Forums » Suggestions
Make normal ships capturable!
Would require a "weapon" called "forced boarding kit", which comes in large and small port varieties (the large port is more powerful, but also does more damage during the docking procedure).
To use them, you would have to decrease the ship's armor by a certain percentage and then hit it with the boarding weapon (which would shoot a mining-beam style "tractor beam", but wouldn't actually do any tractoring - it's just for looks). Range would be very small. The docking procedure does damage to both ships, mostly to the one being docked with. As I said above, the large port variety does more damage, making it riskier to use on lighter ships.
The boarding procedure would work like mining - you have to maintain the beam long enough for the bar to fill up. The speed of completion would be based on distance, relative ship velocities (want it as close to 0 as possible), how weakened the other ship is, which sized boarding kit is being used, and perhaps also on ship model (some might be designed to be more theft resistant than others).
If the ships drift too far apart (30-50 m?) the beam would be broken and the person attempting to do the docking would suffer the damage rather than the dockee, in addition to the normal self-inflicted damage it causes. Otherwise, on success the damages are applied to the two ships, and if both survive, the boarding sequence is initiated.
The actual boarding sequence would be either an instantaneous takeover, with the previous owner dying, or maybe some kind of mini-game where the two pilots compete to see who survives with the ship - the loser dies. I'm not a huge fan of mini-games though. If there is one, during its execution both ships would be drifting, so the ship-jacker's ship may well drift away and even die during this stage, but it's okay because he's already inside the other ship - the old one is now unmanned. If the ship the two pilots are in dies (via hive, rats, whatever), they both die. IFF works the same as docking with a capship - if either of the players is KOS with local turrets, the turrets attack it.
After the mini-game is resolved (or just immediately after completion of the boarding beam's work, if no mini-game is used), the original ship of the ship-jacker initiates a 30 second self destruct sequence and continues drifting until it explodes. (Alternately, if there is a mini-game it could initiate a 60 second self destruct as the game begins, and if they take too long to finish and move out of the way, too bad.) The other ship would be dead in space for 5-10 seconds while the pilot gets settled into the cockpit.
The kill that happened during boarding is counted like any pvp kill. So if the person who died had a bounty on his head and the survivor was a bounty hunter, it is awarded.
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Some other points:
Firing the beam at somebody would automatically flag you as hostile, even though it doesn't do the damage until the end. This way you can't simply fly up to a ship in your escort group and jack it without being opposed.
Damaging the other ship's armor would not be absolutely required, but the duration of the beam stage would be heavily dependent on the remaining armor, so jacking an undamaged ship would take much longer and therefor be much more likely to fail. This way you can steal ships even using a single-port ship, though it will be very difficult against a human.
On the other hand, the damage caused by the boarding process would mean you'd have to be very careful not to damage it too much, or it will explode in your face when the beam finishes.
The self inflicted damage is supposed to be due to the proximity to the detonation charge that breaches their hull to let you in. Once you hit that stage you'll be done with your ship anyway (you're either going to fly away in the new ship or die), so it's mainly there to make stealing a ship from a heavily damaged ship more risky. Not an essential aspect, but I think it adds a little bit of spice, allowing things to backfire.
The real backfire, when somebody evades an attempted boarding by breaking the beam, also serves to discourage use of the boarding kit.
The kit would of course only be sold in shady places.
Not sure whether turret gunners in the jacked ship should be killed or just left to be gunner for the new pilot. If there is a mini-game, they could perhaps help their captain or something, and die if the ship-jacker wins.
Like I said, I'm not a big fan of the mini-game approach, and I'm not sure what it would be that would be appropriate for the situation while still being skill based and fair. It's not like there's room inside a Vulture or Valkyrie to have a quick gunfight (moths and centaurs are another story). Probably simpler to say that the damage that happens during the boarding procedure after beam completion kills the pilot, and leave the boarding mini-games to the capships. Or maybe have it be based on individual ship - smaller ships with no game and bigger ones with a round of FPS. That would help make up for the fact that the big ships (which may have valuable cargo) are easier to steal since they're slower and less agile.
At any rate, for the sake of speed, initial implementation could forego any mini-games, with them being added at a later date.
An important thing to remember when stealing a ship is that the current ship will be lost. So you'd ideally want to use a cheap ship. Using a greyhound to steal a ship would generally be a bad idea unless it's a ship you don't have access to or it has very excellent cargo in its belly.
