Traffic Jams on Jump Gates

[Ramokthan]

My Universe is slowly growing big... i build a lot of factories and so is the AI doing, on my main sector the AI Factory amount literally exploded to be somewhat 7-8 times the amount of AI stations then before.

Also the AI ship density increased a lot since i am selling ships on my wharf.

Now im observing some traffic jams on jumpgates for L/XL ships.

They seem to wait for others to pass and then fly through... which limits the number of ships who could pass that jump gate very hard.

just some pictures:
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ ... D215AE58D/
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ ... CF4AE594E/

These are both gate entrances of Cardinals Redress and Holy Vision.

I am very sure its intended that they wait for each other but is traffic jam in this case really an intended way of chokepointing the economy?
I don't see how i could resolve it, since most of them are AI ships.

Im feeling i reached the end of the line of economy expansion.

[adeine]

L/XL ships having to awkwardly circle around jump gates and approach from the back is what causes this problem.

Same issue if you're trying to order a fleet of larger ships from point A to B, it gets gummed up and takes forever.

[Falcrack]

One of the main reasons why I keep advocating for jumpdrives on L and XL ships

[Buzz2005]

L/XL ships having to awkwardly circle around jump gates and approach from the back is what causes this problem.

Same issue if you're trying to order a fleet of larger ships from point A to B, it gets gummed up and takes forever.

It would still be the same if they go in the "front", they would still wait for there turn and extra incoming ships would hit them

[adeine]

It would still be the same if they go in the "front", they would still wait for there turn and extra incoming ships would hit them

Not so much. It's the constant stopping/starting that's killing it, as travel drives take a very long time to spin up on larger ships. Try and be on the bridge of a large ship and order it to go through a jump gate - even without any obstructions or other ships in the way, it will take literally minutes of stopping, manoeuvring, starting again, waiting for drive to kick in, etc. until you're finally in position and facing the right way. Hardly surprising that this will clog things up rather quickly.

If large ships just flew into gates the normal way, this wouldn't be anywhere near as bad.

[Buzz2005]

It would still be the same if they go in the "front", they would still wait for there turn and extra incoming ships would hit them

Not so much. It's the constant stopping/starting that's killing it, as travel drives take a very long time to spin up on larger ships. Try and be on the bridge of a large ship and order it to go through a jump gate - even without any obstructions or other ships in the way, it will take literally minutes of stopping, manoeuvring, starting again, waiting for drive to kick in, etc. until you're finally in position and facing the right way. Hardly surprising that this will clog things up rather quickly.

If large ships just flew into gates the normal way, this wouldn't be anywhere near as bad.

I know and never do that, but if they just straight go to the front, the incoming traffic would be in the way and then there would be problems, ramming each other, cliping, no shields etc...
It is needlessly super slow but I would not change that they go to the back, just better the AI

I have 1 L freighter that I use to manually queue trade orders and know that he is set for hours and hours

[Imperial Good]

Not so much. It's the constant stopping/starting that's killing it, as travel drives take a very long time to spin up on larger ships. Try and be on the bridge of a large ship and order it to go through a jump gate - even without any obstructions or other ships in the way, it will take literally minutes of stopping, manoeuvring, starting again, waiting for drive to kick in, etc. until you're finally in position and facing the right way. Hardly surprising that this will clog things up rather quickly.

In sector they are even slower than out of sector. This is due to more complex simulation such as collision and limited rotation rate.

However L ships are not that slow. My Odysseus Vanguard for example can be ordered to cross many sectors and does so in a few minutes max, even beating slower ships like the Osprey outside of the highway.

Then one manually takes control of the Odysseus Vanguard and flies through gates like a madman at 10km/sec while shouting quotes from Spaceballs. My brains are going into my feet!

[Ramokthan]

Maybe its worth noticing i never stay longer then needed in the sectors my factories are in for same reason.

I always watch/control it from a remote non busy sector to keep collision off and my fps high (as possible).

Right now i sometimes have like literally 3 FPS despite my "machine" but this is another story i guess.

[adeine]

I know and never do that, but if they just straight go to the front, the incoming traffic would be in the way and then there would be problems, ramming each other, cliping, no shields etc...
It is needlessly super slow but I would not change that they go to the back, just better the AI

I have 1 L freighter that I use to manually queue trade orders and know that he is set for hours and hours

Plenty of possible ways around that which are less silly and game breaking:

- You could have L ships path to a different section of the gate, it's not like the ships are as big as they were in X3 where they just barely fit through a gate (though maybe they should be)
- Implement something like Litcube's bounce, where if ships would spawn inside or collide immediately upon exiting, smaller NPC ships are 'bounced' (teleported) out of the way harmlessly.
- Gates could be made bigger

Heck, we don't even have collision damage at the moment and collisions don't exist OOS.