I think this will be a pretty controversial topic, but I just thought Id throw it out there and see what people thought of it on whether it would be good, bad, terrible, or any changes they think could be even better. I posted it on Stardock forums originally but there are hardly any users there so figured Id post it over here now instead.



Right now fleets move slowly and if you are attacking one place and end up getting attacked on your other flank there is simply no hope of making it back in time to save anything. If you split your fleet in half then you don't have enough attacking power to plow through enemy defenses and fleets. Same goes for attacking an AI or other player, if you start going in when they had their fleet already going a different direction they either cant get back in time or don't even care to try getting back to defend anything. I think this is due partly to the travel time things take, and by adding a greater mobility to all factions it could alleviate the serious issues of not being able to even send ships back to do anything in time.


So, since all factions understand phase travel and how to inhibit phase travel, why not also give all factions phase gates (Knowing how to establish phase links)? This would allow for much easier movement and defensive action to your own worlds.

But of course you think "then what would make Vasari special?". So since Vasari are so advanced on phase space technology and movement between galaxies even, what if the Vasari instead received a new building, a Gateway, or maybe Phase Portal (or call it whatever you want). This new building acts like a Phase Gate in that any gravity well makes a link to any gravity well for fleets to travel between, but does it like a wormhole where the fleet travels instantly instead of taking time to actually fly between places. The fleet cant just do this from the edge of the gravity well of course, they would have to fly "into" the gateway structure in the same manner they fly into a wormhole in the center of a gravity well.

In this manner the gateway would be a bit balanced, by making it a large structure in a gravity well, taking up as much space as say a starbase does, large enough that the ships would physically be able to move through. It also means that you cant place it right next to all your defenses due to its size and jump your fleet right on top of attacking fleets. You would instead have to place it farther away which gives attacking fleets a chance to respond.



With this idea it allows significant movement advantages to all players in the game by allowing everyone to far more easily move fleets back in a defensive manner within their empire, yet still gives a substantial special advantage to Vasari in the movement area (which they specialize in). There are already instant travel things in the game, so this isn't a new concept. Obviously wormholes are one of them, but Vasari also already have an instant teleporting titan on one of the factions, showing such instant travel tech for them can already be a thing on something large enough (hence why new building is also large). Advent also have a teleport entire fleet ability back to their homeworld. In Sins 1 we even had teleporting/phase jumping fighters that would teleport around the gravity well for Vasari right? So such a technology isn't unprecedented within the game universe and lore, and the increase in fleet movement ability for the entire game would be a significant improvement in my opinion.

So with this concept for a change I am thinking lore wise along the lines of: Everyone understand phase space enough to both jump using it, inhibit travel, and open a phase line between worlds. Vasari have done so much experiments and tech into phase space they have integrated it into their missiles, engines, shields, and even now begun integrating phase space interactions with wormholes they have been experimenting with to power temporary links between places they can open on demand. And since most people think the new 4th race will be the Vasari's great enemy who has something to due to their experiments using phase space, perhaps this sort of wormhole-phase space interaction they have been doing would be what led to this new 4th race coming through into the Vasari Empire to destroy them. Just some imaginary thinking there. lol.






Another concept might be that if it is too difficult to code in "wormhole type spots that link to multiple places" in the map, what if these Gateway really were just like wormholes, you build one and build a 2nd and then click a button to link the two spots. Making "buildable wormholes" with these gateways. In this way the Vasari still gain a powerful movement tech advantage over other factions, and it would be quite an interesting concept to basically make some of the worlds you control be "gateway worlds" where you build 6 gateways in the single gravity well (probably a gas giant due to size?) and that one place now has wormhole type links to 6 other places in the map. Set up a 2nd gas giant gateway world and link the two places and now you have very fast access to 10 places across the map. Lose one of the endpoint worlds and it would be a significant blow to the system, end up losing the "hub planet" to an enemy all the gateways are connecting to and the entire travel network collapses. It could be a fun game mechanic.