Teleportation vs Portals

[Aspiring Writer]

So, I am updating my notes, specifically with the detailed mechanics of my magic systems (Feel free to ask anything about it. It is basically my middle finger to Infinity War (Don't get me wrong, I love the film, this is a middle finger to one detail/inconsistency I did not like.))

So, I was updating my teleportation and portals file, and I decided it might be nice to share why I have both and stuff. To be clear, I am comparing the general mechanics of teleporting vs portals and will not bring specifics, as that will tilt the scales. For example, I made it so teleportation does not transfer inertia, giving it a very useful edge in some situations, and it also gives people nausea for a few moments, and those aren't really universal rules of teleporting, so I will not be bringing them in.

Teleportation can take you and anyone else you bring to one point to another instantly. First is the disorientation. I think we can all agree that being from one place and then another in a split second will disorient you slightly and you will need to get your bearings, as well as where you are compared to your enemies. This will cause you to delay for maybe 1-2 seconds. Portals will have the advantage of being basically a doorway, so you will have your bearings when you step through, as well as knowing what's on the other side before fully stepping through, either because you can see the other side of the portal or can peek through. However, a disadvantage is that your enemies can also use your portal and try shooting at you once they see your portal, so portals a double-edged sword. 

Now in combat situations, teleporting will have an advantage at how quickly you can do it compared to portals, which can mean everything in a fight. Portals can, however, give you cover as you open a portal in front of you leading somewhere else, possibly back at your enemies. So teleporting seems to give you more maneuverability in a battle, letting you get to where you want to go instantly and letting you do some strange things if you teleport yourself and/or objects in the air, while portals let you control the battlefield by putting portals in key places to give you safety, endanger enemies, as well as control where you want to end up.

So the two, while similar, are headphones and earphones; they do the same thing but in different ways and which is better depends on the situation as well as preference. What do you all think?

[Ixthos]

Very interesting :-)

A few questions - with teleportation, you mention it causes you to delay for 1-2 seconds. Is this entirely from the disorientation, or does teleporting not function exactly instantaneously? (side note, this is an element from way back in my stories and I'm debating if I should remove it, but some forms of teleportation in my setting cause you to arrive a short time after you leave, so for a short time you don't exist, while others cause you to teleport slightly back in time, so you could see yourself leaving, while others let you teleport instantly). Can someone with a lot of experience with this be able to gain their bearings instantaneously, especially when moving a short distance, or to an area they can already see?

Also, how quickly can you open and close a portal, and does it open at both ends (that is, if you open a portal from point A to point B, and you go from the front of the portal at point A to the back of the portal at point B, can you also go from the back of portal at point A to the front of the portal at point B, or only from the back of the portal at point A to the front of the portal at point B?

Also also, can portals be used dynamically in combat to cut things with both opening like in the Wheel of Time with a portal opening being able to cut the material at the area it forms, as well as when it closes? And can you, as you said you retain momentum and inertia when you enter a portal to perform the feats from the Portal series of games, so jumping down into a portal to fly a further distance away? Also, what limitations are there on where a portal can form?

[Chasmgoat]

I have a question, so in teleportation, do you cause a vacuum where you were? and does this also make the air where you appear burst outward?

what would happen if one were to teleport to a place with noticeable pressure differences such as from a mountain peak to a low canyon?

just some thoughts.

[Quantus]

In my fictional experience the biggest difference between Teleportation and Portals is that Teleportation tends to have more absolute limits on how much can be carried along with the Teleporter.  It becomes a more in-world limit depending on various flavors, but being Self-Only or Carry-weight limited or volume/mass/arbitrary measurement etc.  OR else they start teleporting whole armies just by holding hands (assuming they even need physical contact).    

Portals become more powerful depending on the edge danger (ie Do They Cut?), by the speed they can be raised/lowered, and by the location restrictions. A portal that can pop up superfast anywhere is an absolute killer because that person stays a half-mile away from the battlefield and opens portals Above the enemy to rain down arrow volleys, hot oil, big rocks, etc. at will.  One that is slow to open and requires a ground anchor (or even a prepared structure/Circle as a focus) are useful but less devastating.  A portal that can be moved AND cuts along its edges is a dimensional scoop that can dismember anything in it's path (ie Deathgates in WoT).

[theTruthshaper]

Extending Goat's point, if you make a portal between 2 places with a noticeable pressure difference, it can set up insanely powerful winds. Also, what happens when you open a portal to the bottom of the ocean?

