How is movement handled?

[Piglet]

Just wondering how ship movement on the galaxy map is handled in this game. Is it complete freedom of movement like in GalCiv and Distant Worlds, or is it a sector based dot to dot system where you only travel from one sector to another but don't actually have any control or freedom (in space) to go anywhere else?

Thank you.

[Adam Solo]

You have complete control and freedom of movement (i.e. you're not restricted by "starlanes"). You can send your ships to any system inside your supply range. The time to reach your destination will depend on the distance and on several other factors, like the drives you have, if you have a leader with the navigator skill, among others.

Certain nebulae will slow down your movement while a particular kind of nebula (Dark Nebula) will prevent you to cross it until a late tech is discovered or if you build a particular galactic wonder.

That said, fleets can only travel to/from existing systems in the galaxy map. Some are already visible from the start, while others you will discover through remote space exploration.

[Piglet]

Originally posted by Adam Solo:

That said, fleets can only travel to/from existing systems in the galaxy map. Some are already visible from the start, while others you will discover through remote space exploration.

Thank you for the reply.

I’m slightly confused about the quote above - can I ask how remote space exploration works if ships can only move from one existing system to another existing system, assuming they can’t just fly to any random bit of space in between?

I probably sound quite picky about this, and I understand it’ll be easier to just watch some let’s play footage once the game is out, but this is one of the most important aspects for me - I like space to feel like a huge open ‘space’ where you are free to explore, which is one of the main reasons I was disappointed with Stellaris - once I played it and found out you could only fly from once ‘pocket’ of sector space to another.

Everything else about your game sounds great, and I’m sure I’ll end up buying it either way (to try for myself) but I just wanted to clarify this.

From what you say I get the impression your game is sector based (so you can only move from one predefined sector to another) but you aren’t restricted by starlane paths forcing you to travel through a specific sequence of sectors to get across the galaxy map?

Thanks again.

[Adam Solo]

No problem ForthRight, I understand the concern as I too think the way you move your ships matters deeply in a space 4X.

Answering your questions, remote exploration discovers new star systems, previously hidden and reveals them on the map as new points you can travel to. The way it works is, you choose a sector, or sectors, and after a while you may or may not reveal new systems (brown dwards, white dwarfs, black holes, neutron stars, boson stars and rogue planets). All the main sequence stars are visible at game start.

Regarding movement through space, fleets travel from system to system (not sector to sector). So, say you have a fleet in system A and you want to travel to system B. Then, you pick your fleet and set the destination to system B. After a few turns the fleet will arrive. As I said, fleets can only travel between systems.

So, you can't go to a random place between stars but there's plenty of interesting locations to visit (and you aren't restricted by starlanes). There are also nebulas that will slow down your travel while others block it completely, but that restriction can be lifted in the course of the game.

Hope this clarifies your question.

Adam

[Piglet]

Thank you for the detailed reply.

Exploration definitely sounds more interesting than most system based space 4x games so that’s nice to hear, and i get the impression that distance and speed of exploration/travel will be controlled by the technology tree.

One final question since I assume you are very busy on release day. When you reach a system controlled by another faction (and they have ships stationed there) does this automatically trigger some sort of combat and or trespassing dialogue (depending on your relationship with the faction) or are you free to continue moving to different system on the following turns?

[Adam Solo]

Originally posted by ForthRight:

Thank you for the detailed reply.

You're welcome!

Originally posted by ForthRight:

Exploration definitely sounds more interesting than most system based space 4x games so that’s nice to hear, and i get the impression that distance and speed of exploration/travel will be controlled by the technology tree.

Yes, that's exactly what we aimed for, to give more depth to the exploration aspect in a space 4X game. In ISG, exploration endures up until the late game, because you will be discovering interesting new locations through the entire game's arc.

Originally posted by ForthRight:

One final question since I assume you are very busy on release day. When you reach a system controlled by another faction (and they have ships stationed there) does this automatically trigger some sort of combat and or trespassing dialogue (depending on your relationship with the faction) or are you free to continue moving to different system on the following turns?

When you reach a system controlled by another faction (they have fleets stationed there), you will get a combat dialog where you can decide to attack them or stand down. If you decide to stand down and stay, you will not get successive combat dialogs until someone else arrives, the faction there decides to attack you or by your decision through the "engage system" command.

As soon as you arrive at the system, and assuming there was no fight and you kept your forces, you're free to move on to another system next.

[Piglet]

That all sounds good, thank you.

I’m glad combat isn’t automatically forced on you (unless the other faction wants to attack of course), and you aren’t automatically forced to leave either. I’m looking forward to giving the game a try.

Good luck with the release! :-)

[Adam Solo]

Thanks! :)