TBH, the reason I got into pvp was because I didn't have to fly around for half an hour if I died. It would greatly discourage new pilots from fighting other players if they were inconvenienced even more than losing their ship when they died.

Rogue: No. Too complicated, no real benefit. As it stands, the system could be implemented almost entirely within existing game mechanics. Picking up pods could not be. However, once the basic pod system gets implemented, and the faction redux and economic redux and expanded greyspace and player-owned capships and stations are all in place, I would love to see pick-up-able escape pods.

Slime: The point of this suggestion is to help move Vendetta from "Tech Demo" status into "Full Game With Content And Features" status. Most newbs don't want to play a tech demo, they want to play a real game. Adding something like this would help retain newbs, not discourage them. I realize that some people don't want this game to grow up and reach its potential, but I'm pretty sure that most people do, and hopefully the devs agree with that majority.

Aye, a fair idea Dr L.

Give the escape pod 3 secs max turbo straight up from the nominal cockpit of the destroyed ship automatically, with 3 secs of explosion proofing so that multiple rockets or the splash of an exploding capship would not kill both the ship and the escape pod.

With regard to new players give the escape pod a resale value, perhaps a few hundred credits or a % of the buy price of the ship they were in. That way they would feel rewarded for having piloted back to a station rather than just being rescued.

That % could be made much higher for lower end ships and lower for high end ships to help new players along a bit.

Surbius suggested stats seem fine, and although its a very simple model the observer exists without further work.

Actually, at 225 infini and very small it might make a fun fast recon vessel in its own right. Observer ramming wars anyone ?

I disagree with the suggestion that this will somehow stop people from learning how to fight...

I think people will certainly tend to practice with people they can trust... rather than targeting random people throughout the universe, which seems to me like a good thing.

However, when people enter B8, everyone's game face goes on. This would be the arena, not a practice area...

shlim: I'm honestly offended that you called me a griefer... A pirate I may be, but even VPR makes the distinction between griefer and pirate.

Ecka: People using this thing as a scouting ship or whatever is exactly what we hoped to avoid. This is an escape pod, a last-ditch effort to get back to a station before you die. 225 m/s is too fast.

That brings up another relevant point: to help discourage people from actually just flying these things around, don't give it radar. It doesn't need radar, and it doesn't make sense for it to have it anyway.

@ladron:
No, 225 m/s is most certainly not too fast. The fastest ships in the game available to players can attain that velocity, and an escape pod that cannot outrun these is not an escape pod but a flying coffin. This 'ship' needs the means to a: avoid fire (hence the 225 m/s) b: for a certain period (this is where the infiniboost comes in) and c: to survive secondary explosions, e.g. from ordinance that arrives at a delay (hence the 3k armor, although that would be a tad much. perhaps 2k).

I agree with disallowing radar on them, however, I do not agree with the assessment that these would stop people from learning how to fight. If you're doing a Border mission, you won't have too far to get back in the fray (although longer than if there was immediate respawn), if you're doing risky things in grey, you're liable to get sent back to your home.

And, for the record, despite my approval of this idea, I am by no means a good PvP player, on the contrary. I only know how to run, and this would finally also give running from fights that you don't want to deal with a much-needed justification.

And regarding your concerns about people using these ships as scout drones, ladron: Make them limited in life-time. It would make technobabble sense for such a pod to have limited life-support capabilities, especially with regards to oxygen. So let's give them 10-15 minutes life-span, which is plenty to reach the nearest station and grab a vulture or what have you, to get back to doing what you were doing.

A dev input on this? Worth pursuing or are we barking up a wrong tree?

Did that ever stop us? >_>

Again: if you want friendly, spar with with people who won't pod-kill you. Otherwise, you take the risk when you venture out into Grey.

hehe, no it didn't Tosh.

I'm just asking to get the devs to actually read these ideas, because I think they are very good. And after this one, read the PaKettle one on economics.

And then fix the faction system. And then World Peace;)

toshiro: I understand exactly what you're saying, but I think you're overestimating the ability of the ships currently in game to effectively chase down a target. If the escape pod had the acceleration surb proposed, and could go 225 m/s, it could easily outrun a corvus greyhound. That's just silly; this is an escape pod with a very small auxiliary engine. I think you'll find that a pod with considerably lower thrust AND a lower maximum velocity AND no infiniboost would still be very difficult to catch. "Difficult to Catch" is the target we should shoot for with this. With surb's proposed stats it would be literally impossible.

