Wormholes to other sectors (spoilers for 0.5)

[scrander]

How are wormholes in 0.6 going to work, anyways? Do we just warp in to the center asteroid-enclosed zone of another sector? Are there plans for these zones to be randomly generated anytime soon? Will there be warp zones to go back and forth across the map - nah. Can we still have beacons to turn on wormholes despite the fact that you'll remove beacons in 0.6, etc. etc.

[Farbs]

My current plan is for wormholes to work like this:
* Fly into a (clearly marked) wormhole
* Enter some sort of witch-space equivalent
* Battle a super-guardian to progress
* Pop out of wormhole into new sector, player ship is torn apart in the process leaving command module and little if anything else.
* Wormhole exit closes

These zones would be generated from seed values, so you'd see the same sector on the other side of a wormhole each time you traversed it.

If you lose your ship you restart at the original sector, however all station unlocks, banked credits, and stored modules remain intact across all sectors.

Though wormholes are one-way it should still be possible for sectors to create loops and other interesting network topologies.

As you can see with some of the previous sectors I've started experimenting with ways to make sectors seem interesting and unique. I plan to push harder on this front for 0.6 and beyond.


Of course, all of this is untested design. I might make significant changes as the game develops!

[nemoricus]

Completely losing your ship each time you travel from sector to sector seems incredibly frustrating. However, I do like the idea of not being able to bring an all-powerful Juliet class dreadnaught into a fresh sector.

To reconcile these, I suggest that the guardian fight take place outside of the wormhole, and upon its defeat the wormhole is permanently opened, so that you can travel through it at leisure. This gives you an opportunity to store your modules and credits before venturing forth into the unknown.

Another suggestion is that the wormholes have classes, like stations, and the maximum level of module you can bring through is limited to the level of the wormhole. And of course, the number of modules you can bring through is sharply capped.

As far as variety in the sectors go, a good idea would be to have it so that not all module levels are present in every sector. IE, the starting sector might only have Alpha through Delta, and the Charlie-class wormhole you found leads you to a sector that only has Bravo through Echo. On rare occasions, you'll find a sector that spans the entire spectrum of ship levels.

More thoughts to come as I think of them.

EDIT: Will every player find the same wormholes, or will they be different for everyone?

[robodoggy]

I would expect that the wormholes are based off of the level seed, which so far, as everyone has the same level, would be the same.

Aka. Wormholes = same.

[10tativ]

Aw damn. That spoilt it. Still, sounds good. But does this mean that the sectors will be smaller, because of the amount of stations and sectors there would be? (Not sure that question makes sense, but I hope you understand)

[nemoricus]

Oct 29, 2011 5:43:54 GMT 10 10tativ said:

Aw damn. That spoilt it. Still, sounds good. But does this mean that the sectors will be smaller, because of the amount of stations and sectors there would be? (Not sure that question makes sense, but I hope you understand)

I'd hope that there would be a variety of sizes, going from minor all the way up to major. It would help make each sector distinct.

[Captain Michaela Nul'dolaer]

Hmm. I don't know, wormholes are pretty cool still. So, what's this gonna do.