I mean I love the game so far but couldn't this be an easy option or something?

One could argue that that could be countered with a little space terrain "No, the enemy fleet *can't* come from the star because there's a nebula (of death) and an asteroid field (of terror) blocking the way, therefore they must come from this direction (points away from star)"

But yeah, I'm for Phase Lanes as long as they don't constrict travel too much, maybe having a junction mid lane so what starts of as one branches into two.

Whack-a-mole gameplay sucks.

Didnt we come up with the conclusion that this game would rock if open phase travel was limited to a few types of ships and maybe one race/.

"no... we came to the conclusion that its perfect as is now."

That is dangerous thinking in the beta phase, all I am suggestion is a have your cake and eat it to solution. I think the "it ruins the game play" argument is completely subjective as it would make the game play better for me.

I don't know if its perfect, but out of what we have seen and tried, its the best so far.

Not mentioning "You" isn't everyone else, Insta-gibbing everyone elses ship might be perfect for some people but it dosn't mean it make good gameplay.

Firstly, I am only advocating an option for open jumping. Secondly, I am judging myself, and therefore while my judgment is not perfect I am best at judging myself. Besides think of the gray area you are talking about here.

How do you know you still hate your least favorite food, when was the last time you ate it, maybe if you eat it again you will like it now? Do you see what I mean? When we prejudge our preference to something without trying we are taking a good chance that it will be true, because we generally know our preferences. Again, isn't perfect, but I am the most qualified person to make this decision and therefore you should probably trust that I am correct about my own preference.

In my case I have taken data from my past game experiences involving open ended style systems vs. closed or restricted systems, and given my personality (as more spontaneous vs. less planned and structured) I prefer openness in most systems. This is my preference in most cases, and has always been. I have always wanted free hyperspace jump, much like Homeworld or X3 but less cost restrictive. All I am asking is that the developers can please everyone by including both. They already originally had the foundation for open jumping anyway, so it can be done relatively easily.

I love this game though regardless.


Edit: Oh and didn't see that, mods are great, just curious, how difficult is it to put both systems in your game. Wouldn't it be received better if it had more options, or be a more complete game? You could even recommend people use lanes and have it defaulted but allow it to be changed.

Well at least it will be possible, that is really cool. How will the mod affect the game? Just allow jumping anywhere?

There would be no whack-a-mole effect if the possible range of the jump in an open-connection map is limited with anti-matter. So that you can't just jump anywhere - and the further you jump the less AM you have.

True, I simply like it more if it's known what is limiting the ships. AM could be a good option if it was also crucial for weapons - so that if you jump very far you become a sitting duck for any defending force untill you replenish it.

I agree on the AM jumping cost limiting the range of how far ships can travel. That option was put into use in Masters Of Orion 2, and it worked out very well IMHO. You could send any fleet to any star in range (provided there were no anomalies to get in the way), and the opposing team could bring in a fleet from somewhere (if no ships were present) to counter-punch.

In Star Wars: Rebellion, there was no distance limit for ships. anyone could go anywhere, at any time, and hopefully attack before an opposing force arrived. However, SW:R was all about WAM, where there were space defenses to speak of really. It was all a game of Who Arrives First? You or them?

The transit routes that are the Phase Lanes have been used in both of the Aerobiz games for the SNES (for you old-schoolers), and even Warcraft (original Warcraft for DOS, I mean)used roads to get anything done. So, both methods of getting from one place to another are old as dirt, and very capable of being exploited.

Now that I set my examples, I prefer the Phase Lanes over open travel, because it pits your knowledge of the units against either the AI, or another players' tactical knowledge of defending a zone of some type. It's fun to see what I need to do to bust through my buddies' front lines to try and cause some real punishment to his forces.