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So as you might have guessed from reading the topic, why warp travel? Yes i know, warp travel is faster, but why? Is it the lack of physics? Does warp scale(1 meter in the warp is 10 in our dimension)? Does time work differently? And does warp travel contain any degree of consistency?
EDIT while typing it i notice how stupid the last question sounds, but it has to in some way because if it was compleatly random it would be pointless, if you had no idea whatsoever where you emerge.

Short answers:
1. Faster than normal travel
2. Skips large spaces of real space
3. Kind of sort of at times
4. Sometimes, though sometimes it travels faster or backwards or not at all
5. The only consistency in the warp is that it is inconsistent

Basically they weren't able to figure out FTL travel and use wormholes instead to slingshot past large areas of real space. Like folding a piece of paper in half and shoving a needle through it basically.

MrTau wrote:So as you might have guessed from reading the topic, why warp travel? Yes i know, warp travel is faster, but why?
Is it the lack of physics?

Because the Galaxy is so large you would need FTL travel to not use with the Warp, which the Imperium doesn't have nor does anyone but the Necrons. Humans/Orks/Chaos use the Warp, Eldar use the Webway, Tau use some sort of primitive short-range FTL or Lightspeed travel, Tyranids use this gravity thing.

Warp travel is faster then the means available to those who use it because of the incredible distances of space. It would take thousands upon thousands of years to even move relatively "short" distances in the Imperium if they used conventional means.

Does warp scale(1 meter in the warp is 10 in our dimension)?

I've never heard of this 1 meter = 10 meter scale. It goes against the nature of the Warp anyway, it's so consistent and measurable as to follow something as a determinable ratio.

It still would take quite some time to move from place to place if the ratio was that small anyway. I don't think you grasp just how large the galaxy is.

Does time work differently?

Yes. It can flow much faster: you'll go into the Warp expecting a 6 month expedition and come out and it's 600 years later in the materium. Time can also flow much slower: this is the case in the Eye of Terror for the most part (the 10,000 years since the Horus Heresy seems like centuries to many Chaos Space Marines). You can accidentally go back in time, as was the case with an Ork Warboss who emerged from the warp to the point where he was about to enter it, and killed his older self.

And does warp travel contain any degree of consistency?

Nope. The warp itself is a dimension of inconsistency and chaos.

Warp travel is unpredictable and dangerous, but it's the best method of travel the Imperium has. Without it, mankind would be doomed.

n0t_u wrote:Basically they weren't able to figure out FTL travel and use wormholes instead to slingshot past large areas of real space. Like folding a piece of paper in half and shoving a needle through it basically.

Hmmm.... I know this is how Star Trek FTL is supposed to work, but I didn't think WH40K 'warp' was the same. More like overlay dimension that you can hop across to, travel a bit, then hop back into realspace. Much more like the plane of shadows in DnD lore. Only totally chaotic!

And I also thought, the only reason Humanity used this method was because they are unable to use any other. I've never heard mention of wormholes in 40k lore (for humanity), nor space folding, mass effect drives or any other colourful FTL touted in other sci-fi's!

It's the double edged sword that the only way to maintain the empire is to put it in danger! No safe FTL for us!

They create their own with the warp drive. Then create a small bubble around their ships in order to try to protect themselves from the effects of the warp. It's just the way I visualise how they travel, as the warp is often called inconsistent so there is no real set distance or size in it, only in real space. Various stories also mention warp travel being similar travelling in a tunnel.

Ah yes, the Gellar fields!

It makes me think, with worlds close to demon hotspots, how hard would it be to create a planet sized gellar field to stop any demonic incursions?

Actually, scratch that. Nothing is invented in the 40k universe, new tech is either jury-rigged existing tech or its dug out the ground!

The Tau do shallow warp jumps. I'm not exactly sure what they mean by that, but their FTL capability does depend on the Warp, they just don't make full use of it like the Imperium. End result is that their jumps are slower, shorter, and they have to make more of them. Plus side is that it's safer.

It's a literary decision, acknowledging the need for interplanetary travel to make the setting work, whilst avoiding the kind of meaningless technobabble which belitters most science fiction, and further distancing Warhammer 40,000 from generic sci-fi settings like Star Trek. In common with much of Warhammer 40,000's early background, it's a meshing of concepts borrowed from Frank Herbert and Michael Moorcock.

daveNYC wrote:The Tau do shallow warp jumps. I'm not exactly sure what they mean by that, but their FTL capability does depend on the Warp, they just don't make full use of it like the Imperium. End result is that their jumps are slower, shorter, and they have to make more of them. Plus side is that it's safer.

