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Ha ha Oops! Bus Zones

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May 03, 2009 Utisz link
The sad fate of Asena-Wo Haha is one that every cadet from every faction in known space has drummed into them at their academies.

Lord Haha had come from a privileged background. He had not simply been “born with a silver spoon in his mouth,” as the saying goes, he had an entire place setting for a state dinner lodged between his infant molars.

Despite that, he was extremely competent. Number one in his academy class he was the best at whatever he chose to put his hand to. Sports, flying, mock combat, science---it didn’t matter. If Lord Haha was interested in it he quickly became the best at it.

Needless to say his arrogance knew no bounds. Unlike most “know-it-alls,” Lord Haha really seemed to know it all. Small wonder then that he had been given such a plum assignment so soon after graduating from the academy.

His Guild, the Associated Star Scouts, had recently discovered a prime mining area and rather than simply keep it secret and mine it on the sly, they had decided to deploy the very finest, state of the art, custom built, space turrets to guard the sector. Lord Haha had been chosen for the difficult and dangerous task of programming the turrets.

Flying his richly appointed EC-88 to the control turret which sat in the middle of the sector he plugged an extendable probe into the side of the still dormant turret and flipped the switch. All the deadly turrets in the sector warmed to life and slowly traversed towards him.

Lord Haha smiled and flipped another switch. The ugly snouts of the turrets turned towards empty space. Haha could hear the voice of the head technical droning something or other over the com link but he wasn’t interested. He knew a better way and was going to show everyone.

Standard operating procedure for programming defensive turrets was to start off by allowing all types of ships and then, one by one, laboriously delineate which types of ships and which factions were to be fired on.

Space hockey! That sort of nonsense took too long and was a crashing bore to do. Besides the SOP had been designed by station-bound tech-nerds who were simply a bunch of Nervous Nellies always harping about “safety.”

Haha was above such craven concerns. Why do it the hard way? The easy way was to forbid all types of ships and factions and then simply go back and authorize the few ship types that his faction were likely to use in mining operations in the sector.

“If it flies it dies,” Haha muttered to himself as he inserted a data crystal with a bit of code he had written himself into the slot on his ship’s console and flipped a switch. All the turrets swung around to point at him. The voice of the tech-nerd on the com link sounded frantic.

“Don’t sweat it” Lord Haha told him, “I am not stupid. I have pre-authorized all types of EC ships in advance. Don’t want to blow myself up, don’t you know. Ha, ha.”

Punching a string of commands into his key board Lord Haha was satisfied as one by one the deadly turrets swung around and pointed safely off into deep space.

All that is except one stubborn turret loaded with a very advanced, heavy duty version of the Chaos Swarms. The sultry female voice of Haha’s onboard computer started a countdown.

“Missile launch in T minus 10 seconds.”

Still not worried Lord Haha typed in some more commands.

“Nine…eight…seven…six…”

Lord Haha’s typing became a bit more urgent.

“…five..four...”

Haha’s typing was positively frantic.

“…three…two…one…”

“Got it!” Lord Haha crowed.

The countdown stopped. Linking his fingers behind his head Haha leaned back in his pilot’s chair as the turret slowly began to swing away from him. The diamonds embedded in his front teeth flashed as a big grin split his face.

“I showed that bunch of Nervous Nellies” he said.

“Fire” the computer said in a polite voice.

“Oh cra……!” Was the last thing Lord Haha ever said.

The Associated Star Scouts guild has long since gone bankrupt fighting the lawsuits that Lord Haha’s father filed against them for killing his son and heir and any technical readouts on the custom built turrets has long since been lost or erased. The secret of Lord Haha’s code died with him.

Over the one hundred and seventy three yeas since that day there have been numerous attempts to change the programming on the turrets but all without success. One such attempt cost the guild that had undertaken it three Trident class warships.

The asteroids in the sector are a veritable treasure trove of ores and fear that one guild or nation would figure out how to reprogram the turrets, to the detriment of all the others, has led to intergalactic treaties outlawing any further attempts.

