Starlanes Help

dexters · August 31, 2003, 17:20

I need some clarificaiton RE: Starlanes.

The manual mentions Starlanes can be upgraded and can be used as choke points.

1) How do you upgrade starlanes?

2) what is the difference between a blue and a white lane?

3) How exactly does a choke point work? I've seen AI send ships using my lanes, they obviously can access my empire. Or is this dependent on your relations?

4) If I'm at war, I can sometimes have starlane access tosecondary planets behind the enemy Civ's front lines. Other times, there will be starlanes that are grayed out. I'm not entirely sure what requirements there are accessing starlanes connecting hostile planets.

Kloreep · August 31, 2003, 19:29

1) Starlane upgrading was cut.
2) A blue starlane means you've explored both of systems connected by the starlane. A white starlane means you've only explored one of them.

3) "Chokepoint" is simply a strategic term; there is no explicit gameplay mechanic. Starlanes cut down the number of ways for others to quickly access your empire. In previous MOOs, fleets simply traveled directly between stars; an enemy fleet could travel directly to even the center star of your empire. Now that direct travel without starlanes ("off-roading") takes so long (and I don't think the AI even uses it), you can predict what border systems your empire will be invaded at and prepare defenses accordingly.

4) I'm not sure what the grey starlanes mean, but you can access a starlane at any time, no requirements necessary. There is no way to cut a starlane or make it inaccessible to someone.

dexters · August 31, 2003, 22:15

Just a follow up.

I've only been able to off-road when there is a star I see on the map without an obvious starlane connected to it.

For all stars with starlanes, the default setting is to travel by starlane, even if it is a long circuitious path.

Can we force our ships to offroad?

Kloreep · August 31, 2003, 22:32

Yes. One method is to drag and drop the the taskforces; there's also a key you can press while directing the ship with normal clicks. I think it's CTRL. Might be ALT or Shift.

dexters · September 1, 2003, 00:10

Thanks for the help!

BenRipped · September 2, 2003, 00:19

For "off roading" read the "ReadME.txt" file that came with MoO3.

The grey lines are wormholes or at least they should be.

Flinx · September 3, 2003, 10:41

Wormholes are green.

BenRipped · September 3, 2003, 16:10

I just went out back and dug up a couple of worms. Wormholes are brown or at least they are in brown matter.