Presumably it means they stay in the warp for less time, and venture into it less (as the Warp is more properly an alternate universe than it is anything else) than other's races' ships would do. It would lessen the risks, but also shorten the distance travelled.

the Warp is an alternate, but paralell, dimension.


Warp Travel works by opening a cross dimensional gate and entering the Warp. then, after the navigator guides the ship to the exit place, they will exit at their destination.

According to Lexicanium(generial repository on all official 40k fluff) the average day in the warp is around 3 days outside. with the potential for variation in areas of turbulance. Time can even flow backwards in some cases.



Warp Travel has some major advantages over other FTL methods.

1: There is usually not a problem with the time distortion. a ship traveling at Light Speed will experience time going at a very slow rate compared to the rest of the galaxy. with the Warp you won't have this issue, usually...

2: The Technology for FTL by means of a hyperdrive like in star wars or something is beyond the ability of Humans and Eldar, and any of our current 21st century calcualtions(its impossable for Matter to move at or beyond the speed of light) Only the Necrons have managed any kind of FTL travel within the physical universe, and we arn't sure exactly told it works. it could be some sort of wormhole travel.

3: One issue to consider is fuel. any kind of engine accelerating large objects to Light speeds and beyond is going to take massive amounts of energy. Warp Travel, presumably, uses less fuel because you maintain more natural speeds. Speed doesn't really exist in the warp so that isn't a factor we can even begin to measure.

Harriticus wrote:

Does warp scale(1 meter in the warp is 10 in our dimension)?

I've never heard of this 1 meter = 10 meter scale. It goes against the nature of the Warp anyway, it's so consistent and measurable as to follow something as a determinable ratio.

It still would take quite some time to move from place to place if the ratio was that small anyway. I don't think you grasp how large the galaxy is

Just to clarify, i didnt mean that the warp would scale that perfectly i wonderd if there would be that kind of effect at all. And 10 times faster is still something, right? Anyways i liked the rest of the post just so you know, that im not negative.

n0t_u wrote:Like folding a piece of paper in half and shoving a needle through it basically.

I see what you did there

MrTau wrote:So as you might have guessed from reading the topic, why warp travel? Yes i know, warp travel is faster, but why? Is it the lack of physics? Does warp scale(1 meter in the warp is 10 in our dimension)? Does time work differently? And does warp travel contain any degree of consistency?

Because it's faster.

It's faster because the Warp doesn't obey the laws of physics.

No.

Oh yes.

No. The warp is hilariously inconsistent.

It's due to timey-wimey sort of things.

Necrons like Spacey/wasey ones instead

Dr Who FTW

Yes, the warp is incredibly inconsistent - it's an endless ocean of emotion-energy that's constantly swirling and flowing in ways that humans can't comprehend. Like other posters said, you could easily enter the warp and end up having traveled back in time or randomly in space once you come back out.

The only way it works, for humans at least, is Navigators. Mutants that appeared tens of thousands of years ago and made warp travel possible. They can "see" the warp through their third eye and comprehend its dynamics. This makes it possible for Navigators to steer a ship through the warp, following currents and avoiding storms and daemon-monsters, to get to their destination as quickly and safely as possible, rather than coming out of the warp randomly in time and space.

GW has never tried to explain how warp travel works, from a science perspective. It just does.

I'm not sure that there can be a scientific explanation of a technological event that requires the use of what is basically magic in order to function.

Psienesis wrote:I'm not sure that there can be a scientific explanation of a technological event that requires the use of what is basically magic in order to function.

You could come up with a quasi-scientific one.

For example, in Star Trek, they travel by warping space around the ship. It basically compresses space in front of the ship and stretches space out behind the ship, letting them effectively cover more distance while not breaking the speed of light. It's a sound scientific concept, we just have no clue how to go about making it happen. (This would work in real life, but you'd need the device already in place along the way. It'd look more like the things in Mass Effect, where it's not coming from the ship, but from an external device.)

GW could have done the same thing with warp travel. They've chosen not to, most likely because they don't want to get bogged down in nerds picking apart their explanation. I find it rather fitting, personally, as it matches with the whole grimness of the Imperium having advanced technology, but no idea how any of it works.

Cool!