Wormholes
The UK version of Frontier: Elite 2 (the first one to be released) suffered a maths overflow during the calculation of distances for hyperspace, which wasn't noticed during testing. This happens when the jump distance is 655.36 light years, and since these distances were calculated using 16 bit maths this calculation was overflowing and would allow a jump. Essentially, you had a 'wormhole' to a faraway system. You could traverse vast distances of the universe in no time at all, using minimal fuel. Since 'wormholes' were a mistake, later versions of the game for PC and Amiga did not allow the player to do this. This was a shame as it was a harmless enough feature that didn't allow any major cheating, and it allowed the player to explore the universe without tediously creeping forward before drive failure put paid to any Captain Kirk fantasies.
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| A possible wormhole route to sector 163,0 which is 1313.85 light years away. To jump that distance using three tonnes of fuel is quite an achievement. No doubt the ship is a brand new Toyota Hybrid. Simply add another '655' light years to your destination to find another wormhole. |
On the Files page you'll find the UK version of the game. This has the wormhole bug present. The other versions do not. There is also a Wormhole calculator for download which acts as a rudimentary route navigation aid. You can input your required destination and it will tell you how to get there using the wormholes.
Wormhole Routes
Christoph Tietz's reference site that dated from 1994 and disappeared sometime in 2003 contained, amongst other things, a useful list of routes to the more interesting systems. This list does in fact allow you to cheat since it uses the wormhole bug to full effect by using the far out destinations as waypoints to navigating around the core systems. Using wormholes can help in almost every area of your Frontier game by making assassination missions, military duties and passenger trips much faster and cheaper.
Distant Planetary Networks
Hello!
I'm writing first of all to say thank you for Frontierverse - it is a treasure trove of knowledge for what quickly became my favorite electronic game ever, period. I refer people new to the game to your site all the time.
However I am also writing because I have stumbled on an interesting phenomenon in Frontier, and I feel it would be wrong to keep information of it to myself. It involves distant systems. Many players already know of one or two isolated systems very far from Sol that have star ports or ground stations and maybe even a government. After learning this on your site (I don't remember which page, maybe wormhole routes) I became eager to explore settlements hundreds or even thousands of light years from [0,0].
Unfortunately these lone systems were very boring. You could trade to them, but they offered very few missions, if any. I speculated that if I could find two or three distant systems close enough together then maybe there would be missions between them, transport at least. And I was right.....mostly.
But first I had to search. And search. And Search. For many hours! Basically I SHIFT + ARROW in a direction, keeping an eye on the rapidly scrolling red text. Eventually a "Small Scale Mining" or "Mining and some ore refinement" would flash by. I would back up, make note of the system, and begin searching for nearby inhabited planets in concentric circles. This is admittedly painful, but I've found inhabited distant systems are not super uncommon.
Well, the good news is that all of this searching was not in vain, because I have found a few clusters of distant systems with a variety of missions. No, they do not rival the sectors around Sol for activity, but I personally find enjoyment in a new home base on the frontier. At the worst, its just something else to do.
There's one last thing you should know - the galactic map in glFrontier WILL NOT show the right description of distant planets. Example: if I look at Andzeda (-194,-473) in glFrontier, its description is "Type 'G' Yellow star".
However, if I use the UK version of Elite (from your site) in DOSBOX, the description reads "Type 'G' Yellow star Extensive Mining and Industrial Development". glFrontier cannot then be used for distant exploration, use DOSBOX and the UK version (wormholes are mandatory of course).
Thank you for reading all this! It is quite lengthy. I have found two large clusters and only scratched the surface. Maybe if this information is shared with other players, more people will search, and greater networks will be discovered. Who knows? The galaxy is a big place......
Evan Schmidt
BEGIN CAPTAIN'S LOG (Sorry if it is messy)
OBSERVATIONS:
Governments seem to come in two flavors, anarchic and capitalist
I've still seen moderate combat in Capitalist systems
Economics out here are mostly heavy industry and mining
Not every planet in below clusters has been visited
Ship used: Trusty Asp Explorer with drive 4, fuel scoop, auto, 1MW beam, max room for fuel
Fuel Scoop highly recommended!
Many stations out here will service your drive
COORDINATES AND SYSTEM INFO
Major Cluster 1 ***************************************************
From (-196, -473) on the bottom to (-194, -471) on the top
They are the highest and closest concentration of civilization I've found
in a distant system yet
Sorry, I don't have a wormhole route recorded for this
These systems strech across three map grid squares like so:
X
X
X
(-194, -471)
Andzeda, Type G yellow
corporate, 3 starport, 2 stations, gas giants
100k-1M pop
Urandve, Red Giant
corp, 4 starports, 4 stations, gas giants
100k-1M pop
many missions
missons to Andzeda, Inliaack
(-195, -472)
