Forums » Suggestions

Mr. Chaos's Capship Ideas Topic

Apr 06, 2010 Chaosis link
Because [DELETED BY WHISTLER] you its a great idea.

Ok so heres the basic premises:

1. Capship turrets are operated by bots unless hijacked by players. This is pretty standard but I want to expand on this. Turrets, unless commanded by a player, can be assigned to certain keys. These keys, when pressed, while targeting a player/roid/npc/watever, tells the linked turrets to fire on that target when they get into a preset range (750m, 500m, w/e your fancy).

2. Capship docking is essentially anchoring. Have capships haul up to a station and when within about 25m or so, they can dock. May or may not leave the cap ship viable to attack. If the latter, the NFZ rules still apply.

3. Prices should be definitely above 10mil. I think we all agree on this.
Tridents: 10mil-15mil
Teradons:20mil-35mil
Connies:50mil-100mil
HACs:100mil-200mil

4. Capships have spec. slots as well as turrets, with at least one on each cap ship type/variant. I propose this idea so that capship piloting isn't like EVE. In general, it would give capships a weapon to defend themselves. Ex: Teradons would have an upwards of 4, allowing them to wield the BGTWKOA cannons.

5. Capships should be sold only at Capital stations. I don't think there's much more to say on this idea.

Feel free to praise/suggest/beat the [DELETED BY WHISTLER] out of these suggestions.
Apr 06, 2010 peytros link
drydock means out of the water
Apr 06, 2010 Chaosis link
ok then whatever a legit word is that means drydocking in space
Apr 06, 2010 peytros link
you wouldn't be drydocking cause you are still in space.
Apr 06, 2010 Chaosis link
ok. suggest an alternate word then.
Apr 06, 2010 peytros link
a cap ship anchors outside the station
Apr 06, 2010 Chaosis link
ok done.

anything else, oh wise one?
Apr 06, 2010 ryan reign link
Seems reasonable and it gets around the whole problem of only guilds would be able to effectively use cappies.
Apr 06, 2010 Lonectzn link
While I'm really not for player capships, this did get me thinking. Rather than think of them as regular ship you always own, perhaps treat it as a special purpose ship than you can call in specific situations.

Access could be gated by something as simple as a mission. You take it, pay the money to complete it (or + something else) and then during a battle you can call reinforcement in the form of a Trident that you can dock in and control. If it survives the battle it despawns with everything else and you can call on it again next fight, and if not you have to buy another.

The game already knows all about spawning ships dynamically. By doing it this way you can control when it can be used - so only in skirmishes for eg. You can limit the number called so it doesn't get out of hand, and also automatically spawn extra caps for the enemy to keep the fight balanced. You don't have to worry about how it will affect the rest of the game because it's not there, and players get controlled caps in the only places they need them.

This is the only way I can think of that allows devs to fully control the interaction and impact, while as much as possible using the tools we already have. The only problem left - and not a small one - is actually making them controllable in a useful way.
Apr 06, 2010 Chaosis link
Lone, I really think that idea is worthy of another thread itself. I also don't see the need to use a mission to gain access to them when you can just buy them from capital stations.
Apr 06, 2010 ryan reign link
"players get controlled caps in the only places they need them."

Yeah, I'm not really on board with having some code decide when and where I need MY ship.
Apr 06, 2010 ladron link
Yeah, I'm not really on board with having some code decide when and where I need MY ship.

I agree. Especially not VO code, which has a tendency to be incredibly finicky
Apr 07, 2010 Alloh link
it was already suggested and implemented on PCC the "Rent-A-Capship" concept, where you leave a collateral fee, then give basic orders to you capship, like park here or follow me.

For me that would be a perfect start, once minor tweaks are made to avoid known exploits.

Also, external docking must be implemented, just like most sci-fi movies. Extend a closed bridge from station to capship, not much different from today's airports jetways. Surely this limits number of docked capships relating to station size.

But I also think that caship's pilot should have no weapons at all. Only gunners shoots from turrets!
Apr 07, 2010 Chaosis link
"But I also think that caship's pilot should have no weapons at all. Only gunners shoots from turrets!"

Game is too small to possibly accomidate this. I don't want to find 30 people to fully load out a terradon, and any reason you would is completely beyond my meager comprehension of sanity.

Also, Terradons already have 4 slots for capital weapons, so why not expand on the idea?
Apr 08, 2010 Alloh link
I was thinking about start with tridents only. Later add bigger ships.

Less impact, time to improve some rules...
Apr 08, 2010 tarenty link
Erm, escuse me, but your prices are a bit low. Right now I could buy eleven tridents at this price.

Are you talking about adding this price to a list of components or requiring just the money?