How big is the IS compared to the rest of the Galaxy?

[idea weenie]

Maybe we don't have enough terms for the variety of FTL types, and could go for more descriptive of their systems rather than just the in-universe name:

• FTL-hurdle (i.e. Babylon 5, Honorverse) - you have to use a special engine to get into the FTL 'realm', but after that can use regular engines to get around
• FTL-required (Star Wars, Star Trek) - your FTL engine has to be active the entire time, otherwise you drop out of FTL and back to realspace (with varying amount of damage that range from total destruction to someone hitting their head on a console

I'd tend to put Battletech's FTL system as the FTL-Required as the Jump Core has to be active the entire time, even if that time is very short

Here is the Atomic Rockets' page about different FTL types, specifically the Landis list.  (For those reading this post without being signed in, it is the "Faster than Light Starships 2" page)

[Retry]

It´s an engine. But is it a jump engine? It opens pathways. The regular maneuver drive of the ship then moves it through the pathway.

I don't think the regular maneuver drive is actually used during a jump, at least not by my reading of Strat Ops.  Think it's literally just a case of dematerialization and rematerialization a la teleporation; If it was a case of opening pathways and then using sublight maneuver drives to move into them, then the canonical incident during the 2777 Battle of Terra where the Mississippi Queen partially materialized in the Richardson wouldn't have been able to happen (The Mississippi Queen would instead rammed into the Richardson like a normal sublight crash, rather than straight up rematerializing in its place)

[elf25s]

just ask cray
he had few threads like this in almost a decade here and so far he is the only one that makes sense

but getting back to subject i recall that inner sphere and periphery is roughly 1000 to 1100 LY in breadth and lengh 
sarna agrees and so do other sites and before catalyst took over the previous bt board also agreed along with some usenet boards going back to mid 80s heck even yahoo geocities had their boards and pages in 1990s they all agree on this ...not sure about the creator of bt but i never saw him deny or agree on this fluff
now our galaxy is roughly 100k to 120k LY so what do you think the size of inner sphere is compared to the galaxy

[idea weenie]

just ask cray
he had few threads like this in almost a decade here and so far he is the only one that makes sense

but getting back to subject i recall that inner sphere and periphery is roughly 1000 to 1100 LY in breadth and lengh 
sarna agrees and so do other sites and before catalyst took over the previous bt board also agreed along with some usenet boards going back to mid 80s heck even yahoo geocities had their boards and pages in 1990s they all agree on this ...not sure about the creator of bt but i never saw him deny or agree on this fluff
now our galaxy is roughly 100k to 120k LY so what do you think the size of inner sphere is compared to the galaxy

Inner Sphere being ~1000ly wide and tall vs Milky Way galaxy at roughly 100k ly wide and tall?

Inner Sphere is 1% of the Galaxy's width and height, or a dot a hundredth of a percent the size of the Milky Way as seen from above the galactic plane.  So if you had a map of the Milky Way that was 1000 pixels wide and tall, then the Inner sphere would be a rough sphere 10 pixels wide and tall.

[ANS Kamas P81]

now our galaxy is roughly 100k to 120k LY so what do you think the size of inner sphere is compared to the galaxy

Assuming the Inner Sphere is just that, a sphere, then it'd be about as thick as the galaxy (1000 ly) while being 1/100 of the length and breadth of the galaxy.  So 1/10,000 of the galaxy as a whole.

Space is big.

[Sir Chaos]

Maybe we don't have enough terms for the variety of FTL types, and could go for more descriptive of their systems rather than just the in-universe name:

• FTL-hurdle (i.e. Babylon 5, Honorverse) - you have to use a special engine to get into the FTL 'realm', but after that can use regular engines to get around
• FTL-required (Star Wars, Star Trek) - your FTL engine has to be active the entire time, otherwise you drop out of FTL and back to realspace (with varying amount of damage that range from total destruction to someone hitting their head on a console

I'd tend to put Battletech's FTL system as the FTL-Required as the Jump Core has to be active the entire time, even if that time is very short

Here is the Atomic Rockets' page about different FTL types, specifically the Landis list.  (For those reading this post without being signed in, it is the "Faster than Light Starships 2" page)

I think you can divide both categories into two:

- Transit FTL-hurdle: A built-in device takes the ship to the FTL realm and back (Honorverse)
- Gateway FTL-hurdle: A device opens a gateway that allows any ship to enter/exit the FTL realm (Babylon 5)
- Traveling FTL-required: The device lets you traverse the distance from A to B at FTL speed (Star Trek, Star Wars)
- Jumping FTL-required: The device lets you go directly from A to B without traversing the distance between them (BT)

[ANS Kamas P81]

The Battlestar Galactica reboot series also had jump drives that functioned similar to Battletech's KF drive, with point to point teleportation and no travel in between.

[Sir Chaos]

The Battlestar Galactica reboot series also had jump drives that functioned similar to Battletech's KF drive, with point to point teleportation and no travel in between.

Yeah.

The Traveler jump drive is really an odd one in that system. It´s Jumping FTL-required, but the jump is not instananeous, and you´re in some sort of FTL realm in the meantime, and bad things happen if the jump drive fails before you arrive. But you don´t really interact with the FTL realm or navigate inside it, like you do with the FTL-hurdle drives.

In a way, it´s closer to Traveling FTL-required, except you have to travel all the way from A to B in one go, without the option to stop or change course, like with the Star Wars or Star Trek drives. Where you go is determined the moment you enter jump.

[tassa_kay]

Stars Without Number's FTL system, the spike drive, works a lot like that. The actual journey isn't instantaneous, with travel between star systems taking a number of days, but Bad Things can happen (up to and including emerging at a random star system with the drive and all systems destroyed) if you fail the drive activation. But during the actual travel time, you don't interact with the FTL realm, either, and you're locked into the course you set. It also takes quite a bit to set a course (30 minutes, unless you rush it, which increases the likelihood of a misjump).

[Prospernia]

. . .Bad Things can happen . . .

You don't have to tell that to the crew of the Event Horizon.

[Prospernia]

Also, everyone looks at FTL, from a human-perspective.  Space and time are perceptions and if you were an alien-being that could live for millions of years, or so, what's a few tens of thousands of years to slowly go to the next star-system?