Hyperdrive+

[Tozze101]

Awesome game schema! All these improvements lately has sparked a golden age on the server.
But that is not what i wanted to talk about.
I was brainstorming with a bunch of others and we had this idea for the hyperdrive in the future.
What if you install it like jumpdrives then when charged you go into a non rendering state (like a warptunnel) and keep going in this until you either reach your destination or drop out manually? What would be helpful is if you can track your movement on the map. A waypoint would have to be set and you would travel along this path very quickly. Say 1 sector each second or so? Normal sectors, not system sectors.
This hyperdrive would be a constant drain of your power but with high enough you could cruise like this forever.
Just a suggestion but i am still happy for the rumoured hyperdrives :D
Take care and hope you are having just as much fun with this game as we are

 

[ltmauve]

1 second per sector is a bit fast, and if you wanted to drop out quickly you might miss by a sector or so. And since there's going to be a realspace penatly for having a hyperdrive, it'd take longer to get there.
Instead of a normal drain from the hyperdrive, it should instead have a constant drain determined by the size of the hyperdrive that slowly depletes the power reserves of the ship, making the max distance dependant on the reserves of the ship.
Large hyperdrive = low drain in hyperspace, and long charge time and/or high charge cost
Small hyperdrive = high drain in hyperspace, and short charge time and/or low charge cost

 

[Tozze101]

1 second per sector is a bit fast, and if you wanted to drop out quickly you might miss by a sector or so. And since there's going to be a realspace penatly for having a hyperdrive, it'd take longer to get there.
Instead of a normal drain from the hyperdrive, it should instead have a constant drain determined by the size of the hyperdrive that slowly depletes the power reserves of the ship, making the max distance dependant on the reserves of the ship.
Large hyperdrive = low drain in hyperspace, and long charge time and/or high charge cost
Small hyperdrive = high drain in hyperspace, and short charge time and/or low charge cost

Yah it's true it might be a bit fast. That's when tweaking and balancing comes in. I see your point though and it might be dumb to have it unlimited range but it would be nice to have something that has a long range. Like say, same range as gates and then you have to stop and recharge. Recharge could be done automatically like the scanners. The jump to hyperspace though should not be available if you have not set a waypoint. If we had both this kind of hyperdrive AND our original jumpdrive then people could choose what they want. Lag should not be any issue as you dont actually pass through sectors and render them. You only render the sector you choose to arrive in. Further more, if this hyperdrive had about the same stats as the jumpdrive you would not have an advantage other then ability to choose to cut your trip short along the way.

Other then that i actually stumbled upon another idea. Gates! How about gate range determined by amount of power available? MAX range could be half a galaxy but without an insane amount of power you would reach less. Failing to provide this constant amount would just give you an error when trying to warp to destination gate. Having gates sabotaged by people draining its power would effectively shut it down. Also, when you set it up to reciever gate you would see how much is needed and would have to plan accordingly.

All this is suggestion we just brainstormed on the server and felt were needed. Mostly on servers with alot of factions. We can surely live without them but we feel it would improve gameplay. Ofcourse schema can tweak this to his own ideas but i still like the basic ideas of it.