Why is it that in-system warp does not require energy, but when you exit warp, you have non left? I mean, it seems to me that you should either require energy to warp or you should have full energy when you dewarp...

Perhaps warp drive could consume different amounts of energy, depending on how far you travel. You wouldn't be required to have a full battery if the distance is short etc. Same thing for system wormholes. The energy required for any type of wormhole could maybe take an absolute value of energy units rather than being required to wait for a full charge. Why does a heavy/heavy combo ship have to wait for a full charge when a light/light combo of the same ship can make it with 2/3 less energy?

Perhaps (and this is a scientific answer):

Your battery has to be switched offline to make the warp jump because if left on, Light Speed+Impulse Power could potential cause massive hull stresses and over G the hull or in extreme cases cause the very fabric of Space/Time to rip. This would explain why when you exit the gate your engines are offline and you have to restart them up again.


As for making in-system transit consume energy. I really dislike the idea. Already the 3000m thing makes a traders life hard if a pirate jumps them but then they have to stay relatively stationary for several seconds. They're best bet for escape lies in a Full Burn Warp Hop, (where you intiate the jump already at Full Burn).

I'd be damn impresssed if anyone doesn't have a full battery after waiting 15 seconds to jump without turboing or shooting. (Yes I know we don't have to wait 15 seconds right now... but I'm assuming we will have to again in the future)

Artificial timers suck. I think going out 3000m is enough of a time delay for you to make it out safely. And hey, I don't like the idea of in-system warp drive consuming energy, but c'mon there's gotta be way to explain why you come out with less energy. The alternative would be to take that energy drain away completely when entering a sector, which I guess doesn't seem that bad considering you're still invulnerable and can't fire.

Still, I feel that the range of warp drive should be limited to a certain number of sectors (or "squares"). I think the best way to regulate that would be to give each sector square an energy requirement for passage, which will total up with the number of squares you're traversing, thus determining the total number of energy required to engage warp drive.

In any case the devs hinted on players being required to travel more in future releases, rather than hopping from system to system. They didn't say how exactly so we'll have to wait and see.

=l

mr_spuck's explanation of the no energy after jump phenomenom:

For a jump the energy in your ships battery has to be converted into special jump-drive-energy(tm), which can be generated from normal energy but not the other way around. In-system jumps only require a fraction of the energy of inter-system jumps, thats why you don't need a full battery for them.
But since both forms can't be stored in the same battery your ship has to convert all the normal energy in your battery into jump-drive-energy uppon jumping. When your ship leaves hyperspace the jump-drive-energy that is left gets tossed into space because it can't be converted back and is useless now. Thats why your battery is empty after jumping :P

hth :D

I've always been perplexed by the reasoning behind the warp system. The answer, I'm sure, is that it's based on the devs balancing the game more than how cosmological theories affect speculation about FTL travel. I'm not sure if the balancing is right though.

Here are my thoughts:

1) Travel through a wormhole should consume no more energy than does dropping a rock down a well. Ok, maybe we have "open" the w.h.. If the light battery can do it, the heavy battery should be only partially depleted. Ok, maybe the w.h. shorts out the battery. Ick, senseless.
From a game perspective, I recently warped into a pack of Sentries, asteroids all around so no warping out, 0 battery so nothing but missiles, 0 battery so no running. Exciting yes, a car wreck is also exciting.

Possible solutions: a) only partially deplete the battery. b) do not warp the player into the bot zone.
In fact, why warp to within 3000m of objets?

2) One can initiate an in-system warp anywhere, yet the entry point seems to be always the same. This means that every sector has an entry choke point often with no quick escape and limited defence. This will be too good for pirates and griefers.

Possible solutions: random entry points 3000m out.

3) I very much like Arolte's idea of limiting sector travel to battery charge. It has a more realistic feel to it and I think it would work for the game. Right now one can cross the universe in a bus quite quickly. Making this more difficult will produce a more gradual unfolding. New players in particular would be forced to congregate and cross paths more, reducing the loneliness that so many current players complain about.

I would even go further, though I recognize this probably goes against the overall concept that Guild has for the game. I'd like to see much more complex ships. In this case, separate system and sector jump engines. You can't even buy system engines until trade 1.

*bump*

I agree with both your points, Mariner. Right now the spatial relationship between sectors in a system is rather meaningless, other than a few neat graphical features (location of sun and planets) and the point of entry into a sector. But practically speaking, it currently makes no difference if you jump to an adjacent sector or a sector on the far side of the system.

Limiting jump distance to how much energy you have *might* be just another headache, but in my humble opinion I think it would help create a better sense of distance and space across a solar system. Rather than being able to pick a random sector and think "Oh, I'll go here" you'd have to consider how far you were traveling.

Perhaps each sector traversed would require 50 energy, and you would enter the new sector with however much energy the battery had left. That way with a full heavy battery you could still jump all the way across a solar system, but a short jump would be less taxing and safer (as per Mariner's 'car wreck' scenario).

i feel that the ships we have now are like fighters or sport cars. Fast, nimble, and small. I think that these ships should be able to warp without restraint (no warp timer or distance limit) But I do like the idea of timers and a distance limit on larger ships (ie Frigate) Cause you need to put limitations on larger ships otherwise they would have to much power. Where as smaller ships with limitations placed on them would take away any of their power.

I say this mostly because once we have larger ships the ships we have now will mostly fall into n00b ships and escort and pirating type roles. By adding limitations to large ships you also add a sense of strategy to using a capital ship rather than "hey im in the biggest ship in the game im going to go kill people for no reason and get away with no problems" you would need to plan "ok ive got my escort fighters incase bombers come, ill stop off at this staton and refuel before i head into enemy space, once there i can stay for about ## mins, and then the closest station i can refuel in is ## away and i need to get there before i go to the wormhole or i wont be able to jump" and then of course that could lead to another battle as people will know which station that capital ship is heading towards to refuel. Making it a game of wit for capital ship owners rather than a fragfest. But yet not limiting fighters in their ability to protect capital ships and move about with ease.

But we won't even GET capital ships until "sometime after release".

Im going to maintain that I think the battery has to be turned off for the jump even though you are entering a wormhole like object that requires no power to move you through it. The only problem is, since instant travel + additional speed generates a faster than instant travel effect, you would rip the fabric of time, thus being flung FORWARDS into the future, with no way to return and no clear exit vector.

ahem. A problem with the logic of faster than light travel? Noo... ;)

Don't worry about it from a realism standpoint and instead attack it from the angle of gameplay and enjoyability.

SilentSuicide: i think your analogy of these fighters kinda true. "Fast, nimble, and small" is great for fighting in a sector. but then it comes to jumping i think that its a whole nother ball game. inorder to get that fast, tight handling in a small package something should to be sacrificed, and i think jump range sould be it.

also, rememnber that a capital ship is a huge undertaking, you have to build the stupid thing, man it (someone has to operate all those turrets, and the wings of defence fighters (what you thing thoes turrets will defend it?)), and its a sitting duck for anyone who can get past the turrets and fighters (heck from what i understand the slowness of manuvering breaks mouselook).

now ask your self, "what is the benifit?" im going to assume that is has a large, forword-mounted weapon of some type the problem is, what can you hit with it? you could hit a space-staton (yeah, like the devs are gonna allow me to do THAT) you could hit another capital-ship.

as i see it, a capital ship will be weak enough as it is. there needs to be some kinda benifit to having one.