In light of the announcement for ferry's to Guardian space, once per week, I've come up with a much better idea. Lol
Actual Regular Ferries!
I personally don't really see the need for fast travel on short distances (800ly is a doddle). But I'm suggesting this anyway, because it would be fun.
I'd have the ferries as regular, live megaships that jump from A to B, maybe once per hour, maybe more often.
How it works is, each destination system has a persistent USS called "Ferry port".
Targeting it, tells you it's destination system, and ETA to next departure, like how USSs have details.
You drop in to this POI, and there's a security structure, basically a small outpost, and some nav beacons.
The entire area around the ferry port is high security, no fire zone. So no camping!
You can also get more information on departure times and destination here, by scanning any of the nav beacons.
Ferries jump in using the same method as capital ships, and parks up. A nice spectacle to watch.
You can then board the ferry, you request docking permission, but to avoid delays, you only have 2 minutes to dock, and can not re-request docking permission if you mess up within the last 10 minutes before departure. (So you can't hog pads forever)
Once you dock, you're immediately taken in to the hangar, and de-instanced, to free up the pad for the next ship. You can use services and undock up until the last 5 minutes before the jump. But you can not "return to surface", only launch.
The camera is limited to the hangar at this point, so no, you can't look outside.
The captain of the ferry will announce the jump, and you'll feel some movement, hear some cool charging noises for a few minutes, then jump, ideally with some awesome sound effects, and creaking, but you won't see much.
You'll arrive at your destination system, and be told to disembark. You WILL be ejected from the ferry if you don't launch within a few minutes, and a sort of guidance will park your ship at a safe spot.
And wallah! You're in your new system.
It's not free however, it'll cost a certain amount based on ship mass, and distance, and larger ships can become quite expensive to ferry.
This idea could also be used to jump carriers directly in to a combat zone.
But instead of undocking to a nice peaceful environment, you drop to debris and gunfire.
And that's how I'd do ferries.
Actual Regular Ferries!
I personally don't really see the need for fast travel on short distances (800ly is a doddle). But I'm suggesting this anyway, because it would be fun.
I'd have the ferries as regular, live megaships that jump from A to B, maybe once per hour, maybe more often.
How it works is, each destination system has a persistent USS called "Ferry port".
Targeting it, tells you it's destination system, and ETA to next departure, like how USSs have details.
You drop in to this POI, and there's a security structure, basically a small outpost, and some nav beacons.
The entire area around the ferry port is high security, no fire zone. So no camping!
You can also get more information on departure times and destination here, by scanning any of the nav beacons.
Ferries jump in using the same method as capital ships, and parks up. A nice spectacle to watch.
You can then board the ferry, you request docking permission, but to avoid delays, you only have 2 minutes to dock, and can not re-request docking permission if you mess up within the last 10 minutes before departure. (So you can't hog pads forever)
Once you dock, you're immediately taken in to the hangar, and de-instanced, to free up the pad for the next ship. You can use services and undock up until the last 5 minutes before the jump. But you can not "return to surface", only launch.
The camera is limited to the hangar at this point, so no, you can't look outside.
The captain of the ferry will announce the jump, and you'll feel some movement, hear some cool charging noises for a few minutes, then jump, ideally with some awesome sound effects, and creaking, but you won't see much.
You'll arrive at your destination system, and be told to disembark. You WILL be ejected from the ferry if you don't launch within a few minutes, and a sort of guidance will park your ship at a safe spot.
And wallah! You're in your new system.
It's not free however, it'll cost a certain amount based on ship mass, and distance, and larger ships can become quite expensive to ferry.
This idea could also be used to jump carriers directly in to a combat zone.
But instead of undocking to a nice peaceful environment, you drop to debris and gunfire.
And that's how I'd do ferries.