It is incredibly difficult to absorb gas from smaller vortexes(vorteces?) (the big ones in the Deadzones are fine, this is about the smaller ones outside of them) as a larger core, as the vortex kills you instantly if you reach its center, which is easy to do as a large ship.
Vortexes(?) smaller than your current Core should perhaps deal damage over time instead. This may be difficult to implement. If it has to be a huge amount of it, so be it, though if people are looking at the map as they're moving, dying to a random small vortex they couldn't see, dying instantly and losing 100 gas is a bit annoying, if not a bit of a pain.