Dispatch from Command. Colonies pile ore. Beacons drink frurozin. Fleets sit with empty holds while you click the same transfer one more time. That friction is honest for a while - then it becomes unpaid logistics. Today I am opening the first cut of transport routes so a dedicated courier can run a lane while you watch the map for something more interesting.
Early-stage - expect problems
I am marking this early-stage on purpose. Routes will misbehave. Couriers will stall. Stock snapshots will lie for a moment. Launchpad handoffs and capacity edges are still sharp. If something looks wrong, file Command relay with the route name and what you expected - that is how this system grows up. Do not treat a broken lane as a finished product.
What you can run today
- Open Routes on the map HUD. Create a draft, pick waypoint 1 and waypoint 2, configure cargo lines (load / unload / wait or threshold), assign a courier fleet, then activate.
- Endpoints can be your planets (surface via launchpad or orbit stock), parked fleets, or occupation beacons - so a lane can feed a forward fuel tank or strip a depot without you sitting on the tile.
- Cruise speed is yours to throttle: slower burns less frurozin between hops; faster empties the tank sooner. Fuel rules still match /docs/fleet-fuel.
- For now a route is two waypoints. The courier shuttles that pair. That is enough to prove the loop before I ask you to manage a whole chain.
Why this matters
X-Wars was always about empires that breathe while you sleep - not spreadsheets that demand every click. Transport routes are the first honest automation for trade and supply: the same geometry that makes occupation and colonisation matter should eventually move goods without turning commanders into warehouse clerks. Serious Fun is the steady lane; Hard Fun is what happens when someone else notices it.
Ideas on the horizon
- Deeper automation - routes that keep feeding fleets, beacons, and planets as standing doctrine, not one-off babysitting.
- Stealth components on ships (race-flavoured) so a courier can vanish into the dark - and espionage gear that can still smell a quiet fleet.
- Interdiction: fleets that can be plundered or stopped in flight, so a fat lane becomes a story instead of a free conveyor.
- More than two waypoints - a courier following a longer route down the chain when the two-stop proof holds.
Reference sheet: /docs/transport-routes. Short bullets land on /release-log. Break a route on purpose, tell me what broke, and keep the map interesting.
Sebastian "Degola" Lagemann