Forums » Suggestions
Ion Storms with Teeth (long)
Okay, we have several problems here.
a) Ion Storms are a joke. Nothing mroe than a nusaince in travel. One needs merely turbo to get out, costing him only time.
b) Pirates have trouble pirating because all the victim need do is turbo with infiniboost to escape. The rules of drain dictate that the intercepting ship is at a loss here, especially if he actually wants to shoot at his target.
c) Players have no real means to "hide" from other players thanks to the "players in sector" list, giving incoming players an innate advantage to begin "evasive manuevers" (i.e. turbo). A pirating player, likewise must either watch this list (which is highly latent) or be in position to see the player jump in.
d) Piracy at wormholes isn't exactly logical. Though they may be high traffic, protecting them, even in parts of gray space, would be of high priority to any faction making use of them. Not to mention the local population. However, guarding every sector in between isn't a very probable or economic choice either.
So, how can we tie all of these up?
First, let me state, I am not advocation putting guards at gates in gray space. I am however, goign to offer an alternative to wormhole camping, that will also be usable in nation space (i.e. no strike forces).
Just as Ion Storms pull players out of warp, why not have them disable turbo engines as well. I am not quite sure on the details of turbo propulsion as set forth in Vendetta, however, it's not much of a stretch to have both warp and turbo crippled by the effects of an Ion Storm due to underlying related technolgies. (i.e. turbo as a form of low speed warp derived propulsion)
In addition, Ion Storms could also play havoc on sensors, greying out all names in the players in sector list, regardless of proximity. And, additionally, making the the radar show flickering dots showing eneimies in the area, but not revealing their exact location. (i.e objects in front show on the front radar but moving randomly a within few hundred meters along the x, y, & z axis from it's real location, at a fration of a second rate.) Players could deduce a ships location, and still target objects in range however.
(A very quick mockup of the radar dot as affected by Ion Storms)
The advantage to this is that it would bring an elemnt of challange and strategy to the game. Ion Storms would still be easy to bypass (avoid known asteroid belts). However, in many places, you still must cross one at some point (even uncharted ones) and risk getting snagged. Getting snagged would mean having to blast your way out, instead of just turboing all the way.
Ion Storms would act as both a snare and a smoke screen for pirate players. They could use Ion Storms to lay in wait on known trade routes. Even though the incoming players would see them on the "players in sector" list, thier distance would be indeterminate. The radar woudl be of little help other than general direction, and often further obfuscated by hive bots who are also homing in on the player. (With the caveat that the Hive bots *must* come withing 3k of the player to become "aware" of his presence.)
Of course, the Hive and player pirates would suffer from the same lack of turbo and sensors. (Thus the Hive being required to have the above mentioned 3k proximity) But pirate players would be able to position themselves to take advantage "terrain", yet still have to close any distance between them and their victims through normal propulsion.
Ion Storms in faction space should be fair game, encouraging players to find ways around or risk big asteroid belt spanning jumps for time and simplicity. But faction loss should also still be applicable.
So, to address the points above:
a) Ion Storms become a major hinderance, worthy of plotting around, or risking peril to cut through.
b) Pirates get time-limited "sweet spots" where they have an advantage over thier prey.
c) Pirates and traders are not given an "autofind" mechanism, forcing players to remain more alert for each other when transversing an Ion Storm.
d) Pirates are given an alternative, with advantages, to camping wormholes exclusivly.
The short version of all of this:
Ion Storms disable turbo and mess up the radar.
a) Ion Storms are a joke. Nothing mroe than a nusaince in travel. One needs merely turbo to get out, costing him only time.
b) Pirates have trouble pirating because all the victim need do is turbo with infiniboost to escape. The rules of drain dictate that the intercepting ship is at a loss here, especially if he actually wants to shoot at his target.
c) Players have no real means to "hide" from other players thanks to the "players in sector" list, giving incoming players an innate advantage to begin "evasive manuevers" (i.e. turbo). A pirating player, likewise must either watch this list (which is highly latent) or be in position to see the player jump in.
d) Piracy at wormholes isn't exactly logical. Though they may be high traffic, protecting them, even in parts of gray space, would be of high priority to any faction making use of them. Not to mention the local population. However, guarding every sector in between isn't a very probable or economic choice either.
So, how can we tie all of these up?
