So, I just saw Serenity today, and it got me to thinking...

Isn't the current model for larger ships a little...well... boring?

instead of a player being pilot and gunner, these new ships offer the possibility of additional gunners! er... yeah.

What about Engineers, flight crew, etc... a horde of minigames that let you optimize the cap ship's performance.

This also could be extended to life outside of a cap ship, mining, trading, and combat, all are pretty independent, with piracy generating the only real interaction between these players.

Crafting is one way that will come up later. But, unless weapons/items can be sold between players, this would just be another minigame that creates little interaction between players.
It would leave players to work their way up the crafting hierarchy, get their items, and then forget the game.

So how bout breaking it down, players can choose to learn to make modifications to ships, offering their services to "supe" up other player's ships for a fee.

REAL bars, which players could own and dispense food and drink (which they would need to bring from outside). This would of course require a certain dependency of players on said items. (basic food and water will keep you supported, if you go without them for too long, your ship speed becomes a bit more sluggish, autoaim decreases. But well crafted food gives you modest benefits to speed, so that your acceleration can increase by 2-5 thrust)

So many ideas come to mind, if we want an MMORPG, then people need to have ways of offering goods and services.

This could, in fact, be part of a more elaborate character creation system. You decide the profession that your char starts off with, which they would then have the opportunity to level like combat, trade, etc...

It should still be an occupation which takes skill (which is harder, but theoretically possible) but having these kind of professions, and a way to add more professions would add a lot of immersiveness.

What's an adventurer without the simple pleasures to appreciate after the fighting is over?

Interesting suggestion, but, I am afraid, all something that would/will have to wait for a LONG time.

As a really cool example of cap-ship non-gunner crew, a fighter coordinator and/or a gunnery officer with a homeworld-esque (3D-ish) interface that can set the target for different turrets and fighters in their group.

uhm, don't make players in VO pick classes, binding their choices on what to do. the current freedom should be sustained since it will be one of the major selling points that set it aside from everything else.

offer different skills yes, but don't make people choose. if anyone wants to play 24/7 and learn it all, sure, but you can still only fill one role at one time -- if you make all your own ships, weapons and upgrades, you're not getting to fight half as much as hardcore fighters and so on.

as for seeing Serenity, I hate you. it's postponed until December 2nd here. *sniff* :-)

I agree with terjekv on everything, but the Serenity thing, since I never liked the franchise and is on my list of movies to see when they finally come out on cable :P

This has also been discussed already, but a long time ago (too tired to dig up the thread).

The problem with this is that it's hard to make it interesting to just be ferried around and optimise the ship's performance.
People who play Vendetta mostly (I hope so...) play it for the adrenaline kick and the euphory of victory.

If you have to dredge around in the belly of a cap ship, even if you're being appeased with games like Pipe Dream and the like (to simulate work), it'd get boring pretty fast.

I dont think shape is suggesting we take away the option for people to do anything else, just give people who are so inclined the chance to learn a skill that can be used to supplement a major ship/station/etc.

It could probably work something like this:

Playa Cool has a few levels of engineering.. most of the time he can fly around and do whatever he wants, just like the rest of us.. One day his guildmaster gives him a shout on the guild chat, wanting him to come help with a capship raid on the levi.

Cool shows up, takes the engineering position in the capship.

He's given several options.. small timed minigames that can be completed to give a temporary boost to specific turrets refire rates, acceleration of the capship.. repairing damaged components.. etc etc.

Different tasks would all have different randomizable minigames (something like click the numbers on this 4x4 grid in order.. or a matching game.. or a 'pipes' style game that represents electricity on a circut board.. something like that.. nothing that isnt randomizable to prevent there being a single identical answer every time) Tasks that were considered more difficult would have shorter base time.

Each minigame he completes in the allotted time allows that ship component to function better for so many seconds. When selecting the game a player ould choose different lengths of time for the component to be boosted.. choosing a longer effective time would shorten the 'game' timer.

the time limit on the minigames would be determined by cool's skill level in engineering. the higher his license, the longer he would have to complete each minigame, simulating the fact that he is better at his job.

completing a minigame would result in a XP gain based on 3 things:
how hard the game was (harder games are worth more XP)
how much time you had left (faster completion.. more XP)
how high your level allready is. (level higher than game difficulty, XP is lowered)

Wow! This suggestion makes perfect sense!
I mean, sure, if the ships were our avatars some of the nay-sayers may have had a bit of a point, but since they aren't, why not add a bit of mechanized mundanity to the game?

I'm kind of for this. Twitch-based minigames that would give benefits to a multi-person ship. Hrm. Like damage control, propulsion, etc. Would be nice to have. Eventually...

Ah, I didn't see it like that.

I thought he emant that people had to stay logged in/docked in the ship. This way, they could leave/log off and the effect would remain.

Then I'm for it.

Genka, one could argue that a capship is a 'shared' avatar.