http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/13242?page=1

Not directly related to turbo and throttle, but an answer to the issue brought up in this thread by Incarnate.

"Why do I want to make it easier to move within sectors? Well, for one thing.. there's a tremendous amount of "space" that is currently unused, that I would like to make use of. Sectors tend to have one and only one point of interest (station, wormhole, etc). I have always wanted multiple stations spread out across a sector.."

Portal canon weapons.

A energy weapon that takes 250 power to fire, and shoots two projectiles at a time. The first travels at 250/ms for 4 seconds and then activates, the second at a much higher speed (5000+/ms) for the same duration.

These portals, unlike the portals in the game portal, are simply the same type of location used for Worm hole and storm escape activation.

Once created anything can use the open portal to travel in either direction, just like activating your worm hole and system jumps. It remains until the player launches another portal, leaves the sector, or a specified time has expired.

Different velocities and timings of the second shot could be designed into either different classes of the weapon, port size, or optional configuration of the weapon, so that for example the small port version fires its second shot at 2000/ms (Total Travel 8000) where as the heavy version shoots at 5000 (Total travel 20000). MK II's could push this to 2500, and 6000, or some other number, thus increasing the effective distance traveled between models.

so, if i were to jump through one of these portals, where would it take me?

you aim the portal gun at a station far off and fire the portal is just like a like a Wh you boost towards it jump and you arrive at the spot the fast projectile stopped at i really love this idea

Correct spidey.

The power cost keeps it from being used as an escape all non-NPC pirates system as the fleeing player would have to wait long enough for the battery to re-charge to activate it. Additionally the pirate could just as simply follow the player to the exit position.

NPC's would eventually have to be taught how to use the things. That could take a bit of heroic coding.

anyways this is a great idea

[Stamp of Approval]™

i dont know, it seems like it would take a while to make and it also sounds like something i wouldnt use much, i mean i wouldnt go way away from the station just to use this portal thing, i would go far away to do something else like mine or fight someone. and i just cant see myself taking up a port that id rather use for a weapon or another mining beam to be able to go back faster.

Bean: Keep in mind that this, and the other suggestions based around Incarnate's comments about "wasted space", revolve around the idea of a single sector containing far more points of interest than we have now. They'd be spread over a long enough distance that without a warp point generator like this you'd have to engage infiniboost and then come back in an hour.

I like the "mass transit" concept that this allows. Seems more like something that a capital ship would have to create and maintain (possibly at both ends?). That would also give it more strategic significance for very long-range battles.

Fun scenario: Two rival factions have set up outposts at opposite ends of an asteroid field, about 150km apart (over 10 minutes travel time at 220m/s). Who can get their torpedo-laden fleet of heavy bombers and frigates to the other side of the field and obliterate the opposing station first?

I think mr bean, that is simply because as Incarnate said, "I have always wanted multiple stations spread out across a sector.."

Having a device that lets you travel tens of thousands of kilometers or more every 30 seconds would allow for the building of stations hundreds of thousands of kilometers apart, and keep them in reasonable reach.

I also guess that this would take less time than a total throttle rework.

First: The system for random exit points in Ion storms exists, so some form of arbitrary launch point code must also exist.

Second: The entrance into sector code has a randomization of some sort that keeps people from appearing in the same distance from each other as they left from.

Third: There is some target consistency for landing in a sector, based on the sector you are coming from, so there must also be some code that puts in an invisible landing location, and is targeted based on your leaving sector.

I would think that adjusting this code to be dynamic in certain circumstances could be a bit tricky, but certainly not hard.

Another thought to add to this idea was suggested by my kid. Why not have the second shot speed work like the charge cannon?

For every 1e put in at 100e/sec or so, the second round travels 25m/s faster. Oddly enough, this would make a fully charged heavy battery quicker for making jumps less than 190,000m. The power conversion would not even up with the UC until 29 seconds had passed and the shot velocity was 48,740 m/s for a total distance of 194,960m.

It would also make defining the high end velocity less important. Jumps of greater than the battery capacity would take progressively longer to set up.

