Tool: Travel faster across New Eden with routes through Thera

Hey guys,

the New Eden cluster with its over 5.000 solar systems is huge, so traveling from one corner to the other can take a lot of time and – depending on which space you are in – can also be quite dangerous. Would it not be nice to be able to take a short cut and cut down 30 jumps to maybe half?

Thera as a travel hub

Actually there is! You maybe have heard of a special WH system called Thera. It has multiple static connections to high sec, low sec, null sec and WH systems. It can therefore functions has a central hub that anyone can use to hugely shorten travel time and distance across New Eden.

Thanks to the great efforts from the guys behind the EVE Scout website and all their supporters the current systems and signature names of all WH connections this special WH system are always available.

All routes lead through Thera

However it still takes a some significant research effort to find viable routes using this approach. So to make it easier for people use Thera as a travel shortcut I have developed a new website called Thera Connect. This website automatically calculates routes through Thera and compares them with the direct route. It uses the current known Thera connections from the Eve-Scout website and also displays estimated life expectancy of a route based on its WH connections.

Here is an example on how the app looks like:

Example routes found with the Thera Connect app
Example routes found with the Thera Connect app

Improving the route planer with custom options

In addition to the standard settings you have two options that will effect the route planner:

  • Max. jumps: In the default setting the tool will only show Thera routes that are similar or better than the direct route in terms of total jumps from origin to destination (incl. jumps through a WH). With this option the total number of allowed jumps can be set manually to display more route options.
  • Avoid Highsec: Some people (e.g. pirates) don’t like to travel through high sec. This option will limit the tool to only look for routes through low sec or null sec.
  • Show <1 h lifetime: Normally the route planer will ignore any Thera connection with a life expectancy below 1 hour, since those route may vanish shortly or may already be gone. This can be turned off.

Advantages of using Thera Connect

Here is a summary of the main advantages of using Thera Connect:

  • Reducing travel time: Thera routes can be significantly shorter than the direct routes through New Eden. The actual number of jumps vary and depends obviously on how close the next Thera WHs are to your origin and destination. For longer routes its not uncommon to be able to cut the total number of jumps into half.
  • Avoid high sec: A route through Thera often allows to completely avoid high sec system, which is attractive e.g. to pirates.
  • Avoid area or space / gate camp: A Thera route can help to avoid having to travel through hostile space (e.g. space owned by an opposing group) or a heavily camped bottleneck system

Considerations when using Thera routes

The route planner works nicely and as long as the data from Eve-Scout is current (which it usually is) the results are reliable. However, this is still Eve. So before you start planing all your routes through Thera there are some additional points you may want to consider.

  • Thera by itself can be quite dangerous. Its frequently visited by pirates and WH corporation and WHs connections can be bubbled and camped. So scouting an entrance (esp. the ones from High Sec) is recommended.
  • There is no guarantee for finding a good route. Since the connections to Thera move around New Eden all the time its totally chanced based. (But still worth checking)
  • Routes have a limited lifetime. Each route is based on two WH connections, which both have a limited lifetime by itseld. So if you found a good route don’t wait too long or it will vanish again. Of course the web site will tell you how much time you have left.
  • Capitals are not allowed: Thera Whs do not allow capitals to enter, so Thera Connect can not be used for capitals. Freighters and Jump Freighters will work however.

Feedback always welcome

I hope you guys will find this app useful for your travel plannings. If you have any comment or feedback please use the comments feature below or contact me in-game.

Cheers,
Erik