Question about the engine

I'm just speculating some scenarios I'd like to see sometime and a question about the limits of the engine came up.

|
0-
|

If a non-player ship was in the above system diagram (in the center 0), is it possible to know which direction the ship will jump to when it decides for whatever reason to leave the system? Is it possible to control via any method where it appears the ship is heading when it jumps?

Untested hypotheses I've come up with:
- No, its random.
- Yes, its based on ship's inherent gov't somehow
- Yes, it can be controlled via a complex system of one-way links or overlapping hyperlinks/systs.
- Yes, there is some kind of field I've not read about/seen implemented within the Bible or other plugs

I think this might be useful for missions where the player is a stalking a ship across multiple systs to find some secret base, or to have a new non-player ship go into a nearby warzone system and return back to base with visible battle damage.

Thanks for any comments.

Werhner,
a noted rocket scientist

Unfortunately your first hypothesis is correct.

yeah, even if you have a ssytem with no possile exit method, NPCs will still jump out in random directions.

(unless it has no fuel (unless its a full asteroid miner.))

You can also make a government use wormholes/hypergates, but they will still jump out in an emergency (if they have fuel), or if there isn't a hole/gate. And the asteroid miners need to have asteroids in order to not jump out.

If you make a ship that doesn't have fuel, you will get some rather odd effects, such as ships freezing in place when they try to jump out, and ships drifting off forever in a random direction when they try to run away. Still, it is the only way to make ships that won't jump out.

You might be able to simulate forced-directional jumps by placing hidden wormholes/hypergates in carefully selected points in the system, although integrating this with the Nova universe would be tricky.

Edwards