The X-Universe
The fictional X-Universe is a collection of sectors connected by two-way jumpgates. The total number of sectors is unknown, but the number of "discovered" sectors has increased in each game; from 54, in X: Beyond the Frontier, to over 200 in X³: Terran Conflict, including the re-discovered Sol system.
Sectors typically orbit planets, within a star system. Most contain game resources such as asteroids of silicon or ore, and many contain inhabitable planets. Each sector contains up to four jumpgates, in a North, East, South, West pattern. Each sector is named by the organisation that controls it.
Notable sectors include: Argon Federation home-sector, "Argon Prime"; Boron Kingdom home-sector "Kingdom End", Teladi Company headquarters "Seizewell"; Split Dynasty home-sector "Family Pride"; and Paranid Empire home world "Paranid Prime". The Xenon home-sector has never been discovered.
Most sectors are controlled by one X-Universe race, and will contain only stations economically indigenous to that race. For example, Atreus' Clouds is a Boron sector, containing only Boron stations. Here the player can buy special Boron weaponry and equipment that is unavailable from other races. Boron stations sell Boron trade products, and they often want to buy the trade products of other races. Such products can be imported, exported and traded by the player for profit. This compels the player to explore the sectors of the different races to discover the most useful upgrades, and most profitable trade routes.
For convenience, most stations and facilities are located in the space between the jumpgates, known as the "ecliptic plane". However, each sector is unbounded, and the player may travel in any direction almost indefinitely. Beyond the main area of a sector is mostly empty void, though official X material, as well as in-game messages and missions hint at lost ships, secret stations, and other treasures and dangers lurking in remote areas.
In games to X²: The Threat, X-Universe sectors are of uniform size, and gates are usually centre-North, South, East and West of the ecliptic plane. In X³: Reunion sectors became much more varied. The distances between gates varies between 50 km in some sectors to over 200 km in others. The exact position of the gates is unpredictable and gates are generally harder to find.
It is not possible to fly to planets in game. Planet based activity is only possible in plot-related events of X²: The Threat and X³: Reunion. It is only possible to fly into planet atmospheres, though this will result in the ship's destruction.
It is possible that all sectors in the X-Universe are in the Milky Way. With gate technology, some sectors which are distant in the gate system could be cosmically close together. Conversely, sectors near to each other in the jumpgate grid could be physically far apart. Due to the ease of use of the jumpgate system, most races have not progressed far enough in more conventional interstellar science to be sure.
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