Warp, Gates, and FTL: the merits of each

    NeonSturm

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    You would go up to the module, press r, and a choice menu of all same-faction transporters within range would pop up for you to select which to teleport to.


    Has nothing to do with this topic. Anyway +1. Would save you from requiring 3x3 or even bigger gravity tunnels (without dev-directional-gravity even 9x9 I guess).
     
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    I mean, It would be awesome to have all the capital ships fly away without their fighters/corvettes, right? You could kill so many crew. Tali likes it. :(
     
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    I would love to see a game with a Galactica Style FTL, but it would present some interesting challenges which would ultimatly improve on the game. The FTL system on Galactica is highly dependent on a rare type of fuel which has to be mined then refined(Tillium). You would also have to have some sort of map system added to the games which will allow you to plot jumps since it cannot jump infinantly. With fuel required for the jumping process it then forces players to plot out the best course taking into account what to expect in the sectors they will be jumping through and also depending highly on the player to do their own exploration to determine what to expect. Galactica sent out Raptors to scout sectors before jumping the ship into that sector and in some situations they would have been destroyed if they hadnt causing them to rethink their course. It would be very unwise to jump into an unknown or uncharted sector to a player without having been there and if a player is willing to do that then its a risk they would have to be willing to take. In short I think this option adds a wide verity of things from a map system to a new element to mine and play around with for new possibilites and completly new ways to play the game allowing people to travel in groups or alone and also forcing players to become more involved in the game to make sure they dont get someplace and run out of fuel to jump back or possibly jump into an asteroid or a star... As far as jumping into an ememys gunning range... that comes down to players playing smart and scouting... if they jump into an enemies firing solution and are destroyed thats a risk of playing the game... lol
     
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    Also the fuel source needs to be not a rechargable source forcing players who want to use it to be conservative since it has a cost every time it is used... Players will wait for a power source to recharge and just jump every time it recharges... They will be less likely to jump like crazy if they just spent a day gathering and hording a fuel source...
     
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    Thats not a half bad idea at all. I wouldnt mind if FTL required fuel, as long as it was the only thing
     

    NeonSturm

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    Or we could make jumps only possible between suns. You enter a sun sector and jump into another one. Or from inside suns into adjacent sun-systems (max 16 sectors cube).

    The sun shield then requires fuel.



    If you want to protect a system, make a station within/near the sun.

    If you don\'t want to use fuel, make less turrets and prepair for damage.



    I think currently the sun fires invisible shield-ignoring AMC-bolts at you, so you would only need to cover one side of your ship in cheap shielding (water? :).
     
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    You know a alactica style FTL brings a huge feature to the game... I don\'t know of a game anywhere that gives the player the ability to explore in this manner... It would give the game a unique feature with unique challenges to face... not only do you have to worry about fuel but coordination of the jumps is critical... Galactic style FTLs take time to spool up making it impossible to jump into a sector, have a problem and immediately jump out... Plan your jumps, send recon, make sure it is safe before you jump... or deal with the consequences...
     
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    another form of warp you could use is something similar to \"Slipspace\" in Halo, which is kind of like traditional FTL/Warp Drives except for the going into slipspace part. in essence, you\'d spool up the drive and enter a sort of alternate dimension in which distance is far shorter than in real-space, and travel the correct distance to get to your target. if you went a bit too far, boom, you might be a couple kilometers off, if you were off by a kilometer or so in slipspace, you\'d be off by 50 km or so, forcing players to be very careful when exiting slipspace. slipspace itself has two effects,

    1. no shields. slipspace disables shields while you are in it and for a second or so when you exit it unless you have a shield \"overcharger\" or something which would bring it up as soon as you exit.

    2. no energy weapons. antimatter cannons cannot be fired in slipspace (insert technobabble here) but missiles can, allowing for \"slip pirates\" who could patrol slipspace waiting for a ship to jump in.

    Slipspace entrances/exits would appear as these giant dark blue circular wormholes with a diameter of the ship\'s creating the portal widest point. any ship nearby could also, theoretically enter the portal if they are fast enough. the portal would close as the backwardest point of the ship passes through.any ship exiting slipspace would start with 0 velocity, having to gain it as soon as a point of the ship exits.

    another thing that could be added is (like mentioned above) an interdictor field which would prevent exit or entry to forbidden vehicles. if a ship exits to a point inside another ship or planet, it would simply not be able to exit as the blocks outside would be blocking it, or maybe the exit could be shifted to an empty point.



