After over a decade of complaining when a game has space lanes, I have come the the conclusion that I have been wrong all these years.
I used to complain because I felt the space lanes thing restricted movement in an unrealistic way, and I was dead set against them. I think I may have been put off becasue so many crappy games had them (like ascendancy), and my favorite space game MOO didn't. I now realize that for the most part, these restrictions are not only good for gameplay, they arnt automatically bad from a realism sence either. The big problem with games without space lane restrictions is that too often, ship range becomes limitless for all practical purposes, and so you lose any sence of front line, or safe area in the rear. There's also much less strategic fun, since you just pick a target, and go at it, as opposed to certain 'choke points' developing into major bones of contention.
The realism issue comes from saying that ships travel in hyperspace and such to get between stars quickly, but yet we get games where in the vast expanses of space, we get masses of ships trying to form the boundries that are lacking because of the lack of any structure to the "landscape". There is no way that a race with slower ships should ever be able to prevent another races ships from zooming past them....ever....yet we get this all the time. In fact, its highly unlikely you could ever intercept a fleet while its in hyperspace (traveling faster than light no matter what you call it). So much like Babylon 5 or Stargate, you may be able to tell a fleet is coming, but you have to setup for the arrival...not try and prevent it.
Now Im not one for realism just for the sake of it, and gameplay needs to be King...but I really do beleive that gameplay improves in most cases when we dont have these huge open expanses of space being guarded by a few ships inbetween the maultiple light years of the open void
I love GalCiv2 in all its iterations...but have found that the lack of any structure to the maps (no terrain, not even nubula like moo) does give me a little longing for something better. Sins, have solidified that position...
I LIKE SPACE LANES.....
and my deepest "you were right" appologies to the many I surely fought it out with on Usenet all those years ago
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