Idea: Reintroduce Jump Drive via optional research

[Falcrack]

I know some people are totally against the idea of adding back jump drives, while some are. I had an idea for how both camps might be satisfied.

After researching High Mass Teleportation II, Boso Ta announces that this research has opened up the possibility to research the lost knowledge of jump drives. It would be a very expensive line of research, even more so than High Mass Teleportation II, but once it is finished, it would allow the player to equip jump drives on XL or L ships at their own shipyards/equipment docks. Soon after researching jump drive technology, faction reps would approach you with the proposition to buy this technology from you. If you do not sell it to them (for example, an enemy faction), they would figure it out on their own after some time and start equipping it on their ships.

This approach would hopefully satisfy those vocal forum members who want nothing to do with the jump drive, and those who would like to have it in the game. If they don't want the jump drive in the game, they just don't bother to do the research. Would this be a good compromise for adding back the jump drive?

[Falcrack]

To those voting no, I'm curious as to why you object? If the addition of this would not impact your game personally (since you would not have to do this research), what do you have against others who do want the option to have jump drives from having it in their games?

[TheDeliveryMan]

Jumpdrive totally removes strategic depth, every system is a border system and there are no remote systems. The player could jump right into Savage Spur 1, while the Xenon could jump right into Path To Profit.

In my opinion it is a waste of dev time!

[-=SiR KiLLaLoT=-]

In my opinion, the Jumpdrive as we remember it on X3/XR that is applied on all ships or L/XL ships, cannot be implemented in the current version of X4, because it would have too unbalanced consequences in the general gameplay.

At present, the only plausible implementation would be a research that can enhance the player's suit and that allows you to teleport only the ship on which you are driving.
In this way, taking the example written by TheDeliveryMan, you could teleport to Savege Spur with an Asgard, but the welcome you would receive would not be pleasant and you may not be able to overwhelm all the Xenon ships present.
But even if it were, it wouldn't be much different from the explosive effect HQ currently creates when beamed to their shipyards.

Who knows, maybe in the next future DLC, maybe when (and if) the Boron engineers arrive, you can get a search of this type.
Any other kind of implementation would not be feasible.

[Omni-Orb]

I think having it fitted to one specific ship only through a mission or research is the way to go for this. So I voted yes.

[LameFox]

The way this is proposed is better suited to a mod IMO. It doesn't really do anything to return the game to a state where jumpdrives made sense, just throws them in there in case you really really want them back. In some ways I prefer them to travel drive (particularly because the AI handles travel drive horribly by comparison) but this would do nothing to remedy that.

[GCU Grey Area]

To those voting no, I'm curious as to why you object?

Since you asked, voted NO because it would rob the game of strategic depth. 'Make it optional' is not a compromise position because there's an opportunity cost to everything the devs do. There's a host of things I'd very much prefer the devs to be working on (bug fixes, new features, Borons, etc) than for them to spend any time at all time working on something I'd never use.

[Raptor34]

I have suggested before to give JD a permanent malus to equipping one.
Basically across the board stat reductions to simulate the new JD being not as good as the old one and having a major power drain.
And also take an idea from Stellaris where you also have maluses after jumping so you cannot jump to attack, though note this doesn't include docked ships so carriers are majorly advantageous, though since you'll have maluses to your shields, it's also highly risky if there is any sort of gate defense as your fully loaded carrier can just be nuked on emergence.
That plus windup, winddown time so jumping isn't just waiting ten seconds but you actually need to plan out your jumps beforehand.

[EGO_Aut]

To those voting no, I'm curious as to why you object?

Since you asked, voted NO because it would rob the game of strategic depth. 'Make it optional' is not a compromise position because there's an opportunity cost to everything the devs do. There's a host of things I'd very much prefer the devs to be working on (bug fixes, new features, Borons, etc) than for them to spend any time at all time working on something I'd never use.

I voted NO, because of nearly the same reasons.

I am sure those who would like it, could MOD it or maybe soon - iam still vanilla player who do not care about Mods.

There is no need to implement things, that only the player will use and the AI not.

[Alan Phipps]

I'll give the OP points for persistence, even though they have been told before by the devs that it just isn't happening.

[Fulgrymm]

I voted yes with modifications. A single copy, fitted to a specialized M sized ship. Like a modern X-Perimental Shuttle.

[Raptor34]

I voted yes with modifications. A single copy, fitted to a specialized M sized ship. Like a modern X-Perimental Shuttle.