    Lastly, the Warp Drive itself. a fairly large multiblock... thing. which requires TONS of power, scaling at a linear rate to the diameter. because it ignores mass, it would be great for carriers, making them and \"droners\" (large ships with ~100 AI drone ships) a very useful tool, even in non-combat. simply being able to ferry any ship, or even fleet anywhere would make a great mobile base-thing, maybe even (dare I say it?) a hive fleet... instead of the current \"find a station, claim it then use it as an indestructo-zone\" you could have mobile fleets whose strength lies in mobility and flexibility.
     

    NeonSturm

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    well thought.

    Slipspace would be just a sector/position-warp like 10\'000 for 0 and 10\'001 for 50?
     

    Ithirahad

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    Some kind of warp inhibitor would certainly be needed... but interdiction fields just sound kind of meh to me for some reason.
     
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    it would be more of a space-dilation effect where 1 sector in slipspace is 10 or 20 in realspace (you don\'t go through real-space, rather an alternate dimension) and any ship with a warp drive would be able to warp by creating a temporary portal to slipspace. slipspace would also be divided into \"frequencies\" the more warp blocks and energy you have, the higher your ships \"frequency\" and the larger the dilation, say freq. 1 would be 5 sectors per sector but freq. 10 could be 100 sectors per sector.
     
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    couldnt the warpdrive just be enhancers like bloks which create an area(docking style), which must be inherit the complete shipt to use it. and needs massive ammounts of energy, which are createt by the warp core which would than be a new power generator which needs some room?



    more warp area -> more energy

    and warp core star trek like would be made of more then one kind of block

    you need a mix chamber block(or more), matter injector blocks and antimater injector blocks as the warpcore is just some kind of matter/antimatter reactor ( if you simplify it)

    the whole warpdrive is the comnination of warpcoils ( which are in the nacelles) and the warp core which provides the energy
     

    Matt_Bradock

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    As in the Q&A, some concepts about FTL drives/jump gates already popped up. I also had some ideas how to do it with a little balance.

    1. Ship FTL drive:

    Make a block similar to thrusters, connected to an FTL Computer that can be quickslotted. The block would add a value displayed under Thrust in build mode called \"FTL capacity\". You\'d require at least an FTL capacity equal to your ship\'s mass to jump. Note that docked objects add mass at the latest prebuild, so in case you want to be able to take other ships with you, you\'d need to build a suitable jump drive. Also, it would add more challenge building FTL capable ships as you would have to sacrifice precious space to place those blocks. And if they scale with dimensions like power blocks, or just by number in a chunk like power tanks, that makes things even more interesting.

    Activation: Upon setting up a nav point and activating the FTL computer in your quickbar, your ship would lose all power and a second bar above your power bar (similar to the shield bar above HP) would appear and start to fill up signalling the countdown for example, 10 seconds. During that time, moving the ship in any direction, firing a weapon, and recharging shields, would be impossible. Once it fills up, you get teleported to the sector you specified in the waypoint and your power would regenerate normally. This would prevent it from used as an escape tool, since for that 10 seconds, you\'d be a sitting duck.

    The windup could be interrupted by clicking the FTL computer again.

    2. Jump relays (Not mass relays, that\'s be copyright infringement)

    Jump gates could be pregenerated structures like shops and/or stations, operated by the TG, each with a fixed size so you wouldn\'t have to worry about the exit being smaller than the entry point. Alternatively, they could be built by players too, connecting to the existing network or forming a separate one. Factioned gates could be set up, just like player shops to have restricted access (Allies only, No enemies, Faction only, All) Of course using player built gates has the chance of ending up in a hostile homebase\'s turret fest, or losing most of your ship trying to squeeze a battlecruiser through an exit gate built for corvettes.

    Activation: Each gate would have a docking area, built using a third kind of docking module and enhancers determining the maximum size of the ship it can jump. Upon docking to it, a button similar to \"Shop in range\" would appear, clicking on that would bring up the list of accessible relays with coordinates and owner. Clicking on one would bring up the confirmation dialog, also if there is one, the notification of how much jump fee you need to pay. Jump fee would be calculated using the total mass of your ship. (for example, 100-1000 credits per mass.) Upon confirmation and paying the fee, your ship would be teleported and be docked to the destination. If the destination\'s docking space is smaller than your ship, any parts sticking out will be deleted. This adds a risk to jumping to random player-made relays, as you cannot know how big it is until you arrive. Also, pregenerated relays would of course have a limited area too, therefore with big ships you\'d have to build your own supersized relays, or you\'d have to take the long way there.
     

    NeonSturm

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    ISSUE DEDECTED!

    Some ppls will complain they accidentally double-clicked the jump computer while fighting a pirate station.

    Imagine 5000 storage per block and only 25 regeneration ... I would like it more like the jam/cloak-computer: Firing a weapon or getting hit disables the countdown and energy gets drained proportionally: 10s = full, 0s = empty.