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Re: Realistically-Sized Systems and Travel

#166
Cornflakes_91 wrote:
ThymineC wrote:
Idunno wrote:How big are the systems in LT anyway? :monkey:
I'm not sure. As a default, perhaps a little larger than in Freelancer?
Josh said something like "twice the size of Freelancer system" iirc
I can live with that Cornflakes. :thumbup: The Freelancer systems were a tad on the titchy side. I need to be able to spread my wings and give the ultra-cruise mode (not sure what Josh will be calling his advance on the Freelancer cruise mode) a good workout. I also want the "highways" to be really worth using and very impressive to boot. *sigh* LT will be full of wonders. :D

I've probably said all this before but a little repetition isn't a bad thing.
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Re: Realistically-Sized Systems and Travel

#167
ThymineC wrote:Hm, I've noticed an inconsistency between some mechanics that have been proposed here and elsewhere.

In Jumpdrives, Jumpgates and Wormholes, I've argued in favour of letting wormholes be established between two points within the same system. In this thread, I've proposed a "transfer lane" concept (based on Freelancer's trade lanes).

Both intra-system wormholes and transfer lanes would allow for fast transit within a system, so is there any point in having both? Would we have to scrap transfer/trade lanes, or make it impossible for a wormhole to connect between two points in the same system, or is there some way of making both remain useful?
i pretty much agree with Cha0zz here.

jumpgates and jumpdrives should be big expensive modules, only to be mounted in big stations and ships
with approbiate pricetags.
so that it is possible to do in-system jumps, but not very useful for getting aroung multiple locations inside of systems
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Re: Realistically-Sized Systems and Travel

#168
ThymineC wrote:Hm, I've noticed an inconsistency between some mechanics that have been proposed here and elsewhere.

In Jumpdrives, Jumpgates and Wormholes, I've argued in favour of letting wormholes be established between two points within the same system. In this thread, I've proposed a "transfer lane" concept (based on Freelancer's trade lanes).

Both intra-system wormholes and transfer lanes would allow for fast transit within a system, so is there any point in having both? Would we have to scrap transfer/trade lanes, or make it impossible for a wormhole to connect between two points in the same system, or is there some way of making both remain useful?
I guess they could be somewhat different and serving different purposes in game.

Transfer lanes:
Built along main trade routes to speed things up. You won't find them in the outback, too expensive to build.
Optional gameplay features:
  • Can be sabotaged so ships fall out of transit (like in Freelancer). Useful for piracy or disrupting enemy supply routes :D
Wormholes:
More randomly situated. You can find them potentially everywhere.
Optional gameplay features:
  • Visible only at short distence, usually you need to scan for them. Not necessarily convenient for trade, but helpful for the deep space explorer.
  • End points may wander around some. That makes it harder to put up fortifications at the exits. Also contributes to the above need for scanning.
  • Limited lifetime makes them temporaty opportunities rather than part of a permanent route.
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Re: Realistically-Sized Systems and Travel

#169
Rabiator wrote:Wormholes:
More randomly situated. You can find them potentially everywhere.
Optional gameplay features:
  • Visible only at short distence, usually you need to scan for them. Not necessarily convenient for trade, but helpful for the deep space explorer.
  • End points may wander around some. That makes it harder to put up fortifications at the exits. Also contributes to the above need for scanning.
  • Limited lifetime makes them temporaty opportunities rather than part of a permanent route.
In my design, wormholes can be created anywhere through the use of jump-bridge generator modules. They can be sustained indefinitely so long as you keep supplying power. Therefore I cannot accept this as a solution.

I'm giving thought to the wormholes being way more expensive than transfer lanes suggestion, but my gut is telling me that something isn't meshing there.
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Re: Realistically-Sized Systems and Travel

#170
ThymineC wrote:
Rabiator wrote:Wormholes:
More randomly situated. You can find them potentially everywhere.
Optional gameplay features:
  • Visible only at short distence, usually you need to scan for them. Not necessarily convenient for trade, but helpful for the deep space explorer.
  • End points may wander around some. That makes it harder to put up fortifications at the exits. Also contributes to the above need for scanning.
  • Limited lifetime makes them temporaty opportunities rather than part of a permanent route.
In my design, wormholes can be created anywhere through the use of jump-bridge generator modules. They can be sustained indefinitely so long as you keep supplying power. Therefore I cannot accept this as a solution.

I'm giving thought to the wormholes being way more expensive than transfer lanes suggestion, but my gut is telling me that something isn't meshing there.
Edit: sorry for not reading your thread thoroughly.
But then wormholes being way more expensive than transfer lanes becomes a must.

If I can just park two cheap ships with jump-bridge generator modules anywhere, transfer lanes are obsolete. Because the portable wormhole solution strikes me as way more flexible and convenient.
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Re: Realistically-Sized Systems and Travel

#171
Rabiator wrote:If I can just park two cheap ships with jump-bridge generator modules anywhere, transfer lanes are obsolete. Because the portable wormhole solution strikes me as way more flexible and convenient.
To support regular traffic, you would likely need them to be stations equipped with beefy enough generators and JBGs (and plentiful supplies of fuel). But yeah, it seems like we either make maintaining wormholes like this really expensive, or we eliminate transfer lanes (we could still have HAVE lanes). But I'll continue thinking about it in case there's any other solutions.
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Re: Realistically-Sized Systems and Travel

#172
I fully support having realistic speeds, travel, system sizes, etc.

The only foreseeable problem, which no one seemed to mention so far, is lag.
I'm not familiar with too much technical detail, but I just have concerns that traveling at such speeds would cause loading lag one way or another.
Which may lead to stuttering and/or fps drop, lowering the smoothness we've seen so far, and thus degrade the user experience.
I don't even know if this would actually be a problem, but I'm just venting my concern so far.

Then again I'm sure Josh can come up with something fancy. :ghost:
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Re: Realistically-Sized Systems and Travel

#175
ThymineC wrote:As Cornflakes suggested, flying a battleship should feel a lot different from flying a fighter and the difference between both should be reinforced not just by quantitative differences in the scale of their attributes, but in the actual gameplay involved with handling both...

...Analogous to the mechanics that Cornflakes proposes in Jumpdrives, Jumpgates and Wormholes, both fields will absorb energy at a rate dependent on the situation and release energy at a rate partially dependent on their current storage level....

...In Cornflakes terminology as he established in the wormholes thread, jumpholes are raw wormholes, and jump gates are stabilised wormholes with structures...

...Cornflakes and I assume the existence of a communications infrastructure system composed of W-tech routers, transmitter or comm modules, and couriers (agents that carry information across space that doesn't have an established infrastructure)...

...To keep with cornflakes bandwidth idea, the more bandwidth that is available, the more news stories can be sent across the network and the more detailed they will be...

...Cornflakes proposed a pretty good alternative in IRC. He imagined that when you design a production module, you need to register the design with the hypothetical regulations committee that we assume to be making everyone agree to using the same currency and the same communication protocols, etc...

...What would be a lot more interesting, though, is Cornflakes' idea of charge permeation. I don't really see any immediate gameplay benefits of it but I've thought about it and it strikes me as a really elegant idea all the same...
I could go on. Easily.

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