First, let me state, I am not advocation putting guards at gates in gray space. I am however, goign to offer an alternative to wormhole camping, that will also be usable in nation space (i.e. no strike forces).
Just as Ion Storms pull players out of warp, why not have them disable turbo engines as well. I am not quite sure on the details of turbo propulsion as set forth in Vendetta, however, it's not much of a stretch to have both warp and turbo crippled by the effects of an Ion Storm due to underlying related technolgies. (i.e. turbo as a form of low speed warp derived propulsion)
In addition, Ion Storms could also play havoc on sensors, greying out all names in the players in sector list, regardless of proximity. And, additionally, making the the radar show flickering dots showing eneimies in the area, but not revealing their exact location. (i.e objects in front show on the front radar but moving randomly a within few hundred meters along the x, y, & z axis from it's real location, at a fration of a second rate.) Players could deduce a ships location, and still target objects in range however.
(A very quick mockup of the radar dot as affected by Ion Storms)
The advantage to this is that it would bring an elemnt of challange and strategy to the game. Ion Storms would still be easy to bypass (avoid known asteroid belts). However, in many places, you still must cross one at some point (even uncharted ones) and risk getting snagged. Getting snagged would mean having to blast your way out, instead of just turboing all the way.
Ion Storms would act as both a snare and a smoke screen for pirate players. They could use Ion Storms to lay in wait on known trade routes. Even though the incoming players would see them on the "players in sector" list, thier distance would be indeterminate. The radar woudl be of little help other than general direction, and often further obfuscated by hive bots who are also homing in on the player. (With the caveat that the Hive bots *must* come withing 3k of the player to become "aware" of his presence.)
Of course, the Hive and player pirates would suffer from the same lack of turbo and sensors. (Thus the Hive being required to have the above mentioned 3k proximity) But pirate players would be able to position themselves to take advantage "terrain", yet still have to close any distance between them and their victims through normal propulsion.
Ion Storms in faction space should be fair game, encouraging players to find ways around or risk big asteroid belt spanning jumps for time and simplicity. But faction loss should also still be applicable.
So, to address the points above:
a) Ion Storms become a major hinderance, worthy of plotting around, or risking peril to cut through.
b) Pirates get time-limited "sweet spots" where they have an advantage over thier prey.
c) Pirates and traders are not given an "autofind" mechanism, forcing players to remain more alert for each other when transversing an Ion Storm.
d) Pirates are given an alternative, with advantages, to camping wormholes exclusivly.
The short version of all of this:
Ion Storms disable turbo and mess up the radar.
have you ever even tried crossing an ion storm without turbo...
heck pirating in it is suicide as is travelling through it... just take out a bus/ec88 and try it out with boost and see how many times you can get out there without infiniboost... (any other ship especially loaded with cargo will be just as hard if not harder, and then you don't even have human players stalking you...)
I wouldn't even wanna try out landing in it with a moth... even with escorts that can't turbo...
reduced turbo maybe, but no turbo at all... never...
heck pirating in it is suicide as is travelling through it... just take out a bus/ec88 and try it out with boost and see how many times you can get out there without infiniboost... (any other ship especially loaded with cargo will be just as hard if not harder, and then you don't even have human players stalking you...)
I wouldn't even wanna try out landing in it with a moth... even with escorts that can't turbo...
reduced turbo maybe, but no turbo at all... never...
1) I was killed by hitting four storms in a heavy assault Ragnarok MKIII (assault bots in the second - 15%, and a roid in the fourth - 0% & pop)
no, we do not need to make storms more deadly... more exciting perhaps, but think of the noobs!
I have suggested before, and I'll suggest it again:
1) SHARED exit points
2) MULTIPLE exit points (2 or 3)
3) MOVING (slowly) exit points
4) Turbulance (like invisible conc mines going off)
5) perhaps 5/sec battery drain in storms
6) Storms in wormhole and station sectors (calm area near stations due to dampening feilds near docking bays)
There, now storms can be exciting, and navigating them can actually involve some tactics. They won't be too much more dangerous unless you don't know what you're doing (or choose a bad exit point)
no, we do not need to make storms more deadly... more exciting perhaps, but think of the noobs!
