Gates
A gate is a one-way launch pad a player builds on an orbital system. Rather than pointing at one fixed destination, a gate projects a circle of reach and can send a fleet to any eligible system that falls inside it.
Reach, Not a Fixed Destination
A gate does not bind two systems together for good. It has a reach radius, and from it a fleet can jump to any eligible system that lies within that radius at the moment of travel. The same gate can serve many destinations over its life — the player picks a target each time a fleet launches, choosing from everything currently in range.
Reach is measured in one unified coordinate space shared by every gate, so the only thing that separates a short-range gate from a long-range one is how far its circle extends and which systems it is allowed to consider.
The Three Tiers
Every gate is one of three tiers. The tiers differ only in how far they reach and which systems they are permitted to target; the slot that hosts them is identical.
| Tier | Reach | Eligible targets |
|---|---|---|
| Local gate | Small | Any system within reach — in practice, systems in the same region |
| Jumpgate | Larger | Only systems within reach that lie in a different region of the same galaxy |
| Voidgate | Vast | Only systems within reach that lie in a different galaxy of the same universe |
The scope filter is categorical and sits on top of the radius. A Jumpgate ignores same-region systems no matter how large its circle grows, and a Voidgate ignores same-galaxy systems the same way. A gate's reach can never "leak" into a tier it does not belong to.
A Voidgate is extraordinarily resource-heavy to build and to grow. That cost — not any restriction on who may own one — is what keeps inter-galaxy travel rare and significant.
Gate Slots
A gate can only be built where a gate slot exists, and slots are scattered and scarce. Only some orbital systems carry one; most never can host a gate at all. The slots that do exist have no relationship to one another — they are not arranged in chains or pairs, and one slot's use says nothing about any other.
A slot is uniform: it can host any of the three tiers, and the player chooses the tier when building. Building a gate spends the slot — one slot yields one gate, and the slot cannot be reused for a second. Because a single slot could have become a cheap local hop or a galaxy-spanning Voidgate, every scarce slot is a genuine regional trade-off.
Growing a Gate's Reach
A gate does not arrive at full strength. Its reach radius is grown through sustained scientific investment, pushing the circle outward over time so that more systems fall within range. A Voidgate's reach is the most expensive of all to extend.
One-Way Travel
A gate carries fleets in one direction only: outward, from the gate to a target in range. It brings nothing back. Returning is a separate act of construction — a second gate, built at the far end and reaching back toward home. The outbound gate never implies a return gate, and a return gate is never created automatically.
Gates and Ordinary Travel
A gate is never the only way to get somewhere. A fleet can always cross from one grid cell to an adjacent one without any gate at all — system to system within a region, region to region, and galaxy to galaxy. Crossing this way simply takes a meaningful amount of time. A region that no long-range gate reaches is therefore never cut off from the universe; it is only slower to arrive at.
What a gate buys is speed. A jump through a gate is near-instant, subject to its queue and cooldown, collapsing a journey that ordinary travel would spend a long time making.
Rules
- A gate is built on an orbital system that carries a gate slot.
- Gate slots are scattered and scarce; only some orbital systems carry one, and most carry none.
- Gate slots have no adjacency or pairing relationship to one another.
- A gate slot is uniform and can host any of the three tiers; the player chooses the tier when building.
- Building a gate spends its slot. One slot yields exactly one gate and cannot be reused.
- Every gate is exactly one of three tiers: Local gate, Jumpgate, or Voidgate.
- A gate has a reach radius measured in a single coordinate space shared by all gates.
- At travel time, a gate can target any eligible system within its current reach.
- A Local gate may target any system within reach.
- A Jumpgate may target only systems within reach that lie in a different region of the same galaxy.
- A Voidgate may target only systems within reach that lie in a different galaxy of the same universe.
- The tier's scope filter applies on top of the radius; a larger radius never lets a gate target systems outside its tier's scope.
- A gate's reach radius is grown through scientific investment.
- A gate is one-way: it carries movement outward to a target only.
- A return journey requires a separate gate built at the far end; it is never created automatically.
Player Actions
- Build a gate on an orbital system that has an empty gate slot, choosing its tier.
- Launch a fleet through a gate to any eligible system currently within its reach.
- Invest in a gate to grow its reach radius.
- Build a separate return gate at a destination to travel back.
- Inspect a gate to see its tier, current reach, and which systems are in range.
Constraints
- A gate cannot be built on a system that has no gate slot.
- A gate cannot be built on a slot that is already spent.
- A gate cannot send a fleet to a system outside its current reach or outside its tier's scope.
- A Voidgate is the most resource-heavy gate to build and to grow.
- Which systems carry a gate slot, and how many exist per region and galaxy, are defined in a separate feature.
- Who may build each tier, and the resource cost to build and grow each tier, are defined in a separate feature.
- Travel cost and travel time — for both gate jumps and ordinary cell-to-cell movement — are defined in a separate feature.