To this day the only type of ship that can survive in the sector are of the EC class. Clever attempts to disguise other types of ships as EC’s have all failed.

Lord Haha really was quite good at writing code.
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The EC class of ships are really very under appreciated in the VO universe. The first ship we all get, most of us can not wait to move on to bigger and better things. In our scramble to “level up” we end up ignoring the many variants of the EC and their unique capabilities.

Some, like the EC-107 can only be had after a long string of combat victories but once we get it we find that there is very little use for it. Too tough to be allowed into normal “Bus wars” most pilots think it is too weak for anything else.

The main use of the cargo carrying capacity of the EC-104 is to gain enough experience points to get an Atlas, or other medium capacity ships. Likewise the EC-101 series get far too little use.

In addition to all this is the fact that new pilots need a place to learn combat that will not drive them to bankruptcy due to the cost of replacing ships. “Bus wars” are a lot of fun and are very popular in the VO community but are normally organized on an ad hoc basis.

What VO needs is a permanent “Bus Zone,” an intermediate area where new players can meet each other, as well as more advanced players, in combat and where the mining and cargo capabilities of these little ships can be put to full use.

One addition to such a sector that would be nice, but not essential, would be either a new type of ore of extremely high value, or lots of already available, but hard to find, ore types available in a concentrated area. This would allow beginning players the chance to prospect and learn about differing roid types in a single area, while making some credits at the same time.

If one really wanted to go the whole hog there could even be a beat up little space station, the one where the desperate tech-nerds had been stationed, that can only receive its supplies in, and sell its cargos to, EC class ships. Heck, why not go crazy and design a high value cargo widget that can only be had at this station?

There could even be an official, and recurring “border skirmish with training wheels” run in the sector, if the devs think such a thing is worth the time to implement.

Pirates and griefers would not only be allowed in this sector, they would be positively welcomed. Here the newbie could meet the shark and be on an “equal” footing---except for the small matter of skill. Many pirates are very good pilots and this would be a place for their skills to shine without the charge that it was “only their better ships” that gave them the edge.

The new “newbie” sectors have been a great success and the concept of working a new player from the “shallow end of the pool” into deeper and deeper waters is a real winner. The “Bus Zone” would be one more step into deeper water.
May 03, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
Here the newbie could meet the shark and be on an “equal” footing---except for the small matter of skill.

If you think that an EC-107 with a UC and some Gauss III/Hive Posis/AAPs/ADV rails/Laws is on equal footing with any other bus, you're sorely mistaken.

That said, if the Devs want to create a target rich environment that has the added bonus of popped targets potentially spewing forth rare ores, I'm all for it.
May 03, 2009 Utisz link
I see irony is still a rationed item in your part of space. :)
May 03, 2009 peytros link
while we are at it why don't we just make all guns shoot flowers and hugs the devs already stated they don't want to make these types of things cause its hard to fit in the backstory
May 03, 2009 Utisz link
One solution to the advanced weapon problem would be galactic treaties, or some more back story, outlawing certain weapons.

However I am not sure if that is a good idea or not. The idea is to get the newbies into the fight and sooner or later they are going to run into people with better weapons than them and will have to learn to deal with that fact.

Flares seem to be universally shunned in the Bus Wars I have seen so perhaps they should be “outlawed” or cause the “newbie sector” quality turrets to blow away anyone who uses one.

This is an idea that needs some kicking around.
May 03, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
This is more like an odd little chunk of Greyspace, pey. Unique risk/reward balance, and a hokey backstory justification for the nature of the risk. Mainly, I just think it's EITHER a waste of time if implemented away from the noobs (i.e., in Grey) because it's not very interesting content, OR a flawed system that will result in brutal noobing by vets such as myself if implemented anywhere where noobs can get to.
May 03, 2009 Utisz link
Sorry my son but I have provided some "back story" to explain away the problems.