I have suggested before, and I'll suggest it again:
1) SHARED exit points
2) MULTIPLE exit points (2 or 3)
3) MOVING (slowly) exit points
4) Turbulance (like invisible conc mines going off)
5) perhaps 5/sec battery drain in storms
6) Storms in wormhole and station sectors (calm area near stations due to dampening feilds near docking bays)
There, now storms can be exciting, and navigating them can actually involve some tactics. They won't be too much more dangerous unless you don't know what you're doing (or choose a bad exit point)
I prefer Cunjo's ideas over the 'no turbo' thing.
Radar jamming, doesn't really bother me either way, it'd be a nice effect I guess, but I tend to ignore it while I'm rocketting toward the jump point.
The 5/sec drain will make some ships lose their infiniturbo, I think that'll make the storms risky enough especially when the new Hive gets implemented everywhere.
Turbulence... Ion storms would have to be pretty dense to cause any sort of turbulence... and in that case, I'd expect aerodynamics to come into play (eg. Behemoth gets knocked around, vulture slices through turbulence, etc..). If anything, I'd prefer turbulence to make occasional changes in your course heading, severity depending on speed, rather than knock around the ship... you'd have to be careful of where you're pointing as you turbo through a roid field. Think of it like driving, and you put two wheels off the side of the road... the change in surface pulls the car... same thing with slight changes in gas density. Kinda pulls your ship around.
Drifting exit points: Yes
Shared exit points: Yes
Multiple exit points: Can't see what that would achieve if there's shared exit points
Station/WH storms: Sure, but make them rare.
Radar jamming, doesn't really bother me either way, it'd be a nice effect I guess, but I tend to ignore it while I'm rocketting toward the jump point.
The 5/sec drain will make some ships lose their infiniturbo, I think that'll make the storms risky enough especially when the new Hive gets implemented everywhere.
Turbulence... Ion storms would have to be pretty dense to cause any sort of turbulence... and in that case, I'd expect aerodynamics to come into play (eg. Behemoth gets knocked around, vulture slices through turbulence, etc..). If anything, I'd prefer turbulence to make occasional changes in your course heading, severity depending on speed, rather than knock around the ship... you'd have to be careful of where you're pointing as you turbo through a roid field. Think of it like driving, and you put two wheels off the side of the road... the change in surface pulls the car... same thing with slight changes in gas density. Kinda pulls your ship around.
Drifting exit points: Yes
Shared exit points: Yes
Multiple exit points: Can't see what that would achieve if there's shared exit points
Station/WH storms: Sure, but make them rare.
Multiple Exit Points:
The idea is to give pilots a choice - to choose between perhaps a more dangerous route, and a longer route. To go around trouble, or to run the gauntlet and face the pirate/queen.
The exit points (however many) would be shared by all players, so pirates working together could cover multiple exit points, and still have a better chance of catching someone than they do now.
The idea is to give pilots a choice - to choose between perhaps a more dangerous route, and a longer route. To go around trouble, or to run the gauntlet and face the pirate/queen.
The exit points (however many) would be shared by all players, so pirates working together could cover multiple exit points, and still have a better chance of catching someone than they do now.
I like Cunjo's ideas. I will admit that I've looked for Ion storms when trading when being hunted by a pirate, because if I can get to *my* exit before he gets me, I can get to a station and heal just fine, because he's busy getting to *his* exit after having tried to kill me.
This post is not intended to be troll-like, but, really, if you guys can't escape storms in infiniboost ships, you haven't much experience with flying slower boats in VO.
Any Rag, Moth or other ship with infiniboost capability has an excellent chance of escaping an ion storm (or storms) relatively unscathed if the pilot is quick about orienting his/her ship towards the exit point, allowing the batt to charge up to 1/4 capacity and then turbo'ing straight towards escape.
Of course, a few mines left behind to warmly welcome the trailing bots never hurts.
I have proven this tactic to work time and time again through nation and grey space -- against the worst bots in the game.
That said, I am all for ion storms creating even greater chaos for those who enter them.
* Having pirate-oriented (Corvus) attack ships with sensor capabilities hardened against storm interferance is an option that I believe would spice things up. Those ships better cost a pretty penny in terms of licensing/missions and credits in order to not be considered throw away hulls, though. And I'd love to see incremental increases in both stealth and/or sensor capabilities with level increases.
* Multiple exit points sounds interesting as well. Yet wouldn't that option create even more escape routes for pirates to cover?
