B5 style Jump Gates

[Val]

I've been trying to figure out some way to make Jump Engines for quite some time.

Right now the B5 Mod does feature:

1) Jump Gates replacing WPs - at least the pics have changed

2) Jump Gate 'Ships' that can be built in a location and then loaded with the huge (and costly) jump gate component, which could then be used to open a gate to a new loaction - but the component is destroyed on use.

3) Jump Drive for ships - large component that will allow you to open and close jump points, this component is intended only for human v. human games and the AI won't use it. The idea is that all human players agree to close the jump point after passing through, and not to use it to close active gates - more of a roleplaying rule.

I would love to see some sort of time delay auto close or even a time lag when jumping between to points, but nothing like that is possible - as far as I can tell.

Another thing I was working on is a B5 Map with Hyperspace sectors that all gates will be connected to, to represent travel time through Hyperspace. Only wish I could limit new Jump Gates to open only to Hyperspace! (I do know that I can give a planet the ability to prevent new gates from being opened, but then a jump drive couldn't be used in that system to enter Hyperspace)

If you do come up with some creative way around this, please let me know!

[Val]

Any luck ?

[QuarianRex]

None thus far. Just puzzling things out till I regain access to my computer. I was debating on whether or not I should include warp opening capability on the gate itself or just keep it as a door jam. Hadn't sonsidered the movement point thing though. Guess that solves that dilema.

I like the human controled open/close jump engine approach (indeed it was one of the first things that I thought of when I first looked through the components text file) but I was facinated by the concept wormholes being naturally unstable and ways to use that in a game while maintaining playability.

Since it will be quite some time till I can test any of this out myself, does anyone feel like testing any of this out in the meantime? If anyone does I merely ask that you post the results so that I have something to think about while I'm waiting.

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Val:
Another thing I was working on is a B5 Map with Hyperspace sectors that all gates will be connected to, to represent travel time through Hyperspace. Only wish I could limit new Jump Gates to open only to Hyperspace! (I do know that I can give a planet the ability to prevent new gates from being opened, but then a jump drive couldn't be used in that system to enter Hyperspace)

If you do come up with some creative way around this, please let me know!

What if you made all jump drives work to the same distance, say 50 light years or less, and then layed out you quadrant maps so that all non-hyperspace systems are at least 60 light years apart. Place some hyperspace systems in between, and then you would only be able to open warp points to and from hyperspace. Place some long distance warp points connecting the hyperspace systems at the begining. The only problem I can think of then is if a player makes the mistake (or does it on purpose for that matter) of closing one of these long distance hyper warps there will be no way to reopen them.

Geoschmo

[QuarianRex]

Sweet idea Geo.

[Val]

Geo:

I had actually thought about limiting the jump distance to 1-2 hex and making a 'dual layer' map that would have Hyperspace below regular space, thereby limiting it. This is great when making a map, but I was also trying to come up with something for generic games. Another issue is that it would be nice to force the ai to close the gate when done...

[Jmenschenfresser]

Here's my theory of how to do this.

First change all of the pre-existing "low" severity events to one of the other three. Then add in, in pairs I would assume, an open warp point event and a close wp event. Now these are the only two types that fall in the low severity Category.

Now up the % chance on an event happening in the settings.txt to 100%. When you start a game, allow only low severity events. If it works the way I think it should. You should then have one warp point open and one close each turn. If that works you can dictate how many open and close each turn by adding more entries in the events file.

Of course you won't have any other events.

So if you want to make jump gates that close after a turn or two at most. Mod in a cheap component that every ship can carry which opens WPs, then if you have enough entries in the events file to cover all the possible open WPs, they will close by them selves. You can even give it a timed event so that it closes after a turn of two if you want them to be reliable for a certain time.

If it works that is.

[ May 21, 2002, 21:52: Message edited by: Jmenschenfresser ]