It would be interesting if there was at least 1 star in every constellation that wasn't connected to any star lanes, its a means to make free travel more necessary or depending on how espionage might work you could "park" a fleet of data gathering ships on a non connected star to siphon information from your enemies since they might skip it all together

Nosferatiel wrote:
They didn't mess around with lanes in ES1, if you accept lanes as naturally occuring somethings and don't like the theory of them being remnants of the Endless Empire in the first place. That doesn't mean that we cannot make up some reason why the Endless messed with lanes in ES2, now.

But the lanes are something something quantum strings, which occur naturally between solar systems.

Sinnaj63 wrote:
The Endless usually don't mess around with lanes and stuff though, and technobabble works anyway. Maybe I should make a thread to collect technobabble ideas for ES2.

They didn't mess around with lanes in ES1, if you accept lanes as naturally occuring somethings and don't like the theory of them being remnants of the Endless Empire in the first place. That doesn't mean that we cannot make up some reason why the Endless messed with lanes in ES2, now.

Nosferatiel wrote:
I think any flavour explanation should be firmly based in the Endless world, not in real physics, because we don't know any laws governing space lanes or any real equivalent anyways.

How about creating binary solar systems with the second stellar body being made up of mostly dust? There has to be enough of that dust to steal solar matter from the nearby sun until a critical point is reached when the accretion of solar matter threatens to initiate fusion on the dust body, just like a type Ia supernova with a white dwarf. The difference though should be that the excess energy is converted into temporarily opening up a spacelane into which the rapidly cooling excess matter is dumped. If the speed of accreting solar matter is smaller than the energy cost of keeping that artificial lane open, you get a good explanation of why it isn't open at all time. Combine that with an unstable orbit and faulty dust programming and you also get the desired randomness.

The Endless usually don't mess around with lanes and stuff though, and technobabble works anyway. Maybe I should make a thread to collect technobabble ideas for ES2.

I think any flavour explanation should be firmly based in the Endless world, not in real physics, because we don't know any laws governing space lanes or any real equivalent anyways.

How about creating binary solar systems with the second stellar body being made up of mostly dust? There has to be enough of that dust to steal solar matter from the nearby sun until a critical point is reached when the accretion of solar matter threatens to initiate fusion on the dust body, just like a type Ia supernova with a white dwarf. The difference though should be that the excess energy is converted into temporarily opening up a spacelane into which the rapidly cooling excess matter is dumped. If the speed of accreting solar matter is smaller than the energy cost of keeping that artificial lane open, you get a good explanation of why it isn't open at all time. Combine that with an unstable orbit and faulty dust programming and you also get the desired randomness.

It's clearly quantum fluctuations reacting with dark matter.

What do we use as the rational for seasonal lanes? The rotation of blackholes or neutron stars near them? Means that the seasonal lanes don't all come and go at the same time. A Nova would form a spherical wave front around it that would disrupt all the lanes as it passes but it would be a 1 time event.

Nosferatiel wrote:
How about seasonal lanes? They are alltogether switched on and off by randomly timed events, so one can see them and plan for them being (in-)accessible, but it is alltogether unknown when the time comes that one can actually use them.

This is a fantastic idea. I love it. Toss in some tech (like a station or a ship module) to more accurately analyze/predict space-time anomalies and I think this would be an interesting strategic mechanic. Perhaps we could have a hero that can better see the lines, their properties and their seasonal tides.



One-way lanes and unstable lanes are very intriguing. I also like the idea of smaller or tumultuous lanes that limit the class of ships that can make the voyage. It could lead to some very interesting fleet choices in mid-late game. Imagine finding a small, one-way back lane that bypasses a nasty choke point. You can't send in enough ships to conquer planets without going through the choke point, but you could interdict and raid, hopefully weakening your opponents front line.



And I agree that not all stars should be linked by lanes. We need a few backwater systems!

JErosion wrote:
It would be interesting if there was at least 1 star in every constellation that wasn't connected to any star lanes, its a means to make free travel more necessary or depending on how espionage might work you could "park" a fleet of data gathering ships on a non connected star to siphon information from your enemies since they might skip it all together

That sounds really interesting. Like you'd only see the stars once you got a probe or a ship(Usually one with a sensor module) in its range or once your border/planetary sensor expanded over it. Maybe it could also be possible to one-way send a colony ship to it earlier, with the colony being cut off from you except science-wise(Because space internet), so you couldn't use dust and trade routes and such there untill you got warp drive and dust would maybe be made into industry.

