Wormhole navigation

[jsalemi]

Maybe I'm missing something, but is there an easy way to track which wormholes go where?  I read somewhere (maybe the um, always accurate Prima guide) that once you go through a wormhole pair, a permanent indicator path is supposed to appear, but I've never seen one.  Other than writing down the details, how do you keep track of them?

[Li'l Brudder]

Pen and paper?  2d4 roll?

[karthikthepro]

I think, you need to turn on the "Show Visited" box. Otherwise, it seems to not show the purple lines between the wormhole pairs.

[J. M. Pescado]

I rename the wormholes so that their destination becomes somewhat meaningful based on their name.

[EsotericPolarBear]

I rename the wormholes so that their destination becomes somewhat meaningful based on their name.

"Here there be Dragons"?

[Gus Smedstad]

Wait, wait, there's a way to rename star systems?

 - Gus

[Milhouse Trixibelle Saltfucker III]

There's a "rename" cheat, yes.

[jsalemi]

I think, you need to turn on the "Show Visited" box. Otherwise, it seems to not show the purple lines between the wormhole pairs.

We have a winner!    Yea, I discovered this by accident just before I quit playing for the night last night, and didn't get back here to post it. Turning on the 'Show Visited' makes the lines visible.

Now that I know that, maybe I can figure out a way to get past the Grox without getting my ass kicked. 

[EsotericPolarBear]

Now that I know that, maybe I can figure out a way to get past the Grox without getting my ass kicked. 

That's easy.  Befriend them and relocate your empire to the core.

And that's what is missing from this game.  Is it possible to change your home planet?

[jsalemi]

Too late to befriend them in the one game I'm playing -- they decided to hate me and attack my ships whenever I enter their territory.  I've been trying to clear a path (2 or 3 mega bombs usually take out their colony), but the shortened travel distance near the center makes that arduous going. Plus not knowing my escape route (I haven't found a wormhole that takes me closer to the core yet) made it harder.  Now that I know where the routes go, I can map out the attacks a bit more carefully.

[J. M. Pescado]

Exactly how BAD is that shortened travel distance?

[EsotericPolarBear]

Exactly how BAD is that shortened travel distance?

I'm just guessing, but it looks like to be about 1/5.

[Zazazu]

1/5 sounds realistic. It's bad enough that even with the star systems in the core being nearly on top of each other, I usually only have one possible trail in. That's with waiting for Interstellar Drive 5.0 to start.

[jsalemi]

Yea, 1/5 does sound about right -- makes it almost impossible to find a track through without running into a Grox system. And it makes fast retreats really difficult, even if you find a wormhole that plops you in pretty close.  I even found one wormhole exit that was pretty close to the core, but I couldn't reach a single nearby star from it, even with a I-5 drive.  They were all just a little bit beyond the green.

[EsotericPolarBear]

It doesn't help that it gives you a circle for determining maximum distance in a 3D field.  They should've just made possible destinations highlighted subtly...but this is EAxis we're talking about...

[jsalemi]

Yea, there's an idea for a future Spore feature -- the ability to turn the max distance circle into a transparent sphere, so you can really see what systems are encompassed by it. 

[EsotericPolarBear]

Actually, now that I think about it, what's the purpose of the stardrive distance limitation?  It's not even remotely close to the distance that would result in 0 energy and there's no other supplies to consider so why does it exist at all?

They went about it completely wrong.  The max dist should be the out-of-fuel point or the point of no return, not some arbitrary number...and increased levels of stardrive should increase energy efficiency.

[Li'l Brudder]

I think the stardrive's limitation near the core is wrong.  It should become more and more elliptic, pointing to the center, to be more realistic.

Then again, this means you'd have a hell of a time getting back home. But that's what happens when you fly into a supermassive black hole.

[jsalemi]

...and increased levels of stardrive should increase energy efficiency.

Well, that is how it works in a sense.  Higher level drives let you travel further without any noticeable increase in energy used that I've observed. But I can see why they did the distance limitation as a gameplay thing -- otherwise, getting to the core would be a no-brainer.  Just get max energy stores, blow it all on the trip to the core in one or two shots, and then get a free trip back home when your ship goes boom.

[EsotericPolarBear]

Well, that is how it works in a sense.  Higher level drives let you travel further without any noticeable increase in energy used that I've observed. But I can see why they did the distance limitation as a gameplay thing -- otherwise, getting to the core would be a no-brainer.  Just get max energy stores, blow it all on the trip to the core in one or two shots, and then get a free trip back home when your ship goes boom.

I hate arbitrary limitations in a game.  Especially when they exist to cover poor design.

Dammit, remember the good ol' days (tm) when we had games like Frogger where if you screwed up, you got squashed?  Or Design-a-saurus where if you didn't design yourself properly, you got eated? 

Why do so many "kiddie" games these days think that failure is taboo?


[edit] I'm sorry, I skipped a few points there...I'm referring to the non-existant death penalty in the space stage.

[jsalemi]

Well, there's really not a death penalty anywhere in Spore. It would at the least make sense that if your ship gets destroyed, the new one has an empty cargo hold, not all the stuff the previous ship had.

[EsotericPolarBear]

Well, there's really not a death penalty anywhere in Spore. It would at the least make sense that if your ship gets destroyed, the new one has an empty cargo hold, not all the stuff the previous ship had.

Tribal and Civ both have failure scenarios.  But yeah, the game is easycakepie.

[karthikthepro]

Yea, 1/5 does sound about right -- makes it almost impossible to find a track through without running into a Grox system. And it makes fast retreats really difficult, even if you find a wormhole that plops you in pretty close.  I even found one wormhole exit that was pretty close to the core, but I couldn't reach a single nearby star from it, even with a I-5 drive.  They were all just a little bit beyond the green.

The problem is, the game limits the range when you are very near to the galactic core by a fixed value of 3pc, rather than related to the Interstellar Drive your ship has got. You can use any of the galactic core travel limit mods to get there easily avoiding most of the Grox.

Regards,
Karthik

[jsalemi]

Yea, but using a mod to avoid the travel limit would make it TOO easy, I think, at least for me -- some of the fun is figuring out how to do it, either by clearing a path yourself, or doing a lot of wormhole explorations until you find the right combination that gets you as close as possible.

Tribal and Civ both have failure scenarios. 

Yea, but don't you just go back to the beginning of the stage, or maybe to your last save?  I've seen a stalemate in Civ, where you can't win at all, but never in Tribal.

[EsotericPolarBear]

Yea, but don't you just go back to the beginning of the stage, or maybe to your last save?  I've seen a stalemate in Civ, where you can't win at all, but never in Tribal.

You were expecting them to nuke you back to the cell stage?