To use them, you would have to decrease the ship's armor by a certain percentage and then hit it with the boarding weapon (which would shoot a mining-beam style "tractor beam", but wouldn't actually do any tractoring - it's just for looks). Range would be very small. The docking procedure does damage to both ships, mostly to the one being docked with. As I said above, the large port variety does more damage, making it riskier to use on lighter ships.
The boarding procedure would work like mining - you have to maintain the beam long enough for the bar to fill up. The speed of completion would be based on distance, relative ship velocities (want it as close to 0 as possible), how weakened the other ship is, which sized boarding kit is being used, and perhaps also on ship model (some might be designed to be more theft resistant than others).
If the ships drift too far apart (30-50 m?) the beam would be broken and the person attempting to do the docking would suffer the damage rather than the dockee, in addition to the normal self-inflicted damage it causes. Otherwise, on success the damages are applied to the two ships, and if both survive, the boarding sequence is initiated.
The actual boarding sequence would be either an instantaneous takeover, with the previous owner dying, or maybe some kind of mini-game where the two pilots compete to see who survives with the ship - the loser dies. I'm not a huge fan of mini-games though. If there is one, during its execution both ships would be drifting, so the ship-jacker's ship may well drift away and even die during this stage, but it's okay because he's already inside the other ship - the old one is now unmanned. If the ship the two pilots are in dies (via hive, rats, whatever), they both die. IFF works the same as docking with a capship - if either of the players is KOS with local turrets, the turrets attack it.
After the mini-game is resolved (or just immediately after completion of the boarding beam's work, if no mini-game is used), the original ship of the ship-jacker initiates a 30 second self destruct sequence and continues drifting until it explodes. (Alternately, if there is a mini-game it could initiate a 60 second self destruct as the game begins, and if they take too long to finish and move out of the way, too bad.) The other ship would be dead in space for 5-10 seconds while the pilot gets settled into the cockpit.
The kill that happened during boarding is counted like any pvp kill. So if the person who died had a bounty on his head and the survivor was a bounty hunter, it is awarded.
-
Some other points:
Firing the beam at somebody would automatically flag you as hostile, even though it doesn't do the damage until the end. This way you can't simply fly up to a ship in your escort group and jack it without being opposed.
Damaging the other ship's armor would not be absolutely required, but the duration of the beam stage would be heavily dependent on the remaining armor, so jacking an undamaged ship would take much longer and therefor be much more likely to fail. This way you can steal ships even using a single-port ship, though it will be very difficult against a human.
On the other hand, the damage caused by the boarding process would mean you'd have to be very careful not to damage it too much, or it will explode in your face when the beam finishes.
The self inflicted damage is supposed to be due to the proximity to the detonation charge that breaches their hull to let you in. Once you hit that stage you'll be done with your ship anyway (you're either going to fly away in the new ship or die), so it's mainly there to make stealing a ship from a heavily damaged ship more risky. Not an essential aspect, but I think it adds a little bit of spice, allowing things to backfire.
The real backfire, when somebody evades an attempted boarding by breaking the beam, also serves to discourage use of the boarding kit.
The kit would of course only be sold in shady places.
Not sure whether turret gunners in the jacked ship should be killed or just left to be gunner for the new pilot. If there is a mini-game, they could perhaps help their captain or something, and die if the ship-jacker wins.
Like I said, I'm not a big fan of the mini-game approach, and I'm not sure what it would be that would be appropriate for the situation while still being skill based and fair. It's not like there's room inside a Vulture or Valkyrie to have a quick gunfight (moths and centaurs are another story). Probably simpler to say that the damage that happens during the boarding procedure after beam completion kills the pilot, and leave the boarding mini-games to the capships. Or maybe have it be based on individual ship - smaller ships with no game and bigger ones with a round of FPS. That would help make up for the fact that the big ships (which may have valuable cargo) are easier to steal since they're slower and less agile.
At any rate, for the sake of speed, initial implementation could forego any mini-games, with them being added at a later date.
An important thing to remember when stealing a ship is that the current ship will be lost. So you'd ideally want to use a cheap ship. Using a greyhound to steal a ship would generally be a bad idea unless it's a ship you don't have access to or it has very excellent cargo in its belly.