I think the wormhole indicator is boring. I don't know if it was designed to be temporary or not. The radar indicator is fine but why only that round HUD indicator? How about making an actual visible object where the wormhole is? It could even be as simple as a cloud or dark spot.

I know once you activate the jump, the animation sequence that follows is supposed to be the wormhole opening up, but I think a pre-existing object that expands as you enter it would be better.

I think it'd be best to make the object spherical somehow, so it could be approached from any angle without altering the view much.

The wormhole jump animation could be different than sector to sector jumps. Make it a little more grand. I can't imagine that any of these things would be that hard to implement and they'd make awesome screen shots or trailers.

I have myself been wondering how sector to sector jumps work... the backstory only details inter-stellar jumps, which need to be made between jump points, but says nothing about sector to sector jumps being possible. Could someone post a clarification to how it is supposed to work?

you arent jumping sector to sector you are sector warping. and it used to be a cool little super speed away thing until some jerks abused it and it got made into the boring wormhole thing

The animations are supposed to be different.
I think its on the to do list.

They were different. Then the whole community was screaming about how easy it was to run away, and thus the sector to sector jumps became the same as wormhole jumps.

No, the whole community was complaining about how easy it was to warpkill things.

I loved warping with the zoom. I bounced off capships all the time for fun. I can still do it now, but not as fun :(

Wormholes used to be spherical, visible objects.
They were ugly as hell.

I GOT IT!!!

in the news, scientists have been checking out blackholes with xray technology, if there was some "change view" button trigering an xray or heat signature vision, that was pretty good at showing only WH's and engine thrusts, then it solves two dilemas. (the "find your convoy in open space extreme fun time")

Whilst I was not around in the 'warpkill' time times, I too would like to see different graphics for within sector travel and sector to sector jumps.

For example within a sector you could warp at highspeed but not being able to do anything, or interact with anything. Just think of it as tho you're warping outside of normal space, or you are phased whilst warping until you reach your destination or get caught in the obligatory ion storm. Just like Voyager's transwarp or Battlestar Galactica's jump where they work out the jump beforehand.

So you get clear of any objects, select where you want to go, accelerate -> cool graphics -> cool graphics -> drop out and slow down before allowing the user to take control, plus it can take into account the distance needed from objects to allow for a clear jump as the initial acceleration into warp could still be disrupted by objects in the way.

Wormholes for sector to sector are still the best idea but if people aren't liking the DS9 esque 'now you see it, now you don't' approach how about a constructed gate 'a la' Lost In Space (terrible movie, could have been so much better) through which you have to pass to enter the wormhole. Or you could have a stationary beacon flashing away on the perimeter of the wormhole?

The structure of the wormhole, as I understand it, is a gravitational anomaly that allows space to bend and fold in a specific, repeatable pattern. Since gravity cannot be seen by the naked eye, it would explain both the visual representation of the wormholes in the radar and HUD (marked wormholes are logged with your ship's navigational computer, which provides a marker for your use) and the LACK of such representation in other points of space.

You could be flying through dozens of wormholes and not know it, because your ship doesn't carry the equipment to find them.

~D.
"Nigel"

Separate graphics for the two are on my list. Hopefully that'll be Soon, like weeks, rather than Soon-months-and-months. But we'll see.

Sounds cool, can't wait! Thanks Incarnate.
Does that mean its still gonna be a wormhole style jump or something different like warping?

Because I just thought, if a wormhole is a bridge from one point in space to another via a fold, then people wouldn't get stuck in any Ion storms en route, unless there is one present at their destination, because they are not actually travelling through space, they are jumping from one point to another!

If it's gonna be warping style travel then Ion storms, gravitational eddies, blackholes, pulsars etc... could all affect the travel thus preserving the "oh cr@p, im in danger" part of travelling.

Incarnate;

The problem with a visual representation of the wormholes is that they're visible. Since there are some undiscovered womrholes out there, in theory, the idea of being able to see them at a glance sort of clangs. Just something for you to take into consideration.

Croesis;

Bear in mind that there are three different methods of traveling for three different cosmic distances. Gravitic-pulse engines are for intra-sector travel. Warp jumps are for sector-to-sector travel, and wormhole jumps are for system to system travel. The only time you run into an ion storm is during sector-to-sector travel via a warp.

~D.

I understand your point Klabbath and I must admit I did get a little confused, probably because the warp effect looks exactly like the wormhole jump, hence the reason why i'd like to see a different animation for warp jumps, rather than it looking like a wormhole jump. I will then be a happy pup!

About the wormhole vis rep;
Whilst I agree that wormholes are gravity phenomina, and gravity as we know it cannot be seen, we CAN se the effects gravity has i.e. BlackHoles. They can be 'seen' by their lack of light emission due to their intense gravity field. Although wormholes are nowhere near as powerful as blackholes with regards to gravity, its a possibility that wormholes may cause some visual distortion against the background starscape.

There could be a slight visual wibbly-wobblyness indicating the wormhole's event horizon. This may only occur, however, if the pilot is very close to the WormHole's entry point, as the further away, the harder it is to distinguish anything against the background starscape.

This doesn't mean that I want rid of the HUD or Radar marker tho', I like them.

Unnerstood. Incarnate usually has pretty good ideas. (Not the one about using whipped cream in place of shaving cream, though. What the hell were you thinking?) I'm sure the new graphics will be all kinds of tasty.

~D.
"Nigel"

..hate to bring this up again, but one way I envision eventual "exploration" in this game to work doesn't even involve wormholes at all (making visibility a moot issue), but uses a purpose-built light frigate with "folding"-based engines (like BSG)... check it out as part of my "Vedetta 2009" prognostication thread here:

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/9/13692#172442

I saw that, Thuri. I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of a man-made wormhole. On the one hand, the ability to make them anywhere (within certain rules) has some appeal. On the other, I sort of like the random scattering.

I have this prescient feeling that the Devs are going to do something completely at right angles to whatever we think up, anyway.

~D.
"Nigel"

I posted in the non-warp travel thread about a sector to sector jump that moves you from one place to another without jumping. You see everything fly by like in EVE.

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/14503#182574
It related to this thread so I'm referencing it here.

It would make the universe seem bigger and connected.