Aurenian

I think no matter how far out people go, more powerful factions will be waging war to keep the in game market focused on the starting worlds, where they have the most influence.

Honestly I'm over gatewars after EVE. It's the main reason I'm arguing for anything else. That and I think that the amount of back doors in such a system will make trying to hold a front line redundant.

I think how viable the gate toll business model is will depend on how easy it is to build a gate between two already charted worlds. If it's just a matter of resources and time then most big organisations will have their own gate network everywhere. The freight business is another matter though. Regardless of how interconnected the systems become, people are going to want ships to carry things.

I don't see why you think a gate network will give you the borders you seek. It won't be like EVE with 1-3 gates per system leading to the immediately adjacent systems. The gates will be built by players. That means they'll go wherever an organisation wants to put one, not set down by the will of the devs. I fully expect multiple gates leading between systems. Some public ones, but a crap ton of private ones built as back doors and secret paths. And not just to adjacent systems but also to far flung areas. The newest colony in 5 years time is just as likely to be connected to the first system via multiple gates as the one next door. The only choke points that exist will be frontier systems that only have one or two gates. But that will change quickly because as soon as there is one public gate every other organisation will send their own gate building ships through and there will be portals to twenty other systems in a matter of hours. There is going to be too many gates to watch, let alone guard. And that's without talking about the possibility of gates carried by large ships. The only way to realistically fortify your space is to have central military bases with gates going to every system you want to protect, and strong point defences on your holdings that are able to hold off an enemy fleet until you can get there. Or station forces at every holding. It works out basically the same as a universe with Teleportation or FTL speed. Except we spend a crap ton of resources and time building redundant gates. The only way you can reduce ganking is through good point defences and sensor networks. Pirates and griefers are going to slip through the net no matter what system of interstellar transport you use. Especially since you don't need to travel between star systems to hide. You can just build a mobile ship base and keep moving throughout the system to avoid detection. The best defence is to have a ton of automatic turrets waiting for them. Or hide yourself. If they implemented forcefields that would also go a ways to reducing potential troll damage. That way they couldn't just hit and run with something heavy, they'd have to reduce the shields first. Probably while taking fire from the automatic defences.

Also to be clear. When I'm talking about exploration taking time, the main sink will be the jump drive(s) recharging. During which you'll be figuring out how far to jump next, and in what direction. When you've traveled to a place you'll be able to figure out (or place) some markers that you know to jump from there X distance in X direction. If they have a co-ords system it will be even easier. But you'll still have to plug it in yourself.

Personally I think that all FTL should be done via instantaneous teleportation. But have the methods defined by logistics and security. ----------------------------------- Method 1) Jump Envelope. The warp generator creates a bubble a certain distance around itself and teleports everything inside to a location a preset distance away along a straight line. You plug in the distance for each jump and it takes you there. The jump requires an enormous amount of power which registers as a spike on any sensor in the star system. The generator then has to recharge before it can jump again. It does not work in gravity wells. The size of the Jump envelope is dictated by the number and placement of warp generators on the ship. One is enough for a small corvette sized ship (Serenity, Millennium falcon). Anything outside the field is left behind. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Method 2) Jump envelope + beacon You can set up a beacon that anybody can align and jump to with a standard jump envelope. The beacon requires warp generators to build and consumes them in its operation. While burning the beacon is visible on sensors within a few light years. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Border Countermeasure: using a warp generator plus some other components you can create a teleport area denial node (TAD). This creates a minor distortion in local space which prevents the use of jump envelopes within a several thousand kilometer bubble (exact distance subject to balancing). TADs require constant power to operate and are detectable within the same system (although they don't light up nearly as much as jump signatures) ------------------------------------- Method 3) Jump Gates Using several warp generators mounted to a physical gate and an ungodly supply of energy you create a stable portal between two locations. You need a gate at each end. An active gate is a huge continuous sensor spike in the system it is operating in. The size of a gate is dictated by the width of the arch and the number of warp generators used. One warp generator is enough for a person sized portal. For ships you need many, many, more. A gate is the only way to teleport within a gravity well and is unaffected by TADs. It is also the only continuous portal, with no recharge time due to its immense power input. ------------------------ Logistics Warp generators require huge quantities of exotic materials to make. A single warp generator is a big investment for a small operation. Enough to build a capital class gate along with the associated power infrastructure is a gigantic undertaking. A single generator gets you mobile between planets, but it takes a lot of trial and error and more importantly, time. Multiple generators allows you to either bring a bigger ship or jump more often depending on use. Putting together a gate permanently connects two locations with instantaneous travel from the orbit or surface of one planet to another. It's the most expensive option, but the most beneficial for trade and troop movements. Lighting a beacon allows you to jump somewhere reliably without the use of a gate, but is extremely costly. (still doesn't work in a TAD) Security You secure your borders with TADs by creating a large 'dead zone' around the places you want to keep secure. Between that and monitoring stations to detect and triangulate jump signatures you can keep your space locked down pretty tight. Would be attackers would need to jump far out of system and slowboat in from an unexpected angle, or find a way to drop a section of the zone through espionage. Either way it puts them on the back foot. (credit goes to schlock mercenary for the teraport area denial system http://www.schlockmercenary.com/)

I'm tempted to do this to get away from people. Just build a conglomeration of thrusters, life support and cargo that I can launch into the great unknown with a metric crap ton of raw materials on board. I'd have my spawn point on there and just work on stuff over the weeks in transit. Build up a whole heap of colony modules with a cargo flyer to carry them as well as some miners and light flyers. Then when I finally get to the far off destination just carefully land everything and turn the transit ship into an orbital station or spare parts. Eventually the larger universe would catch up. So I'd have colony ship mkII ready to go as soon as I sell my planet co-ords to the highest bidder

Maybe that's a reason to do it as a block only organisation leaders can place. That way they can regulate who has access through permissions. Also if it's a fixed block then you have the option to walk closer or further away depending on how much you want to listen.

From what I saw of it the main skills in eve were learning how to fly, manage people, and work as a team. The training trees got in the way of actually playing the game.

If there's an option to mute all player chat then the mics could just be a block anyone can place.

Here's a completely non core, absolutely cosmetic, late game patch idea. Have an indestructable microphone element which is only placeable by the developers and which has its permissions regulated by someone nominated by them. It only gets placed in bars and other meeting places which are popular spots for players to mingle. It's basically a sound block that plays your desk mic sound within that space, with less volume the further you are from the block. If you are in there the mic block will just be part of the background noise. If you want to hear the person speaking clearly then you just go up closer. If you have the permission of the proprietor you can use their mic block. If you are a good entertainer they might arrange a contract with you to pay you in game money for your services. A variant of this might be a mic block that any organisation leader can place in order to do briefings in-universe. In which case the aforementioned bar owner could just add people to an 'entertainer' sub branch of their organisation to give them access to the mic.

Yeah I don't mean build the same item 1000 times until your smithing skill unlocks. I'm talking about real ship building and experimentation which makes you, the player, more skilled. The whole point of building things for fun.

Sure. If they go with the eve style lock on combat then there won't be a lot of player skill involved in targeting. Having arbitrary skill trees for it isn't going to make that better though. It just means that every fire control officer will have the same skill set trained and lock time will come down to human reaction time (and lag). I think things like lock times and sensor distance is better handled with technology and tactics. Make a ship with good sensors, Have scouts and drones on the perimeter to hunt for the enemy. If you get the drop on someone and start firing before they can open the weapons menu then you'll have a bigger advantage than systems lock III

I'll probably build a ship to call home and just dock wherever I like the local security forces.

Sounds good to me. I'll keep her pointed at the enemy, you light em up!