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War Convoy Feedback and Suggestions

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Apr 07, 2010 PaKettle link
Oddly enough VO already has refugee kits and medical supplies...

Allowing ships with Humanitarian supplies to pass would create a loophole so players wishing to bypass the blockade could do so. Im not 100 sure a complete blockade would be all that "fun"

May Pass:
Same Faction with Humanitarian supplies:
Same Faction with KOS to other faction:

May remain:
Same Faction Military:

May Leave:
Same Faction Neutral or Better:
Neutral Faction respected or bettter:
Opposite Faction with Same faction POS:

Shot on sight:
All others.

Chased and attacked on Sight:
Opposite Faction not admired or better
- to clarify I mean if an Itani enters a serco blockaded sector and is not at least serco admired a squad of FAST DEADLY attackers is dispatched to intercept and kill the intruder and will maintain chase untill a kill is made even into other sectors.

BTW a bit of random trigger happiness would help keep it interesting....
Apr 07, 2010 ShankTank link
Make it that complicated and it will be exploited, there are just too many loopholes in your system. Also, not making it a full blockade will mean that the convoys will have very little impact. If you're upset about it, use a regular moth or a taur or atlas or something.

And I think the humanitarian supplies thing was explained in my previous post. Not gonna happen, too much effort for something that makes no sense and doesn't really add anything.
Apr 07, 2010 Aticephyr link
I really like the idea of the blockade using cargo and addon scanners (I mean, isn't a primary reason we wanted these addons is so smuggling and the like could occur?). Firing on any non-nation armed ships or ships bringing military supplies (i.e. any addon) makes sense.
Apr 07, 2010 DivisionByZero link
Why do you people want to make it this difficult.

Just make it kill everyone not the same faction and neutral or something like that and be done with it. Then maybe players would give a hoot about what the hell is happening in Deneb and the CtC.

Right now no one cares if you won the large skirmish or kill the transport. Make your nationality matter with the war convoy and that'll change.
Apr 07, 2010 Aticephyr link
Why do you people want to make it this difficult.

It's not that we're making it difficult. We want to make it interesting. Plus, let's use the game mechanics that've been added to make stuff even more fun!
Apr 08, 2010 ShankTank link
Plus, let's use the game mechanics that've been added to make stuff even more fun!

Yes, let's use the guns that are on ships and have npcs actually shoot stuff with them.

Seriously, though, I'm all for the whole cargo scanning smuggling gameplay aspect, but that's for the in-nation defenses and dynamic strike forces and not the war convoys. The war convoys are meant to attempt to just cut off a nation entirely, not let certain items through.
Apr 08, 2010 Aticephyr link
heh, alright shanktank. but we should get smuggling stuff in SOON.
Apr 08, 2010 PaKettle link
Shank if you had read - only ships with the SAME faction as the blockade would be allowed thru.
Apr 08, 2010 ryan reign link
"only ships with the SAME faction as the blockade would be allowed thru."

Yeah, because its ok for traitors to be traders and there is no way a nations military would have any objection to their countrymen giving aid and support to their sworn enemies. I'm sure they would just wave them right through.
Apr 08, 2010 ryan reign link
Also, gain/lose nation standing for attacking the blockade.
Apr 08, 2010 momerath42 link
This is all very interesting, and relevant discussion; thanks!

For now, we're going to err on the side of not disrupting existing gameplay, and we feel it's best not to introduce any ad-hoc definitions of friend-or-foe that aren't reflected in the radar, or other aspects of the faction system. We really are going to be revamping it soon, and doing "the right thing," from our perspective, let alone yours, will have to wait until that's done.

Until then, your visions of how it should work, and constructive criticism of said visions, is, as always, welcome.
Apr 10, 2010 Ghost link
What if after a blockade is setup at a nation's wormhole, a countdown timer like the one used for Border Engagements starts. Once the timer reaches 0, a skirmish is created in the blockaded sector(s) in an attempt to break the blockade. If the attackers win, the blockade remains, if the defenders win, the blockade is removed.
Apr 10, 2010 ryan reign link
+1 to Ghost's idea. It does seem a little strange that the nation being blockaded would not send out military units to at least attempt to destroy their sworn enemies right on their front step.
Apr 10, 2010 ShankTank link
It might be a little one-sided considering that the blockade can't respawn, we need some players to do stuff for once... I sort of thought of it as though the side being blockaded can't spare the units to launch an assault on their grey front while their asses are getting pounded in Deneb... but perhaps there could be a mission that simply rewards the kills.
Apr 10, 2010 ryan reign link
I'm actually working on that in the PCC.
Apr 16, 2010 Alloh link
From Encyclopædia Britannica
BLOCKADE:
---------

an act of war by which a belligerent prevents access to or departure from a defined part of the enemy’s coasts.

