Longer warp tunnel time, longer distance traveled.

[Planr]

Title explains it all. The way warp is now, you spend 99% of your time charging up the drive, then you only get to enjoy about a split-second of warp travel, before you are boringly dropped back into space only a short 8-sector distance from where you previously were. Why have such a nice warp tunnel effect if we barely ever get to even see it?

This is okay for now, given it's a new feature and all, but I think the ship FTL system would be much more enjoyable if your drive recharge times were also based on how far you chose to travel. For example, you could travel the standard 8 sectors, and have to recharge it after the jump at the normal rate.

But, what if you instead had the option to travel 24 sectors in one jump (or however long you want), and then after the jump, you have to "repay" the "chargup debt" you made with that previous really long jump, in addition to how far you wanted to go to travel on the next jump?

For me, this would be WAY more enjoyable, and it could be so that the farther you choose to jump, the longer your ship stays in the warp tunnel effect (which is lots of fun, at least for me! just think of how much cooler it will be in the future when they also add sound and better particle effects to the experience!).

So basically, you get to choose how far you jump, and based on that, you will have proportional drive recharge times and warp tunnel times.
I could forsee this being especially useful in helping players to really get out there and have to travel in their ship, like in Star Trek! Imagine how much more incentive people would have to build star trek-like ships, with the awesome warp nacelles and powerful engine drives! It would be fantastic!

Keep in mind this suggestion is meant to be minded for the function of the default game. I am aware you can modify the drive to go however far you want in server config, but I feel this would function better and be much more enjoyable for interstellar travel.

Oh, and by no means would this affect the default amount of modules needed for a good warp drive. With this, it would simply either stack or subtract from the default warp charge times. So your 1000-warp-block battleship would still take as long to charge up after an 8-sector jump as it does now, but it would also then take twice as long to recharge after a 16-sector jump.

Some players might also argue that "oh, this makes warp drive OP because then you can go anywhere you want in one click". But it's nowhere near as simple as it sounds. First, with my idea, you still have to charge up the drive for actual FTL travel, and depending on how far you want to travel, it will take just as long in hyperspace to get to that destination as it did to simply make small 8-sector jumps over and over again on the current system. That's what balances it out. So you still take roughly the same amount of time to travel no matter how you choose to do it.


And of course, I know that there are a few obstacles in the way of adding features like this. So, I should address them here now so people don't bring them up to go "aha! i found a flaw in your idea! gotcha!"

Server Universe Filesizes
Currently the introduction of FTL is apparently bringing a new memory/filesize issues to Starmade public servers like nothing ever before. Players can warp all over their starmade universe right now. Oftentimes they may interact with the planets/NPC space stations around them, be it from trashing them to salvaging them to leaving a few shuttlecraft or damaged turrets behind as interstellar garbage/debris/waste.
Actually, I don't think they even have to do this kind of stuff, I think they simply have to be in the sector for it and the surrounding sectors for them to all be added to the database for future memory remembrance (and thus much larger universe filesizes, a VERY bad thing on server performance and saves).
So, to answer this problem, since the players can cover so much ground so fast with FTL, there ought to be some form of "universe plasticity" whereby sectors that don't have much changes to them and no player activity over a long period of time (but were previously visited) would be intentionally "forgotten" and wiped from the universe files.
That means that the sector way out in 200, 385, -292 that was visited by xXsn1p3rk1dXx last week for 30 seconds while he waited to recharge his drive and jump again is no longer wasting space in the database and dragging down server performance. But, if he trashed the planet there and built an orbiting station, that sector would stay in the database.

What do you guys think?

 

[NeonSturm]

About planets

A good idea is to travel in void systems.
Maybe the database should have a few pre-generated planets (5 types * 3 sizes * 3 variations = 27) to show them peoples if they don't travel to that sector.

When they enter this sector and go close to that planet, the planet takes a permanent position there and a new one for the pre-generated planets should generate (but as a background process only taking excess CPU time)


Hyperspace / Warp

I think you should be able to control your warp-speed with QE and (WASD = avoid planets / navigate slip-strems when it's implemented).

• The faster you move, the lower your strafe ability.

I would like ships with big power-storages (or heat sinks / heat-energyregenerators from my suggestion) be able to intercept while ships with regneration are able to outrun these in the long term (if they don't get killed or forced out of warp)

• Some ships should be fast and some durable.

