Building a gate around a jump point immediately brings to mind the jump gates in Babylon 5. And the jump gates in the Egosoft games - X: Beyond the Frontier, X2: The Return, and X3: Reunion. Heck, just about every sci-fi mention of jump gates I can think of refer to physical gates in which a jump point can be used. You could
almost consider the Wing Commander series an exception…
except they always refer to them as "jump points", never as "jump
gates".
I'm also reminded of the
star gates in SG:Atlantis and SGU. But they don't call them "jump gates".
Perhaps Steve opinion will help…
This is what he said,
…the stablised jump point, rather than an actual physical jump gate, is how I tend to view it as well. Maybe I should make that canon. I'll give it some thought.
Notice the "tend(s) to view" and the part about still deciding whether or not to make this canon?
Also, there's more than one way to interpret that statement. It sounds like he either a) envisions them as a stable jump point with no physical component whatsoever
-or- that b) he thinks of the jump point first and foremost when thinking of jump gates (allow jump gates to have some physical component).
Which sounds more like technobabble excuses then how we would want the game to work imho. A Construction Ship building a "gate" at least gives me an impression that some physical construction is ongoing.
I'd agree that it does sound like trying to excuse things away. And "building" a gate does imply that something physical is constructed. Though, it really is Steve's game, so the way "we would want" many not have much weight. That said, it's usually impossible please everyone, so why not make more stuff like this an option that players can turn on or off? (I'm reminded of games like Dwarf Fortress with "init" text files which allows tremendous customization to suit all sorts of player preferences…)
A orbital station could have a module named orbital docking or something that whoud enable you to add som special mods like dry dock orbital factories and other things. Could make it something like building a PDC that you need prebuild the parts planet side until you got it up and running and from ther it needs minerals to add to the station.
Considering how sophisticated a simulator Aurora is, I'm surprised that this isn't already implemented. It's a much more realistic approach. It shouldn't even matter if players want to do something weird, like try to combine a shipyard with the capabilities of a Deep Space Tracking Station by combining the relevant modules. (I'm reminded of the Xpace game, where one could build whatever type of station one would want merely by designing it with certain modules. )
Space stations are the heart and soul of space exploration. Imagine in the real world trying to colonize mars or explore/exploit the asteroids or other solar bodies without a space station. But even in fiction they are important.
One can envision other uses for them besides shipyards, tracking stations, and refueling, too. Weapons platforms would be cool. Even something like financial/commercial stations or luxury stations that increase wealth would be nice.
