Hey all!

Today’s topic will further explore the subjects of fleet movement, FTL-travel and the general wonders one might happen upon when ripping holes through subspace. As the writing of this is a bit sudden the dev diary came out late today, our apologies!
The galaxy is a pretty huge place and to get anywhere in a timely manner you’ll want to travel faster than the speed of light, or use FTL-travel for short. Stellaris will have three methods of FTL that players can use; Warp, Hyperlanes and Wormholes. They all have distinct advantages and disadvantages when it comes to the strategic movement of ships and fleets causing expansion paths, diplomacy and wars to be quite different depending on the method used.

Warp
Warp requires each ship in the fleet to be equipped with a Warp Drive. These are quite costly to build and cause a major drain on each ship’s available power, but allows unconstrained travel to any system within range. When travelling to a system outside the range of a single warp-jump, the fleet has to make a sequence of jumps through a number of systems. Any jump puts a considerable strain on a ship’s Warp Drive, causing the fleet to not be able to jump again for a short while after arrival. While this can be reduced by more advanced technology, it does remain a weak point throughout the game for any species using this method.
Fleets using Warp Drives to travel will need to do so at the edge of a system to lessen the gravitational pull of the local star. This in combination with the fact that warp-jumps have the slowest FTL-speed of the three methods means that the arrival point of an incoming warp-fleet can be identified, and possibly ambushed. The cost of freedom is potentially high!

Wormhole
Some species have decided to sidestep this whole business of blasting through the void at ludicrous speed. They prefer to open up a temporary wormhole that a fleet may use to instantly travel to a distant system. These wormholes can only be generated by a Wormhole Station, a type of space station that can only be constructed on the outer edge of a system. Any fleet wanting to travel will have to use the Wormhole Station as a connecting point, passing through it whenever they leave the system. The station may only generate a single wormhole at a time, forcing all ships and fleets to wait while one is being prepared. The larger the fleet, the longer it takes for the Wormhole Station to be ready. The wormhole generated does allow two-way travel, but will collapse almost instantly after sending a fleet through.
Constructing and maintaining an efficient network of Wormhole Stations is vital to any species using wormholes, as it will allow sending huge fleets from one part of the galaxy to another in very short time. It also allows striking deep inside enemy territory with little warning. This great strength can also be a great weakness, as fleets are left with no means of further offense or retreat should the network be disabled through covert attacks by enemy strike-fleets.

Hyperdrive
The galaxy in Stellaris has a hidden network of hyperlanes connecting the systems, only visible for those who know where to look. Ships that are equipped with a Hyperdrive can access these lanes and use them to traverse the galaxy at incredible speed. They are however bound by the preexisting network, and has to path through each system connecting their current location and target. Galactic voids lacking systems are in effect huge movement-blockers for any species using hyperlanes, having few systems allowing possible crossings. An enemy could potentially fortify these vital systems should they become aware of their existence, creating strategic choke-points. As the hyperlanes exist in subspace, fleets may access them from anywhere within a system and does not have to travel from the gravitational edge as Warp Drives and Wormhole Stations do. As such, catching a fleet using hyperlanes can be tricky. Correctly identifying the paths to intercept and interrupt their somewhat long charge-up is probably your best bet.

All methods of FTL-travel can be improved by researching more advanced technologies. While their exact effects differ some they all improve the speed, range, efficiency or cooldown of FTL-travel. However, being able to casually bend time and space with increased power does not necessarily mean using it with more responsibility. As additional species bend the laws of physics to send larger and larger fleets through the galaxy, there is always the risk of something, or someone, noticing...

Next week we’ll talk more about the different species in the galaxy. Look forward to it!

 

[Krajzen]

FTL! Ha! Give us the game already! Who is with me?!

*silence*

Uhm... Oh sorry I thought this is endless space 2 forum, nevermind...

 

[Saintrl]

Ohohoho, I am going to enjoy crushing systems with massive fleets using warpdrives. Doesn't matter if you detect it if it's simply too big to defend against!

 

[Attalus]

Perhaps the energy requirements of opening that hole increases the further the distance between the two points.

Don't know if it would be right for physicists here but that seems like a reasonable explanation

 

[TruckFeet]

Perhaps the energy requirements of opening that hole increases the further the distance between the two points.

Yeah, you're having to bend space a lot more as you travel farther. A wormhole station could presumably get to any point within the range, but outside of the range would require more power than the ship can provide. Hopefully the distance will increase with tech, though.