* Crippling turbo? Now that would make storm encounters mightily interesting for the solo trader. Personally, I fly around asteroid belts and planets as much as possible. But I know that many folks don't bother with those types of routes. With crippled turbo, most traders would certainly re-route. Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of having a decent amount of Player traffic through storms though? I suppose that less-intelligent NPC ship traffic might be enough for pirates. Would the same sensor hardened pirate attack ships have their turbo engines hardened against the Ion storm effects? Hmmm. Sounding like a little bit of weight might need to be added to those vessels. :-D
Any Rag, Moth or other ship with infiniboost capability has an excellent chance of escaping an ion storm (or storms) relatively unscathed if the pilot is quick about orienting his/her ship towards the exit point, allowing the batt to charge up to 1/4 capacity and then turbo'ing straight towards escape.
Of course, a few mines left behind to warmly welcome the trailing bots never hurts.
I have proven this tactic to work time and time again through nation and grey space -- against the worst bots in the game.
That said, I am all for ion storms creating even greater chaos for those who enter them.
* Having pirate-oriented (Corvus) attack ships with sensor capabilities hardened against storm interferance is an option that I believe would spice things up. Those ships better cost a pretty penny in terms of licensing/missions and credits in order to not be considered throw away hulls, though. And I'd love to see incremental increases in both stealth and/or sensor capabilities with level increases.
* Multiple exit points sounds interesting as well. Yet wouldn't that option create even more escape routes for pirates to cover?
* Crippling turbo? Now that would make storm encounters mightily interesting for the solo trader. Personally, I fly around asteroid belts and planets as much as possible. But I know that many folks don't bother with those types of routes. With crippled turbo, most traders would certainly re-route. Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of having a decent amount of Player traffic through storms though? I suppose that less-intelligent NPC ship traffic might be enough for pirates. Would the same sensor hardened pirate attack ships have their turbo engines hardened against the Ion storm effects? Hmmm. Sounding like a little bit of weight might need to be added to those vessels. :-D
I was just about to suggest that ion storms drain additional energy before I read Cunjo's post. :D
I would make them drain a lot more energy though, 10-20/second and then we'd have something more like Zyl's idea, (because I agree that not having turbo would be COMPLETELY retarded). Something like it is a good idea though. Imagine having to go through a storm with a moth that doesn't infiniboost, and a pirate on your tail.
I would make them drain a lot more energy though, 10-20/second and then we'd have something more like Zyl's idea, (because I agree that not having turbo would be COMPLETELY retarded). Something like it is a good idea though. Imagine having to go through a storm with a moth that doesn't infiniboost, and a pirate on your tail.
"have you ever even tried crossing an ion storm without turbo..."
All the time. I find easy. Drift backwards, shot anything that chases you. I will have to try it in a moth and a bus though, but normally I would just *avoid* asteroid belts in these.
You also seem to have missed a few points:
a) Bots would only aggro if they come within proximity to you. None would just automatically come after you. This takes the gank bait factor out, and adds a cat and mouse like element. The player would have to guide himself out or around, and try to avoid getting too close to the bots, or just blaze a path through. His choice.
Also, bots would not have turbo capabilities either! Those who do see you would approach at a much slower rate than you are used to seeing now.
Pirates would have to play the same cat and mouse game to get into a good position. But would probably have both a speed and weaponry advantage over traders. After clearing out a spot, the pirate could sit there in relative saftey.
b) You *always* have the option to plot a course around asteroid belts so as to avoid falling into Ion Storms. If you are not doing so, even now, this is also a decision you have made.
And for CUNJO who likes to BOLD and CAPITALIZE his own ideas that he has posted before...
The points you raise do not really conflict with my own.
1) I agree. They should be the same for everyone.
2) Why? Becasue one might be closer to get to? That doesn't make it more deadly or exciting, that makes it easier. The issue of infiniboost still means just plowing through no matter how far it is.
3) I am indiffernt. But it's not a bad idea.
4) It's an ION STROM, you are flying through a field of electrons. These are niether turbulent nor explosive. They might make your hair stand up, or give you a nice shock though. So maybe it should jut do random amounts of damage at random interavals? (No, I'm not serious)
5) Okay, so this disables infiniboost. It also reduces the persuers boost and assault capactities. The playing field is still about as-is, maybe tipped in the haulers favor.
6) I have always advocated this.
None of these I find to be particularly exciting. But you are welcome to your opinion. However, if you hit 4 ion storms and lost a ship, you might want to consider plotting a course around them, or work on your botting skills a bit more.
