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!
