So.. corvus.

I feel that the stations allow players to engage while not truely being engaged themselves; in the form of undocking, dumping guided missiles into the sector and redocking (repeatedly)

Guided missiles continue to track after the attacker has docked (unlike jumping into a sector, dumping the payload and leaving.. the missiles disengage)

#1 If they disengage and dock at a *station their missile guidance should end very much like when they leave a sector. They are no longer in battle. The attacker has a great advantage and extremely limited risk in these scenarios.

#2, OR.. TKOS should be what it is everywhere else. It's only 15 minutes afterall and it ends upon the attackers death. They would never truly be without a home. (you may all hate on me now. lmao)

I'm aware of my own options in these situations, but I'd really like the opportunity to go at them without pcbs or other sillyness. aving the station, mirroring their 'strategy', docking, leaving.. etc.. if you pick a fight, face the music.

At least if they dump guided missiles from a capship, you can go after it.. but a station? Not so much.

Just a thought..

Perhaps we should just prevent people from docking, if they have active weapons-fire "in-flight" in the sector. That could potentially be either missiles, or energy weapon shots, or whatever.

The rationale being that you're obviously engaging in a battle, and the Station doesn't want to get involved. If you want to be able to dock, then don't shoot at people.

#1 If they disengage and dock at a *station their missile guidance should end very much like when they leave a sector. They are no longer in battle. The attacker has a great advantage and extremely limited risk in these scenarios.

Agree^

Perhaps we should just prevent people from docking, if they have active weapons-fire "in-flight" in the sector. That could potentially be either missiles, or energy weapon shots, or whatever.

The rationale being that you're obviously engaging in a battle, and the Station doesn't want to get involved. If you want to be able to dock, then don't shoot at people.

Disagree^

I see no reason the game needs a penalty (revoked docking rights) if you simply fire a guided weapon in a corvus station sector. Logically and gameplay-wise it makes a lot more sense for the lock to be broken off when you dock. If you cause damage there are already appropriate penalties in place. Corvus does nothing to you if you discharge any other type of weapon (rocket/blaster/mine), why would guided missiles be exclusive?

My primary focus was #1. I know #2 isnt really desirable after reading old posts.. but, its good to have options. I wouldnt rule either out. Unlimited ammo and near zero exposure to fire seems unbalanced.

You have about a six second window to get on top of them when they come out, but you also have to be avoiding missiles.. the vector to your target isnt always a straight line while this is going on and you have to slow down or even stop to maintain your lock and lay down fire if you hope to kill them. You lose valuable seconds fast. (In seconds, of course!)

How about #3. You instantly die when you dock, its KOS after all, right? How are you re-arming and repairing without being seen? (kidding.. not kidding)

Honestly, whatever is the simplest solution to implement, should everyone feel its warranted. One pilot engaged in this behaviour is tricky, imagine many.. it's a pretty bad scene.

edit: were not talking camping on noobs here and them using a desperate attempt to get out of sedina or something.. we are talking veteran pilots bombing the living hell out of a sector.

Frankly, there should be a standing hit, even in Corvus. Use missiles in Corvus, lose .25 a standing point. POS pilots would not endanger the station with that kind of behavior.

I see no reason the game needs a penalty (revoked docking rights) if you simply fire a guided weapon in a corvus station sector.

Corvus does nothing to you if you discharge any other type of weapon (rocket/blaster/mine), why would guided missiles be exclusive?

I specifically said it would happen for missiles, or energy weapon shots, or anything else. If you have any active weapons fire in-flight. Why should the station allow you to dock, if you're shooting at people?

OR.. TKOS should be what it is everywhere else.

The reason why we don't TempKoS people from Corvus, is they might not be able to dock anywhere else. That might be okay for 15 minutes, but TempKoS is a generic system, and it is intended to escalate in locations over time. That means we have to start special-casing Corvus, and then come up with ways of "explaining" to users how "it's tempKoS, but.. different, here".

Logically and gameplay-wise it makes a lot more sense for the lock to be broken off when you dock.

It's also possible to cause missiles to lose lock, but they might still hit something. Plus, people can still do the same basic thing (firing and dock) with un-targeted missiles and rockets, particularly against capital ships. If we make the missiles "vanish" when the user docks, that seems a little.. artificial.

The reason why I made the suggestion that I did, is that it would handle all weapon types, now and in the future, including things like proper torpedos, or whatever else. It would treat everything and everyone equally. If you want to be able to (immediately) dock, then don't be shooting up the area.

I would rather fix issues like this.. once. And not 17 different times for evolving weapon types and situations.

Inc, will this be for ALL stations. Including the Corvus Station known as M7? If so, this will make battles in M7 much more interesting. Big +1 to that

Well, it is a Suggestions discussion, I was originally just tossing out an idea of how we might mitigate the issue in the OP.

As originally stated, yes, the thought was to apply it to (at least) all Corvus stations, since those are the only cases where TempKoS doesn't mitigate the OP issue. But, I do prefer "general-purpose generic" solutions, and it could be applied to all stations, everywhere (Corvus or otherwise).

Anyway, my response was mainly to clarify Greenwall's misunderstanding of what I suggested.

But, I'm still open to feedback on all of this.

A minor point, but +1.

Ok yeah I see the clarification.

Nevertheless I feel it would tip the gameplay balance in favor of newbs and traders against rowdy provocateurs in sectors where increased provocation-risk has historically (and intentionally) been allowed via reduced penalties; corvus station sectors have always been higher risk locales for newbs and traders.

I think it could easily be argued that if you want to do business at a corvus station and there is a serial spammer lurking, you need to bring some buddies to help tamp down the problem. Or temporarily avoid trading if you can't dodge swarms. But deactivating the guidance lock upon docking seems fair as well.

Also the problem in the OP is specifically guided missiles, not other weapons. Applying a docking-ban to someone who fired off an avalon or sunflare that missed and veered off into open space seems detrimental to gameplay.

Vanishing the weapons prematurely upon docking is not a good idea, I agree. One should be held accountable to the sector rules if they press their trigger, whether or not they dock afterwards.

I also understand the desire to efficiently mitigate an issue so as to avoid micromanagement when new features arise. That certainly makes sense, but I'm just concerned about the gameplay ramifications here -- not sure it makes sense to do a "live deployed weapons" docking ban.

What if you accidentally dropped a TU mine way off in deep space and you had no friends around to shoot it? It would cause a long lasting, and pointless I might add, docking ban.

Perhaps we should just prevent people from docking, if they have active weapons-fire "in-flight" in the sector. That could potentially be either missiles, or energy weapon shots, or whatever.

Aslong as you can continue to stack avas and/or it dosnt count if you dock to a cappy. Same thing with mines. Probably could be limited to locking weapons (missiles).

Personally I like the first option. Once homing missiles lose lock, they are not much of a threat. This I think would mitigate the problem well enough, with a minimum risk of unintended consequences.

I gotta go with Inc on this one.

As of today, 1.8.548, we've prevented docking with stations if you have any weapons "in-flight", in the current (station) sector. That means missiles, rockets or energy shots that are still "live" in the sector, or also mines that exist at-all (they will need to be manually destroyed to be able to dock in the sector).

This docking limitation does not impact any content that needs a key, so no impact on conquerable stations or capships.

I have a question. If I were to attack someone in for instance Latos H2 and they dump mines, managing to delay me enough to get to a station, are they then prevented from docking until the mine times out or is destroyed?

we've prevented docking with stations if you have any weapons "in-flight", in the current (station) sector.

I would think the text I wrote should be fairly clear..

Oh thanks, I must've missed it the first time.