Safe Zone Jumps (Fast Travel)
I like Fast Travel in SE2, it should be possible to jump between own Safe Zones not only discovered economy stations. From a mechanical perspective, this is effectively the same jumping mechanism already used by Jump Drives, just applied to static infrastructure instead of mobile ships. For clarity, the rest of this suggestion will refer to it simply as a jump.
Safe Zones should work around an energy storage model rather than constant extreme power consumption. Charging a Safe Zone would require a large upfront amount of energy, but once charged, it would consume relatively little power to remain active. The maximum stored energy would effectively represent the Safe Zone’s HP.
When performing a jump, the Safe Zone would consume part of its stored charge. The amount used would depend on both the mass of the ship and the distance to the destination Safe Zone. This naturally limits jump range: heavier ships would be able to jump shorter distances. After the jump, the Safe Zone would automatically begin recharging back to full using available grid power.
Incoming fire would also drain the Safe Zone’s stored charge. However, as long as sufficient power is supplied, it would recharge extremely quickly, allowing it to sustain enormous DPS. Disabling a Safe Zone would therefore be less about raw firepower and more about depleting its energy reserves. In practice, the amount of sustained damage required would be prohibitively high even for a full fleet, making such attacks technically possible but extremely unlikely.
Zone Chips could be expensive, but consumed only once to activate a Safe Zone, and optionally once per jump.
For economy stations, jumping from within their Safe Zones would consume credits, again scaled by ship mass and distance. To avoid exploits and keep the system simple, economy Safe Zones could always be treated as having infinite or maximum charge.
Overall, this would add a compelling alternative for the "mobile" jump drives, which can be balanced too btw. And it would remove the constant pressure to mine tons of just to sustain the constant Safe Zone power draw.
Thx for reading.
I like this feedback
You read my mind!
I just finished this in my mod for SE1 running at my multiplayer server. Feel free to jump in and see it in action. I'm now installing prototype jump rings between planets.
The block is called Jump Bridge and is variant of Safe Zone using Jump Drive technology to transport objects on large distances.
Basically it reverts the rules - with Jump Drive everything connected to its grid is transported.
With Jump Bridge everything which is NOT connected to its grid is transported. This can be player character or other grid.
It uses standard jump drives as energy source, but they must fit inside safe zone. It consumes grid's energy and zone chips like regular safezone do to upkeep bridge activation but takes additional energy from jump drives depending on mass of transported object. Jump drives need then recharge as usual.
When Jump Bridge is deactivated the grid can be converted back to ship and use its jump drives as regular so it allows to build capital ships with Jump Bridge for fleet transport.
You read my mind!
I just finished this in my mod for SE1 running at my multiplayer server. Feel free to jump in and see it in action. I'm now installing prototype jump rings between planets.
The block is called Jump Bridge and is variant of Safe Zone using Jump Drive technology to transport objects on large distances.
Basically it reverts the rules - with Jump Drive everything connected to its grid is transported.
With Jump Bridge everything which is NOT connected to its grid is transported. This can be player character or other grid.
It uses standard jump drives as energy source, but they must fit inside safe zone. It consumes grid's energy and zone chips like regular safezone do to upkeep bridge activation but takes additional energy from jump drives depending on mass of transported object. Jump drives need then recharge as usual.
When Jump Bridge is deactivated the grid can be converted back to ship and use its jump drives as regular so it allows to build capital ships with Jump Bridge for fleet transport.
Screenshot of Jump Ring station with Jump Bridge activated and deactivated.
Screenshot of Jump Ring station with Jump Bridge activated and deactivated.
Replies have been locked on this page!