Forums » Suggestions

Variably Sized Wormholes

Aug 17, 2004 HumpyThePenguin link
For some reason or another, wormhole areas across the universe are a constant size. What if the wormhole sizes differed from system to system?

Say a trader was being chased by a pirate and just barely manages to hit the 20m wide wormhole that leads across the galaxy, but the pirate misses, having to turn around and try again for the hole. Barely catching back up to the trader as he/she reaches the Initros-Helios wormhole on the Helios side, the pirate now has two choices. They could pay the toll for the gate the Serco have kindly put around the small wormhole, or they can follow the trader through the gate as he/she pays the toll.

Deciding to follow the trader through, the pirate waits until the shields are lowered on the gate after the trader pays their toll. The pirate slips through, but gets a slight faction hit from it. No worries though, after killing this Serco trader, the pirate's faction standing here will be so abysmal a few point ding won't matter much.

After following the trader through the wormhole, the pirate re-engages on the other side of the gate, destroying his/her target and snatching up what cargo they can before the defbots arrive. Now KoS, the pirate knows that he/she can't get back out by paying the toll, they decide to avoid the defbots until another player passes by to pay the toll.

The pirate is in luck, only a few minutes go by before another Serco trader wants to warp out through the Intros-Helios gate. As soon as the pirate spies that the gates have gone down for the trader to pass through, he/she speeds after and beats the trader through the wormhole. Now flying around inside the gate with turrets trained on them, the pirate has to wait until the second trader exits the wormhole and the gate reopens.

Or you could just go the longer way around the universe if you didn't want to pay, but everybody likes shorter paths, right?
Aug 18, 2004 Celkan link
I'm imagining smaller wormholes being put into use (if at all) for the Exploration Addon. I do like the idea of a Toll being used at nation border stations. Perhaps only for foriegners?

Like so:

Example 1
Travel from Initros to Helios by an Itani/Neutral: Free
Travel from Helios to Initros by an Itani/Neutral: 500c
Travel from Initros to Helios by a Serco: Free
Travel from Helios to Initros by a Serco: Free

Example 2
Travel from Geira Rutilus to Deneb by Itani: Free
Travel from Geira Rutilus to Deneb by Serco: 1000c
Travel from Geira Rutilus to Deneb by Neutral: 1000c
Travel from Deneb to Geira Rutilus by Itani: 1000c
Travel from Deneb to Geira Rutilus by Serco: Free
Travel from Deneb to Geira Rutilus by Neutral: 1000c