I think it would be really cool if the Levi lived inside an actual hollowed out asteroid (like the one from old s13) instead of just sitting in the middle of a ring of smaller ones.

A) This would make the Levi harder to bomb from a safe distance

B) Different asteroid shapes could be used, each one presenting a unique challenge in getting through to the center. Perhaps there are a maze of tunnels to find your way through, perhaps there is just a really dense field of shattered ice crystals, perhaps a giant asteroid that is slowly rotating, making timing in getting through the hole essential. There are so many different creative possibilities.

C) There could be Hive controlled turrets along the walls of the tunnel that you would have to take out as you go

D) When the Levi started exploding there would be a race to get out of the asteroid shell alive, like Star Wars VI.

Now THAT is a good idea!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Asteroid4.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Asteroid3.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Asteroid2.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Asteroid1.png

good idea phase, i sorta miss the old s10 station, wonder where that is at...

I thought they intended on eventually making the Levi wiggle. Also, bot AI isn't perfect...they'd probably all crash trying to go through a nonexistant opening (anyone who's laid a mine deep within the confines of a station knows what I mean).

Sad. I would like to see a hollow asteroid too.

Yap, the Levi is intended to wiggle. And if you were around when the orignal levi disscussion took place, the Devs wanted it insde a sphere of roids, not a ring, but again, so much objects cause framerate drop.

Eventually, though, we should be able to get that wiggling levi inside a sphere of roids.

Well, instead of a sphere of roids, how bout a large sphere of some sort of metal, I think the big problem with the roids is rendering all the textures, not much texture to worry about if its continuous.

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/10914#127526

my thoughts on the levi from right after it came out. I still agree with all of them.

if you look how the levi is shaped...make it so it flys around in and outta the holes, that'd be cool :)

YES!! Great suggestion phaser! I remember suggesting a simmular something way back, but I cant find the thread. It was before the racetracks where implemented and everybody was asking to bring them back. I was thinking about putting one of the racetracks in a huge capship, and the only way to destroy it was by going in, following the track, shooting at some kind of energy core in the center.

This is realy in line with that idea, and I would *LOVE* to see something like this. I can allready see myself boostig out, trying to evade the big bang after blowing that sucker up!

Initially there was some concern that the hive bots would.. well, run into rocks a little too much. So the initial "ring" sector design kinda hedged that bet to make sure the gameplay was still workable with the then-current AI. Things have been improved somewhat since then (some things more than others, the queens are still pretty inane.. but I've been meaning to re-tune their ship for awhile and make it easier to pilot) and perhaps this can be revisited.

We do still have the S14 ice ball (made by yours truly), and can re-use it for this sort of thing. However, I'd probably be more inclined to make something new. Not sure. The old ice is starting to look a little dated to me. Maybe if we threw a refraction shader on it, but then it would probably be insanely slow. Anyway, I'll cogitate on it. I've had several requests since the Lev release to seal it in a sphere of some sort (hollow asteroid, ice ball, etc) and I agree with them all.. that was always my intention, it's just the technical limitations that kept that from being.

The hollow-asteroid-with-tunnels would probably be too much for the AI though. They aren't so good at tight spaces (as anyone who's seen them near stations can attest). It would be extremely cool. It just uhh.. wouldn't work right now. Maybe Soon(tm).

It's still really weird for asteroids to just magically appear where the levi is...

The Hive Queens secrete them around their master ;p

Maybe creating an override path would be the solution here. Their AI gets them to a certain point (much in the way they find the dock now), then it just drops them onto a rail and conducts them from place to place by use of a script. That'd be useful for making bots do simple in-system tasks (giving the impression of bustle) without clogging the daemon up with extra AI stuff.

would it be feasable to do two different sized half spheres..

one about a kilometer across that sits with the open end partially inside the open side of other one which has a diameter of 2 kilometers?

What about two full spheres with entrances on opposite sides and turrets all along the intermediary zone.

i'd personaly rather see a sphericle 'roid field than an actual hollow sphere it just seems cooler to me

ctish: yes, we've thought of that. We're planning something similar for traffic management in station sectors. But I'm not sure that that will solve the leviathan problem, necessarily. Having them go from A to B makes them only good at that one function.. they need to have combative behaviour as well to be useful at defending the Lev. And combative behaviour is more.. well, reactive to the scenario.

How about making the ice clear O_O