FTL Travel

[Winterwolf00]

How exactly is FTL going to work in game?
Are we going to have the standard universal Hyperdrive for our ships or can we choose different paths of research to go with giant Mass Effect Relays/Stargates for instant travel between set locations?

Will there be advantages/disadvantages to either system?

 

[valergain]

From the wiki.

• Each faction chooses 1 of 3 faster than light technologies near the beginning of the game:[3]
  • Hyperlane travel is fast, but is limited to an existing layout of connections between star systems[3]
  • Warp travel is slower but provides freedom of movement[3]
  • Wormhole travel requires stations to be constructed at the edge of star systems, but allow for longer jumps[3]

http://www.stellariswiki.com/Features

 

[Krajzen]

From the wiki.

• Each faction chooses 1 of 3 faster than light technologies near the beginning of the game:[3]
  • Hyperlane travel is fast, but is limited to an existing layout of connections between star systems[3]
  • Warp travel is slower but provides freedom of movement[3]
  • Wormhole travel requires stations to be constructed at the edge of star systems, but allow for longer jumps[3]

http://www.stellariswiki.com/Features

Sounds awesome.

 

[Winterwolf00]

So it's an early game choice that leaves you stuck only using one.
Is there any way to say disrupt the FTL of other factions then?

Destroying Wormhole Stations or blocking Hyperspace lanes?

 

[PhroX]

I really hope there are ways to get access to more than one form of FTL at some point in the game. For example - capturing an enemy's ships and reverse engineering their technology. Given the potential advantages to having access to multiple types (e.g. warp travel gets you to new star systems where you then build a wormhole gate), it seems illogical that any race would chose to limit themselves to just one.

 

[Held der Arbeit]

While I agree that it would be nice to have more than one, I can also see the limitation being a very very interesting tactical gameplay element.
You will have to plan your fleet movements differently if you are a Hyperlane civ fighting a warp civ, than if you'd be fighting another hyperlane civ.

Then there's tradeoffs: warp civs might pay for their element of surprise by being slower to deploy reinforcements from far off systems. So they are at an advantage fighting short, "shock and awe" wars with surgical precision, but may loose drawn out engagements. Wormhole travellers on the other hand can draw reinforcements almost instantly from anywhere in their empire, but are also the most vulnerable and predictable. Take out their forward deployment gate and they are crippled severely. And Hyperlane Civs might fall somewhere in between.

Every game would play different depending on what tech you pick and being able to combine them and nullify the tradeoffs would kill this interesting gameplay element

 

[Winterwolf00]

In the game Sword of the Stars each race had a different FTL method.
My favorite method was the Hiver's (Insects) Gate Network that slowly moved to each system, had no defenses or weapons, but could transmit a ship from one side of the map to the other and wherever there is another gate.

It was slow to set up but extremely useful when you need to move reinforcements to the frontlines.

 

[Fourthspartan56]

I really hope there are ways to get access to more than one form of FTL at some point in the game. For example - capturing an enemy's ships and reverse engineering their technology. Given the potential advantages to having access to multiple types (e.g. warp travel gets you to new star systems where you then build a wormhole gate), it seems illogical that any race would chose to limit themselves to just one.

I disagree, that would arguably make the choice of FTL in the beginning of the game completely meaningless because you could just reverse engineer some other species's FTL drive.

 

[Gott mit uns]

Well that idea might be plausible with wormholes. For example, if you capture an enemy planet with wormhole station, you can try using it, but with great risk as that kind of technology isn't quite developed in your country and you don't even know where it leads. It could be additional flavor with very little chance of success and future usage of it, if you actually do succed, it could be a way to only one system and a one-way trip. And always with a risk of it being unstable and consequences of that.

 

[Krajzen]

Well that idea might be plausible with wormholes. For example, if you capture an enemy planet with wormhole station, you can try using it, but with great risk as that kind of technology isn't quite developed in your country and you don't even know where it leads. It could be additional flavor with very little chance of success and future usage of it, if you actually do succed, it could be a way to only one system and a one-way trip. And always with a risk of it being unstable and consequences of that.

I always wanted to play a strategy game which offers a special hardcore mode, where random events realistically screw you, such as: sudden outburst of pandemic kills 97% of your planet, haha now you need to someow survive with population reduced from 7100 million to 300 million (spreaded between depopulated Earth and Mars). Or: random chance of your main planet being attacked by super powerful foe once you have found at least 1 interstellar colony. Haha now your main planet is destroyed, try to hide and survive Reaper invasion.

 

[13Foxtrot]

I disagree, that would arguably make the choice of FTL in the beginning of the game completely meaningless because you could just reverse engineer some other species's FTL drive.

Or could you? One can argue in any type of scenario that FTL could be so hard to produce a certain way that an empire or organization basis everything around it. FTL could be so hard to reverse engineer that a race may not have the technology to understand something different than what they currently do.

 

[Gott mit uns]

I always wanted to play a strategy game which offers a special hardcore mode, where random events realistically screw you, such as: sudden outburst of pandemic kills 97% of your planet, haha now you need to someow survive with population reduced from 7100 million to 300 million (spreaded between depopulated Earth and Mars). Or: random chance of your main planet being attacked by super powerful foe once you have found at least 1 interstellar colony. Haha now your main planet is destroyed, try to hide and survive Reaper invasion.

It seems that Paradox actually is aiming for something like that in the late game. I just hope such events won't be predictable.

 

[IronXZ]

I always wanted to play a strategy game which offers a special hardcore mode, where random events realistically screw you, such as: sudden outburst of pandemic kills 97% of your planet, haha now you need to someow survive with population reduced from 7100 million to 300 million (spreaded between depopulated Earth and Mars). Or: random chance of your main planet being attacked by super powerful foe once you have found at least 1 interstellar colony. Haha now your main planet is destroyed, try to hide and survive Reaper invasion.

You could mod those in once it launches. But don't expect me to download such OP events

 

[echo2361]

I definitely like the idea of having to adapt your strategy to the FTL method you initially pick and sticking with it. If I could have access to two or more FTL methods I imagine it would make the game feel kind of cheap and simply too easy. SOTS did an excellent job of balancing various FTL methods between different species so I hope we seem a similar system in Stellaris.

 

[Winterwolf00]

Well that idea might be plausible with wormholes. For example, if you capture an enemy planet with wormhole station, you can try using it, but with great risk as that kind of technology isn't quite developed in your country and you don't even know where it leads. It could be additional flavor with very little chance of success and future usage of it, if you actually do succed, it could be a way to only one system and a one-way trip. And always with a risk of it being unstable and consequences of that.

It would be pretty cool if in the early game your FTL tech is still experimental and there's a chance that something goes horribly wrong.