[Shadowstar]

I've been trying to do something like this for my Starscape mod, only what I want to do is make a Hyperdrive component.

The basic idea is that it is a component which will allow the ship to create a temporary warp point that leads into a sort of alternate reality of the game. The idea is that once your ship enters this alternate reality, it can travel across the map by going through the empty spaces between stars, and when it enters a system space all you see is a cool background graphic (something I can create with my artistic skills) and a warp point in the middle. Going through the central warp point would have the ship emerge from hyperspace in a random location in the system.

The alternate reality could be generated by the game based on the minimap (or the same data anyway). All it needs to do is have a bunch of empty areas that can be moved between simply by flying the ship off the edge of the screen. Areas with systems in them would use the custom graphics and have a single permanent warp point in them that leads to the corresponding system in the "real" reality.

It should also be possible for ships to encounter each other in the hyperspace reality and fight it out in deep space. Also, it should be impossible for ships with "open warp point" abilities to open warp points in hyperspace. It should also be impossible to close warp points in hyperspace (doing so would render a system completely unreachable).

Starscape games would run in maps without warp points and the hyperdrive tech would be available at the beginning of the game, or possibly with some research (different grades of hyperdrive would make the ship move faster when it was in the other reality).

The problem is, of course, that the game code would need to be altered on a fundamental level, which probably means altering the executable, as I am fairly certain with all my experimenting that such changes are not possible with the tools provided. This would be a true mod, not just an alteration of the data files, but an actual modification of the core game code. As I am no programmer, I would not be able to do this.

However, if someone else could, I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one who would be appreciative of the effort. Who knows? It could end up becoming the greatest SEIV mod ever made!

If there are people really interested in helping me develop this kind of mod who have the skills required, I would love to get started. I can contribute graphics, sound effects, and documentation, as well as game-mastering the Starscape games (I will be moving my mod over from Stars! so that will come naturally). I will also create the components. Those who help will get credit on the Starscape website.

For thousands of years, man dreamed of flying, now he dreams of hyperspace. Ain't that just lovely?