Hyperspace and Gravity Devices in VGAP4

Updated May2004. New bits in red.

Hyperjumps are straightforward. I deal with them on the Borg page so won't repeat myself here.  Also, when playing the Evil Empire (a hyperspace based race), I found it necessary to compile a quick reference guide to which engines to use for different hulls, which you'll find here. However it is worth pointing out that you can be knocked out of hyperspace by Gravitonic Mines and Gravity Well Generators (see below).

Most ships hyper jump at movement phase 100 and come to a complete stop after the jump, they do their normal warp movement before the jump. There are 200 movement phases in a turn. In other words, a ship with a max speed of 20 and a hyperdrive can move 10LY, then hyperjump; or can move 20LY if the hyperdrive is switched off.

Privateer Meteor Class and Rebel Falcon Class ships jump before normal movement (phase 0) and have normal warp movement after the jump

Hyperjumping ships can be seen better by enemy ships immediately after a Jump, and can be intecepted and attacked right after a jump. However the scanners of a hypership only work at about 25% normal range immediately after a Jump. So you tend to arrive semi-blind and highly visible.

Jumpgates: A Jump Gate allows any ship to make from gate to gate regaurdless of range, or HYP ablity.

Scott O writes: These cost 10,000 credits and 1,000 moly (both need to be on the ship making the gate). You do not own the gates you make. Instead they are listed as enemy UFO's. When a gate is made, in its name, after the words "Jump Gate", is a Command Code (i.e. three characters). It shows up like this on the map: The code is in the Gates name: Jump Gate AAAObject # 1011. To jump to another gate, first you must be at another gate of course. Finally, set at your ship's first command code to the code in the name of the gate (such as "UIU", but use the destination gate's code). Next turn you will arrive at the destination gate without expending any fuel.

Ships can use any gates they want, no matter who made them, as long as they have the destination gate's command code. The creator of the gate cannot change the code. You have to pick up gates, even the ones you built, on sensors to see them. The command code is automatically visible to anyone who scans them. This is not so bad, though, since you do not need to "see" a gate in order to use it, and they are very difficult to spot, so people who build jumpgates in obscure deep space locations can expect to keep them secret from scouts for a long time.

You can move to a Gate and Jump from it in the same turn - you just have to finish movement over one. Gate jumping happens AFTER movement though so you cannot move away from one after the jump in the same turn.

Deneb writes: scanning occurs BEFORE the jump, so you do not see anything at the location you jump into, which can defiantly be considered a defender's advantage in case someone does a hostile jump using one of your own gates. You are effectively sensor blind when you reach the destination, but so is the enemy, though he can offset this by setting "auto intercept any enemy stuff nearby" at the beginning of the next turn if he susects you're nearby but not visible yet. You will appear on the enemy scanners as a "ghost" at the old jumpgate until he gets an update on your position. - Jon Nunn

Helge writes: The Jumpgate is activated if your ship sets its first of the three command codes to the target gate code. The second one didn´t work when I tried it. The third is irrelevant. When you have jumped through don´t wonder why you are still at the starting point. You are not. It´s just that the ship screens keep the old x/y for one turn. The map will show you. Another problem is that the hotkeys also work when you have to input the new command code. So, íf you are unlucky and one of the code characters is a hotkey, you are ****ed. If it´s just the last one, it´s not that bad but annoying.

Question: Are Jumpgates formed AFTER movement, like most ship device actions? Ie can I move a Pathfinder to the desired spot with the jumpgate generator turned ON and know that the jumpgate will be created at the end point where the Pathfinder finishes its move?

Answer #1 (Scott Oetke): Jump Gate building and jumping happen after movement. You can make a gate and then escape through it on the same turn you make it. Quite handy.

Answer #2 (Greg Mislick): Yes you can build it at the end of movement. You can lay mines before going through it, and you acn build one and use it to wascpae the same turn (have CMD code set to some other gate). Also, you will not appear on scanners for 1 cycle, scanning happens during movement and you jump after movement. I have not confirmed that you remain on scanners at old gate as a ghost or not...

Comment from Jon Nunn: If you're a race that can build a jump gate, lay other areas with lots and lots of minefields first so the enemy doesn't suddenly see an area with lots of defensive and know exactly where your new Jump Gate is.

Jumpgates can be destroyed by an Antimatter Maul. (Not all races have hulls which can mount one of these superweapons.)

Wormholes: these are subtly different to Jumpgates. Whereas Jumpgates are something which a race builds with a special ship device, and to use a Jumpgate you need to use a command code matching the ID of the target gate, a wormhole is an indestructible thing built into the galaxy's map when the game is Mastered. Wormholes are a Host-configurable option which can be turned on part way through a game if wished. Wormholes come in pairs. If you end your turn's movement within 2-3 light years of one [not sure about that, you may have to land exactly on them], you will pop out the other - like Jumpgates, this happens after all other movement and Scanning. You emerge at a fixed point at the other end, about 8LY North and West I think.

Host config option "stable WHs" will create a set of  about 12 pairs of WHs around the perimeter of a galaxy whose pairs are at opposite ends of the galaxy. This gives a sort of wraparound effect to the map.  In the Yale map, they are about 200 LY in from the edge of the galaxy. They will never move or disappear.  "Unstable" WHs have a 40% chance of appearing and a 4% chance of vanishing.  They will also drift a little.

All wormholes are bi-directional. There is no fuel cost for using a wormhole. They cannot be towed.

Jump Point Generators (Jumpships): Chris Olin explains: The ship device "Jump Point Generator" basically allows the ship to take other friendly ships along with it when it makes a hyperspace move. It's kinda like chunneling; except you do not need a target ship, and are limited to the "Jump Ship's" Hyperspace range. A ship with an 850 ly HYP range, and a Point point generator can take ships with it to anypoint within the 850 ly HYP range regaurdless of weather there is a jump gate anywhere around.

Jump Ships (ships with the Jump Point Generator device) are not dependent on Jump Gates in anyway.

Warp Bubble Generators use 100kt of fuel. Causes all ships within 130ly to be tossed up to 30 LY in a random direction. Might make a good emergency escape plan if your fleet is approached by a bigger enemy one. They work just before movement. Unfortunately, the enemy fleet will probaby be back within 5LY of each other  within 50 of the 200 movement phases, due to the way fleets escort their leader. (5LY is near enough to support each other in fights.) - Jon Nunn

Gravitonic Mines: these knock passing ships out of hyperspace. Deneb (creator of the University Alliance) wrote: "Grav mines can be used to stop JPG's dead in their tracks, though grav mines have no affect on ships using Jump Gates (this I am sure of since I tested it)." A ship which hits a grav minefield usually ends up 2 light years inside, and its warp speed will be whatever it was set to at the start of the jump; if non-zero it will continue to plough through any minefields it encounters in normal space. This is awkward because not only do you not get to your destination, but you will be lucky to hyperjump away next turn  without hitting a grav mine again.

Gravity Wells: some ships (ie the T Rex and Borg Cubes) have a Grav Well Generator device which will precipitate any ship in hyperspace out into normal space, if it comes within 50LY of the grav well generating ship. These are like mobile grav minefields. The hypership is precipitated out of hyperspace exactly 50LY from the generator. These are excellent defenses against e.g. Evil Empire ships, because most hyperships have very slow engines for normal space travel, and are stuck like flies in amber.

Spindizzy: a Device on an Interstellar Master Traders ship which can tow almost anything, including a normally unmovable planet.