Why can't we use others' wormhole stations?

[scaper12123]

This would make sense for nations you are rivals with where you built wormhole stations in their borders, but in terms of peacetime I feel like an empire should be able to keep wormhole stations they don't own for the sake of letting others use them.

Think about it this way: two neighboring empires have wormhole ships and wormhole stations. Why does it make sense that each one needs their own unique wormhole station in each others' systems when they could just use each other's wormhole stations? I feel like trading wormhole access should lead to this circumstance rather than having to build and rebuild wormhole stations after they self-destruct when the agreement is terminated.

EDIT: Warfare is an obvious concern, as two clashing states might use another empire's wormhole network to travel between empires. I personally think this is a good thing, as it adds a layer of depth to wormhole stations that forces you to consider approaches you never would have considered before.

 

[eon47]

Because with the range of frequencies out there, ships from one empire obviously don't use the same subatomic attunement, and determining the frequency is extremely difficult, especially if the other empire uses quad-entanglement. Trying to pass through a wormhole designed with a different frequency in mind would lead to the ship being torn apart in Z space.

Or to put it in less interesting terms, this tech is so far ahead of what we have that we can't say what it should or shouldn't be able to do, so it's best to invent some sci-fi gobbledygook and get back to exploring the galaxy.

 

[Janx14]

I'm not sure why its not allowed from a gameplay point of view. I mean, wormholers effectively have closed borders with others, even when they're not. Unlike warp or hyperspace.

 

[B3ndolf]

i imagine the gameplay reason is to give wormholes a disadvantage in that it is much harder to explore outside your territory with it than the others, if you could share wormholes it wouldnt have any disadvantage over the other 2.

 

[Kahless]

i imagine the gameplay reason is to give wormholes a disadvantage in that it is much harder to explore outside your territory with it than the others, if you could share wormholes it wouldnt have any disadvantage over the other 2.

You still need to get permission to share the stations and that could be a big bargaining chip

 

[Henry 43]

Because I am not stupid enough to make the password for using the Wormhole Stations simple be "password".



I put in reverse instead, like this; "drowssap".

 

[SWVRoma]

It should certainly be possible via treaty. It'd make sense, at least.

 

[CrowScape]

Because you don't want your scouting party being stranded in a hostile system just because your neighbors decided to stop over for a visit. A wormhole station can only serve a single fleet at a time. What empire in their right mind would put itself in a position where someone else could deny it access to its own means of travel on a whim, even temporarily?

 

[CharlieFox]

Maybe they want to prevent instances where a player cannot use a wormhole because it is being used by the AI? I would be pretty angry if my reinforcements could not join a battle in time because an AI fleet is using my wormhole station to go kill some space amoebas.

 

[Me_]

What are you people talking about? Wormhole station access is a diplomatic treaty. At least it was the last time I played with wormhole FTL.

 

[Lazerus Artificial]

What are you people talking about? Wormhole station access is a diplomatic treaty. At least it was the last time I played with wormhole FTL.

there is a trade that allows you to build WH stations in their borders, but i havnt seen a diplomacy that allows you to use their network

 

[Me_]

there is a trade that allows you to build WH stations in their borders, but i havnt seen a diplomacy that allows you to use their network

Huh. I did not know it changed. Granted, my last Wormhole game was quite a bit ago and I played as an all-conquering horde, so no real diplomacy. Neverheless I remember using other nations' wormholes in the past.

 

[Slynx]

Because I am not stupid enough to make the password for using the Wormhole Stations simple be "password".
.

other empires can decipher your communications just by looking at your ships, and after listening they can figure out all your policies, government type and other stuff. even the exact shape of your borders.
i don't think it's too difficult to find out your password.

 

[Angelic_Daemon]

Huh. I did not know it changed. Granted, my last Wormhole game was quite a bit ago and I played as an all-conquering horde, so no real diplomacy. Neverheless I remember using other nations' wormholes in the past.

As far I'm aware it never let you use another's station, at first I thought that's what it was referencing but in practice it never let me build them, then they changed to destroy the stations once you lose access.

As for the post, I like the differing tuning methods. Also I would say encryption would be a factor in restricting other empires from utilizing them, maybe if you could hack them...

 

[Wizard Shot The Food]

Also I would say encryption would be a factor in restricting other empires from utilizing them, maybe if you could hack them...

Yeah, I can easily understand the mentality behind not letting even your allies get access to a state secret like "how to activate our wormhole stations".

 

[Pavane]

I would like to encourage other empire's main battle fleets to use my wormhole stations, and would apologize profusely when a "technical malfunction" prevents them from appearing at the other end and they are lost forever.

 

[Pavane]

i don't think it's too difficult to find out your password.

Especially of your password is: password.

 

[Tavior]

Huh. I did not know it changed. Granted, my last Wormhole game was quite a bit ago and I played as an all-conquering horde, so no real diplomacy. Neverheless I remember using other nations' wormholes in the past.

If you had open border with foreign empires. You could build your own wormhole station there.

Heck you could spam wormhole station so that once war start. You would have full access even if it was not meant for that.

So they changed to have special treaty allowing wormhole construction access to their territory in additional to open border treaty.

We never been able to access AI's wormhole station like ever since Stellaris released.

 

[XvDravarvX]

I've always envisioned it as the same reason that Russian train engines and rolling stock cannot use the rest of Europe's lines and vice versa. They have different rail gauge. We can handwave some technological reason as to why you cannot use allies worm hole generators on the same basis.

 

[The Founder]

This would make sense for nations you are rivals with where you built wormhole stations in their borders, but in terms of peacetime I feel like an empire should be able to keep wormhole stations they don't own for the sake of letting others use them.

The Problem is warfare. I just recently ran a Wormhole only game and I noticed the issue. Let us asume 3 Empires: A, B and C.

A and C both are a peace with B. But A and C are at war.
A and C share access to B's Wormhole stations.
Either side now has a set of Wormhole stations that can not be destroyed. Destructible stations is a core balance idea behind Wormhole.

That is why we do not share access with others:
We would either create undistructible stations, wich is a balance issue for Wormhole.
Or get our stations destroyed as part of a war we are not part of.

And that is before we consider stuff like another fleet having a station in use when we wanted to use it.