by Kappa » Mon Aug 07, 2017 6:50 pm
I don't have specific details worked out, but I vaguely imagine it goes something like this:
Wormholes vary widely in how easy they are to pilot a ship through and what that experience is like. Pilots who are forewarned about the character of a particular route will have a much easier time flying it even if it's objectively difficult. Going in totally blind, you have a lot more trouble. It may take several trips by various pilots before a wormhole is well enough known to be as safe as any other.
Also, jump point stations aren't just the equivalent of truck stops; they also keep data records about the associated wormholes, perhaps regarding things like 'pilot commentary on what it was like to fly it' and 'tracking the exact position of the jump point relative to its surroundings, to make it easier for ships to find'. Without any of that, you might have to deal with a chance of going in slightly misaligned, which will make your trip significantly more exciting, or other such things I haven't thought of.
There may also some wormholes that are inherently unsafe, but those must be incredibly rare or Miles would've sent a scout ahead to pop through and back and tell them it was safe to proceed.
(Also, I don't think the jump itself uses up a significant amount of fuel; getting around in normal space is much more costly. So all the calculations are about their trips from jump point to jump point.)
Last edited by
Kappa on Mon Aug 07, 2017 7:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.