My first response to those gates are "STARGATES!!"

I'm putting my bet on those being inter-system jumpgates.

TanC wrote:My first response to those gates are "STARGATES!!"

I'm putting my bet on those being inter-system jumpgates.

While I'm sure there will be inter-system jumpgates, I believe the gates we've seen (several sets of double rings arranged in a line) are intra-system trade lanes. Josh's dev blog seems to suggest that's the case:

"Some initial tests have shown that everything is working properly, and my ship is able to use trade lanes to navigate itself from planet to planet using the optimal route, including jumping into the middle of trade lanes (which is often the optimal solution when you’re not right by a planet). This is a great step in the direction of AI players!"

Source: http://joshparnell.com/blog/2012/08/18/ ... nd-a-star/

I believe the two small blueish circles, one atop the other, in the picture below (taken from the blog entry with the above quote) are Josh's old model for trade lanes. I believe he's made a new model of trade lane (which is what we've seen in the videos) because in this entry: http://joshparnell.com/blog/2012/08/24/ ... igh-price/ he said,"What’s next? Well, those trade lane gates sure are eyesores…" In that entry, he posted this picture: So, it sounds like ships will be able to "jump into the middle of trade lanes" - perhaps it saves jump fuel to only make incremental jumps, and use the trade lane to go the rest of the way?

Weeeell, trade lanes, where everything moves at a speedy pace and in perfect synchronicity, are perfect for lowering an entire sector's collision detection calculations.

Once a ship is "in synch" with the trade lane, collisions with all other ships in it can be ignored because they are all going the same way at the same speed.
Not like Josh would ever resort to such cheap tricks - just saying. =)

I suppose they do have that nice side effect, don't they? I'm sure they will be added, based on everything I've seen thus far. However, I'd really like them to not be the sole practical option for intra-system travel in LT. If LT were like Freelancer, travel would basically be limited to (1) flying locally around a planet or station (and occasional excursions into asteroid fields), (2) trade lanes, or (3) jumping between systems.

Josh Parnell wrote:...my ship is able to use trade lanes to navigate itself from planet to planet using the optimal route, including jumping into the middle of trade lanes (which is often the optimal solution when you’re not right by a planet).

So at least we may be able to do intra-system jumps. I'm just hoping we can get engines fast enough that intra-system free flight between planets will be practicable.

I can't remember what show or space game this is from, but the basic movement propulsion was provided by 'sublight' engines. Faster travel was available through some sort of hyperdrive (I think it was called the FTL drive). I'd love to see Limit Theory implement a similar concept. Ships should have a sort of sublight engine that provides propulsion for simple solar system travel and can be upgraded for more speed and acceleration. For longer distances, ships should have a warp drive of some sorts that would provide fast, linear speed, but at the expense of some energy source that would need time to recharge. With more money comes the ability to buy faster and more energy efficient warp drives, enabling the player to progressively travel farther the more they play.

I also just thought of how much more "real" this could make combat. In most fictional space combat situations, the warp drive of the enemy ship is usually targeted first so they can't zip away. Merchants would likely make 'jumps' as they expend all their warp energy, recharge, and then enter into another warp. Pirating players would need to intercept the merchants as they are recharging - taking out their warp drives and going in for the kill.

corya14 wrote:I can't remember what show or space game this is from, but the basic movement propulsion was provided by 'sublight' engines. Faster travel was available through some sort of hyperdrive (I think it was called the FTL drive)..

ELITE 1. =)

Hello all, you guys are masterful investigators

Yes, they're "trade lanes," although I will stick to calling them acceleration gates from now on to avoid being too much like Freelancer! They are for fast intra-system travel between points of interest in systems. No, they won't be in every system. Naturally, in systems that don't have much civilization, you'll have to get around manually.

As far as navigating manually, you shouldn't expect to be able to go quite as fast as trade lanes with your own engines, but it will be more feasible than in Freelancer. You will be able to travel between points of interest in a reasonable amount of time. I imagine we will have something akin to the "cruise engine" in FL.

