Are jump gates a good idea?

Still waiting to hear where people want to go and why.

Deafening silence in response to my question about what purpose people envisage using these for - to where and why?

I envision it as a faster way to getting near places I want to check. Not exactly sure what other uses there would be for a super highway other than getting places faster.
 
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If they were in the game as worm holes to just 4 quadrants of the galaxy I'd have to assume someone wanting to explore in the upper right hand corner could "jump" there and then start exploring, rather than schlepping all the way out there first.

I envision it as a faster way to getting near places I want to check. Not exactly sure what other uses there would be for a super highway other than getting places faster.

So, as I alluded to earlier in the thread - go "explore" for juicy ELWs without the hassle of actually being a traveller. Nope, doesn't cut it with me. If you want to farm the ELW fields E of Beagle then travel there.

No - I don't like the idea of jumpgates ... but hey that's just my personal opinion. F D will decide if they ever get discovered / developed / whatever.

I would like exploration data to be valued with a multiplier based on distance from (say) Sol - that would reward people more for making long trips and perhaps reduce the incidence of people requesting jumpgates.



You shouldn't ask such tough to answer questions?

Smugly... I made a suggestion earlier :p


I missed that one. ;)

Actually if one were to actively consider jumpgates, one concept could be that the level of support / logistics / whatever could be such that only well-populated zones could operate them, then there would be an excuse for a Bubble-Colonia "gate". However just that one introduced into the game would no doubt result in a plethora of them before long. So even then I would vote "no".
 
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So, as I alluded to earlier in the thread - go "explore" for juicy ELWs without the hassle of actually being a traveller. Nope, doesn't cut it with me. If you want to farm the ELW fields E of Beagle then travel there.

Well, to be fair, you DID ask what they'd be used for:
Still waiting to hear where people want to go and why. Deafening silence in response to my question about what purpose people envisage using these for - to where and why?
If they were in the game as worm holes to just 4 quadrants of the galaxy I'd have to assume someone wanting to explore in the upper right hand corner could "jump" there and then start exploring, rather than schlepping all the way out there first.

My response was conjecture on possible uses - i.e., to answer your question of "what they could be used for." The response I gave was actually a very real use for such a device.

The possibility is that if someone goes out to the far right hand quadrant, explores, then returns for a few months, then wants to go back to that "area" and start exploring again, continuing further and further, that, to me, anyway, could be a valid use for a one-way wormhole. Understand that I'm not all for them, but was explaining the possibility of what they COULD be used for, if they existed.

Personally, I don't actually care for them. They can be used as "choke points" by players to extract tribute for explorers coming through (see EVE Online).
 
I missed that one. ;)

Actually if one were to actively consider jumpgates, one concept could be that the level of support / logistics / whatever could be such that only well-populated zones could operate them, then there would be an excuse for a Bubble-Colonia "gate". However just that one introduced into the game would no doubt result in a plethora of them before long. So even then I would vote "no".

That was why my suggestion was so ridiculous - no-one would really want it :)
 

Rafe Zetter

Banned
They come off as gamey to me. Why not add space highways next.

*sigh* Because he's talking about a gate that goes a significant distance, not inside the same system.

Something like having a gate to specific places of importance like Earth from Founders world - or to each of the powers home systems and Colonia.

Just a few - not bloody EVERYWHERE.


If you think about it - the tech wouldn't be that much different from a ship's drive, they would be large enough to have thier own massive power sources to cross the larger distances and the reality is once such a thing happens (one day, if humans don't become extinct) they probably WOULD put gates between specific important systems, if jump distance for ships was still a massive limitation.

It's a natural progression.

When teleportation technology finally gets invented you can bet your paycheck some of the first places they get used is between London / Washington / Paris / Berlin / Sydney and so on, and prolly limited to those who need to use it, so the ED gate system could also be locked down by permit / military rank and other factors such as being wanted by an allied faction, now or anytime within X period of time in the past.

Short answer is yes, they’re a good idea, but no, we won’t ever get them because the sense-of-scale zealots will throw a biowaste-fit.

Because they are shortsighted fools (as are most naysayers) - read my other post for reasons.

Remember in Eve one of the troubles is the Jump gates being block by PvP. People would be forced into a solo in Elite Dangerous to use them. Annoying. Also, David Braben in the earlier interviews said he did not want Jump gates in the Galaxy it would make the galaxy smaller.

Note you can get to Colonia in 107 jumps we don't need jump gates.

Straw man, people are forced into solo for a hundred other reasons other than gate camping - so lets not throw out that as a good enough reason shall we?

107 jumps, from where - how long does that take - and is that an average number for everyone or with a maxed out superjump ship?

Between Colonia and Earth makes absolute sense for so many reasons.
 
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I don't really see why jump gates is the way to go, to make long distance travel more accessible. Jump gates are rigid. They go from one system, to another system. These systems would generally be of high population or important resource locations.

We already have ship transfer. This mechanic could easily be expanded to allow the pilot to go along for the ride. Ship transfer is balanced for cost and time. It could allow casual players to move greater distances, while AFK.