As far as the "noobs" go, I did think about them. And they would learn to either plot a safer course, or how to avoid getting too close to bots. Now, pirating in nation space would be the sticking point I can precieve with most people about my suggestions, but that's another incentive to PLOT A SAFER COURSE AROUND ASTEROID BELTS.
This adds, what is to me, an exciting element. You must pick your asteroid belt cross points carfully to get to some wormholes. The crossing points could become potiental choke points, adding risk of finding an Ion Storm there, with a clever pirate waiting in there somewhere.
And as far as removing turbo in the stead of adding addition cap drain, with the removal of turbo, a ship would still have full combat capabilities. A drain on the battery would also limit the rate of fire. I seek to preserve combat abilites, but limit fleeing ability. As pirates would also lack turbo, interception isn't simply handed to them on a silver platter.
The lack of turbo also makes travelling through an Ion Storm a pain, and providing (::sigh::) more incentive to try an avoid them.
It really strikes me that most of the complaint with my idea is that it would actually make Ion Storms an effort, either to avoid or go through. And, well, that was the point.
Ion Storms should be dangerous, possibly deadly. Something a bit more fierce than "that blue stuff that makes it take longer for me to get there". They deserve to be a major risk and hinderance.
I will take LeadFist's statement one further too. If you cannot escape an Ion Storm in any ship, infinitboost or not, you haven't had much exeperince, period.
All the time. I find easy. Drift backwards, shot anything that chases you. I will have to try it in a moth and a bus though, but normally I would just *avoid* asteroid belts in these.
You also seem to have missed a few points:
a) Bots would only aggro if they come within proximity to you. None would just automatically come after you. This takes the gank bait factor out, and adds a cat and mouse like element. The player would have to guide himself out or around, and try to avoid getting too close to the bots, or just blaze a path through. His choice.
Also, bots would not have turbo capabilities either! Those who do see you would approach at a much slower rate than you are used to seeing now.
Pirates would have to play the same cat and mouse game to get into a good position. But would probably have both a speed and weaponry advantage over traders. After clearing out a spot, the pirate could sit there in relative saftey.
b) You *always* have the option to plot a course around asteroid belts so as to avoid falling into Ion Storms. If you are not doing so, even now, this is also a decision you have made.
And for CUNJO who likes to BOLD and CAPITALIZE his own ideas that he has posted before...
The points you raise do not really conflict with my own.
1) I agree. They should be the same for everyone.
2) Why? Becasue one might be closer to get to? That doesn't make it more deadly or exciting, that makes it easier. The issue of infiniboost still means just plowing through no matter how far it is.
3) I am indiffernt. But it's not a bad idea.
4) It's an ION STROM, you are flying through a field of electrons. These are niether turbulent nor explosive. They might make your hair stand up, or give you a nice shock though. So maybe it should jut do random amounts of damage at random interavals? (No, I'm not serious)
5) Okay, so this disables infiniboost. It also reduces the persuers boost and assault capactities. The playing field is still about as-is, maybe tipped in the haulers favor.
6) I have always advocated this.
None of these I find to be particularly exciting. But you are welcome to your opinion. However, if you hit 4 ion storms and lost a ship, you might want to consider plotting a course around them, or work on your botting skills a bit more.
As far as the "noobs" go, I did think about them. And they would learn to either plot a safer course, or how to avoid getting too close to bots. Now, pirating in nation space would be the sticking point I can precieve with most people about my suggestions, but that's another incentive to PLOT A SAFER COURSE AROUND ASTEROID BELTS.
This adds, what is to me, an exciting element. You must pick your asteroid belt cross points carfully to get to some wormholes. The crossing points could become potiental choke points, adding risk of finding an Ion Storm there, with a clever pirate waiting in there somewhere.
And as far as removing turbo in the stead of adding addition cap drain, with the removal of turbo, a ship would still have full combat capabilities. A drain on the battery would also limit the rate of fire. I seek to preserve combat abilites, but limit fleeing ability. As pirates would also lack turbo, interception isn't simply handed to them on a silver platter.
The lack of turbo also makes travelling through an Ion Storm a pain, and providing (::sigh::) more incentive to try an avoid them.
It really strikes me that most of the complaint with my idea is that it would actually make Ion Storms an effort, either to avoid or go through. And, well, that was the point.
