I like that idea, but there must be a issue as it seems good, but wasn't implemented.

But then on the other side if you want your fleets to get halfway across the system it'll take a lot longer then it does now...

The way it is now, a ship going from A to C has to stop at B

A - (must stop )B -- C

Maybe it could be changed that a ship that goes from A to C doesn't stop at B but goes around the gravity well.

A - (goes around)B -- C





Sometimes as my empire gets bigger I still send ships from the home planet to the front and it takes forever for them to get to the front lines because of the constant stops , re-angle, and re-entering of phase space.

A - (must stop )B - (must stop )C - (must stop ) D - (arrives at destination) E **takes forever**

I don't like the idea of skipping it.

Then how can you use the phase inhibitor?

I think there should be 'set points in which ships must travel to and from when phase jumping.

Because when a ship comes in from direction A, it is in a brilliant position already to phase jump to any other place, even if it is on the other side of the planet!

Using that picture up.

Ship comes from A, arrives at B. Moves to otherside of B then can reach C.

Otherwise we don't need these 'lines' of travel and might as well just have it free-for all! imo

You could always tie the space-lane to a structure.
So if you want to jump from planet A to planet B you need some phase-space-jump-startpoint-thingymabob to get the ship into phase-space. For each direction one structure.
This structure won't work for enemies (except perhaps for a PsyTech hacking-ability?), but they could construct such a structure near one of their own nearby planets to jump in your direction. That means you can only attack planets that are near your own ones. That would make sense. No weird hopping around in an enemy empire until you find a lesser defended planet.
Big ships could perhaps jump without any aiding structure (special ability: start jump together with all ships within certain radius?), but are still subject to restrictors.

Right now large distances are very easily covered. There are few strategic elements to the positions of planets.

Absolutely.

In my first testgame, I got the message of some inbound enemy vessles. I look at the system and see 3 or 4 enemy frigtes approaching.
No problem, I think, there are 3 gauss and 2 hanger defense platforms between the jumppoint they are going to appear and the one leading deeper into my territory.

Then, those bastardes just reentered hyperspace again, to happily move on into my territory. You can imagine my wtf expression.

TBH The current system is fine tbh, changing it would make one thing better at the cost of ruining something else. If you want to blockade a system, the build an inhibiter (I think a Inhibitor Cap ship should be available for suns and when you are fleet chasing). Currently your waiting for antimatter to recharge for the next jump, and that means even medium distance trips take a while as it is, making that emergency run with your feel back home cos your under attack take even longer would be bad. As for Speeding it up, I don't think that's necessary, some delay is reasonable.

the fastest ships in the game are fighters and they are not fast enough to engage enemy ships before they can jump again

i have even put ships at the in coming jump point and they were not fast enough to stop them

which means that you have to build huge defences on everything becouse the way it is now an enemy fleet can get in your back before you can even engage them



it is true that the stars well is the whole system but it has a limited area of effect where it is the only thing that affects things

ie the earth has two moons the one we see and one that has a 70 year cycle

true the secound moon is temporary and will only orbit the earth 10 times

i hope i made my point on the stars well

In considering the topic covered here, there is definitely a weakness in the game with the way an opponent can completely circumvent logical defenses and the nature of the positioning of planets and the jump lanes. Implementing a jump-around or edge-jump sequence while a ship is 'passing through' would be excellent. Perhaps an advanced jump drive that can do the former at higher technology levels.

A big problem, as others have pointed out, is how the enemy can jump to the edge of your system, jump again to the system on the other side, then jump back, thereby bypassing any defenses you've put in place. I've been dealing with this by building respectable defenses by every lane -- but with high maintenance, this isn't always a viable option if you're waging a decent war. So my strategy has been to focus on strategically significant systems (choke points). But, until I get a phase jump inhibitor in place, these strategies are basically meaningless.

I'm not recommending changing the game mechanics too horribly, but having the option of some additional items would be very nice. I'm not the first to suggest these, but I feel these would contribute to diversifying the strategic and tactical options available to the player as well as providing different approaches during different phases of the game. I'm definitely seeing some nice mod options with features like this, too.

1. Ship-based phase jump inhibitor, or perhaps an early-game weapon (structure or vessel based) that delays jumping for a time.
2. Some ships cannot jump without structure(s) at start (and finish) (ie: Babylon 5)
3. Construction ships that can build structures in both star wells and planetary wells