Can Star System phase lanes go to any star?

What do you think?

from Sins Forums

I have had Sins for about a month, but I've been so busy getting ready for school I havn't had the time to really get far ahead. As such the I have not played a Huge map yet, I also normally play random maps. Of the large maps I have only played the random multi map (so only 3 star systems). During my games the star systems are almost set up in a line, I normally start in the middle and one of the systems is normally empty. For this post I will refer to the star system futhest to the left as 1, middle 2, right 3.

What I've noticed is that I can jump from 1 straight to 3 without having to pass through 2. What concerns me about this is the fact that a lot of sins defence is based on choke points and bottlenecks, what this tells me is that once you have control of another star system you no longer have choke points, the enemy could easily gain hold of planets in your new solar system if you take your eyes away from it for a second. Now I don't know if this is true for bigger maps with even more solar systems in them, but if it is then it must be REAL hard to maintain your holdings once you start getting up to 3 or 4 solar systems. The first thing I thought of was of a match I was reading about on the forums, the match was from the map generator and it had I think 80 something solar systems. If you can jump all the way from the furthest to the furthest then I can only think it would be impossible to win that map.

I mean you use up so much logistics when you are building up your fleets it isn't even funny, how could you defend all of those. I know a solution would be to make your fleets smaller and station one at the star of each solar system you control, but come on, we all know how easy it is for a fleet to slip around another fleet and get out pretty much unscathed. And once you get down to the last solar system your fleets would be so stretched and the enemies fleets would all be massed into their solar system that when you consolidated several of your small fleets to attack the enemy would only have to send half of its' fleet to one of your now undefended systems and still be able to repel your invasion.

 

Anyway, is that the way it is on Huge maps or are solar systems chained in the larger maps.

12,432 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
It's the way it is. You can travel from any star to any other star ;) Don't worry, it will become more natural. The AI actually doesn't attack your "old" star system all that much, once you get rolling in a new one, especially if you maintain the offensive.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Solar systems are not to my knowledge chained. Nor are there usually all that many of them for that to pose a problem. If this is home-made maps, an option could be to have gateway worlds (as per the map 'gateway') where a star leads to one 'gateway' planet (desert or terran) only and not 3-4, so you can chokepoint the heck out of it.
Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
That's what the defense structures are for, so you can get to your worlds in time to save them, and the phase jump inhibitor keeps them from getting deep in to your empire or from retreating without losses.

And come on, what would be the fun if the enemy didn't have a chance?
It's hard to keep everything together, but it wouldn't be very fun to just roll over somebody an hour into the game, then have to spend twice that mopping them up in their own system. This way they get a chance to make a come back and keep the game going.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
And come on, what would be the fun if the enemy didn't have a chance?
It's hard to keep everything together, but it wouldn't be very fun to just roll over somebody an hour into the game, then have to spend twice that mopping them up in their own system. This way they get a chance to make a come back and keep the game going.
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I think that it would suck to just roll over an enemy in an hour. I know the title of my post sort of gives the wrong idea of what I'm talking about. I don't mean that each Star system is only connected to one other star sytem, they could be connected to 2 or 3. I just thought it was weird that you could jump from one end of a 10 or 12 star system map (even though those maps are custom) to the other. I guess I just need to play more larger maps.

The AI actually doesn't attack your "old" star system all that much, once you get rolling in a new one, especially if you maintain the offensive.
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So what about going up against Human players, MP?
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Fleets are biased towards offense, they project power. You can still create a large fleet or two for conquest and fortify the planets around the star with a smaller mobile force to back the local defenses. And you obviously haven't seen what can happen with wormholes, they can go from star system to star system and they are usually far, far from the star itself, giving back-door access to star systems a lot quicker than the phase lane travel from the central star.

pek
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Well the only wormholes I have ever seen and used have only warped you to the other side of the star system you were in. I havn't played with any that have warped my to other star systems, even in my multi star matches.

But as for the smaller fleets around your backyard systems, wouldn't they be too easy to get by? I mean, an enemy fleet can enter within a 45 degree angle of a stars grav well so you can't always judge the spot an enemy fleet will jump in. Too many times have my defending fleets been skirted past while I'm not watching.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
But as for the smaller fleets around your backyard systems, wouldn't they be too easy to get by? I mean, an enemy fleet can enter within a 45 degree angle of a stars grav well so you can't always judge the spot an enemy fleet will jump in. Too many times have my defending fleets been skirted past while I'm not watching.
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Phase jump inhibitors.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
yeah, for the planets, but not at the star where most enemy fleets jump in.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
That's what the defenses are for. You can get your fleet into your worlds, and the PJIs that kept them from getting deep into your empire then prevents them from fleeing well.
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
You don't want to try to defend a star itself, it's way to slow to move around in unless you just park a lot of carriers there and let squadrons do the fighting, but then, the carriers are pretty weak by themselves. Stars have a very limited number of ways into your planets, sometimes only one, and usually one of the ways in is covered by a very well fortified pirate base. Fortify the planets to make choke points with the small-ish fleet to back up the fixed defenses. The only weak point then is the worm hole that goes to another star system. Some wormholes go from side to side, you're lucky if you're the sole owner of that star system, It can be like a railroad to move fleets rapidly back and forth. Usually they go to another star system, smack into your enemies very large fleet that they parked there waiting for you to do that very thing.

pek
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
Yeah I know what you mean with the worm holes. Alright, thanks for all the advice and stuff. I'll put it to good use. Thanks again guys...and gals.