Before anyone complains. Yes, this concept is based off of Calbiri's excellent FTL suggestion Hyper-Realm and I originally posted this idea in that topic. However, I recently came to the conclusion that the approach was different enough to warrant it's own topic. Also, as this topic deals with FTL, I fully except it to be ignored because I'm sure many people are tried of talking about FTL in Starmade. Even still, on the off chance this topic generates some interesting discussion I've decided to go ahead and post it.
The basic approach is different from Hyper-Realm in that Hyper-Reality isn't designed to be dangerous so much as it's just flat out not very useful until the players work at it a bit.
Hyper-Reality has no naturally spawning blocks and blocks can't be placed in Hyper-Reality even in build mode. The space is populated by energy beings called Ethereals, because I'm not very good at naming things. Ethereals maintain Hyper-Reality and charge a toll for it's use. The fee is energy, both regular and shield energy. Upon entering Hyper-Reality through the use of a transition engine (a new type of block) the player's ship is drained of a portion of its energy and shields, maybe as much as half. If the ship doesn't have shields or the shields are down it loses that much more energy. Energy and shields continue to be drained and don't recover while in Hyper-Reality. The cost is based on ship mass. When the ship runs out of energy it's ejected into normal space and its transition engine is put on a cooldown timer.
So, what do I mean by Hyper-Reality not being very useful? Well, it has two big drawbacks that keep it from completely replacing normal travel.
First is the cost. Default Hyper-Reality travel should be very, very expensive. So much so that normal ships could only travel maybe a dozen sectors (or even half that) before being completely drained. However the cost can be lessened by use of a new block,the Ethereal supply block. This new block uses the power of a ship or station that it's attached to and gives that energy to the local Ethereals, off setting the cost of travel for every other ship in a spherical area. The more energy that gets sent through, the larger the area and the cheaper the cost of travel.
Another new block, the Ethereal bridge block, can be used to do the same thing, but in a more focused way. Bridge blocks can only be put on stations. Two bridge blocks can be linked together creating a lane that not only makes travel less costly but also make travel faster, though not too much faster. The longer lanes that are trying to be established the more energy is needed.
This could lead to the creation of two new ship roles. One is a sort of long jump ship. A high energy ship that is used to travel long distances quickly. These would have a number of uses including scouting, exploration, and developing the frontier so that other ships could get out there more easily. The other type of ship is sort of hyperspace tug. These would have an Ethereal support block on board and be used to assist other ships in getting places.
Hyper-Reality's other big drawback is navigation. Ships in Hyper-Reality can't see what's going on in normal space. The solution to this is yet another new block called a hyper beacon. Placed on a ship or station the hyper beacon creates a nav point, like the ones ships and stations already create, only these can always be seen in Hyper-Reality. This will let a ship find friendly and neutral ships and stations from Hyper-Reality provided someone was thoughtful enough to place a beacon.
So how are factions to defend themselves from this increase in enemy mobility? Well for starters hyper beacons should be masked from enemy ships. This will keep factions from using Hyper-Reality to keep track of enemy ships and installations.
Also, for every problem there is always a new block type to fix it. In this case an Ethereal communication block. This block allows a faction to give orders to a friendly Ethereal. One such order is a protect area command. Once the area to be protected is defined (somehow) the Ethereal will keep enemy ships from entering the zone from Hyper-Reality. Now enemy ships can't jump in on top of your stations. They will have to drop in outside the protected zone and move into attack through normal space, after their shields recover that is.
However, attackers have a second ballsier option. Track down the enemy's Ethereal ally and kick it's ass! It should be stressed that will not be an easy thing to do. Because Ethereals absorb energy, the more ships you bring, the bigger the ships you bring, the more badass you make the Ethereal you are trying to fight. This should be a battle won through proper tactics and coordination. You shouldn't be able to overwhelm an Ethereal with numbers or simply outgun it. If your faction goes in without a plan, you lose. If the Ethereal is helped by ships from the enemy faction, you lose.
That said the Ethereal shouldn't really stay in one spot, making it easy to defend, and there may be need for a method of baiting it out. Potentially, there could be an option through the Ethereal comm block to get and allied Ethereal to lay a trap or something. Other Ethereals can't help you in the fight because they aren't allowed too or aren't capable of hurting each other, or some such. And when an Ethereal is defeated it's doesn't die permanently but goes on a respawn timer. Hopefully, giving your faction enough time to do whatever they were trying to accomplish.
