With the introduction of artificial wormholes we add a whole new strategic level to the game. It is now possible for an empire to lay “super-highways” from any point in the galaxy to another. A wormhole can then be passed by your ships in a single turn.
An empire can only build one wormhole per every 10 planets it controls. However, an empire with only 1 planet can create the first wormhole already, with 10 planets you can create 2 wormholes, and with 20 you can create 3 wormholes.
You actually need to create 2 wormhole “entries” and connect them, to create a wormhole that can be traveled through. So creating a single wormhole only pays you half of the rent. However, you can connect your wormhole to that of an ally - so two empires controlling just 1 planet each can ally up and create a “super highway” between these two empires.
You can only create one wormhole per sector, and your empire needs to control at least one planet in that sector. If your empire loses all planets in that sector, the wormhole will be lost.
Well, for a start, you need a new ship-module named “Wormhole Generator”, you research that through a new technology named “Artificial Wormholes”. Once you built a ship equipped with a Wormhole Generator, you can order it to “create a wormhole“, via the ship-command context menu.
That ship-command works much like the “Move Near” command, however, it also checks if you are picking a valid location for the wormhole. That means it needs to be inside a sector of control, only 1 wormhole is allowed per sector, and the wormhole needs to be at least 25 units away from any planet or sun in that solar-system. Once you pick a location, the ship will travel there. As soon as it arrives the Wormhole Generator gets activated and starts creating the wormhole. This process takes 10 turns. Then the wormhole (entrance) is created, and the ship is consumed during that process.
As mentioned earlier, you need to create 2 wormholes and connect them to each other in order to create the highway between them. Once they are connected, you are stuck with your choice - they cannot be undone, so pick your locations wisely. To do so, right click on the wormhole, and in the context menu select “Connect To”. This lists all available wormholes that it can be connected to.
As mentioned earlier, in addition to connecting your own wormholes, you can also connect wormholes to those of your allies. If one of your allies has created a wormhole, the “Connect To” menu will list those too. However, instead of being immediately connected, a Treaty dialog will pop up, suggesting to connect these two wormholes. Your ally will find the Treaty in his Diplomacy Screen, and as soon as he accepts it, the two wormholes are connected.
Note that just like any other treaty, this has a binding, and you can cancel the treaty (and effectively disconnect the two wormholes) after the binding has expired. Also, should your stance be downgraded from being allies, the connection between two wormholes will be broken too.
When you order your ship to move to a distant location, the code checks if there are any routes that could be laid through any of the existing wormholes, and if so plots a route right through them. The actual wormhole (no matter how long) is then passed in a single turn. So there is nothing special you need to do to use them. Just say “I want to go there”, and if a wormhole is “near” it will use that automatically.
Be aware, though, that ships do not immediately travel through the wormhole. When they arrive at the entrance to a wormhole, they’ll hold and prepare to jump. Only on the following turn will they actually travel and arrive at the other end. This has consequences if, for example, you’re fleeing before a mighty fleet: You’re ahead by 10 units, but at speed 40 the enemy’s fleet is faster than yours by 5. He’ll catch you eventually, it seems.
But you have a wormhole nearby that you plan to escape through. The opening is just 30 units away so you make it there in one turn - but because your ships are halted at the entrance for the remainder of the turn, the enemy catches up to you and battle occurs (his distance to the wormhole would be 40, exactly the distance he travels per turn). Had you been ahead by just one more unit, or had the enemy fleet been just a little slower, you would have disappeared into empty space just as the enemy caught up to you.
Note that your ships will also spend a turn at the other end of the wormhole, running post-jump tests, before moving on to the final destination.
If you are laying a route, the code will automatically compute the shortest route taking wormholes into account. Sometimes it makes sense though to avoid wormholes altogether, and rather go the direct route. You do this by holding the SHIFT key when setting a ship-command.
There’s only one caveat to keep in mind: if you follow another ship, and you did so by pressing the SHIFT key, that means that your ship will not go through wormholes, and instead always follow using a direct route.
Naturally you can see all the wormholes that your empire created, but you can also see all the wormholes of your allies. You can use them also as if they were your own. Anyone else can not see these wormholes, they have no indication that there could be one. A ship (or an entire armada of ships) could appear out of empty space, that would be an indication that they just traveled through a wormhole - but you do not see the actual wormhole.
Since you can’t see the wormholes of your enemies, you can not attack or destroy them. However, you can conquer all planets of the owner of the wormhole (if you suspect there exists one in this sector), and by that the wormhole gets destroyed too.
manual\wormholes.txt · Last modified: 2012/02/26 22:17 by erwin-cs
