Forums » Suggestions

Escape Pods/Ships

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Mar 01, 2004 grunadulater link
One thing I don't like about Vendetta is that when your ship blows up, there's no way you can realisticly live. I think that there should be a small indestructable pod that comes out of the explosion. Also, in the full game, I think you should go to the nearest friendly dock when your ship explodes.

For capital ship destructions, a fighter should come out. It would be the pilot of the capital ships normal fighter. If the pilot has no ship in the cargo hold, he escapes in an indestructable pod. Also, all gunners in turrets should be able to escape in their fighters. Maybe there should be a 10 second warning and pause before the ship completely explodes.

Also, when a freighter explodes, will hundreds or thousands of little blue cargo pods come out? It would take a pirate a while to get them all transported, and some could be stolen while the pirate was getting it transported. Perhaps when the freighter disintegrate, several smaller "cargo carrier" ship could come out of the explosion. They would be cargo carriers from the freighter, and each would contain several blue cargo pods that would be released when destroyed. This will make the loot easier to defend. I predict that this is how mining asteroids will work; destroy a desctructable "asteroid" ship, which would release raw mineral cargo.
Mar 01, 2004 electric27 link
I agree... just like I agreed, like, 3 months ago, and 3 months before that...
Mar 01, 2004 Celebrim link
The standard explanation is when you die, a clone of you is brought out of storage.
Mar 01, 2004 TraderVix link
"I think I'm a clone now... there's always two of me just ahangin' around."
Mar 01, 2004 Pyroman_Ace link
Has anyone considered the possibilty that THERE ARE PODS and that we do eject during explosion? Notice that when you die it says ship destroyed and takes you back to the home station, perhaps your char hops a subspace flight to the home sation?

And the LAST thing the galaxy needs is more than one o' me!
Mar 01, 2004 grunadulater link
At least we could maybe have escape ships for capitals. Would be quite cool.
Mar 01, 2004 Arolte link
I think realistically, assuming we ever get into space combat, these fighter/bomber spaceships would be remotely controlled. Today our military has UCAVs that essentially does the same thing--go out on recon missions and fire Hellfires at enemy vehicles remotely with the use of a camera and joystick. That would explain the unobstructed 360 degree vision--cameras!

I mean I know that's probably not part of the story, but the logical thing to do would be to reduce human casualties by using minimal direct human contact with these vehicles. There are just too many things that can go wrong with a small fighter vessel in deep space, ESPECIALLY in times of warfare. The only manned ships we'll ever have in the future will probably be of the larger variety--frigates, battleships, colony vessel, cargo vessel, supply vessel, etc.

But if the devs absolutely have to stick with the human-controlled ships, due to the storyline, then I'd like to support this proposal. The escape pod is definitely a cool idea. When a ship blows up you'll see a glowing indestructable sphere-like pod float out of the debris, which gradually fades away (teleports) to safety. That would explain the multiple ship loss without death scenario.

I'd also like to have a better feeling that my personal life is in danger when I'm flying this spaceship as I'm constantly being bombarded by enemy fire. The shakey view when you get hit. The cockpit vibrating violently as you're boosting top speed through an asteroid field. Maybe having the pilot scream or some type of heavy breathing when you're at the brink of death and scared shitless. And of course the various alarms that go off as your ship takes extensive damage, which will hopefully shut down after a while so as not to become too annoying.

It's those little things that'll help add to the atmosphere of the game, especially one that is aiming to be an MMORPG.
Mar 02, 2004 Magus link
How about the energy from the explosion in your ship rips a hole in space-time and send you back to a special "space-time beacon" that you leave at your home sector?
Mar 02, 2004 Renegade ++RIP++ link
Oh Oh you mean like ships with no pilot in it but actually controlled by you from the station. This way you dont die, it clarifies why there is no escapepod and why you are instantly back in the saddle :D

Still if this aint the case then an ejectionsequence after you being destroyed would be nifty for the final game "to much bother to do now I think". Also you should be able to put of these kind of animations by a button in options. I have a feeling it gets quit old seeing the same animation every time when you die :D

cheers
Mar 02, 2004 UncleDave link
"The standard explanation is when you die, a clone of you is brought out of storage."

How would this clone know how to pilot a complex spacecraft? :p
Mar 02, 2004 toshiro link
we could also take the marathon (bungie) explanation:
since we have access to instant transport (aka beaming) - this is a sine qua non -, we can store our information in pattern buffers. when we die, we get reassembled exactly the way we were when we... uh... "saved" in station.
Mar 02, 2004 Arolte link
Shhh... don't tell them the secret of Marathon!
Mar 02, 2004 genka link
My unoriginal explanation is that the ships are remotely controlled. Hah.
Mar 02, 2004 ctishman link
Arolte, it IS dangerous to your personal life to be playing Vendetta.
Mar 02, 2004 Magus link
One question though. If we're capable of instantaneous transport, why do we need spaceships?

And if the ships are remotely controlled, then how do you change homesectors?
Mar 02, 2004 Arolte link
LOL @ ctishman. Damnnnn youuuuu!

/me shakes fist like Colonel Klink
Mar 02, 2004 Celebrim link
"How would this clone know how to pilot a complex spacecraft?"

After the structure of memory was explained in the late 26th century (Old Earth Common Era) techniques were developed to stimulate synapse production and innercellur cytocircuitry according to preexisting templates. A memory template can be recordied using a living person's brain structure. This memory record effectively backups a person's knowledge and personality so that critical skills are not lost in the event of a person's death.

A similar techinique can be used to readily teach a person new skills, but since each persons memory map differs slightly a direct overlay of one memory section to another yields bad results. The effect is equivalent to taking a file from one harddrive and writing it to another hard drive using the first drive's file allocation table. Critical memories will be overwritten. Therefore it is not possible to immediately port large memory blocks - such as for example a pilots full understanding of how to fly his craft - from one user to another without potentially erasing other useful skills - like say the ability to walk.

Wealthy persons, and people who are serving in the military, record these templates regularly - often nightly - so that a minimum ammount of experience is lost in the event of damage to the client's hardware. A pilot on a ship in a war zone would, at the first sign of potential danger, attempt to download the crew's most recent templates to a mother ship or base. Of course, if the enemy wants to be a real jerk about it, he can attempt to jam this transmission.
Mar 02, 2004 Skyfox link
I agree with arolte. Besides, i think escape pods would probably require more coding for something that isn't really needed.
Mar 02, 2004 Spellcast link
Also, when a freighter explodes, will hundreds or thousands of little blue cargo pods come out? It would take a pirate a while to get them all transported, and some could be stolen while the pirate was getting it transported>>

Actually I would like it if as you buy larger and larger ships your cargo will get bigger too. It would be easier on the network if when a large freighter was destroyed instead of dropping 200 xithricite ores it dropped 20 Bulk Xithricite containers. Then the pirate had better have a freighter of his own nearby capable of carrying the larger cargo containers.
Mar 02, 2004 grunadulater link
"Then the pirate had better have a freighter of his own nearby capable of carrying the larger cargo containers."

Or maybe you can just make pods destroyable, so the pirates can blow em up just for the sake of being evil pirates.