How are jump point sizes going to be handled? Will it be more or less random for undiscovered systems? Do jump points widen from continuous use over time as trade lanes become established?asked by Darkarma
TL;DRJump points won't change size dynamically, but they will come in different sizes, so some admit capital ships and others only small ships, with bigger ones probably becoming the common trade lanes.
I don't think we're going to have the jump point itself dynamically change, but we will definitely have jump points of different sizes - so one jump point is big enough to take capital ships as well as smaller ships, another jump point is only big enough for a small light ship. So think of it almost like a "mountain pass" on what you can fit through it. And so that will kinda make some interesting dynamics because maybe the bigger ship would have to jump around 2 or 3 hops, but the smaller ship can go there in 1 hop because this jump point is pretty unstable and can only take a small ship from the outside. So we're gonna use a little bit of that for some of the interest of the balancing, and obviously the jump points that allow the bigger ships to go through are probably the ones that become more common for trading lanes, so things like Starfarers and stuff and go through them.I think that'll make a kind of interesting dynamic in trading lanes and what happens out in space, but that's still early stages of the development of the Persistent Universe.