I also like the seasonal lane idea.

Nosferatiel wrote:
How about seasonal lanes?

+1, I also really like this one. Supposing trade routes could also be formed through lanes, this could have economic implications like winter does in EL...

Nosferatiel wrote:
How about seasonal lanes? They are alltogether switched on and off by randomly timed events, so one can see them and plan for them being (in-)accessible, but it is alltogether unknown when the time comes that one can actually use them.

I really like that idea. The push-pull of an unstable, but predictable, lane would create a great tempo, similar to how winter works in EL, or to a lesser extent the boosters and empire plans, giving you windows of opportunity to do things.



It would be especially great if these were on choke points to disputed territory, so that you would have to very carefully manage your fleets until the lane was open again and backup can arrive.

How about seasonal lanes? They are alltogether switched on and off by randomly timed events, so one can see them and plan for them being (in-)accessible, but it is alltogether unknown when the time comes that one can actually use them.

Per the sticky about the various ES2 concepts, one of the things the devs might be looking for more ideas on is lanes.



Currently, ES2 is going to have three lane types:

• Regular lanes, requires no technology
• wormholes, which do require tech
• "back lanes", which require you to have explored both ends before using
  
  

In addition these, here's some I've whipped up just because I'd rather not be thinking about work ...while at work. Woo!



One-way lanes. Does just what it says on the tin. Given ES2's more ambiguous lane setup — where you can't see the destination, only the general direction — coming across a one-way lane would definitely give you pause. Is it going to fling your ships to the other side of the galaxy? Into enemy space? The risk of stranding ships is outweighed by the benefits of faster exploration.



Unstable lanes. These lands would have a cooldown of several turns before they can be traversed again, in either direction. Planning routes or battles around these could give a strategic benefit, allowing you to escape with a head start, or prevent your opponent's escape for a few turns.



Forked lanes. These lanes begin as a single lane, but diverge at some point requiring the player to choose the destination. All destinations return on a single lane back to the source.



unstable forks. Same as above, except when the player chooses which direction to go it collapses the other option, resulting in a permanent change to the game world and rewarding early exploration with user-defined paths.

ImPulsar wrote:
Why not like Minesweeper shuffled maps of room-time , in which you can see a good way marked by rondomly numbers, the same numbers make the same speed or 360° directional arrows or like a topographical gradient-valley map. It fits also to the lane or whormholes ideas.

Elaborate, im not sure what you're saying.

Why not like Minesweeper shuffled maps of room-time , in which you can see a good way marked by rondomly numbers, the same numbers make the same speed or 360° directional arrows or like a topographical gradient-valley map. It fits also to the lane or whormholes ideas.

Having a "fast" lane which that allows a player to move a longer distance faster, but also means you can necessarily change your route either. Maybe it could be a really long wormhole as well.

Do stars go Nova? Do new stars/planetary systems form? So what happens to lanes leading to stars that go Nova or are made to go Nova? If new star systems can form from a Genesis type device what happens to lanes around the new formation? New lanes form or old lanes split, both?

1) Latent string: After the resarch of the mid to late game "" technology a player that own a node with a latent string can see it and build this system upgrade. The latent string need a Portal constructed on each node that it connect, and both must be under your control or under control of an allied player in order to be operated. This lane will require some effort to be enstablished, but provide a solid and secure private route for your ships.



2) Tight string: This strings connect two really close nodes and are big enough only for exploration drones and little class ships.



3) Raging Dust string: This string sucked up a huge amount of raging and corrupted dust that makes the string inoperable, maybe a consequences of the dust war. In order to use it, you have to first control it in some way. You can use this string only if the fleet that try to get through it is under the command of at least a lvl 5 hero that keep in check the hostile dust.



4) Accelerated string: This string is enveloped in a rare inert cloud of dust. The dust is too rare to be collected efficiently but shows an useful feature that suggest that it could be placed there by some means, maybe by the Endless themself. This particular dust field, provided with some control, function as a huge tunnel that futher stabilize the string, keep it clean from debris and generating a small upstream gravitational force, making the string really easy to travel at full force with no course corrections. The resultant string is a super efficient highway for spaceship, that you are able to use it for half the cost of movement points in both direction, provided that the fleet that try to get through it is under the command of at least a lvl 5 hero that activate the dust cloud. When an hero trigger the effect, any fleet can make use of it's bonus for the rest of the turn and for all the other turns the hero start the turn in the string, otherwise this is a normal string.