I know some people might not like this model of transportation...and for that I apologize, but this is my absolute favorite! I love the way that it makes space feel huge (because it takes a good while to get between points manually), yet tractable (because you can use acceleration lanes), yet still vast all at the same time. IMO, it achieves a very cool balance that offers a lot of options.

As for intra-system jumping, sure, I don't see why not. If you can use your jump drive to jump into other systems, I certainly don't see why you couldn't use it to jump between planets!

JoshParnell wrote:Hello all, you guys are masterful investigators

Yes, they're "trade lanes," although I will stick to calling them acceleration gates from now on to avoid being too much like Freelancer! They are for fast intra-system travel between points of interest in systems. No, they won't be in every system. Naturally, in systems that don't have much civilization, you'll have to get around manually.

As far as navigating manually, you shouldn't expect to be able to go quite as fast as trade lanes with your own engines, but it will be more feasible than in Freelancer. You will be able to travel between points of interest in a reasonable amount of time. I imagine we will have something akin to the "cruise engine" in FL.

I know some people might not like this model of transportation...and for that I apologize, but this is my absolute favorite! I love the way that it makes space feel huge (because it takes a good while to get between points manually), yet tractable (because you can use acceleration lanes), yet still vast all at the same time. IMO, it achieves a very cool balance that offers a lot of options.

As for intra-system jumping, sure, I don't see why not. If you can use your jump drive to jump into other systems, I certainly don't see why you couldn't use it to jump between planets!

I love everything about this answer. LT's travel system will have the best of all worlds - inter and intrasystem FTL, "acceleration gates," and a cruise engine that's actually feasible for crossing interplanetary distances (albeit slower than acceleration gates). I'm even more excited to play the game now.

Excellent! Glad you're pleased. LT is about the freedom to play how you like!!

JoshParnell wrote:Excellent! Glad you're pleased. LT is about the freedom to play how you like!!

Acceleration gate disruption? (For pirates or people who like to troll NPCs?)

TMRNetShark wrote:

JoshParnell wrote:Excellent! Glad you're pleased. LT is about the freedom to play how you like!!

Acceleration gate disruption? (For pirates or people who like to troll NPCs?)

Or NPCs that like to troll players?

TMRNetShark wrote:

JoshParnell wrote:Excellent! Glad you're pleased. LT is about the freedom to play how you like!!

Acceleration gate disruption? (For pirates or people who like to troll NPCs?)

Yes, I think so. But it will be harder than Freelancer...since the gates actually provide real force/acceleration, I think you will need to take out multiple gates to cause the NPCs to slow down enough to not make the next ring. This is a good opportunity to use that tactical interface I demoed to tell your other ships which rings to go take out!

JoshParnell wrote:

TMRNetShark wrote:

JoshParnell wrote:Excellent! Glad you're pleased. LT is about the freedom to play how you like!!

Acceleration gate disruption? (For pirates or people who like to troll NPCs?)

Yes, I think so. But it will be harder than Freelancer...since the gates actually provide real force/acceleration, I think you will need to take out multiple gates to cause the NPCs to slow down enough to not make the next ring. This is a good opportunity to use that tactical interface I demoed to tell your other ships which rings to go take out!

How about hacking the acceleration gates turning them into deceleration gates?

JoshParnell wrote:As far as navigating manually, you shouldn't expect to be able to go quite as fast as trade lanes with your own engines, but it will be more feasible than in Freelancer. You will be able to travel between points of interest in a reasonable amount of time. I imagine we will have something akin to the "cruise engine" in FL.
As for intra-system jumping, sure, I don't see why not. If you can use your jump drive to jump into other systems, I certainly don't see why you couldn't use it to jump between planets!

from this i take it there will be a limit as to how beefed up our sub light snegens can reasonably go. somewhat of a bummer (planned on having a ship sized rail-gun essentially with the collusion mech in the game but well see what happens XD.) and im happy to see that we can use our jump drives in the system itself i figured we could but had no confirmation till now. though will we be lmited to jumping to nav beacons at the planets or will we be able to plot jumps like in Homeworld?

Can the player and/or npcs build new acceleration gates?