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[Louella Dougans]

Some stargates are capable of sending ships staggering distances.

Not all stargates are usable by capsuleers.

There's a mental condition caused by too many jumps in a short time frame (treatable with space-drugs)

So, I had a couple thoughts.


The stargate network that can be seen is not the entirety of existing stargate networks. There is a gate from Amarr to Ashab that is usable by capsuleers, but it is not necessarily the only stargate from Amarr to Ashab.

It may be that these gates usable by capsuleers are specially designed, with short cycle times. Since capsuleers don't need to worry so much about the mental condition, they require gates to cycle rapidly.


Other models of stargate may exist, with longer cycle times, taking hours to charge for a jump. These would be "cheaper", and/or allow longer distances for conventional ships, but are so much less convenient for capsuleer use.

Which may also help get a grasp on some of the baffling things in the PF, relating to how quickly entities expanded in particular directions.

With long-jump stargates, and depending on the surveys, it may be the case that for some groups, they expanded rapidly along a line, and then filled in later, with short-jump rapid cycle stargates.


Like with railways. There are 2 locations that are connected by rail initially. Later, branch lines are added, to serve the intervening areas that were previously overlooked.

[Seriphyn]

I don't see why not. Many missions make mention of "merchant stargates" in deadspace, as well as "smuggler stargates". The question is "Where do these go to?", and the answer is "Other systems in the constellation", I suppose.

[Alain Colcer]

This always bothered me really.....

Building an stargate is an epic venture, plenty of manpower and resources poured into it, but also strategically.

You want stargates to new undiscovered locations (with potential valuables to exploit) or short-cuts to shorten travel time or to flank your enemies.....but them being "common and economical" does not make any sense really....new "transportation" technology usually makes obsolete older one unless the older stays economically viable or has less requirements to be useful (ie trains vs highways, in one you need the track, the station and the train, on the other you just need to lay down the concrete and its the users who bring the rest). So if you can create gates anywhere by having some permits, then the ammount of traffic and alternatives routes is absolutely huge compared to what we see in-game.

In particular, when jumpbridges were added to the game, i thought of them as temporary "unstable" gate avenues, the technology was perfected enough to be able to secure a stable channel for a given ship, but not keep the channel open all the time. Only the crazy capsuleers would be willing to deploy and use such technology, as the nations could not ensure 100% efficiency with such devices.

But still, missions like "the blockade" or some of the FW missions indicate there are thousands of other gates available out there which are not public.....well i cannot quite come to terms with that.....cause such gates ARE of national interest to any government....regardless if operated/regulated by CONCORD or any other nation...you can't control the entire space inside a star system, but its in your best interest as any governing body to place as much control as you can at the entry points to ensure it stays relatively "clear" of undesirables.

It's something i think needs some revision by CCP and also there is another thing.

If you are a nation looking to expand, to colonize and explore worlds, harvest any and all resources in your reach, one would open gates to every star system within your borders, but it seems each civilization only opted to go to "stable" star systems, or less harmful ones. Why not open gates to magnetars? neutron stars? protoplanetary disks? nebulas? or any other thing that could open "holes" to travel to? thats another thing that bugs me.....these details about the universe have been known for 30-40 years at least, CCP could have designed a much more varied enviroment to travel around than what we have today.

[Saede Riordan]

I basically agree with Bruno, in a lot of ways, the fiction just doesn't make sense as presented.

[Ken]

Why not open gates to magnetars? neutron stars? protoplanetary disks? nebulas? or any other thing that could open "holes" to travel to? thats another thing that bugs me.....these details about the universe have been known for 30-40 years at least, CCP could have designed a much more varied enviroment to travel around than what we have today.

All good ideas and hopefully we'll see more growth in that direction.  I definitely crave more 'space exploration' stuff in my EVE.  But ultimately, we're still flying spaceships "underwater", so nothing too logical or realistic, please.

[Kyoko Sakoda]

Game Design has hinted at wanting to have player-owned gates (not of the Jump Bridge variety, but publicly accessible) and somebody in Content said at Fanfest they were aware with the inconsistencies in Stargate lore.

[Esna Pitoojee]

One of the most unusual aspects about stargates for me is that they do not appear to have a fixed range limit, i.e., some systems might be so close it wouldn't be unreasonable for ships to travel between them making "warp hops", while others (in particular the Niarja - Kaaputenen gate) seem to cross significant fractions of the cluster. Are there massive energy harvesting or reactor arrays we aren't aware of powering these gates? What about fuel harvesting, or do stargates run on such a different technology than jump bridges that they don't require a resonant fuel type?

[Mithfindel]

Public stargates - might be rather expensive to maintain. So, if there's a route that does not warrant backing from an empire, then these merchant gates are locked to be only allowed to be used at the owner's discretion - perhaps they offer shortcuts, perhaps they lead into a system that is not worth to be colonized, or something like that. Noteworthy that due to jump and warp sickness, the location of the stargates would be very important for non-capsuleers, specially those flying older ships. (Stargates that are located so that the minimum amount of jumps is required and warp distance is minimized.)

[Louella Dougans]

well, there's also things like... how airports and aeroplanes work.

The biggest aircraft can only operate from certain airports, whereas smaller craft can go anywhere.

the various merchant stargates may have tiny mass limits and long cycle times for example. Or maybe are only open on Tuesdays.

the short jump, 24 hour, rapid cycle time, large mass limit stargates that the capsuleers use could be a design tradeoff.

For 24 hour availability, no wait, and no limit on ship size, the cost is that you can only jump a (relatively) short distance. This would be a drawback for non-capsuleer ships, because of the jump illness (cynosis?) but isn't that big a deal for capsule ships.


Also, as to the directions that gates were built in, then there is also the possibility that the original technologies were limited in precision and tuning.

comparison: radio sets on ships used to use immensely high voltages, and sparks would fly in the gaps between the electrical contacts, to send morse code, radio operators became known as "Sparks" as a result. Nowadays radio sets on ships are very compact and efficient, and can send a lot more information more quickly (voice & data).

So, the original wormhole-generator-stargate-constructor ships may have been very, very crude and imprecise brute force mechanisms, requiring a large minimum distance in order to set up a link between two gates, whereas modern equipment can do things far more precisely and economically.

[Victoria Stecker]

I'm curious what's different about capsuleer ships that limits jump sickness. I can understand the capsuleers themselves being immune, but we have crews too. How do they fare when I make 30 jumps in an hour?

[Louella Dougans]

I'm curious what's different about capsuleer ships that limits jump sickness. I can understand the capsuleers themselves being immune, but we have crews too. How do they fare when I make 30 jumps in an hour?

capsuleers can afford to give their crews more drugs, more often, maybe ?

[Saana]

Also the fact that most capsuleer ships are brand new. They're expensive. Not all non-capsuleers can afford that - but hey, that old Badger is "repairable" and half price! For example, I'd expect that the Caldari Navy ships of the line would be in this regard very maneuverable. Then might be some details, like having enough mass (big ships) helping against the sickness, in addition to better warp cores and inertial stabilizers.

[Merahl]

Back in the earlier days, I remember having a mission that involved fighting off pirates near an actual stargate, not the LCO/LCS ones, but one people were jumping in and out of while I was fighting. In lowsec, too. I wish I could remember what the name of the mission was, but they seem to have removed or changed that mechanic since then. Perhaps that is where the "smuggler" and "merchant" stargates come from?

[Louella Dougans]

probably "the blockade", i think, that had waves of ships appearing at the stargates.

[lallara zhuul]

In Amarrian COSMOS there is Blood Raider stargates.