Warp Point Locations

[Cipher7071]

I am currently in a game where stellar manipulation is being used quite often. I've been using it to pull raids on a faster opponent who does not possess the technology (yet). I can make a pretty good guess where a warp point will open based on the starting location and relative positions of the two systems involved, but I'm wondering if there is any way to predict the exact location where a warp point will open. Is there a strict formula, or is there a random factor in the calculation? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

[Captain Kwok]

I think it's random, although you could possibly guess the approximate region with good accuracy.

Secondly, can you open warp points to systems you haven't explored?

[Kamog]

Yes, you can. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Alneyan]

It seems rather random, though the side of the opened wormhole *may* be where the system is closest to the first system. Since my sentence makes no sense whatsoever... If you open a wormhole from a system X to the left of system Y, the wormhole seems likely to appear on the left side of system Y. Am I the only one with that feeling? Other than that, I think the location is random.

You can open wormholes to systems you haven't explored.

[Fyron]

The WPs are always on the closest side of the system to the system where you open the WP from.

I have often noticed that if you open a WP to a system that already has a WP on the side where the new one opens, the new one will be in the same sector as the old WP. This does not always occur, of course.

[Cipher7071]

I know that in a general sense, the warp point opens at the approximate clock position that one might guess it would. I also notice that it usually opens in the first or second sectors nearest the system border. I won't swear to this, but I seem to remember that when I closed a warp point that I created, reopening it produced the same result as the original. I just wish I could be sure.

It looks like it's time for an experiment. The program has to generate a set of coordinates in the target system somehow.

[Caduceus]

Try mining a few areas on that side of the system. Could be a nasty suprise for someone http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Sivran]

wildcard06 said:
Try mining a few areas on that side of the system. Could be a nasty suprise for someone http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif



Unless your game has a restrictively low unit limit :/

[PvK]

It's the point where a straight line from the origin system enters the destination system, based on the quadrant map. No randomness, but how exactly it rounds to one sector or the other may be hard to predict without trying it, or trying a test game, or looking at natural warp points between systems which have the same orientation between them (though it's possible that there are rounding artifacts depending on which direction the warp line is generated from, I don't remember ever noticing that).

PvK

[Cipher7071]

I may have gotten a little carried away with this, but now its' beginning to bug me. Keep in mind that I'm using SEIV version 1.49, so any of this may have changed in later versions.

Here's what I know:

1. It doesn't matter where you are in the system that you're opening the warp point from. It will always open in the same sector of the destination system.

2. Where the hole opens in the destination is determined only by the relative positions of the two systems, and the distance bewteen them doesn't matter.

3. The function used does not involve trigonometry.

4. There is some oddball behavior in certain positions (imagine that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif), but the results are consistent.

I'm going to do some more mapping, and when I think I know how it works I'll be back here with the results.