Reading Shape's post on the frustrations of the Pirates life inspired me to conceptualize the following:

(s) Pirate Tracking Drone
- Proximity TBD m
- Weight, not much

Basically a modified proximity missle. If it hits the targeted ship sends a message to the pirate who fired it Sector/Hull/etc status for 15? minutes, or until a station is entered.

Thoughts?

[edit]

(s) Energy sink
another modified proximity missle. Reduces targets battery recharge by X.

(L) Energy sink Mine
same thing in mine form.

Bump.

Thinking of the energy sinks reminding me of the scene in the Incredibles where Mr. Incredible gets shot with glue blobs that slow him down.

Alright now are either of these suggestions worth thinking about?

I agree with the principle of energy sinks. I was going to reply to Shape's post with the idea of a disruptor missile that simply made turboing impossible for a while. As long as only human players have such weapons, I think they would make things much, much more fun.

I never mind being pirated. Those are some of the funnest moments in the game.

Also, these kinds of things would allow taxing at jump points, and will make it possible for clans to "own" sectors by effectively patrolling the jump points.

And (not sure if it does this already or not) allow mining beams to be used on Players.

That plus a autofollow target command would be a cool way to pirate a ship or collect taxes ;). <sluuuurp>

Might also be nice if there was some sort of antidote that higher-level traders could buy for these things. Maybe some kind of temporary disabling device too, which might stop working if the ship gets fired on...

similar to glueblob: The Cargo of Sudden Expanding Mass.
Pirate: how did this get so friggin heavy...

hmm.... a drone reporting sector status.... Mybe a typo on doubled's part, but imagine if a pirate could carry a drone in their cargo bay, jettison it (or launch it from an L-port, like a mine), then LEAVE THE SECTOR; and the drone would continue transmitting??

I imagine it would be a lot easier to find prey if you could search 3-5 sectors at once...

oh, Cool Idea:: maybe a trader jumps into a sector with one of these, and gets a message "Uh-Oh! sensor drone detected... you have 10 seconds to destroy it before it gets off a message"

Reminds me of Star Control II with the Vux Intruder. They fired out homing "leeches" that stuck to your ship and interfered with your engines and maneuvering thrusters. So if you got shot with it a lot, you were practically stuck on your original vector until you smashed into a planet or something.