wispborne / active-gates Goto Github PK

Thoughts and ideas for the future

Readme Intro + Lore

Centuries ago, massive autonomous starships known as Gate Haulers laid out the gate system, traversing space for hundreds of cycles in order to connect the Domain of Man. Trade flourished, people prospered, and humanity seemed unstoppable. History is vague on the circumstances, but the stories hold that, exactly 206 cycles ago, a prisoner named Ludd was transferred through one of the gates, and in that instant, the entire network ceased to function. The event became known simply as The Collapse and led directly to the fall of the Domain. (source, source)

Recently, there have been unverified reports of a strange occurrence in a far-away system; a lone drone in orbit around a gate...and the unmistakable shimmer of an active portal.

Goals

• Goal: reduce tedium of repeating the same hyperspace routes
• Goal: do not disturb the overall gameplay loops, do not make exploration redundant or too easy
• Goal: do not make the sector feel small and trivial to traverse

Summary (tldr)

• Early game: Two gates will activate randomly, one in the fringe and one in the core, allowing player to have an exploration staging area. An event will alert the player.
• Mid game: Allow player to activate two more gates of their choice (ease colony babysitting). An event will alert the player, perhaps add a 2-3 event questline.
• End game: Player is god at this point, they get two gates to set up wherever they want. An event will alert the player, they'll need to defeat some strong defenders.

Gates will always require an amount of fuel to travel that is 75% of the amount of fuel it would normally take to fly directly.

Explanation

TODO need some way to explain why nobody else seems to care about the newly active gate. Perhaps you can only travel them when unobserved (transponder off + running dark).

Phase 1 (early game)

Create a staging area for exploration introduce the mod by creating an event that leads the player to discover an active jump gate out near the fringe and then activates a jump gate in the Core.

Phase 2 (mid game)

Allow player to activate 2 jump gates at a location of their choosing so they can get to their colonies more easily.

When player has a colony that delivers a net income of >25,000c in a month, they receive a new exploration mission. Upon arriving at the destination, they find the material required to reactivate a single jump gate.
TO REVIEW - what about players who don't create colonies?

Phase 3 (end game)

Allow player to set up limited number of jump gates at any location they want. Player discovers a few intact Gate Haulers and can tell them where to haul their gates.
Gate Haulers spawn at a random already-active gate.

TO REVIEW What is considered lategame? 3 colonies making 30k+ each? Having a fleet supply cost of over 350 in a single month? Winning a solo fight where the enemy has a deployment cost of at least 100 supplies?

Requiring 75% of the normal fuel cost of flying the distance ensures that using the gates is not free travel, but also acknowledges that normal flight gives you the opportunity to refuel along the way, whereas instant travel does not, hence only 75% fuel cost.

Create a staging area for exploration introduce the mod by creating a bar event that leads the player to discover an active jump gate out near the fringe and then activates a jump gate in the Core.

Just because there's no reason to use windows line endings.