Black holes

Black holes are indeed special because of the fact that no ship can fly through a black hole. Not content with being obstacles on the map, black holes also influence space around them, causing very high multipliers to be applied to both normal space travel and Hyperspace travel within a radius of 4 (we’re talking about Euclidian distance here, see the picture below).

The multiplier generated by black holes applies to interstellar travel, of course, but it also applies to travel within the affected systems or nebulae. In order to avoid extremely high multipliers, black holes are not allowed to be less than 8 units away from each other; it is also impossible for a black hole to be located less than 4 units away from a supergate. These rules affect both the universe generator and the use of the space-time drilling ability.

Nebulae

Nebulae are possibly the simplest type of special objects.

First, they affect interstellar travel by causing a multiplier to be applied to all ships flying through the area, whether in normal space or in Hyperspace; this multiplier depends solely on a nebula’s opacity.

Second, nebulae have an internal structure; this structure is very simple, as it consists in only two areas where ships can be “parked”, the border and the core. These two zones are separated by empty areas. In both the nebula’s core and the empty area that is adjacent to the core, the nebula multiplier is doubled, as the density is much higher.

Supergates

The third type of special objects which can be found in all of the universe’s layers is the supergate. Space around supergates is divided into 5 areas, as indicated by the schema below:

The G area is the gate itself. Once the gate has been reached, fleets cannot be re-routed and have to reach the specified destination (or another destination if the gate screws up). The C area is just in front of the gate; ships leaving through the supergate will stop there before “jumping”, and ships arriving through the supergate will arrive in this area. The B, B’ and B” zones are “buffer” areas; an alliance controlling the gate can build gate bases at these locations. The A zone is the approach location for the supergate, with an additional “empty” area (the blue rectangle on the schema) separating it from outer space.

A ship cannot use Hyperspace travel in the direct vicinity of the supergate; therefore, ships coming from outer space will have to drop out of Hyperspace in the A zone, and ships arriving from the gate will only be able to enter Hyperspace past this zone. The reason behind this is that supergates should be strategic control points, where an alliance can block incoming hostile forces, or prevent them from moving on to another alliance-controlled layer.

The distance between the areas identified by letters is very small, and no multipliers apply. The area of empty space that lies at the exit point is much wider, but it can be traveled through in Hyperspace.

Next time, on the LWB6 blog…

The fourth and almost last chapter in this series of posts will examine interstellar travel, which is not as easy as it sounds…

It isn’t very realistic and we have always been attached to have a universe which would be as close to reality as possible or which could function in a logical way.

Indeed, having planets which are all equivalent to each other, having stellar systems which always have the same number of planets and are so regularly organised in the universe or having a universe which is only a plane and not a 3D structure isn’t realistic.

Moreover, travel times to go from one side to another are getting enormous when the universe gets bigger. For now it is still manageable since the player base remains small. But what if we manage to attract more players?

Therefore we definitively had to rethink the shape of the universe to have it solve these various issues.

This implied including various types of planets, be it on the size or environment point of view. Stellar systems had to include a random number of planets. The shape of the whole universe had to be less regular and had to include a notion of volume and not only plane. We also needed means to go faster from farther locations.

While we were at it, we could also include concepts we had thought of for Beta 5 but didn’t include at the time, such as stellar objects other than just planets, nebulae and planetary remains, for example asteroid belts.

This lead us to design a Beta 6 universe divided into layers. A layer is a roughly circular area containing a set of objects such as star systems, nebulae or black holes. Each layer has a Z coordinate, which indicates where to place the layer on the map. The only normal way to go from a layer to another is through a supergate. A graphical representation of an example layer is presented below (click the picture to get more explanations).

Various types of stellar objects can be found in each layer. Star systems are basically composed of a star which can be orbited by a varying (but limited) number of planets, planetary remains or asteroid belts. Nebulae are dense clouds of gas floating in space.

Black holes are singularities in the structure of space-time. They can occur naturally, which is fortunately rare, and can appear because of the use of devices related to a very advanced technology.

Finally, supergates allow fleets to fly from a layer to another. Supergates cannot be built; they are leftovers of an ancient civilization, which connect layers in the universe. They occupy whole systems, a bit like nebulae, and are indestructible.

What do you think of this new shape of the universe?

Is it too complex to apprehend?

What do you think of the list of considered objects? Would you add something else (along nebulae, black holes, supergates, stellar systems including planets, asteroid belts and planetary remains)?

Considering supergates can be “controlled” by alliances, what kind of features would you associate with this supergate control?