Galactic Travel Calculations!

[Qweesdy]

I started thinking about having a station near a wormhole on the edge of one galaxy, with another station near a wormhole on the closest edge of the next galaxy; with warp gates between the stations so that people can move relatively quickly to the next galaxy. With this in mind, I did some calculations...

I started by measuring the distance from the edge of one galaxy to the nearest edge of its neighbouring galaxy. This is approximately 84 systems, or 1344 sectors.

Warp gates need to be less than 128 sectors apart. This means you'd need a minimum of 11 "gaps" between stations and a series of 12 stations to cross the distance between galaxies. The stations would be about 1031 sectors apart (if evenly spaced).

For the 10 stations in the middle of the chain you need a pair of warp gates (one for "next station" and one for "previous station"). This gives a total of 22 individual warp gates that would need to be built.

To build the stations, you'd need to get to the building site first. At 1031 sectors between stations (and 8 sectors per jump) you'd need 129 jumps with your jump drive. Assuming you can do one jump every 30 seconds, that's slightly more than an hour of travelling. Then you'd build the station, connect the warp gates to the previous station, and do it again. Total travelling time would about 710 minutes (almost 12 hours).

If you can build a station and link the warp gates in 15 minutes, that adds another 165 minutes (not counting your first station).

This means it would take about 875 minutes (or slightly less than 15 hours) of work to build the chain of warp gates ("galactic bridge"?) that allow you to cross to the next galaxy.

 

[MrFURB]

That's... Wow. That puts a rather nice perspective on how large galaxies and especially how expansive the void is. Building a bridge to cross the deep black sounds like a goal for a big trade/economy focused faction.

 

[Qweesdy]

That's... Wow. That puts a rather nice perspective on how large galaxies and especially how expansive the void is. Building a bridge to cross the deep black sounds like a goal for a big trade/economy focused faction.

I want to do it (and I started on my private server as an experiment); partly because whoever builds it ends up controlling an entire galaxy.

What I'm worried about now is how hard something like this will be to defend against enemy factions.

For an example; for faction points, with only 2 stations separated by 121 sectors it's costing me:

10 points for Last Spend on Territory (Flat)
14 points for Last Spend on Territory (Average Dist.)
363.5 points for Last Spend on Territory (Galaxy Centre Dist.)
387.5 points total​

I expect that as I build more stations these will all increase (especially the "Average Dist" and "Galaxy Centre Dist" because the bridge has to be cover such a wide distance). I don't know the formulas, but I'm estimating that the full bridge might cost 10000 faction points per hour (or roughly 200 faction members online all day every day). Without the faction points there's no early warning - an enemy faction could hold a massive festival right next any of your stations and you won't even know.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

...or we could wait for hyperdrives to come out and make the trip in one click of a button

 

[AtraUnam]

...or we could wait for hyperdrives to come out and make the trip in one click of a button

Yeh but that's just boring.

 

[Kojinus]

This reminds me of the show Stargate where they had to bridge the gap between the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies with a string of stargates. I love the concept, but by your calculations it would take a long time to make something like this work, hoping there's a faster way in the future, but if it stays this way at least it'll make for an awesome team project. :D

 

[tn44]

You could save some time by marking each gate as you build it and setting the next one to go back to it, couldn't you?

 

[jpf190279]

This reminds me of the show Stargate where they had to bridge the gap between the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies with a string of stargates. I love the concept, but by your calculations it would take a long time to make something like this work, hoping there's a faster way in the future, but if it stays this way at least it'll make for an awesome team project. :D

I was going to say just that when I read this thread.

But it is still a VERY cool and worth while idea.

 

[FunnyBunny14]

I was going to say just that when I read this thread.

But it is still a VERY cool and worth while idea.

You could just use the upcoming hyperdrive to transport your entire faction to a new galaxy.

 

[Reilly Reese]

Wheres my mid way station now?

 

[FunnyBunny14]

New type of warp gate anyone? More expensive, but longer range.

