Wormholes

Wormholes are rare, unstable cosmic phenomena in Astrox Imperium, opening up otherwise unreachable regions of space for exploration to the Pilot.

Supposedly they are, like black holes, very strong gravitational wells, but orders of magnitude smaller; thus their spectral emission is weaker than that of their larger brethren, which, while bearing a characteristic signature, makes them hard to spot.

Verified for build 0.0123The following information has been verified for Astrox Imperium build 0.0123

## Wormhole introduction

   Traversable wormholes are a reality in the universe of Astrox Imperium. Any ship can pass back and forth through them unharmed without the need for specialized equipment or the Pilot requiring additional training.

While largely behaving like spontaneously formed warp gates, wormholes store energy, and will consume part of this charge during traversal of a ship, limiting the number of consecutive passages.

### Finding wormholes

    Pilots wanting to hunt for wormholes should keep a close eye on the news in station lounges, unless they prefer to randomly probe sectors.

While the exact detection range for wormholes is unknown, it seems to be far larger than that of other objects, and not limited by the range given either by the ship's passive scanner or an installed active scanner's specifications.

#### Passive scanning

Setting the ships passive scanners to search for warp gates will detect wormholes, if a Scan Ping (default hotkey Q) is done. Note, that Scan Pings are limited to the ship's scan range, and will take a while, until the signal propagated, and resulting echos are displayed in the TARGETING panel.

The reason for specifically filtering warpgates is, that without this filter, the Scan Ping would return anything found, possibly exhausting the number of targets the Pilot's targeting system can simultaneously process, possibly omitting the wormhole.

#### Active scanning

    Active scanners will detect the presence of a wormhole, but not reveal its exact position in space. Rather a distance is given, requiring the pilot to triangulate the exact location by observing changes in distance given or by trying to visually identify the thin haze of the wormhole's emission.

#### Tasking a Recon mercenary

If the Pilot's fleet contains a Recon mercenary, enabling the mercenary's "Scan Autotask" has them scan all structures in the sector, including the wormhole, which reveals its location. The "Scan Autotask" can be enabled by clicking on the mercenarie's ship, and then selecting the "Scan Autotask" button in the pilot details panel next to the COMMAND panel.

#### Visual detection

Another, albeit unreliable indicator for the presence and position of a wormhole can be ships seemingly appearing out of nowhere outside of the vicinity of warp gates.

### Traversing wormholes

Unlike warp gates, wormholes require a charge of energy for operation, which is partly consumed during traversal of a ship. Passing vessels do not need to supply energy to a wormhole, nor does the wormhole draw any energy from the ship during passage. Rather, the wormhole will slowly recharge over time.

Wormholes will temporarily collapse, if their energy is completely depleted before they were able to recharge. Once a suitable level of energy is reached, they will become usable again.

Wormholes can be provided with energy for absorption by artificial structures, notably the Warpgate Generator, which can speed up the recharging process, provided the wormhole is in range of the structure's charged field.

### The other side

Once a wormhole is traversed for the first time, Pilots will find themselves in a previously unexplored region of space. While the galaxy map will show the current position, there are no warp gate connections back to the rest of the universe, with the entry wormhole (or a Warp Drive) being the only way back.

No predictions can be made as to the nature of the other side. Pilots should prepare for extreme environmental conditions and immediate hostilities with no stations or other structures allowing for resupply, as well as peaceful and resource rich islands of tranquility lacking any kind of hazard and plenty of helpful inhabitants.