Forums » Suggestions
Travel - Some Thoughts
Ok, a few thoughts:
The biggest problem here is that, even though Space is Infinate, travel through it in this game is incredibly limited. We have the universe, and it's devided into Systems. The only way to cross systems? At a few, limited Wormholes. Each system consists of an infinately large Sectors. The only way to cross sectors? Jump-Drive.
So, even though it LOOKS big, effectively there are only a handful of worth-while places, and a limited numbers of ways to get there. What this game NEEDS is more travel options. Starting with the ability to not only manually cross sectors, but to manually cross SYSTEMS.
Now, the arguement for crossing Sectors is easy. The jump-drive is there for convenience, but if someone WANTS to fly from A-1 to L-10, why not? Let them. It'll take awhile, but that could be fun. Similarly, sure, the Wormholes can be the quick way to new systems, but can you imagine a convoy of traders working around the long way to avoid pirates, or a fleet of Itani sneaking into Serco space for an attack? THAT would be COOL!
Of course, tweaking the time lengths and sizes to keep the game interesting would take some work, but could be doable. Another thought: make Jump-Drives only cross a certain distance, say, 5 sectors at a time, and link it to it's own power source that takes time to recharge after each jump - Maybe you can only get in 2-3 consecutive jumps before a cool-down wait for the system to recharge. Add in consumable Fuel (at an extra price) that takes up cargo space and can be used to instantly recharge the Jump-Drive, and you introduce all sorts of interesting possibilities for Traders who might be willing to sacrifice cargo space for more fuel.
After reading some of the threads, it seems that the major complaint is that travel is limited, both in method and by protection. If the ONLY way to get from point A to point B is a Wormhole, then yes, there's never going to be a way around those defenses. So, open up space so there are the infinate ways to get from point A to point B that there should be.
Oh, yeah, and what's up with the boosters? If I'm in a vacuum, and a Accellerate up to 120 kph (or whatever the speed units are in this game), I should NOT slow back down again when I stop. Maybe by continueally boosting, I can gradually build the speeds needed to cross from system to system without ripping my ship into tiny pieces?
The biggest problem here is that, even though Space is Infinate, travel through it in this game is incredibly limited. We have the universe, and it's devided into Systems. The only way to cross systems? At a few, limited Wormholes. Each system consists of an infinately large Sectors. The only way to cross sectors? Jump-Drive.
So, even though it LOOKS big, effectively there are only a handful of worth-while places, and a limited numbers of ways to get there. What this game NEEDS is more travel options. Starting with the ability to not only manually cross sectors, but to manually cross SYSTEMS.
Now, the arguement for crossing Sectors is easy. The jump-drive is there for convenience, but if someone WANTS to fly from A-1 to L-10, why not? Let them. It'll take awhile, but that could be fun. Similarly, sure, the Wormholes can be the quick way to new systems, but can you imagine a convoy of traders working around the long way to avoid pirates, or a fleet of Itani sneaking into Serco space for an attack? THAT would be COOL!
Of course, tweaking the time lengths and sizes to keep the game interesting would take some work, but could be doable. Another thought: make Jump-Drives only cross a certain distance, say, 5 sectors at a time, and link it to it's own power source that takes time to recharge after each jump - Maybe you can only get in 2-3 consecutive jumps before a cool-down wait for the system to recharge. Add in consumable Fuel (at an extra price) that takes up cargo space and can be used to instantly recharge the Jump-Drive, and you introduce all sorts of interesting possibilities for Traders who might be willing to sacrifice cargo space for more fuel.
After reading some of the threads, it seems that the major complaint is that travel is limited, both in method and by protection. If the ONLY way to get from point A to point B is a Wormhole, then yes, there's never going to be a way around those defenses. So, open up space so there are the infinate ways to get from point A to point B that there should be.
Oh, yeah, and what's up with the boosters? If I'm in a vacuum, and a Accellerate up to 120 kph (or whatever the speed units are in this game), I should NOT slow back down again when I stop. Maybe by continueally boosting, I can gradually build the speeds needed to cross from system to system without ripping my ship into tiny pieces?
