My theory about Jump Gates

[Ryan Hanson]

Jump Gates are a major part of Freelancer. Without them, we would have to rely on Jump Holes, and those are a major part of a pirates RP.

Ive been thinking: In new york, there is a trade lane from fort bush to the Colorado JG(I will from now on refer to jump gates as JG To save myself time). There is also a trade lane from westpoint academy to the California JG, and from the battleship to texas. This is everywhere in the game, a trade lane leading to a jump gate.

So, why dont they just build the jump gates at the bases? The Colorado gate in front of fort bush, California in front of Manhattan, etc. Trade lanes give pirates an opportunity to strike at convoys, require resources to construct, and more patrols needed to maintain them. It didnt make sense!

But then I started looking around. In Texas, many hundreds of years ago, there was a jump gate under construction that was supposed to lead to California. But something happened that caused the gate to explode, destroying the Dallas research station and creating two very toxic radiation clouds. If you fly your ship where the JG was being built, you will find a Jump Hole to California.

First of all, why would they build a gate so out of the way from the other bases in Texas? I believe that the jump hole was there before the construction of the jump gate. If you read the info cards on jump holes, it says that sometimes ships get tossed out of them before reaching there destination, even stranding them so far between systems they have no hope of survival. So, what if jump gates dont create portals to other systems, they simply stabilize them?

Im saying that every jump gate in freelancer is built on top of a jump hole. It would explain why they built the trade lanes to the gates, to reach the hole. It would also explain how the gates are there in the first place. Interstellar travel without a hole or gate is, as far as we know, impossible. And we know from in-game rumors that the first gates were built more then 500 years ago. How else would they be able to move supplies to build a gate in another system then without moving them through the jump hole first?

The incident in Texas is not the only evidence to support this. In Hokkaido, there is the Chugoku jump gate site under construction. The gate site is on the other side of the system from the gate to New Tyoko. Why would they do that, unless it was to reach a jump hole?

I dont know what the point of writing this is, just my theory on how gates work, maybe it could be used for role play somehow. Have fun!

[Thexare]

On Ames Research Station (I believe) rumors stated that the Texas incident was related to the dark matter in the system, and explained that this was the reason trade lanes went through Galileo and Kepler at all.

Been a while since I went there for repfixing, however, so I don't recall the details.

[Zero755]

Its a good theory, I dont know if it or something similar will be used in the next version, but a solid theory none the less.

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[AdamantineFist]

Interesting. I don't quite agree with you, though. I think the Texas-California JH was caused by the explosion of the gate. Also, my bet as to why the JGs are out so far is to avoid interference from large bodies, such as planets and stars.

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[Fletcher]

*Enter the Crazy Welshman*

As far as I am aware, the Texas Jump gate was a sort of prototype I believe, the first generation of Jump Gates. The technology was new to humanity and it was still buggy. Whats worse, during the jump (I think) a Dark Matter cloud interdicted the 'transition' and caused a major feedback in the Jump Gate's power systems. This may have caused the Texas disaster. Also from what I remember, the disaster 'sucked' Dark Matter clouds into the system.

Now when it comes to the Jump Gates positions... Learning from mistakes, places them AWAY from major populated areas to avoid any disasters and peace of mind for the population, the Texas disaster still rings in the minds of the people.

Now for the 'creation' of the jump to another system, I have usually believed it was a gate 'encapsulating' a jump hole and stabilizing it. When a ships wants to 'jump' the gate sends energy into the hole, activating it safely. Then once its done, the gate 'saps' the energy from the hole, making it dormant, until the next ship.

Thats my theory.;):yes:

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"Oh chuffing blimey, another day, another person being whiney!"
Fletcher's Feedback and Stories Thread

[Grimly]

I believe jump gates are human made ways to differents systems.

You may see all systems got an access by at least a jump hole. But those said jump hole are difficult to use, mostly in asteroids field or nebulas.

Finally, the only reason why jump gate are far from stations is to avoid any problems due to the queue on gates. (we call that "embouteillages" in french, i don't know its translation)

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Taking what's yours since 816 A.S.

[Telbasta]

Jump holes are naturally occuring phenomena, and are considered unstable and dangerous by ageira and other companies. It makes sense that jump gates are built 'around' a jump hole that already exists in order to stabilize it for travel.

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[Jinx]

from what the SP lore goes - jumpgates are build over jumpholes. - it is not said if humans themselves are able to initiate jumpholes though - however, once open, they cannot close them at will.

jumpholes are chaotic. - they are unpredictable - and if RP was made seriously.... anything bigger than a fighter would have to have an extremely good reason to go through them ( including anything bigger than a freighter in terms of transportation ships )

i think orillion states, that the jumpholes are unsafe and he really hates to fly his ship through one - which might cause a lot of anomalies that can even lead to the severe damage of even destruction of a ship - and it appears that the greater the mass of the ship, the unsafer the passage through a natural jumphole.

now, jumpgates keep the chaotic nature of jumpholes under control. - that way the huge transports ( which the gates are made for primarily ) can pass through. - even the bigger battleships can pass ( but they don t - vanilla 1.0 places the battleships as stationary objects only )

from the intro, we know that humans even know how to build jumpdrives without the need of a jumphole / jumpgate - so maybe the battleships are rather equipped with a jumpdrive than a jumphole ( but the fact that in the SP, the osiris uses a jumphole, speaks against it )

anyway - jumpgates just control jumpholes - and serve the further purpose to lock them if needed.

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Shipdesigns made for DiscoveryGC

[Fletcher]

Actually, I read up that a new line of Battleships in Liberty were being installed with prototype "Jump Drives" that let them create an artificial bubble around the capital ship to effectively make it 'jump' into another system.

I read this quote in vanilla SP somewhere, the Osiris was one of the ships equipped with it, whether it works is another story.

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"Oh chuffing blimey, another day, another person being whiney!"
Fletcher's Feedback and Stories Thread

[The Company]

I made a post called "Jump Holes Revisited" just now to discuss how JHs can be made more dangerous or unpredictable in the upcoming mod.

Great topic--didn't wanna hijack this.

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Annie's Bio