El Hiperespacio es una región con más dimensiones que el espacio normal en donde es posible viajar a velocidades superlumínicas con un coste mucho menor en energía. Para acceder a esta región es necesario que la nave lleve equipado un motor de distorsión capaz de iniciar el salto al hiperespacio.
Los saltos al hiperespacio están basados en las propiedades de la mecánica cuántica. Antes de que pueda realizarse un salto debe fijarse el destino y emplear cierta cantidad de energía. La cantidad de energía dependerá de la masa de la nave que se dispone a saltar, la distancia destino y las especificaciones del motor de distorsión de la nave.
Atención: Los datos a continuación han sido tomados directamente del foro de decisiones de diseño y no ha podido comprobarse en muchos casos de su estado en el juego actual:
The hyperdrive cannot be initiated when the ship is too close to a celestial body or large man-made structure; the ship must use in-system travel to reach a minimum jump distance (as implemented ship must not be mass locked)
To create a safe transit the hyperdrive must perform real-time changes based on ship’s power draw; changes to the ship’s total power draw (up or down) slow the charge rate by a percentage value for a duration
The percentage value and duration is based on the quality of the hyperdrive
The hyperdrive is sensitive to interference caused by incoming attacks; when an attack impacts on the hull or shields, the hyperdrive’s charge rate is slowed by a percentage value for a duration
This effect cannot stack with itself
The percentage value and duration is based on the quality of the hyperdrive
A hyperdrive module that has suffered damage may suffer a malfunction when initiated
The charge rate may be impaired
The percentage value and duration is based on the severity of the malfunction
The hyperdrive may misfire, becoming inoperable for a short duration whilst it runs diagnostics, after which it can be initiated again
The charging process may generate extra heat
Whilst charging the hyperdrive generates heat
Once the hyperdrive is fully charged it activates:
The appropriate amount of fuel is removed
The drive discharges all power
The ship enters hyperspace
Time-based effects (charging shields etc.) continue as normal during a hyperspace transition
A residual opening is left, which dissipates over a duration (up to minutes)
After a delay (a few seconds) the ship exits hyperspace at the destination area
The player has to engage the hyperdrive again to continue the journey
There are actions that players can take which directly interact with hyperspace jumps:
Players that have become Allies (an explicit in game selection of a "friends" flag) can slave their ships together and jump as a single entity
All ships involved must fully charge their hyperdrive before the jump is initiated
If any of the ships suffers a misjump, all ships misjump together
Each slave jumping ship must remain within a set range to at least one other slave ship
If this distance link is broken, the jump is aborted for all slaved ships
For each additional slaved ship the chance of a malfunction causing a misjump is lowered
Ally groups enable the strongest match-making rules, prioritizing the integrity of the group over match ups with other players if it would result in splitting the allies group
Using a Frame Shift Wake Scanner a residual opening can be analyzed to determine the exit point of the hyperspace jump
This analysis takes an amount of time
It takes at least as long as the time window for tailgating (so you can’t do both)
It must fully complete before the residual opening dissipates to give a result
Ships can target a residual opening and attempt to “tailgate” after the ship that jumped
The tailgater must be in close proximity to the residual opening and activate the hyperdrive
The time window for tailgating is a fraction of residual opening’s total existence time
There is a significant reduction in charge time for tailgating
Fuel is expended for the jump as normal
The tailgater suffers an amount of hull/module damage during the jump based on how close the residual opening is to dissipating
If successful, the tailgater appears very close to arrival point of the tailgated vessel
Special ship modules exist that when active can give brief forewarning of ships about to arrive nearby at a location (not implemented)