Forums » Suggestions
Yet another jump timing suggestion
I know everyone is probably tired of the many ideas about jump timers, energy usage, and the like. However, I think that the more ideas that get thrown into the mix, the more likely we will find a solution that everyone can live with.
So:
I think that the energy requirement for jumping is a step in the right direction. However, I also think many of us agree that the current requirement is not ideal, as infiniboost ships are not held when making a jump. So what we need is a system that forces everyone to use up energy as part of the jump sequence.
I propose a system where a ship must "charge up" its jump drive in order to make a jump. This would be accomplished in a similar manner to how Charge Cannons or Repair Guns charge. Once the pilot keys in a course on the nav computer and reaches the minimum jump distance, pressing the activate key initiates the charging sequence. No buttons need to be held as for the guns, but a constant drain (To be determined later) is applied to the ship's battery until a set amount of charge (also to be decided later) is collected. The jump engine then triggers, and the jump continues as normal.
The pilot may continue to make any actions they want while the jump engine charges, but must be aware that turboing or firing energy weapons will drain their battery even faster and delay the jump. If the battery hits 0 charge before the jump engines are finished charging, the jump will not be canceled, but if the pilot does not reduce the drain on the battery, the jump will take longer to finish charging. This gives us the benefits of a "Jump Timer" without seeming too arbitrary, and will reduce the ability of ships to turbo continuously and jump as soon as they reach the 3km mark.
There are a number of factors to be considered if this system were to be implemented. Obviously, the drain rate and required energy charge for the jump engine will need to be tweaked for each ship. This system could also be applied to wormhole jumps, but with a much larger energy requirement. Ships could be designed for high speed jump and pursuit, or very quick jumps, provided that no other energy is used during the charge phase. Also, the required jump charge could be varied depending on the length of the jump, so that short hops through space would charge faster, making strategic planning of jump routes a strong factor of trading and hunting alike. This system could possibly be even more effective with something like a variable drain/speed turbo system, as has been suggested elsewhere. Along the same lines, the jump charge rate could also be a user controlled variable, allowing for instant or near instant jumps, at the expense of a near full battery charge needed at jump time.
An example, with numbers off the top of my head:
Behemoth with a Fast Charge Battery
Turbo drain: 50/s
Jump Charge rate: 100/s
Jump Charge Requirement: 300 energy
The result of this setup is a Behemoth that can infiniturbo, but cannot infiniturbo and jump at the same time. If the pilot turbos out to jump distance, lets off the turbo, and presses the jump key, the jump will be ready in 3 seconds with some energy left over in the battery. However, if the pilot keeps turboing and engages the jump, the battery will hit 0 in 2.5 seconds, bringing the ship out of turbo. The jump engine will only have charged to 250 energy, so an additional second of charge time will be required until the jump engine is charged (Since now the battery has no reserve, it can only supply 50/s, which will all be used by the jump drain).
Again, these numbers would have to be adjusted so that it does not put a massive inconvenience upon all of the players, while making escaping ships catchable, but at a certain cost to the pursuer.
With this in mind, I would imagine that a corresponding jump animation would take advantage of the charge time. For example: We could have an effect of the ship or its engines glowing progressively brighter as the jump engine nears it's full charge level, with a sudden burst of acceleration or a relativistic effect ala BSG (which everyone, myself included, seems to think looks rather nifty) occurring at the moment the engine is charged fully.
Thanks for taking the time to read all of my crazy ideas. I open the floor to further comments and refinements.
So:
I think that the energy requirement for jumping is a step in the right direction. However, I also think many of us agree that the current requirement is not ideal, as infiniboost ships are not held when making a jump. So what we need is a system that forces everyone to use up energy as part of the jump sequence.
I propose a system where a ship must "charge up" its jump drive in order to make a jump. This would be accomplished in a similar manner to how Charge Cannons or Repair Guns charge. Once the pilot keys in a course on the nav computer and reaches the minimum jump distance, pressing the activate key initiates the charging sequence. No buttons need to be held as for the guns, but a constant drain (To be determined later) is applied to the ship's battery until a set amount of charge (also to be decided later) is collected. The jump engine then triggers, and the jump continues as normal.
The pilot may continue to make any actions they want while the jump engine charges, but must be aware that turboing or firing energy weapons will drain their battery even faster and delay the jump. If the battery hits 0 charge before the jump engines are finished charging, the jump will not be canceled, but if the pilot does not reduce the drain on the battery, the jump will take longer to finish charging. This gives us the benefits of a "Jump Timer" without seeming too arbitrary, and will reduce the ability of ships to turbo continuously and jump as soon as they reach the 3km mark.
There are a number of factors to be considered if this system were to be implemented. Obviously, the drain rate and required energy charge for the jump engine will need to be tweaked for each ship. This system could also be applied to wormhole jumps, but with a much larger energy requirement. Ships could be designed for high speed jump and pursuit, or very quick jumps, provided that no other energy is used during the charge phase. Also, the required jump charge could be varied depending on the length of the jump, so that short hops through space would charge faster, making strategic planning of jump routes a strong factor of trading and hunting alike. This system could possibly be even more effective with something like a variable drain/speed turbo system, as has been suggested elsewhere. Along the same lines, the jump charge rate could also be a user controlled variable, allowing for instant or near instant jumps, at the expense of a near full battery charge needed at jump time.
An example, with numbers off the top of my head:
Behemoth with a Fast Charge Battery
Turbo drain: 50/s
Jump Charge rate: 100/s
Jump Charge Requirement: 300 energy
The result of this setup is a Behemoth that can infiniturbo, but cannot infiniturbo and jump at the same time. If the pilot turbos out to jump distance, lets off the turbo, and presses the jump key, the jump will be ready in 3 seconds with some energy left over in the battery. However, if the pilot keeps turboing and engages the jump, the battery will hit 0 in 2.5 seconds, bringing the ship out of turbo. The jump engine will only have charged to 250 energy, so an additional second of charge time will be required until the jump engine is charged (Since now the battery has no reserve, it can only supply 50/s, which will all be used by the jump drain).
