Comparing speed and accel drives is a bit like comparing... oh, a container ship and a 747. They both have their merits, but they also have their drawbacks. The obvious drawback for speed drives is the mass limitation - bigger the ship, slower the speed no matter how big or how many engines it has. This limits speed drive to certain roles, mostly involving people or time-critical cargo from point A to point B in a hurry. Accel drives - torchships - don't have that mass limit, but their big drawback is that they have to pay closer attention to mundane physics than speed drive ships. That means they can't sprint, flying them is more complex and not as user-friendly, and they're on average a hell of a lot slower.
So why have a torchship instead of a speed drive in the first place? Well, why have container ships when you've got 747s? A torchship can carry as much cargo as it's got engines to push it (and fuel to push it with, something we should gloss over to the best of our abilities) and can still get there in a reasonable amount of time - days and weeks instead of hours and days, but still much better than the months and years necessary for hardtech Mundane spaceflight. Torchships would do their best jobs carrying bulk cargo - stuff from the Belt and the outer system to the terraforming projects, food and widgets from Earth and the cislunar colonies to the rest of the system, that sort of thing - and as cruise liners. These are the sorts of jobs where you *don't* need to have it there the next day, so a relatively sedate accel drive does the job just as well or even better.
Since most of our POV characters are small independent transports or layabout types, we don't have many torchships on the Registry as yet. (and the one we *do* have is MIA atm)
As for the Midnight... I admit that I'm not totally sold on the usefullness of an accel drive with her stated purpose as "speed, speed and more speed." The light engine I mentioned earlier in the thread might work as a substitute - it's a third way, not quite speed or accel - but... well, I'd rather hear blackaero's opinions first before I start beating that drum.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
So why have a torchship instead of a speed drive in the first place? Well, why have container ships when you've got 747s? A torchship can carry as much cargo as it's got engines to push it (and fuel to push it with, something we should gloss over to the best of our abilities) and can still get there in a reasonable amount of time - days and weeks instead of hours and days, but still much better than the months and years necessary for hardtech Mundane spaceflight. Torchships would do their best jobs carrying bulk cargo - stuff from the Belt and the outer system to the terraforming projects, food and widgets from Earth and the cislunar colonies to the rest of the system, that sort of thing - and as cruise liners. These are the sorts of jobs where you *don't* need to have it there the next day, so a relatively sedate accel drive does the job just as well or even better.
Since most of our POV characters are small independent transports or layabout types, we don't have many torchships on the Registry as yet. (and the one we *do* have is MIA atm)
As for the Midnight... I admit that I'm not totally sold on the usefullness of an accel drive with her stated purpose as "speed, speed and more speed." The light engine I mentioned earlier in the thread might work as a substitute - it's a third way, not quite speed or accel - but... well, I'd rather hear blackaero's opinions first before I start beating that drum.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"