What if every system was directly connected to other systems by jump points?
That question came to me while idly thinking about the trouble of running out of fuel in an empty system. Another question logically followed.
“If we can jump directly from system to system, why would we use hyperspace?”
An answer came to mind immediately: hyperspace is faster! If that is true then it should be much more expensive than “slowboating”, or else no one would ever go the long way. That is easily done by making fuel significantly more expensive than supplies, which, if I recall correctly, fits with the lore as well.
While this wouldn’t eliminate the risk of running out of fuel in an empty system (and doesn’t help running out of supplies at all), I think it would go a long way.
These thoughts also spawned a second idea that I think neatly ties in. If fuel will be much more important, then why not make tanker ships more important in kind? I believe this can easily be done by reducing the fuel storage of most ships to just enough to perform a few jumps. Tankers, and ships like the Apogee, would naturally become a part of every fleet that wants to travel through hyperspace, whether to get somewhere quickly or to explore the unknown.
With these two ideas estimating fuel usage would be far more precise in most situations, tankers would have a real purpose in player fleets, and I’m sure there are interesting implications for other parts of the game, like say,
piracy.