Dump Jump Gates

[Ghostbear]

IMHO,

Jump gates vastly corrupt the game balance. I didn't like them in MOO2, where (I think) you had to jump from gate to gate. That had the effect of making defending absurdly easy, since you could assemble your entire fleet at any point in an instant.

Here, you can launch your entire fleet from many planets and have it assemble over an enemy world. This totally eliminates his ability to assemble a counter force. Very unbalancing.

Also, it makes the research into faster engines kind of redundant since your ships head back to the nearest gate and jump from their to their destination.

So, either turn it off, make it a point to point gate, or add the option to disable that technology. Or, make some sort of counter that would block jumping within some radius from a defended world (it would have to be a BIG radius or you could just jump one system away).

[madmax88]

Using the jump gate can be pretty handy for the attacker.
Well, if the AI you're playing against can keep up with your technological advancement, then he should be right behind you with his entire fleet using jump drives.
I agree with your idea though, being able to developp some kind of field, preventing jumps, around your homeworlds would be a nice addition. Nicely, it would also prevent your attacker from fleeing using the jump drive. <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">
As a drawback, you also wouldn't be able to use your own jump drive in your field. You'd have to use the gate.
Then again, and i apparently can't stress this too much, this is merely us players talking. <img src="wink.gif" border="0">
It doesn't necessarily have to be taken seriously.

[Andrew Ewanchyna]

Hmm, posted this to the wrong topic. Too many windows open at the same time.

Jump Gates work in one direction only. You can't use any one else's gates except your ally's. You still need fast cruise drives to get back.

Jump Gates represent a sea change in space travel and are meant to change everything. The ability to supress a jump into a system or for a number of parsecs is an interesting one. Will think about it for the next patch.

[ February 05, 2002: Message edited by: Andrew Ewanchyna ]</p>