I'll rather they bring the X-Shuttle back. Though that would be S-size.
ToA gave us the Astrid, despite it being sucky to actually fly it's still pretty sexy. Would be nice if the Boron pack gives us the X-Shuttle.
Also didn't the OG X-Shuttle have capital-grade shielding? That would be nice here too.

[Rei Ayanami]

Yes, but with modifications.
I don't want classic Jump Drives back since they make the universe feel smaller, they remove a lot of strategy since you could just jump behind any protected border and it's unfair since the AI wouldn't be able to use it... and if the AI was able to use it, why wouldn't they simply jump right into their enemies homeworld sector?

I would however like an experimental jump drive, which can not target any sector of the current map, but jump to a randomly generated sector and/or Khaak sectors, like we had in X3. Perhaps these sectors could be a main resource point for Nvidium and we could have some new items (engines/shields/weapons) that require them, so we could have small raiding fleets jump to Khaak territory and mine Nvidium there (military ships protecting miners from Khaak defending their territory), then come back to sell it.

[Duncaroos]

To those voting no, I'm curious as to why you object? If the addition of this would not impact your game personally (since you would not have to do this research), what do you have against others who do want the option to have jump drives from having it in their games?

- waste of Dev's time who have repeatedly said -no- jumpdrives. I swear it was even in an FAQ somewhere! They have bigger fish to fry to fix what's currently in game now, not to add back an old feature they removed for very specific reasons.
- teleportation is the new jumpdrive. It jumps the -player- into the action, not an armada. It doesn't even need a lot of resources to get decent sector range.

If the fact that teleportation doesn't immediately put you in the pilot seat and you have to walk over and potentially cause a fatal error, maybe in the menu have an "teleport to captain seat" so you're immediately in control once teleportation completes.

[Drecksdusler]

I don't want classic Jump Drives back since they make the universe feel smaller

Is it though? I think in fact with the large highway along the core sectors the universe feels much smaller and accessible. Even in the outer sectors that are not connected to the highway network, travel drive as standard for all ships makes the sectors feel much smaller. Cargo is shipped around much faster, distances don't matter for economy as they did in X2 and X3. Gate blockades don't matter either, as with a small fast ships even a large Xenon doom fleet sitting in front of a gate is unable to block S trading ships from going through with 5500 m/s. And that's WITHOUT using SETA, mind you. I've never used it in 7 days of ingame time.

The jump drive allowed the player to go to any sector with a specific ship, that's true. But the AI didn't and that made the whole universe feel much more vast.

- waste of Dev's time who have repeatedly said -no- jumpdrives. I swear it was even in an FAQ somewhere! They have bigger fish to fry to fix what's currently in game now, not to add back an old feature they removed for very specific reasons.

I'm curious, what were those specific reasons? I would rather go back to jump drives and cut the highways and especially the travel drive.

[jlehtone]

Would this be a good compromise for adding back the jump drive?

I was recently told that nobody should settle for a compromise. Aim for win-win. Besides, if one gains something while the other loses, then that is not even a compromise.


You could as well propose that NPC -- and only NPC -- gain ability to jump (btw, which they already do have and use) and they do use it only for coordinated attacks against the player assets. Frequently. That would give some players pesky trouble, for some "a challenge", and for you "jumpdrives in the game". Everybody wins?

[Alan Phipps]

The reasons for X4 jumpdrive decisions were asked for above:

See this old X4 introduction post from CBJ.

A different dev (I think) also said something along the lines of: 'A lot of time is spent making spectacular and even interesting in-game locations for the players to visit, explore and enjoy, and then, once they get jumpdrives, they hardly ever visit them again but just go directly to the next mission objective.'

[Raptor34]

The reasons for X4 jumpdrive decisions were asked for above:

See this old X4 introduction post from CBJ.

A different dev (I think) also said something along the lines of: 'A lot of time is spent making spectacular and even interesting in-game locations for the players to visit, explore and enjoy, and then, once they get jumpdrives, they hardly ever visit them again but just go directly to the next mission objective.'

Tbf I already do that with my chauffeur.

[Alan Phipps]

Heh, how you travel is largely irrelevant (aside from teleport maybe), but at least you can watch the scenery in passing whilst being chauffeured.

[Raptor34]

Well... Since there is no more risk of random collisions one-shotting me along with travelling in something tough enough to take a few hits, I don't bother keeping an eye on things either.
But seriously though, it's relaxing that you can now just afk and be assured of getting where you want to instead of coming back to a game over screen.