Stargate
From Stargate Worlds Wiki
A Stargate is a device that allows near instantaneous travel across large distances. It is a large metal ring shaped object, with nine chevrons spaced equally around the ring's circumference. Symbols on an inner ring of the stargate represent constellations, and form part of a coordinate system that allows the location of another gate to be specified and "dialed". An artificial wormhole is created between two stargates, allowing one-way travel to the destination gate. The stargates have been given many names by various cultures that encounter them. The Goa'uld refer to the gate as Chappa'ai; the Ancients, the builders of the Stargates, call them Astria Porta; and many cultures refer to them as 'Ring of the Gods'.
The Stargate is the principal travel mechanism and one of the most significant elements of the TV series. There is a great amount of pressure on the developers to get the Stargate right, it is an iconic object and a central premise on which the Stargate universe stands.
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[edit] Game Mechanics
The Stargates will obviously be a massive part of Stargate Worlds, but some of the detailed functioning may not mirror the show exactly due to adaptation for playability.
Firstly the stargate itself will be featured in many more design locations than they had the ability to do so in show. This may include different ramps and stairs, and different mounting mechanisms[1].
The 38 minute timeout and the automatic shutdown after passage of the last traveler is complete would cause problems in a game situation, especially in heavily populated areas. A number of solutions to this have been discussed, including instancing the gate area.[2] However the most likely mechanic will be that the gate functions as expected on unpopulated worlds. The user will dial the gate and watch the dialing sequence and kawoosh occur, the team then steps through and the gate cuts off. It has been largely discussed on the official forums, whether the wormhole animation will be used as a loading sequence or not, and so far it has not been confirmed. It might not be possible due to limitations on the Unreal 3 engine. Its still a matter in flux.[3] On populated planets when the gate is already open, players will be able to come and go as they please without having to go through the dialing sequence[4][1][5]. The gates are not connected as a game programming, so the other end will not see the gate being activated, at least not the opening sequence[6]. You will not have to dial the gate every time you wish to use it, you will have the option of doing so, but it will not be compulsory [7]. Exactly how this will work and which worlds this will include has not been revealed. The gate mechanism will likely be one of the items fine-tuned during the beta phase. Of course when the gate function is an integral part of a location or quest it should function as expected.[1] Not all places have active stargates and you may need to get to the planet by other means.[2] It was revealed on 21 October 2008, that the iris protecting the SGC is not implemented in the game.[8]
[edit] Gate Addresses :
In terms of gate addresses, we won't be given the addresses to all accessible worlds at once. Some will be given on the successful completion of a mission, others when you are given a mission, and others may come as you advance in level.[2] Players will build up a "library" of gate addresses over time, and will be able to go to all the worlds that they have addresses for.[9] While manual dialing would be aesthetically nice it is unlikely to be included due to spoilers.[10] A random dialing feature is similarly impractical due to the low odds of actually dialing an address in the game.[11]
[edit] Technical Specification
The Stargates are made from Naquadah, a dense superconductive metallic element, allowing them to absorb the large amounts of energy required to open a stable wormhole. Matter entering the wormhole's event horizon is broken down into energy, transmitted through the wormhole and then reconstructed on the other side, exiting the destination gate in the same state it entered.
Most gates are found with a DHD (Dial Home Device) located nearby. The DHD allows a user to dial a Stargate and engage the wormhole. The earth gate was found without a DHD, and so a dialing computer was developed to allow the gate to be used. The SGC dialing computer lacks many of the safeguards built into the DHDs, occasionally causing problems for SG-1.
Standard gate addresses consist of a sequence of six symbols, matching some of the symbols on the gate's inner ring. The first six symbols specify a location in space, the seventh symbol acts as a point of origin, indicating where the wormhole is coming from. The Stargates have nine chevrons in total, allowing up to nine symbols to be used to form an address. Eight symbol addresses are used to dial other galaxies, such as the Pegasus Galaxy; however, opening a wormhole to another galaxy requires a huge amount of energy, the sort of quantities that can normally only be provided by a ZPM.