[Chasmgoat]

also, what would happen if one were to open a portal into space? wouldn't it just start sucking everything through? So this could potentially be a weapon where you make a portal in the middle of enemy territory and get rid of their food, medicine, troops and potentially destroy the entire atmosphere.

[Aspiring Writer]

All right, so, I'm going to answer these questions using my rules of teleportation and portalling, because many of these can go either way depending on what people want to do.

5 hours ago, Ixthos said:

Very interesting :-)

A few questions - with teleportation, you mention it causes you to delay for 1-2 seconds. Is this entirely from the disorientation, or does teleporting not function exactly instantaneously? (side note, this is an element from way back in my stories and I'm debating if I should remove it, but some forms of teleportation in my setting cause you to arrive a short time after you leave, so for a short time you don't exist, while others cause you to teleport slightly back in time, so you could see yourself leaving, while others let you teleport instantly). Can someone with a lot of experience with this be able to gain their bearings instantaneously, especially when moving a short distance, or to an area they can already see?

Also, how quickly can you open and close a portal, and does it open at both ends (that is, if you open a portal from point A to point B, and you go from the front of the portal at point A to the back of the portal at point B, can you also go from the back of portal at point A to the front of the portal at point B, or only from the back of the portal at point A to the front of the portal at point B?

Also also, can portals be used dynamically in combat to cut things with both opening like in the Wheel of Time with a portal opening being able to cut the material at the area it forms, as well as when it closes? And can you, as you said you retain momentum and inertia when you enter a portal to perform the feats from the Portal series of games, so jumping down into a portal to fly a further distance away? Also, what limitations are there on where a portal can form?

There is a microsecond where you don't exist which is part of the disorientation for those that can tell. Space hosts (The people who can do this in my universe) can get used to the feeling and ignore it.

Depends on how big you want the portal. The bigger the portal gets, the longer it takes to increase size. For a personal-sized portal, it takes maybe a second or less, while a portal the size of a ship will take ten seconds or more. You can only go from the front of the portal a to the back of portal B. Good question, never thought of that.

Portals cannot cut things and will be stopped by any object when opening and closing (Like I said, this magic system giving a middle finger to the few mistakes in Infinity War.) You can move portals if needed though. yes, you can retain momentum and do some very interesting tricks. Limitations to the portal forming are the space needed to open a portal as well as a range of where you can open the portal.

2 hours ago, Chasmgoat said:

I have a question, so in teleportation, do you cause a vacuum where you were? and does this also make the air where you appear burst outward?

what would happen if one were to teleport to a place with noticeable pressure differences such as from a mountain peak to a low canyon?

just some thoughts.

Good questions, no and no. I'm not sure how I would use that, unfortunately. They are definitely something you should take into account when making a teleporting system, but the way I've built it, this does not happen. Great questions!

 

1 hour ago, Quantus said:

In my fictional experience the biggest difference between Teleportation and Portals is that Teleportation tends to have more absolute limits on how much can be carried along with the Teleporter.  It becomes a more in-world limit depending on various flavors, but being Self-Only or Carry-weight limited or volume/mass/arbitrary measurement etc.  OR else they start teleporting whole armies just by holding hands (assuming they even need physical contact).    

Portals become more powerful depending on the edge danger (ie Do They Cut?), by the speed they can be raised/lowered, and by the location restrictions. A portal that can pop up superfast anywhere is an absolute killer because that person stays a half-mile away from the battlefield and opens portals Above the enemy to rain down arrow volleys, hot oil, big rocks, etc. at will.  One that is slow to open and requires a ground anchor (or even a prepared structure/Circle as a focus) are useful but less devastating.  A portal that can be moved AND cuts along its edges is a dimensional scoop that can dismember anything in it's path (ie Deathgates in WoT).

... Funnily enough, I had realized that before making this post and gave a weight limit to the teleporting, with the exclusion of the user who can teleport without worrying too much about the weight limit, because otherwise, I have to explain why they don't teleport people into space or into the sky.

Yeah, there are many ways to make portal the most overpowered thing in the universe, as well as ways to depower it. Quite fascinating.

1 hour ago, Ookla of Truthshapers said:

Extending Goat's point, if you make a portal between 2 places with a noticeable pressure difference, it can set up insanely powerful winds. Also, what happens when you open a portal to the bottom of the ocean?

For the first one, I have no idea if that is what would happen, which is why I did not take that into consideration. For the second one, you would have a portal spewing a very powerful jet of water. Be careful not to drown yourself. (Also, the bottom of the ocean might be a little too for the portal's range in most situations.)

