Travel
Traveling from location to location is the most fundamental game mechanic in Gem.
Location-Based Travel
All locations in the system are tied to a specific, location, relative to Gemini Station distance. Each location features a parent sector address, then a location within that sector.
Location Addresses
| Location | Sector | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini Station | 1 | 0.0 |
| Earth | 3 | 3.00300 |
| Mars | 5 | 5.00300 |
| Jupiter | 7 | 7.00750 |
| Mercury Energy Factory | 9 | 9.02700 |
| Eris | 11 | 11.04500 |
| Venus | 13 | 13.00900 |
| Earth's Moon | 21 | 21.00300 |
| S.S. Neptune | 22 | 22.03600 |
| Sedna | 25 | 25.86400 |
| Ceres Mining Outpost | 27 | 27.00500 |
Traveling
Traveling from one location to another requires your ship to move (obviously). Each ship now has a base speed. Your ship will move a distance of your base speed / minute. Your base speed can be modified using EE mods, crew, guild upgrades, etc. When you depart a location, your ship's speed will be as followed:
To put it another way, your ship's speed will be whatever its base speed is, plus the % total of your EE mods, crew, guild bonuses, etc. Each ship class has a different base speed.
Base Speeds
| Ship | Base Speed |
|---|---|
| Fighter (Light) | 50 |
| Fighter (Standard) | 53 |
| Fighter (Assault) | 57 |
| Fighter (Tempest) | 60 |
| Scout (Recon) | 60 |
| Scout (Support) | 65 |
| Scout (Overwatch) | 70 |
| Scout (Harbinger) | 75 |
| Freighter (All) | 50 |
| JayCo Tanker | 10 |
| Sentinel | 50 |
| Dreadnought | 50 |
| Crusader | 60 |
| Wasp | 200 |
Draining & Boosting
- Draining another ship will increase your current speed by 10 M / M.
- If another ship boost your ship, your speed will increase by 10 M / M
- Note: This will not permanently change your base speed, it will only increase your current speed. Once you reach your destination, your speed will drop to 0, (since you're no longer moving) and will reset to your default base speed when you travel again.
- There is no limit to how fast your ship can go. Have fun.
Nerf
Wait a minute, isn't this a huge nerf compared to the previous travel system?
No.
In versions prior to 4.0, there was an engine efficiency cap of 75%. This meant that you could have the best crew, EE mods, and guild upgrades, and even if you had more than 75% EE, it didn't matter. With this new system, the EE cap is removed so while your initial ETA may appear longer, you can drain/hack your ship's engines to reach any speed you'd like. This will be especially useful when visiting distant Sedna.
Additionally, the PVP hacking has been reworked as well, instead of adding/removing time to your travel, it increases your total current speed per hack level (10%, 25%, 50%, 80%, 100%), allowing for outrageous speeds to be obtainable (Make friends with those scouts)
Prior to 4.0
In game versions prior to 4.0, all locations were based on time to/from Gemini Station. Engine Efficiency (EE) mods would increase or decrease your total travel time. For example, traveling from Gem to Earth took 5 minutes. If your ship had an EE of 50%, your Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) would be 2.5 minutes––your EE mods removing 50% of the total time to get from Gem to Earth.
Issues
The main issue with this model was that the actual amount of time added/removed to your ETA changed based on what location you were traveling to. The 2.5 minutes removed from your trip to Earth became 15 minutes if you were traveling from Gem to Jupiter. This lead to two problems:
- A massive inconsistency with the potency of EE mods.
- Locations that were mean't to feel like far, distant locations, felt very close with a high EE
- Sudo instant-travel was possible between Earth/Gem and Mars/Gem with a high EE and 1-2 ship drains.