E.G: Heavy battery

At approximately 7.5 seconds the heavy battery would have drained plus its production.
The shot speed would be 22,500 ms for a total distance of 90,000m
With the 50/s re-charge, 1,250 m/s would be added or total full distance +5000m.

By having different versions have different max charges, you can control the ultimate range of the devices, without limiting them to only fire at the max range every time.

Hmm. Not a bad way to implement the mass transit that Incarnate spoke of in his earlier thread. I definitely prefer greengeek's "capital ship only" idea to the idea of a fighter-mountable gun, though. You can even sort of define it in the RP environment by saying that it's simply the normal "jump engines" using far more precise targeting coordinates provided by the anchoring ships at either end of the jump...

That could go two ways.

Without access to these on fighter ships, it would require a Cap ship of some form to get out to, or utilize the various locations in a sector. This would make for "Higher level" areas that were for the most part no-go for new, broke, or unconnected players, simply because getting to them would be unrealistic.

With different models, for example max range of 50,000 small port, 100,000 large port, and 250,000+ cap ship, all sorts of group combat tactical situations open up.

I personally would like to see them tried at the low range first, just to see how they get used, rather than wait for the cap ships to be player controlled.

Interesting idea. Limiting it to cap ships, or at least heavy 'portal capable ships' would make the logistics more interesting. Such ships would fill a carrier role. Given the low number of players however, such a limitation could make it difficult to arrange its availability.

Can a portal be shot? Could a pirate shoot a portal and destroy an in-transit trader who's trying to escape?

A second level of turbo (with restrictions on how it could be used to prevent easy escape from pirates) would be easier to implement I would think.

In response to Incarnate's wish, how different is a really big sector from a continuous system? If a sector is large enough, with enough objects in it, to require support for partial loading of sector data (I'm assuming that the current limitation in the size of asteroid fields etc is for performance reasons, so anything larger is going to have to start thinking about this), why not just have a single big system?

Sam.

*drools*

how I long for one of these for Verasi O-7. I believe the WH is 14 km from the station. Erg.

I think it would be cool if you could use these also if you want to stay where you are, but want another ship to go far away. you would just fire the cannon in front of the other ship, turn, and not go through it. This would be useful for those 1 or 2 ships in an escort mission that just don't want to dock.

-Panis Onar

If you're flying directly from the station to the WH in Verasi O-7 you're going the long way around :-)

Sam.

Well if it wasn't made as a port add on, I could envision specific classes of ships that were designed with this system built in, much like the storm Raptor's built in radar extender.

That way in large group incursions, having one would be necessary for each group that needs to portal as part of its strategy, offer a weak point in the assault team, and be designed to be less than ideal as a 1v1 combat vessel.

Going further, entire classes of specialized team orientated combat ships could be designed. Portal generators, radar, command and control, missile boats, etc.

Much like the Colonial Raptor from BSG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Raptor

the sectors are so big that you could fit all the stations and asteroid belts into one sector. devs, i dont kno how plausible this is, but you might wanna convert test: dev: or localhost: into one gigantic sector. i would help test it for you if you wanna try it. or not, seeing as it might mean a MASSIVE change in the client

and psyra, the rag already makes an insanely powerful missile boat. just figure out what to equip...

Sort of interesting idea. I'd like to see this device limited for usage only on *certain* types of capital ships. This way, the devices become a strategical asset which can cripple your entire fleet's movement if left undefended and was destroyed.

Also, can we call these jump nodes instead of portals?

I FREAKING LOVE THIS IDEA!

PsyRa, you rock!

I think only cap ships should be able to fire the portals; all other ships can travel through them, or they can be locked with transponder codes so only certain friends can travel through them. For example, a Serco HAC fires a portal jump (hereafter called a 'puddle jump') and then only serco ships can use it. As another example, puddle jumps can be limited to mission holders or guild members, so guilds can establish far-off bases within a sector.

P.S. to Scuba: jump nodes, puddle jumps, hypergates, whatever.