Wormhole Generators in Starmade

[Dire Venom]

What about implementing an additional form of FTL travel called wormhole generators, like in stellaris:

Empires with access to wormhole technology can create sophisticated wormhole stations that reside in sectors. In contrast to other methods, wormholes create a temporary but direct connection between two sectors.

Ships that use wormhole stations experience instant travel between sectors and, as a plus, do not need to be equipped with any special modules. There is also the benefit that entire fleets can use it to go all at once but, the bigger the fleet/combined ship mass, the longer a portal takes to spawn.

There are a few flaws in the system;

1. One end of the connection must terminate in the same system as the station. This limits the mobility of fleets when operating on the offensive, unless new wormhole stations are built.
2. A single station can only generate a single connection at a time. In order to adequately keep up with high volumes of traffic (such as multiple separate fleets incoming or outgoing for attacks, patrols, or retrofits), building multiple wormhole stations is a must.
3. For very small or very large fleets, the system is somewhat inefficient; it will always take at least (x amount of time) to generate a wormhole. However, it can also take well over ((x amount of time)) to generate a wormhole large enough for a single massive fleet.
4. Wormholes cannot be created inside enemy territory

I could defiantly see this working in Starmade.
Just add a wormhole generator and wormhole subsidizer block, the subsidizer would decrease the time required to generate the wormhole.

The larger the combined mass of ships in the area where the wormhole is being generated at the start of generation, the higher the intial time required.

The time required is then reduced depending on the ratio between the total ship mass, and the number of subsidizers on the wormhole station.

As mentioned above there would be a minimum generation time required.
Any ships within (x) distance of the wormhole will be sent through once generation is complete.
Wormhole stations could have a large radius (many times that of a jump drive).

This would work very well with the new fleet system, and allow you to easily move your fleets around your territory without all ships requiring jump drives.

So, to recap:

-2 new blocks, can only be placed on stations
-Faction members with required rank can request wormhole generation in their current location if within (x) systems of the generator
-Time wormhole takes to spawn is dependent on wormhole station and total ship mass in the area.
-Has a minimum required time.
-Wormholes can only be between the wormhole stations sector and another location within range.

What do you guys think:?

 

[NeonSturm]

In StarGate, an opened gate is deadly to anyone who stands in the shooting-out bubble.
I'd think sending a huge fleet for interception would be the same to the unlucky pirate standing at the exit.

It's different from gates in that it takes time before the jump, not to recover after the jump which makes it somewhat more balanced than the similar suggestion thread about gates that spawn from the station to anywhere instantly.

It reminds me about StarTrek:DeepSpace9 - a station at one and and nothing at the other. But DS9 used a natural wormhole and just stabilizes it.Will it also be able to collect fleets and call them home rather than sending them away?​

But it's better if stations are able to stabilize ship jumps to prolong their jump (like a beacon which guides you so that inaccuracy does not lead you into a cliff/star/planet).

When you walk through a desert, you have to be careful not to walk in circles – the same could be true for warp-space which jump-drives dive into and out to re-orientate.
With a beacon to guide them, they could make longer jumps.​

 

[Madman198237]

I like the idea of charging up a system to launch whole fleets. I also would really want this to be part of a capital ship system----like in Halo, where one vessel (Usually a larger one) opens a slipspace portal, through which the entire fleet goes through, at once.

With the minor difference of Slipspace taking significantly longer to move through than SM requires for FTL.

 

[NeonSturm]

Madman198237
If you would have to enter the location before you start charging the jump drive, gate-drive aka wormhole

players which have the source or destination sector loaded might see energy fluctuations on their environmental sensors (the arrows in your screen which show possible targets).
​

It would be an additional warning time, similar as if "your slip-space ships" appears on someone's sensors before the ships arrive at their heading.


X4 - Albion Prelude has Gates which create a complex bezier-curve in 3D space between them where anyone can enter/exit at any point.

The BIG advantage of this is to give space some guide point for orientation, giving space up/down if 2 of these points are available (your ship being the third, suns might be the second).

​

I really want these "open tunnels" in space so that you can connect your stations with them.

They don't necessarily have to assist FTL-speed, but to guide your sense of orientation in 3D space.

You can create a navigation assistance just like publishing a regional map for sight-seeings, streets and street-names, theatres, restaurants, …

These stations are not placed randomly in space anymore, but points you are attracted to visit.​

But because this is a topic about "more interesting FTL with wormholes", why not add both together?

Add these lines-in-space between any stations, even 1000 systems apart.

In these lines, you can jump 2x or 8x (server-configurable) as long or jump with a 1/2 or 1/8 charged jump-drive.

This gives "gates" more sectors which they affect and makes them more interesting.
More sectors you can enter/exit the gate's effect.​

These lines also tend to bend toward crossing lines in an up-down view, so that these are just 1 sector away at some point.

Thus further increasing the sectors a gate can give you easier access to.
​

These lines also tend to avoid crowded sectors to reduce database-load.​

 

[Darkkon]

This sounds really good to me, although I do want to point out that the usual image of a wormhole forming a funnel is kind of misleading. Those images usually display space as a 2 dimensional plane instead of 3 dimensional. Most games stick with the 2d representation of wormholes and I personally would prefer to see the a more accurate variant for once. Probably something close to this:

Similar to a blackhole warping light around it, but in the center you could see the other side. Not sure how feasible this is without having both sectors loaded but its an idea at least. :P

 

[NeonSturm]

And if you would think this through even more …

Length, area, space, "planes in hyperspace" – hyperspace the thing 1 level above space in some definitions.
Water is 3D – you may call it hyper-area. The surface is 2D, an area.

So we can say a ship travels on an area while a submarine travels through hyper-area.
But you can be close to the surface, for example if a submarine needs to re-surface for getting air again or for looking at stars to see it's position or to receive GPS-data (I know modern do not need to, but with hyperspace we are about as far advanced as before submarines were built)

This hyper-area submarine close to surface could emit light and look like a ghost is travelling through area.