 

15 minutes ago, Chasmgoat said:

also, what would happen if one were to open a portal into space? wouldn't it just start sucking everything through? So this could potentially be a weapon where you make a portal in the middle of enemy territory and get rid of their food, medicine, troops and potentially destroy the entire atmosphere.

Yeah, you can do that. It's a double-edged sword because you will also start getting sucked out, and the range will only make this viable in ships and not the surface of a planet. But if you're getting tired of fighting someone, just hang onto something and have them sucked out.

 

Great questions guys, loved this. Might try pitching other aspects of my magic systems and see what you guys think off.

[Guest Somebody from Scadrial]

2 minutes ago, Aspiring Writer said:

All right, so, I'm going to answer these questions using my rules of teleportation and portalling, because many of these can go either way depending on what people want to do.

There is a microsecond where you don't exist which is part of the disorientation for those that can tell. Space hosts (The people who can do this in my universe) can get used to the feeling and ignore it.

Depends on how big you want the portal. The bigger the portal gets, the longer it takes to increase size. For a personal-sized portal, it takes maybe a second or less, while a portal the size of a ship will take ten seconds or more. You can only go from the front of the portal a to the back of portal B. Good question, never thought of that.

Portals cannot cut things and will be stopped by any object when opening and closing (Like I said, this magic system giving a middle finger to the few mistakes in Infinity War.) You can move portals if needed though. yes, you can retain momentum and do some very interesting tricks. Limitations to the portal forming are the space needed to open a portal as well as a range of where you can open the portal.

Good questions, no and no. I'm not sure how I would use that, unfortunately. They are definitely something you should take into account when making a teleporting system, but the way I've built it, this does not happen. Great questions!

 

... Funnily enough, I had realized that before making this post and gave a weight limit to the teleporting, with the exclusion of the user who can teleport without worrying too much about the weight limit, because otherwise, I have to explain why they don't teleport people into space or into the sky.

Yeah, there are many ways to make portal the most overpowered thing in the universe, as well as ways to depower it. Quite fascinating.

For the first one, I have no idea if that is what would happen, which is why I did not take that into consideration. For the second one, you would have a portal spewing a very powerful jet of water. Be careful not to drown yourself. (Also, the bottom of the ocean might be a little too for the portal's range in most situations.)

 

Yeah, you can do that. It's a double-edged sword because you will also start getting sucked out, and the range will only make this viable in ships and not the surface of a planet. But if you're getting tired of fighting someone, just hang onto something and have them sucked out.

 

Great questions guys, loved this. Might try pitching other aspects of my magic systems and see what you guys think off.

Hey Aspire, are souls effected by portals?

[Aspiring Writer]

4 minutes ago, Somebody from Sel said:

Hey Aspire, are souls effected by portals?

Yes.

[Condensation]

5 minutes ago, Somebody from Sel said:

Hey Aspire, are souls effected by portals?

*affected

Sorry.

[Aspiring Writer]

1 minute ago, Ookla the Grammatical said:

*affected

Sorry.

Heh. Nice to see you're still watching. ALso SoS, that answer was serious, portals do affect souls in my universe. XD I'm not sure if you were trying to pull my leg or not.

[Condensation]

Just now, Aspiring Writer said:

Heh. Nice to see you're still watching. ALso SoS, that answer was serious, portals do affect souls in my universe. XD I'm not sure if you were trying to pull my leg or not.

 Of course I'm still watching! I'm Ookla the Grammatical, after all!

[Guest Somebody from Scadrial]

2 minutes ago, Aspiring Writer said:

Heh. Nice to see you're still watching. ALso SoS, that answer was serious, portals do affect souls in my universe. XD I'm not sure if you were trying to pull my leg or not.

No, I was genuinely curious. Mostly due to automation reasons. Is that used in the soul farms? You should think about that if it isn't.

[Aspiring Writer]

2 minutes ago, Somebody from Sel said:

No, I was genuinely curious. Mostly due to automation reasons. Is that used in the soul farms? You should think about that if it isn't.

Would not be useful, the range of portals isn't large enough, and souls get pulled 'somewhere' after around ten seconds. Good question, tho.

[Condensation]

39 minutes ago, Aspiring Writer said:

Would not be useful, the range of portals isn't large enough, and souls get pulled 'somewhere' after around ten seconds. Good question, tho.

'Somewhere?' Where?

[Aspiring Writer]

1 hour ago, Ookla the Grammatical said:

'Somewhere?' Where?

I'm gonna keep that secret for the time being, but they are no longer in their universe.

[Condensation]

3 minutes ago, Aspiring Writer said:

I'm gonna keep that secret for the time being, but they are no longer in their universe.

Oh, sounds interesting.