For travel to non populated regions of space(these regions would never get a jump gate), I think it would be ok to allow NPC crew to take the helm. They could jump and scoop a plotted rout.
 
The game does need some form of classical fast travel. But I'd have it be for pre-visited locations. That seems a decent win-win balance between gaming QoL and the space-suffering strand.

Some kind of nodes throughout the bubble, possibly tied to visited nav beacons for that system, could make for an intriguing hotspot aspect?
 
Slippery slope to be going down... I will say I would love if people played more outside of the bubble. I know there are explorers but Colonia is so far away and lacking, as is there won't be a significant population there any time soon. We say travel is too fast but what percent of the population has even made it that far?
 
The game does need some form of classical fast travel. But I'd have it be for pre-visited locations. That seems a decent win-win balance between gaming QoL and the space-suffering strand.

Some kind of nodes throughout the bubble, possibly tied to visited nav beacons for that system, could make for an intriguing hotspot aspect?

I would accept some sort of 'carrier travel' where you can dock with a megaship and it jumps a predetermined route, kinda like a ferry. However it would need to be implemented well, and with a very limited selection of destinations.
 
I would accept some sort of 'carrier travel' where you can dock with a megaship and it jumps a predetermined route, kinda like a ferry. However it would need to be implemented well, and with a very limited selection of destinations.

Yeah a carrier implementation could be solid, already has most of the building blocks in place, and would make for more dynamic / mutable 'camping zones' potentially. (The main thing it lacks for me is an obvious risk or skill aspect, which I think could play a role in making any form of 'fast travel' a more interesting addition, beyond pure functionality).
 
We say travel is too fast but what percent of the population has even made it that far?

The largest Colonia CG had around 11,000 participants - that was before 2.2 released to allow neutron boosts, so the journey would have taken 3-4 times longer. Many others have visited in the two years since, of course.

According to EDSM data, Colonia is the 16th most-visited individual system by total visits (ahead of well-known systems such as Alioth, Achenar and Lave). It comes a bit lower on the unique visits count, but still beats every single Powerplay capital and some of the more obscure bubble engineers. This data will be fairly strongly biased towards where experienced players go (and is PC only), of course.

Comparing traffic levels suggests that the Colonia region and the Sol region have approximately the same number of players per system.

So a fairly significant percentage of players are at least visiting, I would say.


Let's put it a different way - why should Colonia be expected to have a significant number of player inhabitants? It's a small region, you can't place new PMFs there, it's of no relevance to Powerplay, provides no unique services [1], etc. That's not to say there's no reasons to be there - I've been out here for over two years and have no reason to head to the bubble - but its major distinctiveness from the bubble is that it's a long way away from it: in other respects, a random chunk of fringe systems (or the Pleiades) is pretty similar from a pure game-mechanics perspective, and they aren't exactly popular either. There's no requirement to visit Colonia.

[1] If you're a long distance explorer the fact that it provides most services at all makes it unique for that region. But they're not going to be bothered as much by the travel time in the first place.
 
Maybe as a gate fsd booster. In Babylon 5, the jump gates didn't instantly emerge out into another location, only as an entry into hyperspace cruising without using a self-jumping hyperdrive. So maybe a few gates at popular systems for a 100ly initial boost added to the galaxy map plotting. Elite's story "The Dark Wheel" similarly had ships lined up to enter a hyperspace entry point from where they branched out to individual destinations.
 

Lestat

Banned
Maybe as a gate fsd booster. In Babylon 5, the jump gates didn't instantly emerge out into another location, only as an entry into hyperspace cruising without using a self-jumping hyperdrive. So maybe a few gates at popular systems for a 100ly initial boost added to the galaxy map plotting. Elite's story "The Dark Wheel" similarly had ships lined up to enter a hyperspace entry point from where they branched out to individual destinations.
How about using some of the mechanics that already in the gameplay. You know. Galaxy map or system map and buy system data so you can pick missions that closer to the main system. We have 1,000 systems that caters to both our needs. Start using common sense gameplay and you will not have an issue.
 
... Elite's story "The Dark Wheel" similarly had ships lined up to enter a hyperspace entry point from where they branched out to individual destinations.

That is because the original Elite was limited in the number of systems the game could handle at a time - so there were different "galaxies" that you could use a super-dooper hyperjump to travel to (i.e. get the game to load another set of 256 systems). - In reality these galaxies were effectively just different areas of the Milky Way.

This was covered up / removed from existence by the termination of GalCop and the loss of Quirium fuel for Hyperdrives until FSDs came along.
 
There is one jump gate in Elite on Raxxla. Once you get there and have your Witchdrive fitted, you can jump through the gate to any system in the galaxy and from anywhere back to Raxxla again. Pretty nifty.

Don't ask me how I know.
 
How about gates being a minimum of 1kly tunnel? That will reduce their frequency of use because unless you're out in the black, most star to star travel are short hops.
 
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