If you want open connection maps, just mod a map so every planet has a phase lane to every other planet, it would work in the same way, unless I'm completely mistaking what you're asking for.

well said, it will appease the masses...

Yup. Now you need to figure out is how to prevent the "deep behind the frontline" jumps. This could be annoying, Star Wars or no Star Wars. Actually I don't think the saga deals with the supply problem so I guess anything one comes up with is ok as long as the map is open.

Perhaps there could be a way to link the length of the phase lane with the quantity of the AM being consumed. So that if a fleet is sent far beyond the lines it will come out with no AM.

1. These customized 'open connection' maps are going to be more for multiplayer than anything else. AI players might be tossed into the mix for fun, but the experience will still be more for modders and elite multiplayers.

2. 1Spartan mentioned that it will be a shame that regular players won't get the chance to try out these customized 'open connection' maps. I think it is likely that Ironclad and Stardock will have mod content available for download with the other official files.

3. SrGalen is concerned that there will be a mess of phase lane connections in such a customized map. Well, it won't be a problem since you can make the lanes invisible. Also, if you wish, you could make the contents of star systems open/fully connected, but have the star to star phase lane connections in series. This would both help the AI and reduce PC processing strain.

I'm pretty sure the limits will be VERY quickly be found by the modders... Not that I'm against Ironclad giving a few pointers, naturally. But modders test the limits in any case.

Okay, from what I've read, it seems Ironclad is having some trouble deciding how to have ships traverse gravity wells. Right now, ALL of us hate the "one step back and phase space to the next gravity well" right smack through the gravity well the ship is already inside.

The easy way would of course be to increase ship speed and make gravity wells smaller. Unfortunately for, it looks like ALL the beta players (myself included) want much bigger gravity wells and quite of few of us want slower ship speeds (but if the gravity well is bigger, we probably would be fine with ship speed remaining the same).

So, here is my 5 cent suggestion.

Gravity Well's are 3D spherical zones. Phase exit points to the next gravity well should be anywhere along the gravity sphere side facing the destination gravity well. Hmmm, that sounds pretty confusing.

So let's look at an example where you arrive at a gravity sphere, and you want to jump to the next gravity well over. In this case, your next destination gravity well is directly on the other side of the gravity well you just arrived at. You cannot jump through the gravity well you are now inside to reach your next destination. What you would have to do is reach any part of the gravity well outer edge that faces the destination gravity well in order to jump.

This would also likely have the advantage of bringing more 3D deployments into the game since that outer facing side represents a fairly large 3D zone.

Precisely Kyro. The best way to go here is by using a 3D +/- 90 degree phase exit point anywhere on the gravity well's outer sphere.

For the destination point, Ironclad would then have to decide if all fleet arrivals from phase space should appear at the same point or if ships should arrive at positions relative to their departure points.

I do hope that there are phase space inhibitor ships in the game. They would need to run off anti matter and have a count down to be balanced though.

Phase space inhibitor ships would also allow the gravity wells around stars to become interesting battlegrounds (Note that I am against weapon or inhibitor facilities being built around stars).

but for nice star battles, the star well will have to be at least tripled, I'm favoring a far grander expansion

I'm going to have to agree with that, the idea of massive battles around stars is awesome. We need stuff in the game to encourage that more

Ships speeds can remain the same if the distances between planets etc. are made much longer... But that's just my opinion.

add to that fact that anti-matter regeneration is higher around the stars, and battles will really rock!

a possible negative effect could be stars randomly launching off solar flares that could take out ships