My personal pet peeve is the fact that dormant points needs to be explored from the active side. Otherwise I'm pretty much fine with them. I like the rude awakening thing they do to you once you notice hostile fleet in your system
I don't know, it seems to make more sense to me that there are some warp points that are very difficult to detect from one end (even if they've been there all along) than for new surveyable warp points to appear when you explore an entirely different system.
(Incidentally, dormant warp points - known as "closed" points in universe - and their effects on defensive planning, are a major plot point in the Starfire book and game series that Aurora is heavily inspired by)
Yes, that is where they originate. The difference is that in Starfire you cannot detect a closed warp point even after someone transits, unless you detect a transit on sensors. Dormant Jump points 'wake up' in Aurora once a transit happens and then you can detect them. Without dormant jump points, you have three options for system generation.
1) Generate everything at start - which would mean a set universe size.
2) Don't allow connections to existing systems, so everything is in chains
3) Only connect to jump points that no one has explored yet.
The problem with all three of those options is that once you survey a system and check the jump points, you have identified all potential threats. You always know your core systems are safe because threats can only appear in non-surveyed frontier systems. You also also never going to find a shortcut from a valuable frontier region to the core worlds. With dormant jump points, you have the potential for sudden threats in unexpected locations and for galactic re-alignment when an unexpected connection is made.