Warp Chunnel
Overview
Chunneling is the process where a chunnel initiator (usually a Firecloud Class Cruiser) opens a subspace rift which acts as a gateway to another ship which also has the chunneling ability. This allows ships which are at the location of the opening of the rift to teleport to the location of the target ship. All ships at the same location as the rift initiator are transported to the location of the target ship.
Side Effects of chunneling
Any starship completing a chunnel will exit subspace with its shielding disabled for one turn.
How to initiate a chunnel
To open a warp chunnel the initiator needs to have at least 50 KT of fuel, and must change change its friendly code to match the Ship ID number of the chunnel target (ususally another Firecloud). Both ships need to have their warp factor set to zero (0), and the minimum distance must be 100ly. If the warp factors are not set to zero or the either of the ships are under tow, the chunnel will not occur.
For ID numbers 1 to 99 place leading zeros in front of the number. I.E. 001, 023, 099.
Chunneling happens as part of the movement phase of the host. It is the last segment of the movement phase. So it is possible for starships to move TO the initiator before it chunnels and then move with it.
Cloaked starships moving through a chunnel will remain cloaked.
Foreign ships chunneling
Ships belonging to other players must have a warp speed of zero in order to chunnel. There are three exceptions when a foreign ship's warp speed can be above zero: if they are cloaked, if they are out of fuel, or if their friendly code matches that of the ship initiating the chunnel. (Waypoint setting does not matter.) Ships belonging to the player initiating the chunnel can still enter the chunnel at any warp speed.
If enemy ships arrive at a planet where a Firecloud is initiating a chunnel, only the enemy ships with warp speed of 0 will enter the chunnel. In order to arrive at a planet at warp 0, a ship must be towed, while any ships arriving under their own power will arrive with a higher warp speed. Therefore if enemy ships arrived with some under tow, only those under tow at warp 0 would enter the chunnel.
A ship may not initialize or be the recipient of a chunnel if another ship (with fuel) locks a tow beam on it. (The waypoint of the towing ship does not matter.)
Horwasp chunneling
Horwasp Hives cannot be chunneled. This is a customizable game setting: by default, the setting is "nochunnelhives = true".
