Space-time vortex (phenomenon)

Disambiguation This page describes the space-time vortex entity that can appear in the world. For information about the mental mutation with the same name, refer to Space-Time Vortex.
space-time vortex
Space-time vortex (phenomenon)
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Space-Time Vortex


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space-time vortex

Shining images of distant places and times project off the faces of a platonic prism-thing, and sound waves are pulled apart to the asymptote. The leylines are knotted here, and the illusion of locality crumples away.

Perfect

A space-time vortex is a rift in space-time that can transport creatures and objects which it comes in contact with from one zone to another completely random zone in the world.

Vortex Behavior

Space-time vortices move around randomly. If the player, a creature, or another object passes into the same tile as the vortex, or the vortex passes into the same tile as them, they will be teleported to a randomly chosen location somewhere in Qud, be it on the surface, underground, etc. The chosen location will be consistent for anything that crosses through that particular vortex. If the player enters the vortex, they will become lost upon arriving at their destination.

The random zone that the vortex leads to is distributed evenly across the whole world map, but tends to be a surface zone: There is a 50% chance that it will be the surface, and the remaining 50% of the time a stratum is chosen evenly from among all strata no higher than the surface and no deeper than stratum 30. (This means the surface is chosen slightly more than half of the time, and that you can't be taken to a stratum deeper than 30.)[1]

There is also a 0.5% chance for a random creature to emerge from the vortex each turn. This can be any creature that is eligible to appear during dynamic encounters.[2]

Generated Space-Time Vortices

The following sources can generate space-time vortices:

Generated space-time vortices last for 20 turns. The one exception is vortices created by the  Space-Time Vortex mutation, which instead persist for 1d4+1415-18 (Avg: 16.5) turns, plus 1 bonus turn for each mutation level beyond 10.

Static Space-Time Vortices

In addition to generated space-time vortices, there is also a chance to encounter space-time vortices that appear as part of random zone generation, and which do not move around each turn. These space-time vortexes are unique because they do not expire after a set number of turns like generated space-time vortexes. Instead, they can persist for a very long time - until they are either destroyed by reality stabilization effects or they explode. Each zone-generation vortex has a 5% chance to explode in a neutron flux explosion with a force of 3,000 and  1d2001-200 (Avg: 100.5) damage whenever a creature comes through it (which itself is a 0.5% chance, as described above). This amounts to a a 1-in-4,000 chance per turn for the vortex to explode (0.025%). [2]

There are a few variations of this type of zone-generation vortex:

  • Free-standing vortexes that appear along with 8-12 completely random objects from item tier 1-7 scattered around them. [3]
  • Stable space-time vortices that are suspended between a pair of  quantum ripplers. These can appear as pre-generated zone chunks that include either a single vortex between a pair of ripplers, or (more rarely) four vortices between 4 sets of ripplers. While stable vortexes and ripplers can appear rarely in any randomly generated zone, they are most likely to appear in historic sites devoted to a sultan who is associated with the theme of "Chance" [4][5]

Destruction

A space-time vortex can be destroyed by reality stabilization effects, which cause the space-time vortex to collapse under the pressure of normality.

Achievements

  • Entering a total of 25 space-time vortices will grant the Cosmo-Chrononaut Steam achievement.

References

This information is reliable as of patch 2.0.201.114.
  1. XRL.World.Parts.SpaceTimeVortex, method GetRandomDestinationZoneID
  2. 2.0 2.1 XRL.World.Parts.SpaceTimeVortex, method SpaceTimeAnomalyPeriodicEvents
  3. PopulationTables.xml - population "CommonOddEncounters" - group "Rift"
  4. PopulationTables.xml - population "SultanDungeons_Furnishings_Chance"
  5. XRL.World.ZoneBuilders.SultanDungeonArgs, method UpdateFromEntity