FTL Flight Paths a.k.a "Whaddaya mean I can't go that way?"

[Darthcaboose]

FTL: Pre-Beta Video #4, for reference.

One thing I remember causing me a bit of grief in the OnLive demo (though it was hilarious in its own way, what with fighting back through the Rebels) was piloting a path I thought could lead me to the exit, to only realize the jump I wanted to make was a bit longer than how far the FTL engine could take me. You can see Justin, one of the devs, realize that was the case in the aforementioned video right at about 01:36.

Would it be beneficial to allow the player to mouse over an FTL node, and have the game show all the possible flight paths for that node, such that the player can determine whether he should make make that jump or not?

[CanadianWolvie]

Maybe the intention is to keep the player in the dark about the possible paths but you may be on to something that there may be need of some more feedback for the player to feel they are making the best decision they can.

[Bomaz]

Ship upgrades to expand travel radius perhaps?

[Snake Plissken]

There is a stardrive that will allow you to travel to any previously visited star. It was the only other drive i saw but I assume they will add others.

[chanman]

A web of lines (like in Master of Orion 2) connecting systems in range would make it fairly clear where you can jump at the cost of cluttering up the map a little

[Bluevein]

I think this would be best handled as part of the sensor system upgrades. Without upgrades the map would appear as is currently does. After a certain amount of upgrades mousing over a location which you can travel too will show the lines for just the next jump from that point. This way you will be able to work out if you are traveling the right way slightly sooner, but still have to travel to learn the area in more detail.

[Dahn]

I think this would be best handled as part of the sensor system upgrades. Without upgrades the map would appear as is currently does. After a certain amount of upgrades mousing over a location which you can travel too will show the lines for just the next jump from that point. This way you will be able to work out if you are traveling the right way slightly sooner, but still have to travel to learn the area in more detail.

+1

This would be a good way of handling it in my opinion. I like the idea of it being related to sensor upgrades.

[Paul]

Ship upgrades to expand travel radius perhaps?

I'm not keen on this, i didn't enjoy that mechanic much in Spore, as i always seemed to have one level less than was required, i'd much rather have the sensor based approach.

[Samson]

-1 on the travel radius idea. All it would do is make you miss out on stuff as you'd try and jump as far as possible every time. The sensor upgrade showing travel paths one jump in advance would be work awesome though.

[soratidus999]

+1 for sensor upgrades!