 

[DC123456789]

Don't know if it would be right for physicians here but that seems like a reasonable explanation

*physicists. I don't think most medical doctors would have the slightest clue about what would happen.

 

[Attalus]

*physicists. I don't think most medical doctors would have the slightest clue about what would happen.

Shh it's all gone now

 

[henzington]

Is there any way to make a mobile wormhole generator late game?

 

[TheDungen]

Perhaps the energy requirements of opening that hole increases the further the distance between the two points.

You just don't get it do you? A wormhole is a place where two places in space time is the same place, distance can't matter because there can be no distance between the same place. Wormholes are not folding space, that's warp, wormholes is the utter absence of distance between two points.

Well we'll se what they make of it but I'm scptical, it seems to similar to the other versions, I was hoping for a drive that would present you with a radically diffrent way of playing. A more focused experience, for those species that value the collective and knowing their place in the universe more than the ethernal desire to know what's beyond the next hill that defines mankind.

 

[Ketzerei]

You just don't get it do you? A wormhole is a place where two places in space time is the same place, distance can't matter because there can be no distance between the same place. Wormholes are not folding space, that's warp, wormholes is the utter absence of distance between two points.

Hold on. Of course there's no distance between them AFTER you establish the wormhole there. But the more distance there is beforehand the harder it's going to be to bring the points together. In our current understanding of general relativity, something like this could be done by applying a large amount of negative energy (if such a thing existed) in which case it would indeed require more negative energy the farther apart the two points started. Presumably in this space future they know new physics allowing them to use ordinary energy, in which case it is quite plausible that more would be needed to bring more distant points together.

 

[Attalus]

You just don't get it do you? A wormhole is a place where two places in space time is the same place, distance can't matter because there can be no distance between the same place. Wormholes are not folding space, that's warp, wormholes is the utter absence of distance between two points.

But generating such a ... thing between two places would need energy, no ?

E: Ninja'd

 

[EntropyAvatar]

You just don't get it do you? A wormhole is a place where two places in space time is the same place, distance can't matter because there can be no distance between the same place. Wormholes are not folding space, that's warp, wormholes is the utter absence of distance between two points.

Surely with your advanced understanding of the practical science of artificial wormhole generation, you have better things to than post on a message board? Make a wormhole from your garage to a Las Vegas bank vault perhaps?

 

[Velorian]

You just don't get it do you? A wormhole is a place where two places in space time is the same place, distance can't matter because there can be no distance between the same place. Wormholes are not folding space, that's warp, wormholes is the utter absence of distance between two points.

The end result is indeed no distance.

Before creation however there is distance and creating a wormhole artificially is not something current science knows much about, it just seems reasonable to me that bridging the two locations requires energy, more the greater the distance.

 

[Silver Wizard]

No. That's only at our current IRL tech. Theoretically a ship can travel to 99.99% light speed without special FTL methods, which would mean that in order to get to say, 47 Ursa Majoris(around 46 light years from Earth), it would take about fifty years.

Now calculate how much fuel you'd need to get that kind of speed. Isn't going to work.

Don't know if it would be right for physicists here

No.

 

[Pigeoncount]

A fleet in range of a system with a functional Wormhole Station may request a wormhole to be opened to their system, allowing them to get home. It still takes time and occupies the Wormhole Station of course.

Is the time needed for a wormhole to open related to the distance from where the wormhole station is located? Like, for examples sake, I'm in the star system with the station in it, and I ask for it to open a portal. That takes one minute. That portal takes me to the edge of the station's range, and after exploring the system I ask for a portal to open to take me back. But since it was at the edge of the range, it took five minutes instead of the one. Is something like that in the game?

 

[TheDungen]

Hold on. Of course there's no distance between them AFTER you establish the wormhole there. But the more distance there is beforehand the harder it's going to be to bring the points together. In our current understanding of general relativity, something like this could be done by applying a large amount of negative energy (if such a thing existed) in which case it would indeed require more negative energy the farther apart the two points started. Presumably in this space future they know new physics allowing them to use ordinary energy, in which case it is quite plausible that more would be needed to bring more distant points together.

You're not bringing the points together that would be bending space, that's warptravel, they go from being separate to being together but you're not bridging the distance. It defies human experience on how the universe works, and that's what makes it awesome.

The end result is indeed no distance.

Before creation however there is distance and creating a wormhole artificially is not something current science knows much about, it just seems reasonable to me that bridging the two locations requires energy, more the greater the distance.