 

[Sgtwisky]

One point that could be made is that you don't HAVE to faction your stations that have the gates do you? I mean if you factioned say the first one (at the edge of your starting galaxy) you could use it as the main defense point for the bridge. Then at each point in the bridge leave a horde of drones that are factioned and leave the stations them self's neutral. If you go and read the Drone R&D Thread..... You will find this would be VERY effective at the connection points in the void. Each time your enemy's jump (assuming they don't want to spend forever traveling to you) They would be greeted by say... 50 drones.

OR you could have a guy that is an Unofficial member who is a 1 man faction and he factions the stations and lives at your main base with you. As allies. Then you avoid the cost but gain some control over them and can attach turrets for added defense.

I think though that this method is both High Risk and High Reward. On one hand you control an entire galaxy's worth of resources. On the other you are at risk of having your Intergalactic Highway destroyed leaving you stranded. Honestly I think its a fair trade off.

 

[Kane]

Can an enemy fa

...or we could wait for hyperdrives to come out and make the trip in one click of a button

Boring! Even thinking that shows that you are one boring person to be around.

You could just use the upcoming hyperdrive to transport your entire faction to a new galaxy.

That is no fun. I hope that just gets removed. We have what we need we don't need more then what we have.

New type of warp gate anyone? More expensive, but longer range.

ctioThn capture and use a gate
No they should already be more expensive. Range I think is just fine.

 

[FunnyBunny14]

It is worth noting that warp gates are really expensive when you build them big enough to let a big ship through.

And hyperdrive will have all sorts of other things linked to it, like for instance the capital ship system, which makes the ship slower by default (they were going to make them immobile, but it's sa fe to say they're nit going to do that anymore). It will of course also be rediculously expensive and require massive amounts of power, leaving only capital ships and carriers with the ability for hyperdrive.

I was just saying that hyperdrive could be used to fly to places inbetween galaxies to set up your stations (although that would prove to be really, really hard, as the timing would have to be incredibly precise).

 

[Commodore Decker]

I want to do it (and I started on my private server as an experiment); partly because whoever builds it ends up controlling an entire galaxy.

What I'm worried about now is how hard something like this will be to defend against enemy factions.

For an example; for faction points, with only 2 stations separated by 121 sectors it's costing me:

10 points for Last Spend on Territory (Flat)
14 points for Last Spend on Territory (Average Dist.)
363.5 points for Last Spend on Territory (Galaxy Centre Dist.)
387.5 points total​

I expect that as I build more stations these will all increase (especially the "Average Dist" and "Galaxy Centre Dist" because the bridge has to be cover such a wide distance). I don't know the formulas, but I'm estimating that the full bridge might cost 10000 faction points per hour (or roughly 200 faction members online all day every day). Without the faction points there's no early warning - an enemy faction could hold a massive festival right next any of your stations and you won't even know.

Just put a lot of turrets on your stations for defense and with more shield regen than a titan.

 

[ResonKinetic]

i'm sure this doesn't take universal expansion into account

 

[Crimson-Artist]

Boring! Even thinking that shows that you are one boring person to be around.

If you want to try making a gate network that vast be my guest. Just be sure to tell me how fun it was

 

[FunnyBunny14]

I'm sure this doesn't take universal expansion into account.

It does, as warp gates work per sector and not per distance.

I want to do it (and I started on my private server as an experiment); partly because whoever builds it ends up controlling an entire galaxy.

What I'm worried about now is how hard something like this will be to defend against enemy factions.

For an example; for faction points, with only 2 stations separated by 121 sectors it's costing me:

10 points for Last Spend on Territory (Flat)
14 points for Last Spend on Territory (Average Dist.)
363.5 points for Last Spend on Territory (Galaxy Centre Dist.)
387.5 points total​

I expect that as I build more stations these will all increase (especially the "Average Dist" and "Galaxy Centre Dist" because the bridge has to be cover such a wide distance). I don't know the formulas, but I'm estimating that the full bridge might cost 10000 faction points per hour (or roughly 200 faction members online all day every day). Without the faction points there's no early warning - an enemy faction could hold a massive festival right next any of your stations and you won't even know.

