dotted lines between colonies

[MonkeyJack_NZ]

what do they mean? why cant i turn them off? they are all over the bloody place and i dont like it sir

[danielprates]

Wondering about that too. They seem to merely link all colonies, serving as a "map within a map" of sorts. For some time I thought it had some econonic significance, say, goods flowing through colonies, but it doesnt seem to be that

[Refurbished Hamster]

I think it's just showing that trade is available along those dotted lines, even if it's not currently happening much. You'll notice, when you take NPC colonies, you don't get the line on conquered colonies at first, but it shows up soon enough. Might also be to mark contiguousness.

[Nellvan]

Since there sometimes are kinks with lines going through uninhabitated systems when nebulas block the direct path between colonies, I'm pretty sure they're indeed meant to show your empire's major transport routes.

[Nightskies]

First, it certainly isn't trade routes or supply lines. Displaying all that would be an absolute mess- these barely even coincide the notable routes. You can see this by looking at civilian traffic, as I'll show below.

Admittedly, this was hard to figure out. After scouring the Galactopedia and eliminating other possibilities I could think of, I think these lines are an indicator for a colony's distance to capital with regard to corruption. It's a complicated web, but it seems to follow these roughly in this order of importance:

1. Every end point is a colony, and every colony is included in it
   
2. They avoid nebulae entirely except when a colony is in one. Those go through as little nebula space as possible to another point
   
3. Prefers tenure- new colonies tend to connect to nearby well established colonies, forming nexuses, sometimes causing a large cluster of extended nexuses with sub-optimal paths to the capital
   
4. Will form long lines to solar objects to connect a 'nexus' to distant colonies, sometimes creating multiple paths between colonies, especially with colonies in nebula

The gnawing issue is that the dotted line indicator isn't directly numerically represented. To verify this is true, one would have to specifically watch this while playing over time.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2799879677
Here shows that a lot of civilian traffic goes nowhere near these lines, such as the shown path of Swift Impulse, the small human freighter. This opening around the nebulae is a lot shorter between the bulk of the central group of the empire's stars and those closer to the capital.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2799883774

The way this empire expanded is in line with all the above. Many capitals that aren't near the edge of the galaxy can be easily identified by the lines with this in mind.

[Refurbished Hamster]

I don't understand why you think that any of what you said means it's not trade paths. All of the things you noted point to that conclusion. It's simply a trade snail trail, but limited to colonies so as to be readable.

[thipp]

With the way the game handles storage it really can't be trade paths. Planets only store up to their demand, so trying to ferry something through multiple stops doesn't work. i.e. stuff is only ever traded directly from A to B, not through an intermediate stop.

[Nightskies]

As thipp said. Ships will waypoint to stellar objects along the way, maybe refuel, but there's hardly a warehouse distribution network sort of thing going on. Well, to some extent, there is. Mostly for Caslon.

Proof that its not trade paths can be observed from the two images provided. Note the separation between the central cluster of worlds and the long path beneath it. Then on the second image, its clear that there are many civilian ships going between them. Resources are not cycling through the capital to get to/from those worlds.

Ships will go on these paths (especially between large colonies and planets that supply key resources and colonies in a nebula), but only incidentally. It doesn't come close to indicating major traffic, again as the images above show.

[Clapped]

Maybe Dev will chime in. These lines are a little puzzling.

[danielprates]

Originally posted by Nightskies:

As thipp said. Ships will waypoint to stellar objects along the way, maybe refuel, but there's hardly a warehouse distribution network sort of thing going on. Well, to some extent, there is. Mostly for Caslon.

Proof that its not trade paths can be observed from the two images provided. Note the separation between the central cluster of worlds and the long path beneath it. Then on the second image, its clear that there are many civilian ships going between them. Resources are not cycling through the capital to get to/from those worlds.

Ships will go on these paths (especially between large colonies and planets that supply key resources and colonies in a nebula), but only incidentally. It doesn't come close to indicating major traffic, again as the images above show.

I have convinced myself that it has nothing to do with trade. But am for now skeptical of it having to do with corruption as you speculate.

[Nightskies]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2800227586

This is what the lines look like immediately after loading a game. Same empire. Lines from every colony directly to the capital, income at miserable levels. The game runs for a few days, then adjusts these lines to the previous pictures, and income is back to where it should be.

Corruption on a distant world is 56% before the lines adjust, then go down to 32% *when the lines adjust. In this example, this world also is the economic bear of the empire, earning almost as much as the 2nd and 3rd most economic worlds combined, which in turn individually earn about twice as much as any other major world in the empire.

Apparently these 'nexus' worlds help with the distance to capital formula.

*I went and changed the capital, saved, and reloaded, and the lines now go directly to the new capital.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2800230858

[vaaish]

Are you certain the metric is corruption though. That just seems really weird and I don't know the value in using lines to depict this. Could it have to do with development or overall income or something else connected with the capital?

[ElanaAhova]

I've not looked at statistics or data on colones connected by these lines. Might they be a visual for the player - like the range circles around ships/fleets? And have nothing to do with colony corruption ranges, or ship / freighter / passenger liner paths?

[Nellvan]

After some experimenting I'm now sure it's simply the shortest non-nebula-crossing route from spaceport to spaceport and/or from colony to the next spaceport. Even if there won't always be a whole lot of ships actually going that exact way. (IIRC the same as it was in DW:U)

Load a (somewhat advanced) game. Let it run for a bit to properly load stuff. Lines, cashflow, ect to stabilize.

Now scrap some spaceports, preferably at "hub" places and watch the lines shift around more or less instantly.

That corruption thing could be coincidental, caused by somewhat similar calculation that takes place after loading the game.

[Nightskies]

Perhaps it could be merely another way to show a differentiation between nations. The images I provided happen to be a good example of that possibility, too - two human empires adjacent to each other with the same color, only discernible thanks to those lines. The complex method determining their formation could be nothing more than a way to tidy up all those lines. Which would explain why nothing about the lines is present in the galactopedia...

"Are you certain the metric is corruption"
I am only certain it is a connection from every colony to the capital.
It is my conclusion that it is a visual for determining distance to the capital, which is directly relevant to determining corruption.

[Nellvan]

Connection the capital, sure why not, but:

Originally posted by Nightskies:

It is my conclusion that it is a visual for determining distance to the capital, which is directly relevant to determining corruption.

Why would there be any triangular shapes then ?
Why would that colony in the "northwest", the one beyond the blue line, not be connected directly but through a much longer route ... oh right, there's an ex-pirate spaceport there and it is closer than the capital one.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2800269591

Then after deleting some spaceports : No change in corruption anywhere, only the lines changed to connect the spaceports / colonies to spaceports again.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2800269608