Why : Because when Aerna seekers were implimented, we went 200ms now we can go just as fast as they can.

Do we need this : Yep, nowadays, its easy to outstrafe em, blat the Straikeforce bots, backpeddle, and pop the seekers (with an ion blaster, for christ sakes) and then kill the unsuspecting miner that went AFK to make his dinner.

When do we want it : Soon(tm)

Or, better yet, eliminate them entirely. What's the point of magic one-shot-kills enemies?

Just give the stations the Cappy GT. With increased accuracy... of course.

Asteroid mounted weapon emplacements!!! wahooo!!!

lol...

no.

Sure, might be a good idea to speed up seekers, but only AFTER players have some means of fixing their faction without running SFs to bot behind enemy lines..

I agree with Cunjo. Ultra-fast Aerna Seekers will put a severe damper on my Deneb Run prize monies, I'll NEVER get through Serco space.

I don't like this. Something I've wanted to see more of for a long time is actual conflict between Itani and Serco - and for me, a big part of that would be action inside nation space, like in the backstory - Akanese bombing Sol II, Serco retaliating by bombing Eo, etc. Having ultra-uber-impenetrable-nation-space-defense would make that impossible, or at least unreasonably difficult.

Well, I could get into Itani or Serco, or hell, even UiT space at -1000 faction, back when we could only go 200ms MAX, afaik, the aerna seekers top speed was 250... ...now the valk goes 240ms and the TD hog 250, yet aerna seekers still only go 250. Its not supposed to be easy to destroy entire strikeforces ya know, but currently, its slightly harder than say, botting Prosus Assaults.

Im all for replacing Aerna seekers with beam guns on stations. maybe then just send the Vultures to wormhomes (like before Aerna seekers).

And beolach, im all for conflict, but hows about the newbs?

And im not asking the devs to make them *uber* just faster in preportion to how fast we can now travel, maybe 270 ms Aerna's ?

Newbs don't stay newbs for all that long. I really don't think they need any special protection. The best way to learn how to swim is to jump into water over your head.

Besides, Strike Forces don't protect newbs, anyway: they protect faction space. If the attacker can't get past the Strike Force to attack newbs, then they also can't get past the Strike Force to attack veterans. And if the attacker can get past the Strike Force to attack veterans, then they can also get past to attack newbs.

I like the Aerna Seekers & Strike Force as they are now: they are beatable, but they are a significant challenge, especially if you're trying to do something more than just killing the Strike Force. The one thing I'd like changed is making a finite number of Strike Force & Seeker ships available, rather than the infinite number now, so that players could eventually (in theory) completely destroy all the Strike Force ships, and until more were built they'd be able to focus on other things.

Never realized they went 250! How in blazes do people with moths outrun them then? Or when a Sedina Queen or the Levi deploys them in a fight?

Could it be there's something else wrong with these things and the way they close in/fight? coz I agree, they're kinda too easy to evade and take out.

Could be jex. But really Beolach, I think you need to try it - its actually easy for me to do trade runs in UiT space (like Jex said, its easy to get a MOTH in)

It's easy to run past them, yes; even in a Moth, usually, because you usually start with a big enough lead to get away before they catch you. It's also possible to turn and fight them (but not in a Moth ;-). But dodging them while going after another objective, like attacking a player or NPC trader or (soon^TM, I hope) a station itself, is very difficult - not impossible, but a huge challenge. And yes, I have tried it; it's actually one of the main things one of my characters does.

Why is it a problem that you can usually run away from them easily? It's usually pretty easy to run away from anything that's attacking you. Yeah, when you're trading in a Moth, it's still easier than I'd like to escape from Pirates & the Strike Force, but I consider that to be caused by the Moth going too fast, not the Seekers too slow. For any of the combat ships, I have no problem with them being capable of running away from the Seekers & Strike Force (or other players) - usually I'd see that as almost as much of a win for the Strike Force as if the Strike Force destroyed the ship.

Thing is, Beloach, yoda and Niki usually catch up to my moths in Valkyries, under similar conditions (they starting from far away and I'm already running pell-mell). So if a 240-turbo non-infiniboost ship can catch up to me, why a 250-turbo ship can't?

Because Yoda & Niki start closer to you, and with you starting at a slower speed. Yoda & Niki and player pirates hang out around WHs, waiting for Moths. The Strike Forces don't hang out around WHs, they don't even launch from the station until a hated ship enters their monitored space. Then they launch, and jump to the sector the hated ship is in. But by the time they get there the Moth will have already have gotten up some speed, while the Strike Force is still at jump-exit speed (50m/s, or whatever; possibly even facing the wrong way), and the Strike Force still has to accelerate to match the speed of the Moth, and then start closing.

Try taking a hated Moth through one of the WHs with a station - you will occasionally get past, but not nearly as easily as the monitored WHs without a station.

^.-

The last time I tried, I found it very challenging to get through the double-station WHs in a loaded & hated Moth. Not impossible, but very much not easy, which IMO is how it should be. Of course, I never use mines & tend to forget about how they can affect things, but still...

[edit]
But even if it is too easy to get a Moth through, I still hold that slowing the Moth down more would be a better solution than speeding the Seekers up.
[/edit]

Nah, the reason why you can outrun them is that they seem to match your acceleration. So, until you max out, you'll actually be moving faster than them.

Beolach said: The best way to learn how to swim is to jump into water over your head.
Heh. That's also the best way to drown.

I still don't like ultra-fast Aerna seekers. And actually ENGAGING a strikeforce 1-on-5 is suicide for me, 100% of the time. Picking off stragglers from a strikeforce, sure.

i don't think the seekers go 150, i've gained distance on them in a valk, and i uaualy hold my distance in a hog mk2 i think they travel at 220.

anyway, the way i'd like to see the SF work is this:

every station has an array of mounted weapons (military stations having a few beam dannons, and a number of AGTs and the ability to launch seekers, while non military stations only have AGTs and similar weapons like the Uber Gaus) then each station is protected by an infinate number of station guards (spawning 2-6 at a time depending on which station it is). Beyond that the SF is composed os a number of military units (a number of capitle ships and fighter squadrens) of finite but slowly replenishing number that roam their nation's space. military support is sent when an enemy is detected in monitered space and the amount of support is determineed by the facton of the target, and the number and type of military units in the system. so if there hapens to be a carier group in the system i'm breaking into, i may finde a whole squadren of fighters and a destroyer on my tail, but if there was just a combat partole i may only finde a pair of enemy ships chasing me.

perhaps they do go 150, but make too many course corrections to keep on an intercept to have any hope of staying at speed and catchig you? that seems like an AI problem to me.

Seekers are a nightmare in lagged out (e.g. Levi / Queen) sectors... once they get in range, it's all over for me. Usually.

Hard-on's point had a lot more to do with the horrible sector lag present in bastion sectors nearly 100% of the time. I'm not sure it belongs in the bug sector, but it's damn odd that I lag so much there that the queen's agt eats me up, while queens (even in bone roid sectors) are usually Cent II/n2 fodder for me.