Hyperspace travel, stargates.

[doomspike]

I remember back in the day watching babylon 5. So I thought, why not add something like hyperspace becons. A tech that allows construction of something similar to a wormhole generator, but instead links 2 local system to create artificial hyperspace lane.

Also in Babylon 5 ships without jump drives could navigate hyperspace network. Construction of jump gates in various systems could provide shortcuts inside the space and may be give economy and migration rate boosts.

Also how about stargates? Researchable by anyone, it links 2 systems together. Maintenance depends on distance. For races that use wormholes, works as a WH range amplifier. Could provide similar boosts as a jumpgate for migration bonuses and economy.

[Spirit]

its a neat idea ...
+1 from me

to the stargate version of it i think they can use the X series inspired variant on it

[LAG]

stargates on the ground that could instantly transfer armies would be neat.

[shadowwolftjc]

Neat idea, though this would have to be a researchable mid-late-game tech, like jump drives, as by itself, I don't see any way to travel from one system to another if either or both systems lack such a stargate. In order to build a stargate in a system that lacks one, you'd need a construction ship that relies upon another, less-limiting ftl method.

[HugsAndSnuggles]

Originally posted by shadowwolftjc:

In order to build a stargate in a system that lacks one, you'd need a construction ship that relies upon another, less-limiting ftl method.

Actually, no. What you need is to build stargate and send it packing (preferably with escort). What would be the point of hauling enough materials for construction half across the galaxy along with equipemnt to do it anyway?

[shadowwolftjc]

Originally posted by HugsAndSnuggles:

Originally posted by shadowwolftjc:

In order to build a stargate in a system that lacks one, you'd need a construction ship that relies upon another, less-limiting ftl method.

Actually, no. What you need is to build stargate and send it packing (preferably with escort). What would be the point of hauling enough materials for construction half across the galaxy along with equipemnt to do it anyway?

Then what would make stargates different from wormhole generators, which already create an artificial wormhole between the station and any point within range of the station? And without any other ftl travel technology, how the heck would these "pre-assembled" stargates reach their destinations within a reasonable amount of time?

[HugsAndSnuggles]

Originally posted by shadowwolftjc:

Then what would make stargates different from wormhole generators, which already create an artificial wormhole between the station and any point within range of the station?

Not much, except they are supposed to connect only two systems.

Originally posted by shadowwolftjc:

And without any other ftl travel technology, how the heck would these "pre-assembled" stargates reach their destinations within a reasonable amount of time?

Same as ships, easier even: you don't need to keep the crew alive duting travel. Always found whole "construction ships" concept silly.

[Nemund]

Originally posted by shadowwolftjc:

Then what would make stargates different from wormhole generators, which already create an artificial wormhole between the station and any point within range of the station? And without any other ftl travel technology, how the heck would these "pre-assembled" stargates reach their destinations within a reasonable amount of time?

I think they are envisioning them as a mid game tech to allow hyperlane empires to close off those annoying loops where two systems right next to each other are 8 jumps apart by hyper lanes. Not as an FTL method of it's own.

[shadowwolftjc]

Originally posted by nevyn0ad:

I think they are envisioning them as a mid game tech to allow hyperlane empires to close off those annoying loops where two systems right next to each other are 8 jumps apart by hyper lanes. Not as an FTL method of it's own.

Exactly, just as I had proposed in a previous post:

Originally posted by shadowwolftjc:

Neat idea, though this would have to be a researchable mid-late-game tech, like jump drives, as by itself, I don't see any way to travel from one system to another if either or both systems lack such a stargate. In order to build a stargate in a system that lacks one, you'd need a construction ship that relies upon another, less-limiting ftl method.

The post that you just replied to was a reply to HugsAndSnuggles's reply to the post that I made, that I'm quoting for reference. (Hope that makes sense.) From a gameplay perspective, I just couldn't agree with the idea of having to wait tens, or even hundreds, of years just to travel to a neighboring star without any flexible and/or standalone form of ftl travel, hence my suggestion that, instead of stargates being a starting tech, they should be made into a researchable mid-late-game tech (like jump drives).

Anyways, stargates could be given other advantages over even psi jump drives, not the least of which could include near-instantaneous transfer of ships from one stargate to another, even if it's located on the other side of the galaxy. Moreover, these could be used by ships that use any other ftl method, adding to its value as a galaxy-wide transportation network for quickly reinforcing distant star systems (even more so than a network of wormhole generators), even if the stargate is located in a nearby star system instead of inside it.

For the record, I personally envision stargates as functioning much like the stargates in Master of Orion 1 and 2: instantaneous travel between two or more stargates across the galaxy.

[annaliseh]

Originally posted by HugsAndSnuggles:

Originally posted by shadowwolftjc:

In order to build a stargate in a system that lacks one, you'd need a construction ship that relies upon another, less-limiting ftl method.

Actually, no. What you need is to build stargate and send it packing (preferably with escort). What would be the point of hauling enough materials for construction half across the galaxy along with equipemnt to do it anyway?

Yeah, you can only travel to a planet/system with a stargate. That is too restrictive.

Besides after the previous rebuff of WARP drive why would you go for anything else - except maybe PSI Drive...

[Spirit]

why not a combination of both ?
stargates to travel to clusters and then using warp in a certain distance like in mass effect
they have great and small mass relays

[Prydzen ᛋᛟ]

Why not mass effect tech? mass relays.

[NixBoxDone]

Can't see this being useful other than on very big to huge maps, connecting systems that would be three or four jumps apart even with jump drives.

The problem is that the travel systems are already pretty crowded. By the time you reach your 3d step of FTL, you are already not too far off from either researching jump drives yourself or having the fleet necessary to boop the Dimensional Horror/one of the Fallen Empires.

It would reside in a niche you will almost never be in for long enough to make researching the tech and constructing a network viable, unless they implement civilian traffic that will not have access to jump drives.

You could then make said civilian traffic route through those gates to speed up a cycle of buffs/improve growth of new colonies by having more ships get to them, or whatever.

Either that or make them instant travel without wind down.

Maybe make them uninterceptable by FTL snares and introduce tech to yank fleets out of FTL if they travel close to or OVER the system housing the technology, rather than only ships that directly use that system as a stepping stone.

So you'd have jump drives, but the enemy has a network of overlapping FTL snares that prevent you from passing, making transport via a bigger, stationary warp gate necessary. It could send your ships out instantly, with no need for winding down or preparing to jump, but only one way - to jump back, you'd need a second gate at your destination, making it viable as a quick response "space highway", or a good one-off shot at penetrating deeper into enemy space to attack more valuable systems.

Needless to say, you'd need for Paradox to implement some more rare or strategically important deep space installations to make one system/planet more valuable than another. At the moment, nobody gives a flying F about star ports, mining stations or the like in lategame. We'd need some huge massive installations that take decades to build and provide huge advantages to be worthy of protection first.