Arceur, Type M flare
corporate, 2 starports, 1 station, gas giant
100k-1M pop
Aolphi, Type M red
corporate, 3 starports, 3 stations, gas giant
100k-1M pop
***potential base?
missions to phiandan(-195,-472), Ioarex, Grevela, Daceda, Essanala(-195,-472),Miessol, Tivela
Azeze, Type M red
corp, 2 starports, 2 stations, gas giant
100K-1M pop
(-196, -473)
Olmiphi, Type M red
corp, 2 starports, 1 station, gas giants
100k-1M pop
Oldaze, Type M red
corp, 2 starports, 2 stations, gas giants
100k-1M pop
Endaar, Type M red
corp, 3 starports, 3 stations, gas giants
100K-1M pop
***all docking bays full at swallow depot, Macmillian Hollow
many missions
missions to Andinen, Olmiphi, Liaetheth, Zeipar, Laetxi
Andinen, Type M red
corp, 3 starports, 3 stations, no gas giants
100k-1M pop
many missions
End Major Cluster 1**************************************************
Major Cluster 2 *****************************************************
This is a large cluster, but fairly spread out. Nonetheless, there is a lot to explore, and missions.
Use wormhole from Ayethti -3, 1 to Ceeneth -250, 21 with Asp explorer drive 4
From there, make 2 jumps to -253, 21
(-249, 18)
Ackackze, Type K Orange
Anarchic, 1 port, 1 station, gas giants
(-250, 19)
Canioack, Type M red
Anarchic, 1 port, gas giants
(-250, 18)
Ackquwa, Type M Red
Corporate, 1 port, gas giant
(-251, 29)
Waexeth, Type M Red
corporate, 3 ports, 1 station, gas giants
(-251, 30)
Canayeth, galactic map will crash if you try to view the system
(-251, 30)
Exliagre, Type M Red
Anarchic, 1 port, gas giant
(-252, 30)
Tifami, Type M Red
Corporate, 1 port, 1 station, no gas giant
missions
(-252, 30)
Phiargre, Type M Flare
Corporate, 2 ports, 2 stations, gas giant
missions
(-252, 30)
Essbequ, Type M red
Corporate, 5 ports, 3 stations, no gas giant
many missions
***potential home base
(-252, 31)
Atigre, Red Giant
Anarchic, 4 ports, 1 station
missions
(-253, 31)
Inesso, Type K orange
Corporate, 2 ports 2 stations, gas giant
missions
(-253,21) ---Destination system
Hoena, Type K Orange
Corporate State, 2 ports, 1 station, gas giants
Few missions
(-252, 23)
Cancephi, Type G yellow
Anarchic system, no ports, no stations, gas giants
World with indigenous life and no human settlements
(-253, 21)
Liacanack, Type A white
Corporate, 4 ports, 2 stations, gas giant
no missions?
(-254, 23)
Andmiqu, Type G yellow
Anarchic, 2 ports, no stations, gas giants
(-254, 23)
Anbess, Type M Red
Anarchic, 2 ports, no stations, no gas giants
(-254, 22)
Greaqu type M faint red
corporate, 2 ports, 1 station, gas giants
(-254, 33)
Wafaess, Type A hot White
Anarchic, 1 port, 1 station, gas giants
(-255, 23)
Ingreeth, Type A hot White star
Corporate, 1 port, 1 station, gas giants
(-255, 24)
Engreho, type K orange
Anarchic, 1 port, 1 station, gas giants
(-255, 24)
Enarur, type A white
Anarchic, 4 ports, 2 stations, gas giants
(-255, 24)
Inined, Type G yellow
Anarchic, 1 port, no stations, gas giants
(-255, 24)
Enarur, Type A hot White
Anarchic, 3 ports, 2 stations, gas giants
End Major Cluster 2 ***************************************************
Minor Cluster 1 *******************************************************
(-151, 198)
Waessti, Type M Red
Corporate State, 2 starports, 1 station, gas giant
10K-100k population
Wawami, Type M Red
Corporate State, 1 starport, gas giants
10K - 100K population
(-150, 197)
Iosola, Type M Red
Corporate State, 2 starports, 1 station, gas giant
10K-100K population
End Minor Cluster 1 ****************************************************
Minor Cluster 2 ********************************************************
(573, -847)--------------
Waenti, Type K Orange
Corporate State, 5 starports, 2 stations, gas giants
100k-1M population
(573, -847)
Migreho, Type M Red
Corporate State, 2 starports, 1 station, gas giants
100K-1M population
End Minor Cluster 2 ****************************************************
Minor Cluster 3 ********************************************************
Larger for a minor cluster, Mission diversity will benefit
(-193, -470)
Phiiogre, Type K orange
Corporate State, 2 starports, 2 stations, gas giants
100K-1M population
Arethso, Type M red
Corporate State, 2 starports, 2 stations, gas giants
100k-1M population
(-192, -469)
Socanol, Type M red
Corporate, 1 starport, 1 station
100K-1M pop
Mimur, Type M flare
Corporate, 2 starports, 2 station, gas giant
100k-1M pop
End Minor Cluster 3********************************************************
END CAPTAIN'S LOG