When your ship is destroyed, you auto eject in an escape pod.

An Escape Pod is cargo (3cu, 500kg), and is equipped with a PJD. It may be loaded into a ships cargo hold. If it is transported to a station, the occupant may choose to dock at that station (as standings permit). The Escape Pod is converted to 1cu of scrap on activation of it's PJD.

A PJD (Poly Jump Drive) generates one jump charge per minute and adds it to it's polycharge. When the PJD has collected a sufficient polycharge to traverse all systems and wormholes, from it's current location, it instantly transports the occupant directly to the home station. The occupant may choose to suspend the PJD's activation if the Escape Pod is in a ships cargo hold. The PJD will continue to build it's polycharge in this event, until it has reached it's maximum polycharge.

An Escape Pods PJD activation may be intentionally delayed, by transporting the Escape Pod farther from the PJD's home station, thus forcing the PJD to build a larger polycharge to activate. Inversely, an Escape Pod may be transported closer to it's home station, effectively reducing the required polycharge to activate.

1) Can it be destroyed?
2) 1 minute is WAY too long when you are siiting there doing nothing
3) If Pods can do it why not normal ships?

I have heard something similar before. Wha is your reasoning for this post? I.E. why do you think the game needs this?

Why would someone chose to carry an escape pod; all it does is make it take longer for you to return to your home station?
Are you implying consequences if someone does not or cannot load an escape pod?
Where is the scrap located after the PJD gets activated?
Can the PJD be activated while in a cargo hold?
Can launched escape pods be destroyed?
Can escape pods "/explode"?

I think not.

Example

A Serco pilot homes at the Serco station at the Deneb wormhole, and is forced to jetison during combat in Deneb B-12. The Serco's Escape Pod is already in the wormhole sector, and the homed station is in the same sector as the other side of the wormhole, resulting in a one minute delay for the single wormhole jump. But an Itani pilot captures the Serco's Escape pod and transports it to an Itani station before the Serco's PJD had time to charge for it's one jump. The Serco's PJD now has to charge for an in system jump, and a wormhole jump, resulting in a two minute delay, from time of eject, for the Sercos return to home base. Another Itani is waiting at the station, who collect severial captured Serco escape pods from other pilots, and then attempts to race across Itani Space, faster than the escape pods can build the required polycharges, until he is as far from the Serco/Itani border as space will allow.

LostCommander:
You would transport an escape pod to affect it's required charge time.
There is no consequences for not capturing an escape pod.
The scrap is located where ever the PJD was activated at.
The PJD will automaticly activate when it reaches the required charge, reguardless of it's location. It will work from open space, inside a cargo hold, or from inside a station (if the player does not choose to dock at that station). The only provision for suspending the auto activate is by the player in the escape pod, and that option is only available if in a player's cargo hold.

escape pods can not be destroyed.
escape pods can not explode.

using explode in a ship will produce an escape pod.

this has been suggested many times already.

fm: can we ninny-lock this thread and move the dicsussion the already existing threads, such as 'http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/7/13755#175896'?

So all you want, TRS, is to dramatically increase the respawn time? ... I'm with upper case; ninny-lock time.

I want to give players an opportunity to affect respawn times, so that field battles are more than just a insta respawn frag fest, and there is some method to try and control territory.

If your in a big fight, and your ally ejects, it's a race to see who gets to his escape pod first. If you reach him first, you can rescue him, and transport him to a station to reduce his respawn time.

This will also slow down the traders who use explode to only have to make a trade run one way. They will still be able to do it, but some one who buys a fast ship might be able to make the return trip faster than the escape pod.

Bojan is teh ninny, but Who? Me? is one too!

http://www.goudey.org/Goudey/Gum/Images/Pick_A_Ninny.jpg

edit: inline graphic removed because ... well, i dont know why

In a single-player game, or if a workable way to do permadeath is found, I'd support the idea of an escape-pod system. As it is, I think we should just take it as read that there is a foolproof automatic escape pod that takes you to a preset location (i.e. home station) pretty much instantly. Othor possible future features will add realism and take the "insta respawn frag fest" quality out, such as more realistic ship prices based on supply and demand.

three words...

this, ain't, eve.

OK! Have it your way.

If you can not capture any one, then you can not rescue anyone.
If you can not limit who goes to a sector or how many times or how often they go, then you can not control a sector.

You like exploding to do your trade runs.

I see people asking for death to mean something, just not too much. To be able to control territories and transport players.

I offered a solution. You didn't say how to make it better, or how to make it work, or how to make it more acceptable. You just said "I like instant transportation back home". The traders have spoken.

Not just traders, I prefer battles. I want to be a pirate.

It's like Zed said: "If Pods can do it why not normal ships?" Escape pods are basically a tiny seat in a metal bubble with limited life support/engine/guidance. Shouldn't be able to do anything a ship can't. It would take forever to take one to a station, you'd have to hope for rescue.

If you can't caputure someone, you can't rescue someone? What does that have to do with escape pods? Should you be able to capture one? I'm all for disabling people and pirating them. If your ship is disabled, you could hope for rescue, or just abandon ship and start again. More expensive ships would keep people from exploding to do trade runs. Death would mean something.

You would only want to control a sector if there's valuable real-estate there, such as a station or a resource. A dynamic economy (coming soon), player/guild owned stations/capital ships (coming soon) and the possibility of capturing stations (coming soon) will make territory valuable, and worth taking. If you control more stations and resources, then you have more at your disposal to defend them, and your enemy has less to attack it with.

By the way, don't take anything here personally. My ideas are of course the best ones, and should all be implemented immediately and exactly the way I say, and yet somehow people still manage to disagree comletely on these boards. One day, the universe will be perfect, and under my total control (torture and death for all who contest my rule), but right now my perfect suggestions get shot down a lot. I just consider carefullly all the counter arguments, and often revise my suggestion and it's all fun.

Just for the record: The Pick-A-Ninny chewing gum picture can be seen as a racial slur by malicious people. There was a thread about it in the OT forums.

[* Stamp of Off-Topic*]
But, Professor Chaos, I thought the choice was supposed to be between cake and death...

Aw rats, toshiro, I thought it was simply a brilliant picture of really old chewing gum; now it has been ruined...

Yay for us europeans, we are impervious to your history ;)
Personally, I don't care much.

a racial slur pack of gun?

a racial slur against whom?

Wow, off topic from escape pods, to how to make battles better, to why doesn't anyone listen to me, to who's the racist? This thread wins the tangent prize.

Who wants to join my guild, where we will make custom planets for very rich players, until the galactic economy collapses?