Ideal 4x Travel

[aegisx]

Anyone know how Starfire (I think that is the old game) dealt with travel?

[MasterChiToes]

I think warp points are overly delimiting for developing realistic strategies... However, this is vastly outweighed by the limits in AI and definable strategies. If the game was smart, then I'd dump the warp points and let the game evolve a more realistic and wider landscape of possible strategies.

[Raapys]

I don't like GalCiv's style. SEV's style is alright, but a bit boring since travel is instanteneous. Would love to see warp points that actually took several turns to travel through. Travel time could be dependant on distance between the two systems, engine technology and warp point type( slow, fast instant, etc. ). The danger level could then vary from warp point to warp point, slower warp points being safer, etc.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

The strategy game Ascendancy uses that exact warp lane style. It's kinda old, though.

[Randallw]

while we're on the topic, does anyone know if the size limits for some wormholes actually counts? I've seen a few that say nothing more than, say 500kt, can pass through only to see larger ships have no problem.

[AgentZero]

Randallw said:
while we're on the topic, does anyone know if the size limits for some wormholes actually counts? I've seen a few that say nothing more than, say 500kt, can pass through only to see larger ships have no problem.

No, the size limits don't matter. They were going to, so the descriptions were added, but the feature itself didn't make it.

[AstralWanderer]

The downside of "open travel" (GalCiv, Imperium Galactica, etc) is not just the difficulty of defense but how it encourages the use of "stacks'o'doom" (where an attacker piles every ship they have into a single massive fleet, capable of destroying anything else). GalCiv imposes (artificially low) fleet limits to counter this strategy but that has other downsides.

"Limited travel" systems (with warp points, warp lanes or MOO2's "committed movement" system where a fleet cannot be recalled until it has reached its destination) make the "doom stack" approach less effective since it is less able to arbitrarily switch targets, making it easier to counter.

A hybrid setup (where warp points could be used for fast but limited travel, normal space for slower, open travel) would be the most plausible system but I have only seen this implemented in the play-by-mail game Spiral Arm - here systems are connected by hyperspace portals but you can also move one fleet via "deep space movement" to any other system, albeit more slowly. This gives defensible chokepoints but also the possibility of surprise attacks on inner systems.

Warp point creation in SEV offers the option of surprise also but it is too easily countered (System Gravitational Shielding).