Forums » Suggestions

Capital-class power cells.

May 12, 2014 abortretryfail link
I already made a suggestion a while ago to use the grid-power mechanism to make capital-class weapons without breaking or severealy unbalancing smaller ships.

This builds upon that, but also works towards the goal of allowing standard weapons mounted on capital ships to be more effective, and addressing the problem of sector jump times that are too short.

Suggestion: Make a new addon class for Capital ship Power Cells. Normal power cells cannot be attached to this port, much the same way that small addons can't be attached to a large weapon port.

New item and stats: Trident Power Cell:
Capacity: 1200
Charge Rate: 100/s
Grid Power: 125
Mass: 10000kg

This capacity and charge rate gives approximately the same full-charge time (~12s) as the Heavy Power Cell, without sacrificing the long term energy delivery needed for heavy sustained fire against another capital ship. This way, smaller ships will have the advantage of being able to jump quicker, but Tridents and larger capital ships could wield more power hungry weapons or use standard weapons to greater effect.
May 12, 2014 greenwall link
+1 this is the way to do it. However the PCB would have to be tweaked accordingly as well (simple: it should drain a % of capacity and not a set amount).
May 12, 2014 abortretryfail link
The PCB is already more than capable killing a 100/sec charge rate. (It drains well over 200/sec) I don't think it needs to be adjusted accordingly.

The problem with the PCB right now is that the Fast Charge power cell charges up to jump level fast enough (1.25s) that even a slight break in PCB shots means your target escapes. This charges much slower than that (3s).
May 13, 2014 Kierky link
+1
Though I do like the pcb %ge idea too.
May 13, 2014 TheRedSpy link
The PCB should just be straight deleted in place of a proper implementation of disabling a ship for instance with some sort of mine or lport addon. It's just not right for a small port blaster to be used in this way it completely undermines Large ports and support class ships and says to everybody "hey, if you're not flying a small port manuverable ship with l33t dodging skills, go home."
May 13, 2014 Faceof link
+1....
Oct 20, 2014 Kierky link
bump
Oct 20, 2014 cellsafemode link
If the idea is to stop trident players from setting up with a fast charge so they can jump escape instantly why not just make it so any ship has a cool down timer for jumping similar to the way actual wormholes have a cool down timer before they can be used again. So any ship that jumps has to wait 15 seconds or so to jump again.

I dont see that as hurting any aspect of the game other than people running scripts to rapidly jump from empty sector to empty sector to lose pursuers (or catch a trident owner doing the same). And you dont have to modify ships and add items to stations etc that a new class of item would require.
Oct 20, 2014 abortretryfail link
Because that's not the only thing that needs fixing. Why the heck would a ship with its own huge reactor be stuck with the same tiny energy reserve and grid power capacity as something as small as a Vulture?

You wouldn't necessarily have to make a new class of objects or change the stations. Powercells already fall under the "Other" tab anyway.
Oct 20, 2014 tarenty link
+1. Leave PCB suggestions to another thread.
Oct 20, 2014 Pizzasgood link
EDIT: Nevermind. +1.

@cellsafemode: Personally, I'm fine with the ability to make a couple rapid jumps through empty sectors (e.g. to go around storms or make an initial stab at losing pursuit). It's only the ability to keep doing it indefinitely that is problematic. A cooldown that grows with subsequent hops would be better. But yeah, either way, that isn't really what this is about. Capital ships need to be able to have capital weapons that normal ships can't use effectively, and it's kind of silly that a capital ship can equip a normal ship's powercell and then fly around.

Though, it would be amusing if normal ships could still equip capital powercells, but they (and the capital weapons) were just really heavy. That way a small ship can potentially equip them and try to use capital-sized weapons, with hilarious results due to moving around like a paraplegic hippo.
Oct 20, 2014 abortretryfail link
That way a small ship can potentially equip them and try to use capital-sized weapons, with hilarious results due to moving around like a paraplegic hippo.

That was my thought too. Don't necessarily stop people from doing it, but make it so it's impractical or silly to do so.
Oct 20, 2014 Death Fluffy link
+ for paraplegic hippos
Oct 20, 2014 Kierky link
haha +1 display more paraplegic hippos
Oct 20, 2014 Sterrre link
+1 great ideas