Haduir Stargates Implemented?

[echo2361]

So while playing as the Haduir tonight I noticed I could suddenly move my ships from one colony to another in a single turn, no matter the distance involved. The dotted travel lines were green and the ETA was always 1. This didn't work for moving my ships to unoccupied or hostile systems, but defensively it saved me from a surprise Yoral assault. I thought the Yoral were only coming at me with one heavy cruiser, but then two more joined in from their neighboring colony. My fleet couldn't handle three of them, but out of desperation when I tried to move some reinforcements to my threatened colony from places on the other side of my empire they made it in a single turn and turned the tide.

So are stargates implemented? I researched the tech a while before noticing this, but its certainly possible I just haven't been very observant until now.

[evil713]

I would say yes they are, after you research them you can jump from any star you own to any other star you own in one turn.

[echo2361]

So does the lore work as if every system has an abandoned stargate in it so that once the Haduir colonize it they can make use of the gate once they've researched the tech? I kind of figured after I researched the tech I'd have to actually build stargates to use them.

[sven]

So does the lore work as if every system has an abandoned stargate in it so that once the Haduir colonize it they can make use of the gate once they've researched the tech? I kind of figured after I researched the tech I'd have to actually build stargates to use them.

The behavior in game right now is a placeholder.

In the future, taking advantage of Star Gates will require building an orbital structure.

But, at present, researching the tech immediately lowers all travel times between any 2 systems you control to 1 turn. (It also lets you move population units between any 2 planets instantly, and without the need for transports.)

So, while their abilities aren't being advertised in game, right now, Star Gates are probably more powerful than they probably should be

[echo2361]

Thanks for the info Sven! Yeah, right now I'm totally abusing this mechanic to my advantage

In the future, besides having to build the gates to use them, will there be a gate capacity mechanic like the Hivers have in SOTS? Something that only allows X amount of ships to use the gate network per turn. At this point it is hard to tell if such a limit will be necessary for balance purposes, but I can tell you for now the gate system is quite OP. Fun to use but probably annoying and difficult to fight against.

[echo2361]

On a related note, when stargates get some coding attention again, could you make it so that ships will auto-route through them when traveling around the map for fastest-timed travel? I've been frustrated with myself on more than one occasion when I sent a fleet from a gate system towards an non-gated system only to realize I could have saved some travel time by routing them through the gate network to a different system first to begin their journey to the non-gated system.

[sven]

On a related note, when stargates get some coding attention again, could you make it so that ships will auto-route through them when traveling around the map for fastest-timed travel? I've been frustrated with myself on more than one occasion when I sent a fleet from a gate system towards an non-gated system only to realize I could have saved some travel time by routing them through the gate network to a different system first to begin their journey to the non-gated system.

Yeah, that is in fact on my TODO list. We're planning on changing the details of the mechanic around, but, I think that, in general, if you have a "reduced time between two systems" tech, it should probably function to also reduce travel times between systems that are close to one endpoint or the other. Saves a bit of frustrating late-game micro.