Long Range Travel Ideas

So i was watching some video about complaints on moving vast distances and such and as a OG player i figured i would throw some ideas i had out there.

These are in no order, however some require others to work.

1. Jump gates Instead of jump drives (perhaps jump drives are needed to use the gates) ~ while some people may not like this idea let me explain why, one main issue i heard brought up was that when people make a jump drive they just jump around here and there and dont do any actual flying, changing this to fixed points that players have to setup to skip large distances, would encourage alternate forms of travel (at least at first). This can also be used to extend skip distances far beyond the current jump drive since its fixed points as well as allow players to do things like have private jump spots meaning they could have distant outposts that would need to be travels too via other methods.

2. Worm holes ~ while i am pretty sure these have already suggested, maybe not in the way i am going to, these would act similarly to jump gates, however they would function a bit differently. First they would randomly occur(not often) outside of gravity and away from voxels, artificial or not and would drop you off in a random location outside of gravity and away from voxels. Second, they would vary in size with, meaning small ships use small worm holes and larger ships use large ones. Third they would be destructive, if large ship tried to enter a small worm hole, only the parts that fit would enter even if that means it ripped off the rest, however small ships would not get a pass, if a small ship tried to enter a worm hole that was too large, it would get broken apart, chances of survival being slim. Finally, they can occur and spit you out right in the middle of ships without gravity. Meaning you could be in the middle of a fight, then be 20k away, or have your large ship randomly ripped in half as a small wormhole occurs in the middle and sends half of it 20k away. Of course there should be detectors to let you know when and were one is occurring, so unless you are not paying attention you wont randomly enter one.

2.5• So this one is kind of a hybrid idea of 1 and 2. You could make some wormholes static on their appear location and drop off location, which would be the location at which you have to form a jump gate to reduce energy costs, but these gates would be one way.

3. "subspace" ~ So this would function differently then you might think. So essentially whenever a voxel over a certain size is created, in a different area(not on the same world) a similar one is made, which only looks the same(heck could just be a orb that looks like it not actual voxels), but the distance between the objects is reduced dramatically. You are able to fly in this area only when outside of the gravity of the objects but not outside artificial gravity (or a bubble around the ship), the moment you enter planet gravity, or leave your ships gravity/bubble, you return to the normal space in the same location IF there is nothing there unless you are not in your ships bubble in which case you die after re-appearing in normal space. You are also unable to build in this place unless its in the ships bubble/gravity. You can see other ships here, and interact with them when they are within your gravity. Entering and leaving subspace takes energy depending on the mass of the ship and connected parts.

4. Solar "Highways" ~ now these are naturally occurring but can be made artificially as well but cost a lot of energy. These highways are like jump gates or wormholes but they dont skip space, can be entered anywhere and left anywhere. They only travel along paths without objects. They will only naturally occur if there is a star in the system(or not good idea regardless). How they function is they are like a BIG snake cylinder that looks like orange gas and go from place to place, artificial ones are blue. when you touch the cylinder it will gently try and pull you in, once fully inside without moving you will be pulled along the highway at insane speeds, however the moment you start moving you will slowly return to the speed cap and unable to leave the cylinder till your speed is within a safe range. Natural ones could require some sort of protection from part being destroyed or players dying, while artificial need no such things.

P.S. 1.5• This is less of a long range solution but a after thought for number 1, a "blink drive" that gives short range jumps like the current jump drive, this is mainly because i forgot that people use them in combat. This allows that, as well as speeds on shorter distance travel.

Hope any of these ideas are useful.