STARGATES

   Spacial anomalies known as warp points exist but only a very few of these WP are ‘stable’ worm holes. His means that they can be used by ships to safely transit from one destination to another but the vast majority of WP anomalies require enhancement to keep the opening stable enough for a transit by a ship. To accomplish this Star Gates are used.
   Star Gates are massive pieces of equipment that create a field of energy and have an effect upon the subatomic fabric of space and,  when calibrated properly, keep an unstable worm hole open and stable.
  Warp points are typically found using science ships equipped with science instruments and then a Star Gate must be built at those coordinates to open the WP. A Gate requires 100 HS to build and costs 500 MCr. Once operational the gate allows transit through the WP safely.
   However, only from that side. For a true route to exist both sides of an unstable WP must have Star Gates.  

Ramifications: First exploration will be slower. Regardless how many science ships explore, the limiting factor will be on the number of Gates built. In addition ships sent through such a Gate will have to have freighters with supplies and prefabbed gates to assemble or build on the other side or else it’s a one way trip!
   Some warp points will be naturally occurring and Stable without a gate (typically 10% of all WP found).
   Once a Gate is built, WP function like normally in the game, in terms of capacity etc.

   The size or cost of a Gate can be changed as well depending on the size and needs of the game.

   Warp point travel is dangerous and transiting most warp points require some form of enhancement. Transit is accomplished either by a Gate or a WP Enhancer (Wpe), which can carried on a ship. A (Wpe) is 30 hull spaces in size and is a 80 MCr item (TL10). A (Wpe) would enhance a WP enough to allow the ship carrying it to transit. The effect of this would be to discourage small units being built, as they would need WP with gates, or use naturally occurring stable WP. CFN ships would be effected by this as well which might increase costs to ship interstellar distances. Putting a premium on CFN using established gates or stable WP. But (Wpe) would allow fleets to transit without using a gate (that may have been recently found WP or one destroyed in battle). It is likely that Exploration ships would use these system to ‘probe’ new WP and report back if the system is worth building a gate into. 

Attacking Your Neighbor: With Star Gates in use, attacking through a WP is a dangerous procedure! Wars can be ugly and this leads to things such as the defender ‘shutting down the gate’ during a WP attack, making the attacker run the risks of losing ships in transit. A previously energized gate keeps the WP open and stable for 2 turns after it is shut off  or destroyed. Also a gate on the other side can keep an active WP open and stable once a ship has used it (ie, on turn one the WP is assaulted. The defenders try to close the gate but the other gate is keeping it open and stable, and can keep doing so as long as a ship transited in the last turn). 
   This might lead to counter attacks by the defender to destroy the gate on the other side. This is something that hardly ever happens in Starfire, defenders counter attacking through a WP and would be interesting as a tactic.
   The above will make naturally occurring gates very valuable and prized.  

   Finally, a Star Gate enables a WP to have double the capacity of a regular WP. 

WAGE WAR!