Being able to fly between sectors would kill the server. The server only keeps track of each sector within a certain radius from the center. As you fly out it has to extend that distance out to keep up with you. Once you get to 2^42 ( I think) meters away from the center, the server will crash because it can't keep up with any numbers larger than that. (It has been done before) To protect against this, the game will automatically push you back once you get a certain, absurd distance away.
fly across sectors?!?!? suuure, if you want to spend a couple of weeks in your cockpit, watching the funky spacejunk float by... I imagine the sheer *SCALE* of space between sectors would boggle the mind...
anyhow, simulations aside, let's assume each of these stellar systems is as large as our own solar system... Anyone have exact figures on how many years it took the Voyager probes to even cross the orbit of Jupiter?? That's not even a tenth of the way to the heliopause, considered a convenient marker for the "end" of the system.
anyhow, simulations aside, let's assume each of these stellar systems is as large as our own solar system... Anyone have exact figures on how many years it took the Voyager probes to even cross the orbit of Jupiter?? That's not even a tenth of the way to the heliopause, considered a convenient marker for the "end" of the system.
thurisaz pretty much nails my argument for me. especially at the speeds we fly (and our speed limits are very very unlikely to change significantly), traversing between sectors would take weeks.
In case you're wondering, no, you can't crash the server by going way-way out.
The server cuts your connection at about 2ish million meters from the center of the sector.
The server cuts your connection at about 2ish million meters from the center of the sector.
They fixed that after Silicon's experiment.
http://www.roguelazer.com/chronicle/121002.html scroll down to "Skybox limit found"
http://www.roguelazer.com/chronicle/121002.html scroll down to "Skybox limit found"
Ok, I'll take the Server Crash as a valid arguement. But I wasn't suggesting a TRUE scale, obviously you'd need to chop it down for gaming purposes. And since the zones are MOSTLY empty, couldn't you start streaming in the next zone's data to the client upon reaching a certain distance from the zone's center, so that upon reaching the edge, the server could simply move you from one zone to the next with minimal load times?
That aside, though, I still believe my point about needing more methods to get from place to place than the magical warping. I did see on another thread somewhere a post about the warphole locations randomizing. That could help to a degree, but it's still creating a bottleneck in transit that makes it too easy to block certain players out of certain systems.
Maybe some new ideas will come to me the more I play (3/2/1/1 now). Don't get me wrong, I'm loving it, I'm just suggesting a few things ;)
And no one answered the boost thing, heh. Why DOES boost slow back down?
That aside, though, I still believe my point about needing more methods to get from place to place than the magical warping. I did see on another thread somewhere a post about the warphole locations randomizing. That could help to a degree, but it's still creating a bottleneck in transit that makes it too easy to block certain players out of certain systems.
Maybe some new ideas will come to me the more I play (3/2/1/1 now). Don't get me wrong, I'm loving it, I'm just suggesting a few things ;)
And no one answered the boost thing, heh. Why DOES boost slow back down?
okay, then..... boost:
we've all been assuming that turbo is some sort of afterburner type thing.. what if it was an electro-gravimetric device that did funky things to your inertia/mass to make your normal thrusters more efficient for a short time... namely, till it runs out of juice. I'm actually a bit surprised this hasn't been offered as a storyline solution to the "impossible" afterburner... if I had more time to think about it, I might even come up with a vaguely plausible technical explanation.
...then again, I really don't have the math, so :P~~
we've all been assuming that turbo is some sort of afterburner type thing.. what if it was an electro-gravimetric device that did funky things to your inertia/mass to make your normal thrusters more efficient for a short time... namely, till it runs out of juice. I'm actually a bit surprised this hasn't been offered as a storyline solution to the "impossible" afterburner... if I had more time to think about it, I might even come up with a vaguely plausible technical explanation.
...then again, I really don't have the math, so :P~~