Forums » Suggestions
Make combat drops persistent
Shoot this down if you wish. But I've noticed that drops from combat missions have decreased, particularly in Deneb. I understand that part of the reason is to minimize lag.
However, I do miss the days of a sector full of drops that I could sift through for what I wanted. Though to be honest, Deneb could have always offered some more select items... just saying.
So I would like to propose one of two options,
1) make drops persist longer (particularly when I lose my Avalons because some npc sob snuck up on me) since I would prefer to focus on combat than collection during the mission, or
2) I know no one likes magic. I don't much care for it myself. But perhaps instead of immediately spawning the drops, have them spawn at the conclusion of the mission as the ships are retreating.
Also, we need better Deneb drops. Heck, I'm not even sure the n3's drop anymore. I think at one point, there was some talk about dropping the odd Trident component.
Heck, a few years ago I had an entire character dedicated to nothing but scrounging around combat zones collecting goodies.
However, I do miss the days of a sector full of drops that I could sift through for what I wanted. Though to be honest, Deneb could have always offered some more select items... just saying.
So I would like to propose one of two options,
1) make drops persist longer (particularly when I lose my Avalons because some npc sob snuck up on me) since I would prefer to focus on combat than collection during the mission, or
2) I know no one likes magic. I don't much care for it myself. But perhaps instead of immediately spawning the drops, have them spawn at the conclusion of the mission as the ships are retreating.
Also, we need better Deneb drops. Heck, I'm not even sure the n3's drop anymore. I think at one point, there was some talk about dropping the odd Trident component.
Heck, a few years ago I had an entire character dedicated to nothing but scrounging around combat zones collecting goodies.
I hate it that only ships damaged by players drop anything. Is there any other way for the devs to reduce the lag caused by large quantities of scrap in a sector, though?
+1 to longer persistence.
+1 to longer persistence.
1) make drops persist longer
We do already intend to make certain types of drops last longer than others. Particularly player drops, and specialized things like crafted items or rarer drops like Avalons.
I hate it that only ships damaged by players drop anything. Is there any other way for the devs to reduce the lag caused by large quantities of scrap in a sector, though?
The most likely way to "reduce the lag" is by sidestepping the whole issue and changing how items are dropped and recovered. Ie, a single ship death results in a single dropped crate. You interact with that crate and remove the items you choose from it, rather than running over the items individually. Kind of like "looting a body" in a terrestrial MMO. The size of the crate can scale based on the number of items in it. We already have some work going in this direction (the new "crate" is designed to look better at larger sizes, so we could have variable crate sizes to indicate quantity).
This would "reduce the lag" by reducing the total number of crates in the scene to one-per-death instead of potentially several-per-death. But, we'd still need to be careful about crate "pollution" in scenarios with a lot of NPC death. Improving the other issues related to large numbers of crates (rendering time on the client, potentially collidable set on the server) is possible but a pretty time consuming thing to approach.
We do already intend to make certain types of drops last longer than others. Particularly player drops, and specialized things like crafted items or rarer drops like Avalons.
I hate it that only ships damaged by players drop anything. Is there any other way for the devs to reduce the lag caused by large quantities of scrap in a sector, though?
The most likely way to "reduce the lag" is by sidestepping the whole issue and changing how items are dropped and recovered. Ie, a single ship death results in a single dropped crate. You interact with that crate and remove the items you choose from it, rather than running over the items individually. Kind of like "looting a body" in a terrestrial MMO. The size of the crate can scale based on the number of items in it. We already have some work going in this direction (the new "crate" is designed to look better at larger sizes, so we could have variable crate sizes to indicate quantity).
This would "reduce the lag" by reducing the total number of crates in the scene to one-per-death instead of potentially several-per-death. But, we'd still need to be careful about crate "pollution" in scenarios with a lot of NPC death. Improving the other issues related to large numbers of crates (rendering time on the client, potentially collidable set on the server) is possible but a pretty time consuming thing to approach.
was hoping he'd say something about trident part drops.... *sad panda*
It's nice to hear that there's something else, even if it's time consuming. Something to look forward to.
Brainstorming for whenever that might come around, instead of "crates," a scrap heap or something similar would be neat. Something with metal plates and weapon bits sticking out, perhaps.
Brainstorming for whenever that might come around, instead of "crates," a scrap heap or something similar would be neat. Something with metal plates and weapon bits sticking out, perhaps.
duh! exploding cargo, percentage chance that your cargo won't fall out and will be destroyed in your blast, higher percentage if detonated certain ways. It's realism AND solves problems and creates interesting gameplay.
+infinity to exploding cargo
Currently, multiple individual crates of the same item eventually start stacking if there are enough of them. That could be combined with the multi-type-crate concept - if the crate density in a particular region of space exceeds some value, just combine them all into one single Big crate. Then you'd have a simple way to define a maximum number of individual crates in a sector.
I do kind of dislike that multi-type concept though, as I prefer simply flying into the crate and not having to bugger around with the mouse to select what items to take. Especially if I'm busy running from some silly valkjock VPR and want to just fly though the cargo in my moth at top speed.
So maybe there could be a setting or something so that if you collide with a crate and have room, it automatically scoops up all the contents. Maybe an additional option to have it scoop up an arbitrary subset of the items if there is not room. Also, when colliding with a crate, throw a lua event so that a plugin could prioritize which individual items are scooped.
I do kind of dislike that multi-type concept though, as I prefer simply flying into the crate and not having to bugger around with the mouse to select what items to take. Especially if I'm busy running from some silly valkjock VPR and want to just fly though the cargo in my moth at top speed.
So maybe there could be a setting or something so that if you collide with a crate and have room, it automatically scoops up all the contents. Maybe an additional option to have it scoop up an arbitrary subset of the items if there is not room. Also, when colliding with a crate, throw a lua event so that a plugin could prioritize which individual items are scooped.