5) Cycling whormholes: Because of an anomaly in fabric of space, this rare whormhole have a stable departure point but keep change his destination point every couple turns bethween a few existing normal whormholes scattered in the whole galaxy. Futher resarch and a depth study of the anomaly reveal the current whormhole's destination and the schedule of the cycling whormhole. This whormhole can be a powerful tactical advantage for the faction that owns it's stable point, because it can reach multiple far distant locations with ease, but open up at the same time windows for raiders from everywhere in the galaxy.



6) Space rift: this kind of lanes is a third class "lane" after the whormholes. A rift is a point in space where two distant section of space are binded togheter and coexist at the same time in the same point. Stabilizing the rift and isolating the ships from the disruptive gravitational forces that this natural rift generates, a ship can trepass the coexistant space into the rift to get to the other side. This "lane" will always connect two distant nodes, one at the opposite side of the galaxy respect to the other. The travel is istantaneous upon ordering the movement, but all the left movement points are spent for the turn upon arriving. Anyway, this powerful and wild fenomena is difficult to predict and control, and ships that are not equipped with the proper have a big chance to not be able to trepassing the rift, losing all their movement points left AND a little chance to be damaged or destroyed (chance is rolled for any ship and not the entire fleet at ones), the bigger the ships, the bigger the chances. Rifts are a powerful late game transportation system, but the advantage to travel far and fast is provided with intensive resarch and the application of the resultant module that take space into your ships.

A couple of idea's.



1) A specialty bombs that can be detonated at a lane to disrupt it so no travel is possible for a Min-Max value of turns?



2) Forts/mines at wormhole or lane junctions for defense getting first/free shot at invading ships.



3) Lanes having grades or levels of visibility, the better the level of your sensors the more lanes you see.

In ES1, lanes and wormholes where less important in the later game due to the availability and enhancement of unrestricted travel off lanes. To an extent, lanes may become less important to travel upon as the game progresses.



Perhaps certain "thick" lanes themselves where the destination it could work to enhance travel.

Having the some abilities unique to a "thick" lane would be interesting.

-Ability to "hold/stop/guard" the lane from within to filter traffic. It could stop scouts/fleets from reaching nodes/worlds and relaying info back about the actual node (or blockading the system). The function could also influence/filter trade to a degree as it is "safer" for merchants or extract toll on factions.

-Able to Construct space station within for defense, trade, repair, trophy.

-Cleaning modules (from the endless) could aimlessly wonder repairing the threads but knocking off ships that just so happened to be traveling along them.

-Factions not in control/guarding the "think" lane/wormhole could exercise smuggling, sabotage, and/or spy actions.

-Fleet could expend movement points to explore ruins/asteroids/random object that happens along the lane for the possibility of loot (at random internals within the game). Could have multiple factions explore with differing results.

- Construct boosters/mines to decrease/increase fleet movement point expended on traveling that lane.

Linked Lanes A lane that is connected to a particular star system. For the owner of the system, the lane acts as a normal lane, but for everyone else it's a one way lane shooting out from the star system. Makes certain systems desirable for being more defensible and a good place to attack from.



Dust Filled Wormhole A random benefit is given to the first empire to go through the wormhole. After someone goes through, it turns into a normal wormhole. Encourages a bit of a tech + exploration race



Dust Filled One Way Lanes First empire to go through gets a random benefit, just a little something to make the risk of stranding your ships a little easier on players



Unstable Wormhole: just going off the previous concepts. Go through, and it needs to cool down afterwords, trapping you wherever you wind up AND keeping others from using it themselves for a while.



Anomalous Wormhole A wormhole that requires a fleet of a certain size to pass through, turns into an unstable wormhole after use, destination unknown. 50% chance to give the empire a major bonus, 50% chance to destroy the entire fleet. Because why not?

What Garak mentions reminds me of the wormholes in Eve Online which, if I remember correctly, have a set number of uses before collapse, with bigger ships reducing that lifespan dramatically.



Those are certainly interesting ideas, keep them coming!

The idea of Unstable Lanes made me think of some different takes on the same concept: Lanes that place limitations on ships/fleets. "Thin" wormholes that can only fit ships small enough to fit, or "Turbulent" lanes that only admit ships large enough to weather the storms. "Slow" lanes/wormholes that only admit a certain number of CP per turn. Wormholes that do damage or place status effects on your fleet when you use them.