Edit: It indeed isn't necessary to claim the system. There should be less FP costs for void systems (they literally have nothing in them).

 

[Qweesdy]

One point that could be made is that you don't HAVE to faction your stations that have the gates do you? I mean if you factioned say the first one (at the edge of your starting galaxy) you could use it as the main defense point for the bridge. Then at each point in the bridge leave a horde of drones that are factioned and leave the stations them self's neutral. If you go and read the Drone R&D Thread..... You will find this would be VERY effective at the connection points in the void. Each time your enemy's jump (assuming they don't want to spend forever traveling to you) They would be greeted by say... 50 drones.

It only costs you faction points if you take control of the system that the station is in. This means that you can have a bridge of factioned stations/warp gates - you just can't prevent other players from claiming the systems you're relying on, and can't use scanners to get early warnings when enemies get close.

This means that you can't really use small "warp gates and power, with little else" stations that you could build in 15 minutes. You'd need stations with heavy "anti-titan" turrets and light (point defence) turrets, with huge shields, etc.

It is worth noting that warp gates are really expensive when you build them big enough to let a big ship through.

And hyperdrive will have all sorts of other things linked to it, like for instance the capital ship system, which makes the ship slower by default (they were going to make them immobile, but it's sa fe to say they're nit going to do that anymore). It will of course also be rediculously expensive and require massive amounts of power, leaving only capital ships and carriers with the ability for hyperdrive.

I was just saying that hyperdrive could be used to fly to places inbetween galaxies to set up your stations (although that would prove to be really, really hard, as the timing would have to be incredibly precise).

To be honest; I like "engineering challenges" (e.g. like the galactic bridge) and think they make the game more interesting and more fun. For the last few days I've been thinking up possibilities for it (like an automated toll booth system, where you have to dock a ship's core and leave it behind to open doors around the warp gate, so that it costs people a ships core to use the bridge).

They also add more strategy for factions. For example, for the galaxy I started with there was only really one place were a wormhole was close to the edge of the galaxy, which meant that one system has something that no other system had (a perfect place for a "transport hub" that connects the galactic bridge and the wormholes). Then there's faction politics (treaties, alliances and deals made and broken to gain access to key infrastructure).

Hyper-drives could easily destroy all of this; and (given that there's wormholes, jump drives and warp gates already in the game) I'm not sure that I want the game to have hyper-drives at all.

 

[FunnyBunny14]

It only costs you faction points if you take control of the system that the station is in. This means that you can have a bridge of factioned stations/warp gates - you just can't prevent other players from claiming the systems you're relying on, and can't use scanners to get early warnings when enemies get close.

This means that you can't really use small "warp gates and power, with little else" stations that you could build in 15 minutes. You'd need stations with heavy "anti-titan" turrets and light (point defence) turrets, with huge shields, etc.



To be honest; I like "engineering challenges" (e.g. like the galactic bridge) and think they make the game more interesting and more fun. For the last few days I've been thinking up possibilities for it (like an automated toll booth system, where you have to dock a ship's core and leave it behind to open doors around the warp gate, so that it costs people a ships core to use the bridge).

They also add more strategy for factions. For example, for the galaxy I started with there was only really one place were a wormhole was close to the edge of the galaxy, which meant that one system has something that no other system had (a perfect place for a "transport hub" that connects the galactic bridge and the wormholes). Then there's faction politics (treaties, alliances and deals made and broken to gain access to key infrastructure).

Hyper-drives could easily destroy all of this; and (given that there's wormholes, jump drives and warp gates already in the game) I'm not sure that I want the game to have hyper-drives at all.

Hyperdrives ARE needed. They add a simple way of transporting fleets across galaxies. They won't really be used for travel inside a galaxy because of the huge speed the ship will be flying at.

They also will give some nerfs to the ship with it. You'll basically need a titan to have hyperdrive.