 

[jzimmerman4]

I would definitely like to be in warp for longer cause its just so perty!

edit: and a transition out of warp

 

[Snk]

YES

 

[Frosty1998XD]

I Agree How Ever i think that as you jump it should drain power from you ship to keep the jump also you should require a shield to jump because really its like making a black hole or flying thru a sun its should damage your ship without shields os when you jump it can also affect your ship the longer you jump which then balances this out, but also it should add in jumping near stars can randomly jump you about 10 sectors away from your goal to make it more hard to make perfect jump i think it should be edited and that it can do this but how ever this idea is great but it needs some disadvantages to it like that if you don't make a stable power source then you can have your reactors to exploded and maybe to add a feature of making bigger drive windows and making it possible for people to able to shot like a laser at your ship and connect to it to join your jump so i could like have just a command ship with fighters around it and bring them with me, also you should be able to walk around and leave the core when in the jump this would all be epic to be added, but as i said like we need side effects even possible your shields weaken over time from jumping to much would will require you to replace them or your hull breaking something but not too big side effects

Sorry if its not good grammar or spelling

Added: you should be able to disable someone from warping away but it requires something like the jump drive won't start without shields so maybe a way to knock out shield sixth a Energy burst but the energy burst also shuts your ship and any other ones down but needs a charge up jump like the jump drive

 

[Snk]

I disagree with all of those things, but thanks for bumping it.

 

[Lecic]

I like this idea, but I also think that Jump Drives should be just that- for short jumps. Warp Gates and the upcoming Hyperdrive are more for long distance travel.

 

[Byamarro]

I think that charge and power consumption : sectors
proportion should be increased exponentially not linear, to prevent too fast travels inside galaxy.
Or maybe it's not bad if distances between planets would be bigger (let's say 8 sectors for minimal distance between planets and solar systems could be 25 sects long then).

 

[NeonSturm]

I think that charge and power consumption : sectors
proportion should be increased exponentially not linear, to prevent too fast travels inside galaxy.
Or maybe it's not bad if distances between planets would be bigger (let's say 8 sectors for minimal distance between planets and solar systems could be 25 sects long then).

First, I like flat sol systems and as a navigation-aid measurement distance for the sun.
8 sectors between planets are a good distance for jump drives - I like that too.

Currently the sun is ridiculously big - 1/5 of a solar system! But it is also very weak if you want to use it to make defence only 1-side.

 

[blurb357]

whaat what upcoming hyperdrive no one mentioned a hyperdrive to me..... HYPERDRIVE!!!

 

[Jonj57]

I'd prefer they keep the jump size to 10 but the time spent in warp and time spent charging scales with ship mass.
I like thinking that it takes longer for a capital ship to be propelled than an Interdictor by an amount significant enough that they could be chased down.

This means, if in the middle of a fleet fight, if a coward battleship decides to warp away from a losing battle lighter weight interceptors could attempt to follow and catch up because of:
A.) Spool up time
B.) Time spent being propelled through warp

On topic: I like the current jump set, I would however like more time in the warp zone

 

[NeonSturm]

Maybe it could be dependent on setup.

If there is a performance-efficient way to calculate which arrays are touching how many of which blocks we could build many different ships.

Maybe just increment or decrement "adjacent[ID of {IDs}]" for each new or lost neighbour.
If an array blocks has 5 neighbours, count each regardless which other array block these touch.​

Some may be very and could jump/warp 3 times in quick progression, others jump/warp 5 times as far but have 4/3 cool-down...

Not just stronger or weaker.

 

[WaffulMann]

The warp effects are cool. Even with the standard 8-sector jumps I wish the tunnels could be longer, maybe 5~10 seconds.

 

[lemdoran]

I totaly agree, 8 sector for 30s charge time on my bigger actual ship don't worth it. I better fly at 250m/s than jump in some point.

The only think i'll change compared to the OP is i'll use energy / s instead of a higher charge time.
Basicaly, you charge the jump module for a certain time, who is calculated like actualy, function of size of ship & nomber of modules. BUT, can travel "indefinitly" assuming you can sustain the power requirement/s (who should be calculated with the size / mass of the ship.)

 

[FunnyBunny14]

If you change sector sizes it suddenly becomes better. But if you make them too big they get OP. I'd suggest changing the sector size in the server config to 2500. It's a nice size to play with, especially whith FTL.
And for goodness sake, don't increase the server speed! It only causes more trouble than good. If you want a faster speed just use overdrive!

 

[lemdoran]

On my server i have a 125m/s max speed, overdrive make me able to go to 250. The server seem powerfull enough for handle it without any problem, lag never exceed 200ms when traveling at max speed, and is totaly acceptable when fighting, as fight aren't at full speed, anyway with a cruiser.

Changing sector size seem a good alternative, i must say i haven't think about this for enhance the range of the jump drive, thanks for the idea :p

 

[hitmandavey]

I agree what is the point of that really nice affect when you see it for like 1 second.