Forums » Suggestions
Nation specific but balanced ship designs
First, if this should have been better placed somewhere else I apologize. Second, I'm not a Serco or Itani pilot, I'm a UIT pilot. I was just thinking about the ships and it occurred to me that it was bizarre that the Serco's and Itani's should both use the same kind of ships. It seems like no one wants new ships because they don't want to destabilize the balance of power, so I thought I would suggest an idea that didn't involve really powerful ships. So, here's my proposal;
***
Why couldn't we have unique ships for the Itani and Serco that handle like average ships, but use a unique design that fits with the nation in question?
Say for example a Vulture. Instead of the Itani and Serco both using the same kind of hull, (which makes little sense given that they have totally different aesthetics, mindsets, and have hundreds of years of separate development,) have a SercVult and a ItanVult.
Each ship handles very much like a vulture 2 or 3, but uses a design style unique to the nation. It might have minor differences in performance (like the ItaniVult might manuever a bit better and be a bit faster, and the SercoVult might have slightly better armor) and they might be slightly more expensive, but statistic wise they are basically vults.
Expanding on that, you might have it so that the NationVults require you to have at least the starting standing with the nation in question and are only available in Itani and Serco space, and make regular vults less common inside Itani and Serco space. Maybe you can't get a regular Vult 4 except in UIT territory and Grey space?
This would make things interesting for someone from the UIT heading into Itani or Serco space, because you wouldn't be able to get a reasonably capable fighter without working on your standing with that nation first. Itani's heading into Serco space would not be able to get a good fighting ship at all, without a lot of work, and vice versa. This is easily justifiable in an RP context.
If you think about it, it makes sense that the Itani and Serco governments wouldn't want random space pilots to be able to just grab a high performance combat ship and go blasting around in them without some kind of control over who can get such warships, and they certainly wouldn't want their enemies buying their fighters!
This would also let average Serco and Itani pilots have a ship unique to their nation without needing to be a 10/10/10 fighter ace, and it wouldn't be destabilizing in terms of combat abilities. You could have various makes and models of the NationVults as well, just like the Vult has.
Anyway, this is just an example with one ship. You could add any number of other nation specific ships, like a Revenant variant or Warthog variant, etc etc.
***
So, if this is a ridiculous proposal, I apologize in advance. I haven't been playing very long and it's entirely likely I overlooked something in my idea.
***
Why couldn't we have unique ships for the Itani and Serco that handle like average ships, but use a unique design that fits with the nation in question?
Say for example a Vulture. Instead of the Itani and Serco both using the same kind of hull, (which makes little sense given that they have totally different aesthetics, mindsets, and have hundreds of years of separate development,) have a SercVult and a ItanVult.
Each ship handles very much like a vulture 2 or 3, but uses a design style unique to the nation. It might have minor differences in performance (like the ItaniVult might manuever a bit better and be a bit faster, and the SercoVult might have slightly better armor) and they might be slightly more expensive, but statistic wise they are basically vults.
Expanding on that, you might have it so that the NationVults require you to have at least the starting standing with the nation in question and are only available in Itani and Serco space, and make regular vults less common inside Itani and Serco space. Maybe you can't get a regular Vult 4 except in UIT territory and Grey space?
This would make things interesting for someone from the UIT heading into Itani or Serco space, because you wouldn't be able to get a reasonably capable fighter without working on your standing with that nation first. Itani's heading into Serco space would not be able to get a good fighting ship at all, without a lot of work, and vice versa. This is easily justifiable in an RP context.
If you think about it, it makes sense that the Itani and Serco governments wouldn't want random space pilots to be able to just grab a high performance combat ship and go blasting around in them without some kind of control over who can get such warships, and they certainly wouldn't want their enemies buying their fighters!
This would also let average Serco and Itani pilots have a ship unique to their nation without needing to be a 10/10/10 fighter ace, and it wouldn't be destabilizing in terms of combat abilities. You could have various makes and models of the NationVults as well, just like the Vult has.
Anyway, this is just an example with one ship. You could add any number of other nation specific ships, like a Revenant variant or Warthog variant, etc etc.
***
So, if this is a ridiculous proposal, I apologize in advance. I haven't been playing very long and it's entirely likely I overlooked something in my idea.
Story-wise, a lot of the ships available are the same because the UIT supplies everyone with everything from toilet paper and minty toothpaste to mining beams, batteries and ship hulls. Sortof like almost every country in the world has AK47s, even when they're as different as Zimbabwe, Honduras, Belarus and Laos.
So, the Itani and Serco don't really build their own ships, then? It seems strange that the UIT would have more construction capability than two nations which are both larger than it is.
If we're going to use IRL guns as an example, many countries have and have had their own gun variations for some time. Some examples are the thompson, MP-40, MP-34, FN P90, Colt .45, Luger, K43 mauser, MG42, M1 garand, sten, etc... of course each of these for various reasons ends up in the hands of more than just the country it originates from.
I suspect that this isn't an oversight on the part of the devs or the game, but rather a technique to simplify game development.
I suspect that this isn't an oversight on the part of the devs or the game, but rather a technique to simplify game development.
That, and it differing ship models would have implications w/r/t the target box, the area of the ship which can be hit by an opponent, not to mention possible redistribution of mass, resulting in differing moments of inertia.
While it would be a good idea from the point of view of immersion, it would take up lots of dev time for no (or rather, not enough) impact and possibly yield unsatisfying results, both of which are Very Bad Things.
While it would be a good idea from the point of view of immersion, it would take up lots of dev time for no (or rather, not enough) impact and possibly yield unsatisfying results, both of which are Very Bad Things.
Devs don't have a full time artist, when they did for a while we got new ships and if he stayed this probably would've happened.
As is... we'll just need to wait.
As is... we'll just need to wait.
As it is the nation specific ships are availible to everyone anyway so untill guild decides to change things you will see sercos in valks and itani in proms on a regular basis.....