You're not bridging them that would mean bending space, or that location A would go to location B faster than the speed of light which is impossible.

But generating such a ... thing between two places would need energy, no ?

E: Ninja'd

Certainly but there's nothing to indicate that such energy would in any way be related to the distance.

Surely with your advanced understanding of the practical science of artificial wormhole generation, you have better things to than post on a message board? Make a wormhole from your garage to a Las Vegas bank vault perhaps?

I'm just explaning the definition of the theoretical phenomenon of a wormhole, considering how people here seems to get it mixed up with warptravel. If you're bending spacetime then it's warptravel (warp is short for timewarp).

 

[TruckFeet]

You're not bringing the points together that would be bending space, that's warptravel, they go from being separate to being together but you're not bridging the distance. It defies human experience on how the universe works, and that's what makes it awesome.

The classical analogy to a wormhole is a piece of paper. The shortest distance from point A to point B would normally be a straight line, but one can bend the paper so that A is on top of B, then poke a pin through the paper. There is no distance, because the paper is bent. The paper is space, and the pinhole is the wormhole. Space must, in fact, bent.

You're not bridging them that would mean bending space, or that location A would go to location B faster than the speed of light which is impossible.

Did you even read the dev diary? Faster than light travel is not only possible in Stellaris, it is a fundamental component of such.

 

[TheDungen]

The classical analogy to a wormhole is a piece of paper. The shortest distance from point A to point B would normally be a straight line, but one can bend the paper so that A is on top of B, then poke a pin through the paper. There is no distance, because the paper is bent. The paper is space, and the pinhole is the wormhole. Space must, in fact, bent.

Only because you expect space to behave like your similie. If you expect high end physics to behave like objects you have experenced then you're going to have a hard time. For an example people have a problem with the particle wave controversy because they expect particles to behave like billjard balls or something but however much it may help us to envision particles as such that is not the nature of a particle neither is space a folded piece of paper.
And the bending piece of paper is warptravel, not wormholes. Wormholes the way I have had them described to me has to do with subspace, it's the use of the zerospace, travel in the direction of the zerovector.

Did you even read the dev diary? Faster than light travel is not only possible in Stellaris, it is a fundamental component of such.

Faster than light travel is not going faster than light it's getting from point A to point B faster than light. Nowhere do they suggest that we'll be able to actually reach velocities surpassing that of light.

Look even if there would be a distance component in creating a wormhole, who's to say it'd take more energy per distance than bendign space (which warp is, so if we're beding space in both cases then the same distance should take exactly the same energy) or following hyperspace routes? Again it's an artificially imposed problem becuase their point and click now you're there wormhole tech would be OP otherwise. And while I'm sure it works fine within their setting, it's too similar to the others to be really intresting to me.

 

[Mathrafalovich]

Two questions:
1) What happens if a fleet manages to pass through the 'exit' end of a wormhole in the time between the wormhole opening and the fleet it was created for passing through it? Is this even possible? Can the two fleets basically change places, is it possible to get the timing off and have the wormhole collapse with the interlopers still passing through?

2) How moddable is FTL. Particularly, would it be possible to mod in a system ala Mass Effect? Wormhole like relays for long distance and warp like travel for short distances?
Would it also be possible to mod in a 'Point-to-point' gate system like in B5, that acts like wormhole or hyperlane travel but only between existing stations/contstructs?

 

[TheDungen]

Two questions:
1) What happens if a fleet manages to pass through the 'exit' end of a wormhole in the time between the wormhole opening and the fleet it was created for passing through it? Is this even possible? Can the two fleets basically change places, is it possible to get the timing off and have the wormhole collapse with the interlopers still passing through?

2) How moddable is FTL. Particularly, would it be possible to mod in a system ala Mass Effect? Wormhole like relays for long distance and warp like travel for short distances?
Would it also be possible to mod in a 'Point-to-point' gate system like in B5, that acts like wormhole or hyperlane travel but only between existing stations/contstructs?

I don't think that there is any transit time at all for wormhole travel.

 

[Mathrafalovich]

I don't think that there is any transit time at all for wormhole travel.

Depends how they do it, if a ship has to fly through (i.e. nose goes in one end, come out the other until the entire ship is through) then there will be a very brief transit time. Ofc, it's possible that nearby ships trying to transit will simply 'blink' from one end to the other. But, if the former, a ship on the other side could potentially be part in, part out, when the wormhole closes. It's an edge case though.