Blockades are regulated by international customary law and by international treaty law. A blockade must be declared in advance by notification of all neutral powers, and it must be applied impartially against ships of all states. Mere declarations of a blockade or “paper blockades,” common in the 18th and early 19th centuries, have no legal effect; the blockading state must make the blockade effective by maintaining naval or air forces in the area in sufficient strength to prevent ingress or egress from the enemy’s ports. Once the blockade ceases to be effectively maintained, the legal state of blockade lapses and can only be reestablished by due notification and enforcement.

Penalties for breach of blockade are seizure of ship and cargo and their possible condemnation as lawful prize. Neutral ships may not be destroyed for blockade running.
Apr 16, 2010 PaKettle link
I would be more interested in the text of the kittamer(sp?) accord...

Seizure of ship or cargo in VO is not all that practical unless the AI can be made a lot smarter then it currently is.Perhaps the devs might give us an idea of how much trouble it would be?

As Ryan said and I agree Interplanetary law is not always observed during blockades and occaisionally random weapons tests do happen....

By definition ships carrying weapons or weapon parts are not neutral even under international treaty AFAIK. Usually blockades specify what goods are allowed past such as first aid and food.
...

One way to ensure the blockade has an adequate supply of ships is to allow the cappie to carry say 100 fighters and to resupply them every 8 hours or so. I do agree that a large force of enemy ships should build up outside the blockade untill there are enough to break it. Small random skirmishes to deplete the blockade should also occur....
Apr 17, 2010 ryan reign link
Seizure of ship or cargo would be an excellent addition but we'd potentially be looking at a lot of work for the devs. Even still, weapons that disable ships/being able to target specific systems on a ship/or a tractor beam... (any of the numerous better versions than the one most recently suggested)... would be incredibly cool and add quite a bit to game play on many levels but, at the moment I think we should take what we can get.

As for refugee supplies, medicine, food and such making it through... I still don't like the idea but its a minor thing. However, given the nature of the conflict and that by bringing humanitarian aid is still bringing aid to the enemy that...

A. There should be a fifty percent chance that the convoy attacks, regardless of standing.
and
B. Anyone successfully getting past the blockade should gain faction standing with the nation upon selling their goods and lose faction standing with the nation imposing the blockade.

I realize neither of these will be all that popular but the are realistic consequences for the actions.

I agree with PaKettle about the the hundred ships held in reserve but, I don't see a couple of Tridents holding that many ships... perhaps the Devs would consider adding a Teradon, an H.AC. or a few Connies?

Another option could be that every few hours a convoy of reinforcements comes through... whether it is needed or not. This would accomplish several things...

1. The blockade would be harder to break and would last longer, giving more players am opportunity .
and...
2. It opens up a great opportunity for a portion of the blockade to patrol.

And finally two things which should be implemented ASAP, STAT and right away...

1. All items not locally produced should increase in price significantly in sale and purchase price.
and...
2. A new mission, similar to HS or BS where in a group of pilots must destroy the blockade or smuggle something past the blockade.
Apr 22, 2010 ShankTank link
Today I watched a lone CtC transport break a blockade in Edras and it brought up a few problems concerning the effectiveness of the convoys.

1) There were two Constellations, no fighters. This pretty much just means that the fighters (which are very important components to a blockade) get picked off much too quickly and never return... making them a non-presence in the blockade. The blockade should be more fighter-focused with the Cappies providing a sort of "carrier" role.

Solution: have fighters respawn from the capital ships one-by-one every half hour (meaning that every half hour, the earliest fighter that has died would respawn via undocking from its respective cappie, this also gives an advantage to having two cappies since the fighters would respawn twice as fast).

2) The swarm turrets that seem to be equipped on the Constellation are ineffective and too easy to avoid. Missiles are not pure pursuit weapons (uber stingers excluded).

Solution: Equip the classic cappie gauss on em, no need for the swarm turrets in a blockade.

3) The capital ships, being stationary and all, only have about a <10 second window to shoot targets before they jump while their weapons are in range. In fact, this also concerns the swarm missile turrets because maybe about two missiles actually reach the target before it jumps.

Solution: Increase their weapons range by about 1000m (if possible do this for skirmish missions, too, but that's a different subject).

Edit: almost forgot about the fighter-only convoy that goes to Helios. If possible I think if would be best if they, too, respawned from the Initros cappy... proceeding to rendezvous with the Helios convoy again.
Apr 22, 2010 Aticephyr link
1) There were two Constellations, no fighters. This pretty much just means that the fighters (which are very important components to a blockade) get picked off much too quickly and never return... making them a non-presence in the blockade. The blockade should be more fighter-focused with the Cappies providing a sort of "carrier" role.

Solution: have fighters respawn from the capital ships one-by-one every half hour (meaning that every half hour, the earliest fighter that has died would respawn via undocking from its respective cappie, this also gives an advantage to having two cappies since the fighters would respawn twice as fast).


The fighters have a mobile base... why not make them repair in the cappies (assuming they aren't)? Wouldn't completely solve the problem, but it would make the blockade make a bit more sense.