The basic approach is different from Hyper-Realm in that Hyper-Reality isn't designed to be dangerous so much as it's just flat out not very useful until the players work at it a bit.
Hyper-Reality has no naturally spawning blocks and blocks can't be placed in Hyper-Reality even in build mode. The space is populated by energy beings called Ethereals, because I'm not very good at naming things. Ethereals maintain Hyper-Reality and charge a toll for it's use. The fee is energy, both regular and shield energy. Upon entering Hyper-Reality through the use of a transition engine (a new type of block) the player's ship is drained of a portion of its energy and shields, maybe as much as half. If the ship doesn't have shields or the shields are down it loses that much more energy. Energy and shields continue to be drained and don't recover while in Hyper-Reality. The cost is based on ship mass. When the ship runs out of energy it's ejected into normal space and its transition engine is put on a cooldown timer.
So, what do I mean by Hyper-Reality not being very useful? Well, it has two big drawbacks that keep it from completely replacing normal travel.
First is the cost. Default Hyper-Reality travel should be very, very expensive. So much so that normal ships could only travel maybe a dozen sectors (or even half that) before being completely drained. However the cost can be lessened by use of a new block,the Ethereal supply block. This new block uses the power of a ship or station that it's attached to and gives that energy to the local Ethereals, off setting the cost of travel for every other ship in a spherical area. The more energy that gets sent through, the larger the area and the cheaper the cost of travel.
Another new block, the Ethereal bridge block, can be used to do the same thing, but in a more focused way. Bridge blocks can only be put on stations. Two bridge blocks can be linked together creating a lane that not only makes travel less costly but also make travel faster, though not too much faster. The longer lanes that are trying to be established the more energy is needed.
This could lead to the creation of two new ship roles. One is a sort of long jump ship. A high energy ship that is used to travel long distances quickly. These would have a number of uses including scouting, exploration, and developing the frontier so that other ships could get out there more easily. The other type of ship is sort of hyperspace tug. These would have an Ethereal support block on board and be used to assist other ships in getting places.
Hyper-Reality's other big drawback is navigation. Ships in Hyper-Reality can't see what's going on in normal space. The solution to this is yet another new block called a hyper beacon. Placed on a ship or station the hyper beacon creates a nav point, like the ones ships and stations already create, only these can always be seen in Hyper-Reality. This will let a ship find friendly and neutral ships and stations from Hyper-Reality provided someone was thoughtful enough to place a beacon.
So how are factions to defend themselves from this increase in enemy mobility? Well for starters hyper beacons should be masked from enemy ships. This will keep factions from using Hyper-Reality to keep track of enemy ships and installations.
Also, for every problem there is always a new block type to fix it. In this case an Ethereal communication block. This block allows a faction to give orders to a friendly Ethereal. One such order is a protect area command. Once the area to be protected is defined (somehow) the Ethereal will keep enemy ships from entering the zone from Hyper-Reality. Now enemy ships can't jump in on top of your stations. They will have to drop in outside the protected zone and move into attack through normal space, after their shields recover that is.
However, attackers have a second ballsier option. Track down the enemy's Ethereal ally and kick it's ass! It should be stressed that will not be an easy thing to do. Because Ethereals absorb energy, the more ships you bring, the bigger the ships you bring, the more badass you make the Ethereal you are trying to fight. This should be a battle won through proper tactics and coordination. You shouldn't be able to overwhelm an Ethereal with numbers or simply outgun it. If your faction goes in without a plan, you lose. If the Ethereal is helped by ships from the enemy faction, you lose.
That said the Ethereal shouldn't really stay in one spot, making it easy to defend, and there may be need for a method of baiting it out. Potentially, there could be an option through the Ethereal comm block to get and allied Ethereal to lay a trap or something. Other Ethereals can't help you in the fight because they aren't allowed too or aren't capable of hurting each other, or some such. And when an Ethereal is defeated it's doesn't die permanently but goes on a respawn timer. Hopefully, giving your faction enough time to do whatever they were trying to accomplish.