Forums » Suggestions
Improve War Blockades
Searching through the forum yielded A LOT of reading on the war voys. I had no idea that had gone through so many changes. Connies had swarms? wtf? Anyway...
The war blockades are too easy to destroy. They need to be bigger and badder. They need to be a significant threat and a challenging obstacle because 1) otherwise what's the point and 2) it will inspire people to give more craps about Deneb whether they like it or not.
So I propose five solutions/changes:
1) Make the fighter squadrons very aggressive and always active.
-This has been suggested before and currently it seems the sector sleep causes them to become inert.
2) Triple the amount of capships, and add HACs.
-Yes, triple them. And add HACs as either an additional war convoy type, or add them to an existing one (i.e. the trident group). There are nearly 70 skirmishes fought WEEKLY in deneb that have HACs and Connies and Teradons, etc... it only seems reasonable that the war blockades, at the very least, should represent the same amount of Capships in a single large skirmish.
3) Deploy turrets upon the capships arrival.
-This is only really necessary if the fighter activation mentioned in number 1 can't be achieved. Capgauss and Capital Missiles (or whatever they are called).
4) BOTH serco wormholes in Ukari should have a duplicate blockade.
-Just blockading A10 (which is essentially what goes on right now, more or less), is obviously pointless. The threat of the blockade should be equal to both Serco and Itani. Now, it could be argued that the Ukari B-5 wormhole isn't a serco border. In that case, a duplicate itani War Voy should be sent to Helios O-12, or (even better) Helios B-7 (where a huge battle would ensue).
5) War Blockades under attack should report an alarm to channel 201 and 202 just like ctc.
-Why would a stupid little ctc bot send out an alarm but not a huge ass connie?
The war blockades are too easy to destroy. They need to be bigger and badder. They need to be a significant threat and a challenging obstacle because 1) otherwise what's the point and 2) it will inspire people to give more craps about Deneb whether they like it or not.
So I propose five solutions/changes:
1) Make the fighter squadrons very aggressive and always active.
-This has been suggested before and currently it seems the sector sleep causes them to become inert.
2) Triple the amount of capships, and add HACs.
-Yes, triple them. And add HACs as either an additional war convoy type, or add them to an existing one (i.e. the trident group). There are nearly 70 skirmishes fought WEEKLY in deneb that have HACs and Connies and Teradons, etc... it only seems reasonable that the war blockades, at the very least, should represent the same amount of Capships in a single large skirmish.
3) Deploy turrets upon the capships arrival.
-This is only really necessary if the fighter activation mentioned in number 1 can't be achieved. Capgauss and Capital Missiles (or whatever they are called).
4) BOTH serco wormholes in Ukari should have a duplicate blockade.
-Just blockading A10 (which is essentially what goes on right now, more or less), is obviously pointless. The threat of the blockade should be equal to both Serco and Itani. Now, it could be argued that the Ukari B-5 wormhole isn't a serco border. In that case, a duplicate itani War Voy should be sent to Helios O-12, or (even better) Helios B-7 (where a huge battle would ensue).
5) War Blockades under attack should report an alarm to channel 201 and 202 just like ctc.
-Why would a stupid little ctc bot send out an alarm but not a huge ass connie?
Capital Missiles (or whatever they are called).
Oh hell no. We have enough of those cheatastic Station Defense Missile Launchers at the Conq Stations. Turrets are not fun. Stick a couple capital swarms back on the connies and maybe give the Teradons a launcher or two if there needs to be more missiles.
+1 on points #1 and #4.
Maybe only double the capships as suggested by #2. 3 connies in a single day is pretty crazy if you include aggressive NPC fighters.
ALSO: Change NPC capital ship behavior so that occupied Trident Type M's are considered capital ships and are attacked by the main guns of NPC Tridents and Teradons. Right now they do this, but only when the pilot undocks.
Oh hell no. We have enough of those cheatastic Station Defense Missile Launchers at the Conq Stations. Turrets are not fun. Stick a couple capital swarms back on the connies and maybe give the Teradons a launcher or two if there needs to be more missiles.
+1 on points #1 and #4.
Maybe only double the capships as suggested by #2. 3 connies in a single day is pretty crazy if you include aggressive NPC fighters.
ALSO: Change NPC capital ship behavior so that occupied Trident Type M's are considered capital ships and are attacked by the main guns of NPC Tridents and Teradons. Right now they do this, but only when the pilot undocks.
+ 1 for giving blockades some teeth.
Blockades should immediately attack anyone not Admire with the blockading faction.
I think there should also be an economic impact- which to my simple mind is the entire purpose of imposing a blockade.
If any of the blockade ships reach their destination, then ships and equipment should cost 4x more with the higher end ships and weapons seeing the steepest increase in price, while lower end ships have less of a price increase so that new players are not affected to too great a degree.
Once the last ship of the blockade has been destroyed, let prices return to normal at a gradual pace. Price increases could also happen in a gradual rather than immediate fashion.
Raise sell prices for all commodities and lower buy prices for locally produced goods. Raise the buy price for commodities not produced anywhere in that nations space significantly, but ONLY for the commodities not already staged in the nations space so that goods cannot be stockpiled in advance, and the price increase should only last for the duration of the blockade.
Ideally
1) commodities that have the high payoff should have to be bought after the first blockade ship arrives.
2) not come from the enemy
3) for rp purposes be relavant to what the nation would need.
4) be rewarded well enough to support group efforts to get trade ships safely through a challenging blockade.
5) disqualify any goods that have been stored on a Trident M or where they have been on a ship docked with a Trident M.
Blockades should immediately attack anyone not Admire with the blockading faction.
I think there should also be an economic impact- which to my simple mind is the entire purpose of imposing a blockade.
If any of the blockade ships reach their destination, then ships and equipment should cost 4x more with the higher end ships and weapons seeing the steepest increase in price, while lower end ships have less of a price increase so that new players are not affected to too great a degree.
Once the last ship of the blockade has been destroyed, let prices return to normal at a gradual pace. Price increases could also happen in a gradual rather than immediate fashion.
Raise sell prices for all commodities and lower buy prices for locally produced goods. Raise the buy price for commodities not produced anywhere in that nations space significantly, but ONLY for the commodities not already staged in the nations space so that goods cannot be stockpiled in advance, and the price increase should only last for the duration of the blockade.
Ideally
1) commodities that have the high payoff should have to be bought after the first blockade ship arrives.
2) not come from the enemy
3) for rp purposes be relavant to what the nation would need.
4) be rewarded well enough to support group efforts to get trade ships safely through a challenging blockade.
5) disqualify any goods that have been stored on a Trident M or where they have been on a ship docked with a Trident M.
I think your suggestions make sense in a real economy, Fluffy. But not the current VO one. As with neut3s and ctc, people will just stockpile what they need when it's available (or in the case of your suggestion, when it's at the lower price). And some people don't even think about how much things cost anymore... So effort put into that kind of suggestion would yield very little payout in gameplay.
And yeah ARF, Capital Ship AI is a whole 'nother story, but could definitely be improved to make the blockades more effective.
And yeah ARF, Capital Ship AI is a whole 'nother story, but could definitely be improved to make the blockades more effective.