Ion Storms should be dangerous, possibly deadly. Something a bit more fierce than "that blue stuff that makes it take longer for me to get there". They deserve to be a major risk and hinderance.
I will take LeadFist's statement one further too. If you cannot escape an Ion Storm in any ship, infinitboost or not, you haven't had much exeperince, period.
Zyl makes a good point, Ion storms really are complete push overs. Taking his comments a step back, there should be varying degrees of ION stroms, like hurricanes in a sense. This would give them varity and diverisfy a feeling of danger and relief based on which type of storm your in.
Example: Category one Ion storm.
This weak storm poses no threat to ships, a slight battery drain affects most in the storm, and engines can randomly short out for a period of a few seconds, cuasing a free float effect in which the player has no control over turnning or their speed. These storms tend to be short in nature and usually end within half an hour.
Category two storm.
A moderate build up of ION material release's a considerable amount of turbulance, knocking a player of course, and occasionally cuasing minor damage, the battery drains slowly, and the Ion storm distrupts turbo use slighty.... -15 turbo to all.
These storms out live there weaker brothers by an hour, lasting roughly an hour and thirty minutes.
Category three storm.
The ship begins to sustain damage, and Ion paritcales cuase moderate turbulance, making players turbo drop by 50. These storms are deadly, and sometimes even disrupt the travel of larger ships such as HAC's and Frigates, These storms are long lasting, about a 10 hour timeframe.
Category four storm.
The worst of all storms, It can literally rip your ship apart if givin time. Smaller fighters stand less than 5 minutes inside one, making pirates shy away. they cover vast distances, and the exit points are at minimum 20000m away. Turbo is a major loss here, reduced by 70. To survive a CAT 5 storm, takes quick thought and manuavering around turbulent areas. The ship takes damage at a rate of 5% per minute, no including turbulance which can also rip at a ships hull. Larger ships such as Hac's can weather these storms well, however they remain motionless in the storm, and wait for it to pass. These storms have no set time limit, from 5 minutes to days, with an average of 24 hours.
Example: Category one Ion storm.
This weak storm poses no threat to ships, a slight battery drain affects most in the storm, and engines can randomly short out for a period of a few seconds, cuasing a free float effect in which the player has no control over turnning or their speed. These storms tend to be short in nature and usually end within half an hour.
Category two storm.
A moderate build up of ION material release's a considerable amount of turbulance, knocking a player of course, and occasionally cuasing minor damage, the battery drains slowly, and the Ion storm distrupts turbo use slighty.... -15 turbo to all.
These storms out live there weaker brothers by an hour, lasting roughly an hour and thirty minutes.
Category three storm.
The ship begins to sustain damage, and Ion paritcales cuase moderate turbulance, making players turbo drop by 50. These storms are deadly, and sometimes even disrupt the travel of larger ships such as HAC's and Frigates, These storms are long lasting, about a 10 hour timeframe.
Category four storm.
The worst of all storms, It can literally rip your ship apart if givin time. Smaller fighters stand less than 5 minutes inside one, making pirates shy away. they cover vast distances, and the exit points are at minimum 20000m away. Turbo is a major loss here, reduced by 70. To survive a CAT 5 storm, takes quick thought and manuavering around turbulent areas. The ship takes damage at a rate of 5% per minute, no including turbulance which can also rip at a ships hull. Larger ships such as Hac's can weather these storms well, however they remain motionless in the storm, and wait for it to pass. These storms have no set time limit, from 5 minutes to days, with an average of 24 hours.
Person Said:
"10-20/second and then we'd have something more like Zyl's idea"
20/second would CRIPPLE newbs with govbusses and free batteries. They already have trouble with the ion sotmrs as-is, which pose a danger to them unlike most players. More than 5/sec would probably destroy any chance of a newb escaping a hot ion storm.
Zyl Said:
"...
2) Why? Becasue one might be closer to get to? That doesn't make it more deadly or exciting, that makes it easier. The issue of infiniboost still means just plowing through no matter how far it is.
...
4) It's an ION STROM, you are flying through a field of electrons. These are niether turbulent nor explosive. They might make your hair stand up, or give you a nice shock though. So maybe it should jut do random amounts of damage at random interavals? (No, I'm not serious)
5) Okay, so this disables infiniboost. It also reduces the persuers boost and assault capactities. The playing field is still about as-is, maybe tipped in the haulers favor.
..."
I bold listed points so that when people can't be half-assed to read my full post, they're still likely to find and read the summary/important part.
