General Fleet Carrier jumps to any point in the galmap

[Iron Body]

There are many stars around the edges of the galaxy that are unreachable because they lie beyond the 500ly jump range of fleet carriers. These stars would be reachable out to thousands of light years if FCs were able to plot a jump to any point within the 500ly range, even if there is no star system there.

The galmap could be used to pick such a point by zooming in, and by displaying the coordinates of the cursor.

 

[Northpin]

if FCs were able to plot a jump to any point within the 500ly range, even if there is no star system there.

But carriers can only jump to a star. They cannot jump into nothingness - no star, there is nothing there.

 

[Ohanka]

This is impossible. There is nothing in the space between systems, so there’s nothing to jump to. Nothing for the game to load you into.

 

[SergMx]

But carriers can only jump to a star. They cannot jump into nothingness - no star, there is nothing there.

I wanted to object to the author in another thread as well, but if you think about it, it's on FC that it can be done. It sounds very strange, but I think you'll understand.
Essentially FC will generate an instant that no one can get into ... a dynamic empty system with no bodies or anything ...
FC doesn't need to get anywhere, FC itself can't fly, it just has coordinates where it is and that's it.

 

[Fnord Velkor]

Maybe the upcoming Titan reverse-engineered drives can allow FC's to burrow through space without needing to actually "lock" to a destination star.

 

[anShpan]

There are many stars around the edges of the galaxy that are unreachable because they lie beyond the 500ly jump range of fleet carriers. These stars would be reachable out to thousands of light years if FCs were able to plot a jump to any point within the 500ly range, even if there is no star system there.

The galmap could be used to pick such a point by zooming in, and by displaying the coordinates of the cursor.

Sound very logical. AFAIK FC is an permanent, not-instantiating object, thus must have an absolute coordinates for current position. Would be pretty consistent if for jump absolute coordinates are used as well.

From another side, probably it will be not possible due to the same technical limitation that we can't SCO to another system.

 

[GroG79]

So we can reach stars that are unreachable? Yes very important. Might as well slap on a 5 gazillion tritium tank so we can get to andromeda

 

[aRJay]

Are those stars actually there or merely backdrop like Andromeda or the Magellanic Clouds?

 

[Azeos]

Someone, years ago, found 2 stars that were very close together and flew between them, and, if I recall correctly, all the stars you see are actually physically rendered and physically placed located sprites. So, the person got to the star (brought distance to 0) and it was just a star looking object hanging in space, they still had to jump to load the system.

 

[anShpan]

So, the person got to the star (brought distance to 0) and it was just a star looking object hanging in space, they still had to jump to load the system.

The main difference is that no system to be loaded in this case. I'm not an expert in Space mechanics, but it seems to be logical that if we can park FC in hundred thousands Ls form a Star, then why not few hundreds Ly, right? From software point of view we can stay in previous, in nearest or in a new, "blank" system. That does not really matter since completely nothing is there.
In general, IMHO, something like that would be excellent gameplay-wise development in far Exploration.

 

[Azeos]

Are those stars actually there or merely backdrop like Andromeda or the Magellanic Clouds?

Someone, years ago, found 2 stars that were very close together and flew between them, and, if I recall correctly, all the stars you see are actually physically rendered and physically placed located sprites. So, the person got to the star (brought distance to 0) and it was just a star looking object hanging in space, they still had to jump to load the system.

 

[Azeos]

The main difference is that no system to be loaded in this case. I'm not an expert in Space mechanics, but it seems to be logical that if we can park FC in hundred thousands Ls form a Star, then why not few hundreds Ly, right? From software point of view we can stay in previous, in nearest or in a new, "blank" system. That does not really matter since completely nothing is there.
In general, IMHO, something like that would be excellent gameplay-wise development in far Exploration.

The problem for this is, say you have to go x number of LY to get to a new star, and you use a chain of carriers. If one of those carriers goes down, the chain is broken, and you're kinda stuck in an unrecoverable state. What we need is not carriers, but space stations that can serve as waypoints in between the inbetween, as it were, something that would require a significant player investment, but, after establishment, would not be dependent on the inciting player's continued participation.

 

[anShpan]

What we need is not carriers, but space stations that can serve as waypoints in between the inbetween, as it were, something that would require a significant player investment, but, after establishment, would not be dependent on the inciting player's continued participation.

I might be wrong on that, but FCs are stations and using same ID space.
Personally, I would invest FC equiv. costs to something that much significant and meaningful. Even knowing that this particular "my" FC will stay there for good.