Again, these numbers would have to be adjusted so that it does not put a massive inconvenience upon all of the players, while making escaping ships catchable, but at a certain cost to the pursuer.
With this in mind, I would imagine that a corresponding jump animation would take advantage of the charge time. For example: We could have an effect of the ship or its engines glowing progressively brighter as the jump engine nears it's full charge level, with a sudden burst of acceleration or a relativistic effect ala BSG (which everyone, myself included, seems to think looks rather nifty) occurring at the moment the engine is charged fully.
Thanks for taking the time to read all of my crazy ideas. I open the floor to further comments and refinements.
hmmmmmm
interesting.
With appropriate number tweaking i think it has potential.
I suspect that you are going to need a much higher total charge to solve the running problem however, something more along the lines of 450 or 500 for the moth in your example, here's why.
having to stop turboing for that last second isnt going to affect anything, its going to need to pause for a bit longer than that in order to make it catchable since it's allready coasting at full speed when the turbo cuts out, and a second isnt really THAT long.
IMO the real problem is that there are ships that can infiniturbo at relatively high speeds. Back in the alpha infinite turbo required you to take a significant speed hit, (down to 160m/s max iirc) to compensate for the advantages of constant turbo. I personally feel that no ship, be it a fighter or a trader should have a drain of 50 at any top speed higher than 170 (maybe 180 for the valent maud)
interesting.
With appropriate number tweaking i think it has potential.
I suspect that you are going to need a much higher total charge to solve the running problem however, something more along the lines of 450 or 500 for the moth in your example, here's why.
having to stop turboing for that last second isnt going to affect anything, its going to need to pause for a bit longer than that in order to make it catchable since it's allready coasting at full speed when the turbo cuts out, and a second isnt really THAT long.
IMO the real problem is that there are ships that can infiniturbo at relatively high speeds. Back in the alpha infinite turbo required you to take a significant speed hit, (down to 160m/s max iirc) to compensate for the advantages of constant turbo. I personally feel that no ship, be it a fighter or a trader should have a drain of 50 at any top speed higher than 170 (maybe 180 for the valent maud)
sounds good
Nice idea, greengeek.
IMO the real problem is that there are ships that can infiniturbo at relatively high speeds. Back in the alpha infinite turbo required you to take a significant speed hit, (down to 160m/s max iirc) to compensate for the advantages of constant turbo. I personally feel that no ship, be it a fighter or a trader should have a drain of 50 at any top speed higher than 170 (maybe 180 for the valent maud)
I also concur with this statement.
IMO the real problem is that there are ships that can infiniturbo at relatively high speeds. Back in the alpha infinite turbo required you to take a significant speed hit, (down to 160m/s max iirc) to compensate for the advantages of constant turbo. I personally feel that no ship, be it a fighter or a trader should have a drain of 50 at any top speed higher than 170 (maybe 180 for the valent maud)
I also concur with this statement.
Sure, the concept of high speed infinite turbo boost needs some work under the current scope of the game, but that's probably for another thread. Mostly, I think that the abilities of ships, both for turbo energy and the jump charge in my post, should match their intended purpose.
For instance, I can see something like Behemoths and Ragnaroks having a decent turbo speed, and maybe even infiniturbo, but it should take a loooong time to reach that speed, even with moderate load, and the jump energy requirement for it would be large to match. So it is impossible to turbo and jump charge, and it needs some defense while it's waiting for the engines to spool up.
A light fighter on the other hand has a much higher turbo speed, should reach that speed fairly quickly, can sprint for a moderate distance (Perhaps slightly more than currently possible), and can charge it's jump engines quickly, but the high charge rate means that it cannot chase and prepare a jump at the same time, or prepare a jump and attack another ship with energy weapons.
And yeah, the numbers were strictly "back-of-the-envelope". I was still operating under the assumption of the current ship stats, and also working with a supposed jump delay of about 3 seconds. It should probably be increased, but you'd have to run the numbers differently for each ship, and perhaps eventually make the requirements customizable, like the varied engines of the Olden Days. I just wanted some numbers that worked nicely and gave a good example of the results under different conditions.
For instance, I can see something like Behemoths and Ragnaroks having a decent turbo speed, and maybe even infiniturbo, but it should take a loooong time to reach that speed, even with moderate load, and the jump energy requirement for it would be large to match. So it is impossible to turbo and jump charge, and it needs some defense while it's waiting for the engines to spool up.
A light fighter on the other hand has a much higher turbo speed, should reach that speed fairly quickly, can sprint for a moderate distance (Perhaps slightly more than currently possible), and can charge it's jump engines quickly, but the high charge rate means that it cannot chase and prepare a jump at the same time, or prepare a jump and attack another ship with energy weapons.
And yeah, the numbers were strictly "back-of-the-envelope". I was still operating under the assumption of the current ship stats, and also working with a supposed jump delay of about 3 seconds. It should probably be increased, but you'd have to run the numbers differently for each ship, and perhaps eventually make the requirements customizable, like the varied engines of the Olden Days. I just wanted some numbers that worked nicely and gave a good example of the results under different conditions.
i would like to see something that allows for people to jump under normal conditions.. but to have a harder time jumping when I hit their engines/rear or when they are damaged for example. The more the ship is damaged the more time it would take to jump. It would allow for people who pvp to not run from fights as easily. And it would be more realistic. Also at the moment the right side ship damage graphic is nothing but decoration.