What's the matter son, afraid to face newbies in a fair fight? :)
May 03, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
Heh, I used to prowl in an EC-107 with adv rails just because noobs found it less "scary" looking. They wouldn't run from it (until 99% of their hull suddenly vaporized) because it LOOKED like their weak ass little ships.
May 03, 2009 Utisz link
"Mainly, I just think it's EITHER a waste of time if implemented away from the noobs (i.e., in Grey) because it's not very interesting content, OR a flawed system that will result in brutal noobing by vets such as myself if implemented anywhere where noobs can get to."

Oh thank goodness you don't like it! For a while there I was afraid it might not be a good idea but if you don't like it I know it is a winner. :)
May 03, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
Glad to have your unsupported opinion there, Utisz.

Now, perhaps you could address, first, whether you propose to put this in Grey or in Nation Space? If the former, maybe you'd deign to explain why the rather large investment of time involved in implementing this would ever be outweighed by the interest in this particular content by experienced players?

If, as appears to be the case (though you're pretty bad about stating things in a clear, concise, and ordered manner--just judging by that last 65 post thread where you took 4 pages to offer an unpersuasive explanation of why getting killed by a PC pirate is worse than getting killed by a NPC pirate), you propose this to be a place where newish pilots are likely to go . . . how will they not be driven out by the free for all nature of this place, where, even though they're not on a level playing field, your suggestion creates the illusion that they are safer?

That's pretty bad, really: you encourage them to go there, and suggest that they'll be safer because "everyone has an EC class ship"--of course that's bullshit and those of us who merrily kill anything that crosses our path know it. But the noobs don't.

W/r/t content, I don't dislike it but think it's not worth the time . . . I'd probably go there and kill some people, mine some stuff, whatever. But the Devs' time almost surely has better uses. W/r/t the noob issue, I don't like this because you're setting people up to fail while hiding that fact from them. Not the best way to encourage them to stick around. Feel free to respond to those points instead of whining about my disapproval like you've gotten some sand in your vag.

May 03, 2009 Utisz link
Well I am sure I am no match for a master debater like yourself so perhaps you can direct me to some of the engrossing content and clever back stories that you have contributed to VO. I am sure I could learn a lot from examining them.
May 03, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
Nonresponsive.
May 03, 2009 Utisz link
Non-surprised.
May 03, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
(1) The Devs' time almost surely has more productive uses given this nature of this content.

(2) Noobs encouraged to go here are being set up to fail while being told they actually have an advantage.

Any time you're feeling responsive.
May 03, 2009 peytros link
utiz in your 8 hour free trial you can get the levels 3/3//2/1/-
that is more then enough to get better ships then a bus hell you can get a vult maybe even a vult3 there is no need for this. getting stupid raw newbies to fly a sector right after the tutorial to fly around like drunk moths looking for a light is a waste of time and space
May 03, 2009 Utisz link
peytros

If you don't want to fly EC class ships no one will force you to. What are your reasons for denying this to those who want to?

The EC class of ships is not used as much as it should/could be and this is one way to change that.
May 03, 2009 Utisz link
Dr. Lecter
"Any time you're feeling responsive."

You first. Until I see what you have contributed your opinion is not worthy of my time. :)
May 03, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
Until I see what you have contributed your opinion is not worthy of my time

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominen

replying to an argument or factual claim by attacking or appealing to a characteristic or belief of the source making the argument or claim, rather than by addressing the substance of the argument or producing evidence against the claim

You're getting a bit weak, care to try again?
May 03, 2009 peytros link
its not used much cause its the newb ship duh. its not like it's feelings are being hurt. setting up pvp safe zones and stuff like that takes away from the appeal of vendettas danger. if you wanna have a buswar that's fine but don't make it impossible to crash if someone feels so inclined.
May 03, 2009 Utisz link
Still haven't told me why you would object to those who want to make more use of the EC's doing so. Any real reason you would want to deny this to those who want it?