[edit] Wormhole Physics
Wormhole physics is the field of study devoted to the functioning of stargates and wormholes.
Wormholes are one-way, matter can only travel from an outgoing gate to a destination gate, anything entering an incoming wormhole ceases to exist. Electromagnetic radiation in the form of radio waves can pass through a wormhole in either direction, allowing for communication between distant locations.
As a wormhole connects to a Stargate an unstable vortex is produced. This energy blast emerges from the front of the gate and disintigrates any matter in its path. The event horizon has the appearance of a pool of water, which ripples as it fluctuates.
Stargates normally stay open for a limited period of time. DHDs automatically shut down the gate when the object reaches the other end of the wormhole if no more matter passes the event horizon. A DHD can only power a wormhole for 38 minutes, after which the wormhole will close, except in rare circumstances where a large amount of energy is being supplied to the gate.
When an object enters the event horizon it is not instantly transported to the destination gate. The part of the object that has crossed the event horizon is dematerialized and stored in a hyperspatial buffer. The object is not transmitted until the whole object has passed through the event horizon. Before the entire object has passed through it may be pulled out, rematerializing as it is extracted. If the gate shuts down before an object has completely entered the event horizon the exposed part will be severed and the dematerialized part will cease to exist. Each time a Stargate is activated the buffer is wiped, to allow storage of new information, it is , however, possible to form an event horizon without a wormhole if the control crystal is removed from the DHD. This allows any object or person stored in the buffer to be reintegrated if the gate malfunctioned in some way.
Objects entering a wormhole's event horizon will retain any kinetic energy they had upon entering when they rematerialize at their destination. In this way bullets fired into an outgoing wormhole will travel to the destination and continue on their trajectory, and people running at the event horizon will exit at the same speed. The Stargate is able to differentiate between matter attempting to pass through the event horizon from matter that exerts a natural pressure, e.g. water, air.
The energy required to maintain an active wormhole can be supplied by either gate, but the energy needed to form the wormhole must come from the dialing gate. This means that as long as you have sufficient energy to connect, the wormhole can be kept open by power supplied to the destination gate.
A wormhole cannot form if the target Stargate is obstructed. A significant amount of material present inside the ring will prevent the wormhole from forming. This property of the gate network has been used by many cultures to cut themselves off by burying their gate.
Placing a barrier a very small distance from the event horizon will prevent the unstable vortex from forming, and will prevent rematerialization. Any matter attempting to exit a gate obstructed in this way will be destroyed.
[edit] DHD
A Dial Home Device (DHD), is a device used to activate the Stargates. The Ancients originally placed a DHD directly in front of every gate, but some have been lost or damaged. The earth gate was found without its DHD, which had been removed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, and later recovered by the Russians. This lead to development of the dialing computer in order to activate the Earth Stargate.
[edit] References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 A forum post by Jim Brown — Director of New Product Development, Also Known As, Jim Brown on the Stargate Worlds forums. - 11 Feb 2006[1]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 A post by David Cook — Lead Systems Designer, Also Known As, zebcook on the Stargate Worlds forums. - 19 December 2006 [2]
- ↑ Developer Question And Answer, Episode 6
- ↑ A post by Jim Brown — Director of New Product Development, Also Known As, Jim Brown on the Stargate Worlds forums. - 13 July 2006 [3]
- ↑ From the Ask Our Creative Director Ledaye forum thread - 24 Feb 2008[4]
- ↑ From the Ask Our Creative Director Ledaye forum thread with Chris Klug - 27 Feb 2008 [5]
- ↑ From the Ask Our Creative Director Ledaye forum thread - 12 March 2008 [6]
- ↑ From Developer Answers: Stargate Command forum thread by Community Manager tkksnow - 21 October 2008[7]
- ↑ Stargate Worlds Explored Interview at IGN.com – 18 January 2008 [8]
- ↑ A post by Jim Brown — Director of New Product Development, Also Known As, Jim Brown on the Stargate Worlds forums. - 21 March 2006 [9]
- ↑ A post discussing the odds of random dialing on the SGW community forums [10]