Giving the pod a limited life-span would be a very good idea, IF that is easy to implement. I don't think it would bring enough additional benefit to justify delaying implementation for weeks, and from what I can tell there is no existing game mechanic to cause ships to expire after a certain time period.

I'm for this provided that you can home at any capitol station with which you have standing.

Corvus isn't exactly the pirate faction. They're the "we don't care as long as you're paying us" faction. Corvus doesn't have any desire to discourage me from shooting up some pirate's Corvult; he's likely to buy another Corvult. This should be obvious from their reaction to people attacking well-liked pilots (including their own station guards) in guarded space.

Grey space is already dangerous to the point that hardly anybody trades there. Making it a lot more inconvenient to get killed without putting in HUGE incentives to go there will not make the game more fun for anyone. On the other hand, it would be fairly unbalancing[0] to send law-abiding pilots all the way back to nation space while allowing pirates to stay in grey (assuming most of the action is in grey).

[0] Though not unrealistic. It's a game though - fun should come before realism.

How hard is it to get that, by choosing to give up all nation standing and the benefits thereof, one should be able to re-spawn in Odia? Or that, if you're not tri-nation KOS, you have no business "homing" in Grey?

You don't get to have your Valk/Prom/UIT access cake AND eat it in Grey, too. VO is already brutally burdened by a lack of decision points--everyone can do and be everything. This, to a small degree, helps fix that. It will also, indirectly, cause more vets to spend more time in nation space, which is generally full of nothing but noobs. A little vet interaction with them, even if the vets are just trucking back out towards Grey, will be good for the game.

Well said Zak. The escape pod is not a bad idea, just the excessive travel time back from the three nation capitals.

If a player thinks that making death more meaningful by adding mindless travel time to each death, then simply limit the homing feature to a pilot's native capital stations.

That said, I think that the low penalty of death facilitates the few player furballs that we do have. Keep it the way it is.

"shlim: I'm honestly offended that you called me a griefer... A pirate I may be, but even VPR makes the distinction between griefer and pirate."

I apologize, shape. You're quite right, and I should've been more specific than I was.

I'd love to hear dev input at this point,
This has become a very popular thread.

I think Lecter is also right that you should be KOS with all 3 major nations to have a pirate/scallywag home.

I DID become KOS with all 3 because I felt it was proper RP.

There was also a suggestion from zak that Corvus really shouldn't care.

I don't know that I think that should be true. Pirates really dislike the status quo, in my character's case, the war, and the traders who perpetuate it. But pirates know that they can't go it alone either. We develop very strong ties with eachother, and I think that suggesting that a pirate organization is going to lack an honor code is unrealistic.

If that were true, Corvus would have fallen to internal struggles very early into it's existence, to be replaced by an organization WITH an honor code, which would naturally have been more powerful.

That's not to say that everyone isn't fighting for their own interests, but they benefit from the strength of the whole, just like any other nation.

shlim: thanks, I appreciate it

It really disappoints me that everyone is onboard about destroying the only decent feature this game has ever had which is quick, easy, multiplayer space combat.

If this ever gets implemented I'll crack open my bottle of champagne and toast to the once best and only place left for interstellar combat and its demise.

What if something (not necessarily this escape pod thing) were done to "make death matter," but, at the same time, a feature were introduced that let you enter a "simulated" sector, along with just your friends, from any station, and use "simulated" free ships? Obviously, you wouldn't get xp in such sectors, and pks would have to be counted separately.

lurksalot: That's a discussion for another thread. Not a bad idea though : )

CrazySpence: It really disappoints me that there are a few old timers like yourself who are so afraid of any kind of change that they will do anything in their power to prevent this game from become, well, anything more than a tech demo. It's not 2002 anymore. Space quake has gotten old. Let's move on. In addition: please read the rest of this thread. Your concerns have been addressed already.

I'll say again, I agree with lector and shape that it doesn't make sense for pilots with good national standing to be allowed to spawn in greyspace. Anyone who complains about the long travel times is blowing smoke anyway; it takes less than 5 minutes to fly from any given capitol to greyspace. However, if we have to make compromises to get this feature added to the game, allowing pilots with good Corvus faction to spawn in Corvus is one I may be willing to make, with the understanding that once this faction redux thing actually happens Corvus faction will be mutually exclusive to national faction. (Good enough faction to home in Corvus means +800 though, not just respect or something silly like that).

Finally, it seems like the community is, with a couple exceptions, very supportive of this idea. Let's hear from the devs about it! : )

I thought about this and decided to retract my Yes But and vote No.