2) one might be close, one might be further, one might be more dangerous, one might be near a roid feild, etc... The reasons to choose a specific exit point don't really matter - what matters is that the pilot is forced to make a choice. It also stands to reason (from a logic POV) that there wouldn't be any one single way out of every storm. Storms should differ in intensity and difficulty, as should the size, distance and speed of exit points (calm spots). Yes, it gives pirates more holes to cover - but at least they have them! a lone pirate stands a better chance of catching someone in a storm when they know where they're headed, whether they have multiple choices or not, and they most definately stand a better chance of catching them after if they can leave through the same window. Group pirating would be highly effective as well in these cases.
4) We call them ION STORMS, that does not necessarily mean that they don't have other properties as well. Ionized matter can have volitile or even dangerous properties, and could be accompanied in some cases by violent storms including turbulance. Logic aside though, I don't think anybody's going to argue that adding some kind of active turbulance in places would do anything other than make the storms more exciting.
5) See my reply to Person's post. As for the assault craft, keep in mind that most of them don't have infiniboost to begin with, and so already rely on running down the trading vessel in a limited amount of time.
Long and the short of it is this: if you want to use ion storms for pirating, the best way to do it is to either wait in the storm, or plot around them to beat the trader out the other side. You'd need to be good to catch them *in* the ion storm, especially if you follow them in to it, but the things mentioned above would at least make it easier than it currently is.
Chikira Said
"..."
Summary: Intensify storms to various levels
Too extreme... knock each of those down a level, and we might be somewhere, but there should be NO "virtually inescapable" storms, and those of such severity to cause damage to vessels crossing them should be VERY RARE.
"10-20/second and then we'd have something more like Zyl's idea"
20/second would CRIPPLE newbs with govbusses and free batteries. They already have trouble with the ion sotmrs as-is, which pose a danger to them unlike most players. More than 5/sec would probably destroy any chance of a newb escaping a hot ion storm.
Zyl Said:
"...
2) Why? Becasue one might be closer to get to? That doesn't make it more deadly or exciting, that makes it easier. The issue of infiniboost still means just plowing through no matter how far it is.
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4) It's an ION STROM, you are flying through a field of electrons. These are niether turbulent nor explosive. They might make your hair stand up, or give you a nice shock though. So maybe it should jut do random amounts of damage at random interavals? (No, I'm not serious)
5) Okay, so this disables infiniboost. It also reduces the persuers boost and assault capactities. The playing field is still about as-is, maybe tipped in the haulers favor.
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I bold listed points so that when people can't be half-assed to read my full post, they're still likely to find and read the summary/important part.
2) one might be close, one might be further, one might be more dangerous, one might be near a roid feild, etc... The reasons to choose a specific exit point don't really matter - what matters is that the pilot is forced to make a choice. It also stands to reason (from a logic POV) that there wouldn't be any one single way out of every storm. Storms should differ in intensity and difficulty, as should the size, distance and speed of exit points (calm spots). Yes, it gives pirates more holes to cover - but at least they have them! a lone pirate stands a better chance of catching someone in a storm when they know where they're headed, whether they have multiple choices or not, and they most definately stand a better chance of catching them after if they can leave through the same window. Group pirating would be highly effective as well in these cases.
4) We call them ION STORMS, that does not necessarily mean that they don't have other properties as well. Ionized matter can have volitile or even dangerous properties, and could be accompanied in some cases by violent storms including turbulance. Logic aside though, I don't think anybody's going to argue that adding some kind of active turbulance in places would do anything other than make the storms more exciting.
5) See my reply to Person's post. As for the assault craft, keep in mind that most of them don't have infiniboost to begin with, and so already rely on running down the trading vessel in a limited amount of time.
Long and the short of it is this: if you want to use ion storms for pirating, the best way to do it is to either wait in the storm, or plot around them to beat the trader out the other side. You'd need to be good to catch them *in* the ion storm, especially if you follow them in to it, but the things mentioned above would at least make it easier than it currently is.
Chikira Said
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Summary: Intensify storms to various levels
Too extreme... knock each of those down a level, and we might be somewhere, but there should be NO "virtually inescapable" storms, and those of such severity to cause damage to vessels crossing them should be VERY RARE.
Thats what I meant Cunjo, hell I wouldn't wanna run into a CAT 4 ^^ no way no how.