New reader with a question about wormhole networks

[Drashner1]

Thanks, that link to the other thread about the nexus has a lot of interesting information. I understand the inner core is definitely supposed to be less structured, with wormholes added as the first AIs were figuring out how to build them.

Happy to help As Rynn indicates, the less organized layout of the Inner Sphere Nexus is likely to be retconned to be a result of the early archai not really cooperating in its creation. Speaking editorially, it's because we hadn't thought of a more organized structure for most of the OA project. We could retcon it into being more organized across the entire Inner Sphere, but I think we rather like the current structure of named wormhole gates and direct routes to various places that has evolved. Likely there will be a bit of tweaking before we're done, but overall, the Inner Sphere is likely to remain rather like the cosmic equivalent of a European 'Old City' with winding narrow roads and such.

The gazetteer lists Escape Valve as a gate between To'u'l and Pen-Y-Ghent. Neither system page mentions this gate. To'u'l only mentions a gate to Morogai. Pen-Y-Ghent doesn't list any gates, but does mention To'ul'hs immigration, so it's safe to guess the gate exists.

The Kepleria page doesn't list any gates, it might be nice to add the gates in the gazetteer to that page (to Pen-Y-Ghent, Djed, and Himmelsschmiede).

The Tau Ceti page doesn't mention the gate to Corona, although it lists the other 4.

The Merrion page says "Several widely spaced wormholes connect Crossroad Central with the rest of the NoCoZo." Could maybe mention the gates to Corona and Alauda, I'm guessing there are others.

All of these seem workable enough at first blush. We'll need to think about them in more depth just to be sure, but I'm not seeing any real showstoppers to making these changes off the top of my head.

It's mentioned that eventually there will be wormholes to systems whose only function is to house a large hub with 100 or so other wormholes. I haven't seen any named examples of these, but there's a lot I haven't read. It would make sense for Djed, Merrion, and Fons Luminis to have wormholes leading to these hubs, since they are home worlds for their respective civilizations.

Relay001 and its associated Relays are the closest thing to what we're heading toward at the moment. Djed has a link to Relay001, as do some other written up systems, and a few others are described as having links to other Relay system.

Then there is Aksijaha, which will need a few tweaks to fit in the redesigned Nexus, but is mostly fine as is.

I'm imagining traveling to those super-hubs would be a bit like having a layover in an airport: you may have to change ships or wait for your ship to get clearance to travel through its wormhole, but it's either impossible or pointless to get out and "explore" those systems, since they would be filled with maintenance architecture and no-fly-zones. Maybe there is a city-ish thing in the hub providing some distraction & accommodation.

I'm going to keep reading, but I'm sure I'll be back with more questions!

We used to describe wormhole travel as something like this. But, given the transit times involved, most travelers will be in stasis and moving far from any star or other visually interesting thing. Also, using grapeships, you could have individual modules (or 'grapes') flying around via halo drive tugs, each going to different destinations. For most people, wormhole travel might be like falling asleep in one place and waking up at destination, possibly months or years later. FedEx yourself around the galaxy - see the worlds!!

Todd