at your last station.
The rubberband breaks and snaps to the far end (and just hope the station don't blow up).

To be depressingly honest, I've never really bothered to think about it, or for that fact cared.

You "die."
a few seconds later...
You're back rockin' in the free world!

I like the teleportation idea now. I guess it could be amended so that if your ship gets destroyed in your home system, it's station policy to not waste energy and for you to use an escape pod.

Quantum entanglement allows instant communication across any distance. However, a quantum entangled particle pair must be derived from a single source, and that pair can only communicate with each other. For the pair to be used for communicating over a distance, they must be taken from their single source and moved that distance. In the case of teleremote vehicles, one entagled particle of the pair is retained at the control station, while the other entagled particle is retained in the vehicle....

If the technology is available to teleport a person from one corner of the galaxy to another nearley instantaniously then why is there still a need for cargo ships?! And don't try to say expense, the speed of teleporting along with the decrease in risk to the cargo far outweigh the cost of power especially since a FREE battery can generate power indefinatley. Even if it would take a few thousand of them it would still cost very little as extra room is one thing space has no shortage of.

The cloneing idea works fine for the Serco and probably the UIT but not the Itani.

Flying remotley is plausible if it is required that you need to be physically present at the time of ship purchase, you have the option of actually flying the ship or just sitting at an interface. This also takes care of why some players have fps issues and some don't.

The escape pod idea sounds good for a few seconds untill you realize that your escape pod is faster than your ship. If thats the case then why aren't there people out there reprograming escape pods to carry a tac nuke to a target instantly.

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth... Remote link wins.

Easy people still use ships because we still can not teleport large masses and bacause not every one has the tech for T-porters so we still need a way of getting stuff out there.

From what others are saying, it seems that teleportation through quantum entaglement fits best, for it explains why we need to home, why respawning takes so little time, and why only we can be teleported. mcduff, the cargo can only be teleported to where it has been, which means that we'd have to take the cargo their before it could be teleportedm, and that would be pointless. TRS, I wonder if would be easier to entagle particles in 4432, which is when the game is set.

Yes I never really thought about how it worked but if I did quantum entaglement would work best with what we have been given.

lol.

Remote link fails to explain why we need to rehome, too. Yeah, I think quantum teleport wins.

So, henceforth, any mentions of clones and/or escapepods in an RP yarn are grounds for mocking and being pointed at while laughing! :P

While I'm laughing? Or while you're laughing?

edit: damn trial accounts

Ecka's string theory;

When you leave your home station someone ties a very long bit of string to the back of your escape pod . When you die you give a tug on the string , and someone at your home station reels you in........

With apologies to any science students out there ......