This is a repeat of an earlier suggestion in the middle of an old thread. Since it is quite pertinent to the current discussion on deneb, I feel that it merits its own thread.

Problem description: Currrently, traveling from Deneb to grey is a very long and boring hike. Geira - Initros is 5 wormholes (=10 jumps) and Deneb - Jallik is even longer at 9 wh's (=18 jumps!). Since a lot of the actions is in the grey and UIT area, this makes it unattractive to fly to Deneb for combat missions. The nation space systems between the border and Deneb are mostly safe, making travel boring and uneventful. Many players have special alts in Deneb to remedy this, but that is a hack/workaround rather than a solution.

My suggestion: Add extra 'shortcut' wormholes from Deneb/Geira - Capital - Border. This cuts travel time for both blue and red to 2 wh's.

I include graphviz dot-renderings of the current universe and the proposed shortcuts taken from the old thread:



Current situation above. Note the very long and totally circular route from Sol to Jallik, especially the blue part.



New situation. The proposed wormholes are in green. Initros - pyronis is missing by mistake, just imagine it is there.

Benefits: Travel time from grey to Deneb is reduced significantly, making Deneb a more attractive hangout, especially if the rewards for participating are increased. Also, the 'main highway' in nation space of deneb - capital - border will become busier, offering more chance encounters and less empty space syndrome.

Also, I think the geography of the universe (spacography?) is more interesting, with some additional choice points and less of a boring circular route with exactly 2 wh's in each system. Adding wormholes is always tricky as more alternative routes also mean more chances of evading and less chance encounters, but in this case the nation space routes aren't where pursuit/evading is happening anyway and chance encounters on the main route will increase rather than decrease.

Additional opportunities/possibilities for the flyover systems:

I consider all systems currently between the border and deneb to be flyover systems, e.g. points on the map that most people not engaged in botting or mining ignore. These 'flyover' systems are now located in their separate arms. This gives some opportunities for making them more special by being further away from the core part of nation space.

As you move away from the core parts of the nation, space becomes slightly less patrolled; less mlitary and more pioneers, miners, and smugglers. These are the places where the hive is, where the interesting minerals are, and where not every wormhole has 20 turrets. Safer than grey, but perhaps more adventurous than the capitol and with greater opportunities for brave and entrepreneurial pilots.

Concretely, I would make wormhole security lighter, barracks less frequent, and if possible add some npc pirate activity. If you make the core (green) womholes heavily defended and the secondary ones less so, it becomes easier for an enemy pilot to infiltrate nation space (after the first heavily guarded crossing) as long as he avoids the main wormholes and sticks to the detour.

You could even make some of the non-barracks stations in remote systems like Betheshee and Metana allow docking of people without nation system standing (profit before patriotism), or add some corporation/minor faction stations like in UIT. This will allow for smuggling and limited PC pirate activity (limited by availability of ships and existence of patrols and turrets). Smuggling should give handsome rewards as the danger is still quite big. Have nation space military patrol these systems somewhat frequently to keep smuggling and pirating down to reasonable levels.

[If the purpose of the long trek from capitol to grey is to protect newbs by making the dangerous places a bit less accessible, make the new wormholes only appear on the map after taking some sort of combat-3 mission. This makes some sort of RP sense if they are newly discovered and not on the regular maps yet. ]

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Deneb thread: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/28447
Old post: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/27530#334105

The main problem I have with the specific configuration you propose is that it only leaves one buffer system between the capitols and Greyspace/Deneb, which makes it too easy for KOS individuals to reach them. They'd still be safer than Dau, due to the lack of minor factions, but they'd be significantly easier to reach than they are right now, especially if the devs ever finish fixing border turrets. I think that the Serco and Itani capitols should always have at least two buffer systems between them and the outside 'verse.

I'm still more of a fan of this alternate route I proposed a while back. The system names were a bit of a joke, but otherwise I was entirely serious about it. It wouldn't significantly cut travel time, however. I don't really think travel time needs to be cut on the Serco side. A hog-ii can make the trip across Serco space pretty quickly. I traversed the entire stretch in a moth laden with drain mines the other day, and it wasn't a big deal at all. The Itani, on the other hand, should get one or two bypass wormholes, positioned such that Itan still has at least two buffer systems on either side.

I agree with this. However, I'd like to add that the system map is too linear. You can only go to one system using one WH. If you think about it, it's a bit unnatural for something like this to happen (I'm assuming that explorers did not go through random wormholes that are actually scattered all across the universe but they just mapped it this way).

@Pizzasgood, yes. Switch Itan's and Artana's positions on vanetta's proposed map and it should be fine. Or even Metena's.

+++1 to a reasonable way to cut Deneb to grey travel time/distance.

+1 to either the OP or pizza's proposal.

@pizzasgood

I think it's a feature rather than a bug to have the capital directly adjacent to the border system. I am not a fan of the current state of security of nation space, in fact I think that nation space is one of the most boring places in VO. Space is not supposed to be safe.

Even in my proposal, there are three sets of turrets to cross: border station entrance, border station exit, and capital station entrance. Then, the capital stations themselves are guarded and it would not be strange to put some extra military capships on patrol and guard duty around these places. A dedicated effort by a good pilot to reach the enemy capital should have a good chance to succeed.

Indeed, if/when the devs fix the instakill problem with the border turrets they might think about beefing border security. Not with more turrets, but with patrol boats. Parking a HAC near the wormhole to the capital and adding some high-speed interceptors would make dodging turret fire a lot less pleasant. A monitoring system that sends a "A serco intruder has been spotted infiltrating the Jallik border, 250k bounty dead or alive" message to all nation space sectors can warn unarmed players and give people a chance to react.

In my view, nation space could use a bit of extra spice, and measures like the above are a more immersive and fun way to protect nation space than more jumps with more turrets.

Also, I do believe that Serco could use a reduction in flight time, although it is less tedious than for Itan. Most Serco players I know are (were?) based in Initros, and jumping 6 wormholes instead of 2 makes quite a big difference.