Yeah, the things we see on screen pretty much demand that warp drive is actually slower and slower the closer you get to a star. Even to the point of no longer being FTL.
I forget who it was, but a number of years ago on this board someone made the analogy with the wet navy suggesting that warp engines essentially had two modes, a "blue water" mode for very fast deep space movement and a "brown water" mode for inner system travel like how modern ships have different capabilities depending on if they are in open sea or traveling rivers. The idea seems to (ahem) *hold water* for me. (sorry I couldn't resist)
These two modes aren't nessecerily operating differently (though they could be) but more are likely just made less efficient due to the surrounding stellar environment, be that gravity or some other feature. So, your engine is working the same way and using the same energy at any given warp factor, but the resulting absolute speed is far less within that environment.
--Alex
I forget who it was, but a number of years ago on this board someone made the analogy with the wet navy suggesting that warp engines essentially had two modes, a "blue water" mode for very fast deep space movement and a "brown water" mode for inner system travel like how modern ships have different capabilities depending on if they are in open sea or traveling rivers. The idea seems to (ahem) *hold water* for me. (sorry I couldn't resist)
These two modes aren't nessecerily operating differently (though they could be) but more are likely just made less efficient due to the surrounding stellar environment, be that gravity or some other feature. So, your engine is working the same way and using the same energy at any given warp factor, but the resulting absolute speed is far less within that environment.
--Alex
