Reading http://www.massively.com/2009/04/07/with-friends-like-these-what-sci-fi-has-and-doesnt-have-goin/ today I was thinking of how the sci-fi genre can use some of the experience that's collected in the fantasy.

One thing that I'm not seeing in VO (not that I have that much experience with fighting yet) is different roles in combat. I'd love to see roles of f.ex.:

- Mechanic (healer); can preform repairs on ships during combat.
- Controller (crowd control); can confuse or temporarily disable opponents.
- Wing leader; can direct combat (would require extra interface to gain overview of fighting and assign targets)
- Bomber; has high dps, but slow rate of fire to take out other heavies.

I know it's partially possible to configure ships in some of these directions, however it doesn't seem to be that useful, and partially limited.

Discuss.

uh no. why do people think phrasing their idea as "not that i have much experiance" is a good idea? If people don't like space quake im pretty sure they would had space wow

It's as you noticed, roles are determined by the ship and its config.

Personally I'd rather not see character classes beyond that.

Part of the great appeal of this game is the flexibility of roles you can play at any time. Restricting yourself to one kind of player pre-determined role before you start playing would really limit the game's appeal. moreover, there are not enough players in the game to even consider making sure that some of them CANT fight in style x y or z.
if there were a lot, LOT more people in the game, this suggestion might be viable, but I would still be strongly against it. People develop specialties in this game as time goes on, based on their skill level (actual, not game-determined) and twitch abilities. Just try PvP a bit... and I mean get yourself killed a couple hundred times by far superior players (only way to learn). Then you'll start to get the hang of it all.

As the other's have stated, your idea while perhaps well conceived under the banner of "good intentions", would severely limit (read: cripple) the versatility that makes the game what it is.

Now, along the line's of what you are thinking, I could see perhaps the production of special "pre-set" configurations for ships along the classes you're thinking.

ie:
"Bomber" pre-set would enable the player to click a button, that would automatically purchase a Bombing configured ship out of the station's storage. This would cut down on configuration times in dock, but the player could also seperate from this ship and switch back to a fighter, or a cargo ship.

The button would not purchase a pre-set ship (ie: All Ragnoroks) or weapons (ie: All Swarms, Rockets), but would automatically purchase the best ship and weapons available to the player in that particular station (ex: Centaur with 2 AGTs and a Flare).

but would automatically purchase the best ship and weapons available to the player in that particular station

And how does that get picked? Might as well make them player-configurable.

I could see perhaps the production of special "pre-set" configurations for ships along the classes you're thinking.

This might open up some ideas, I like the thinking behind it. Say in a distant Soon™ real military campaigns open up for Serco and Itani. Then, this idea might work, choosing your role in a particular mission, where you get assigned to a pre-set ship etc.

Along these lines, something useful might be a plugin that would let you have cascading presets. For example, you could select "light fighter" and it will buy the first of (X1, IDF Valk, IBG, Rev. C, Corvult, SVG, Vult4, Vult3) available at the station, and do a similar cascade for weapons. It would be fully player-configurable, but come with some sane presets.

Jesus Catfucking Christ! Just buy, equip, and map what you want.