Civilian Freighters might not transit it though, I think they only check for a Jumpgate and not a Jumpdrive equipped ship because the Jumpdrive equipped ship could have moved on before the freighter got there.
That is also true. I'd recommend building jumpgates between secured systems. There really should be a way to remove a jumpgate, though.
Balls! Bang goes that idea then. I thought commercial shipping would use this like a jumpgate without me having the potential 'Invasion highway' a jumpgate entails.
The one MAJOR problem with this is the resources required to produce one of these - its a huge drain on even a massive empire, and certainly far out of reach of most player empires I've seen (waresky excepted of course) if you're doing this at more than a few critical transit points. it will be many times more expensive than building jump gates.
Edit: BTW I notice that the maint on this is huge - given that its a commercial design you only need 1 maint space - or is this stored maint for use as a Supply ship?
Yes, its all storage bays to help bulk it up to the designed mass. My thoughts were to roleplay it as a customs station on a jumpoint. So civilian shipping uses it, pays a transit fee and then carries on shipping goods. Obviously doesn't show up on the wealth screen properly but as I said, all roleplayed.
So how many years of wealth production does this take to put into action?
And wouldn't a system defense fleet be cheaper?
No idea. Was just a proof of concept idea that unfortunately looks like it won't pan out. Costs from the design screen are as follows:
23479x Duranium
108x Neutronium
5x Corbomite
330x Mercassium
12500x Sorium
Build time is 4. 32 yrs
Not sure what the actual wealth cost would be.
As I said ealier this was only a design and feasability study that appears not to have worked quite as expected. It was designed to allow the largest amount of potential tonnage through it.