Forums » Suggestions
Medics and Repairing Ships
Well as most, or some of you may know, I've been flying around B8 with repair guns as of late. There are a few things I still think should be tweeked about how the game handles repairing ships.
1. Repair Beam vs. Repair (Charged) Cannon
Personally, I'd much rather see a beam that locks onto the ship and stays attached as long as I'm within 100m of the ship for the repair to take place. This would eliminate the confusion of the pilot being repaired thinking he/she is under fire, even though the screen flashes blue. The beam could draw power from the repairing ship to maintain the beam and have different rates of repair.
At the same time, there is a place for the repair cannon. When your not healing those who only like to duel, and are in a group situation or massive battle, it's not as easy to get close enough to get a lock or they are too fast to maintain a 100m distance. Being able to fire a charged blast that delivers anywhere from 400-3400 points of armor is a good thing to have available.
2. Ammo and Repair
When I first started using the repair cannon, I thought it was like any other weapon, though I didn't read the specs, and that it was a point-n-shoot. Doing it this way you only deliver 400 points per shot and can go though your reseve of 30 shots pretty quick. Then after someone made the comment to "charge" the shot did I realize the potential for the cannon. By charging the shot you do have a much longer repair time vs. reload time, but there still is the need to reload.
My suggestions here is not a new one, but one that I've thought about and makes much more sense IMO. When you buy a repair beam or cannon, it does not come with ammo but instead is merely a nanite replications/distribution device. You then have to decide which type of nanites to use. Each type of repair nanite would require a different type of "nanofeed" to replicate its self. The better the "nanofeed" the better the repair amount (either through points per second via beam, or, points per shot via the cannon). Then once you have your nanite selected you could then fill your hold and have as much ammo as your cargo hold will allow, and allow you to collect "nanofeed" from your enviornment instread of having to reload at a station, unless you wanted to switch your nanite type. Types of "nanofeed" could include the actual Nanofeed widget its self, or collected ores from local asteroids, to other types of trade widgets since nanites are indiscriminate eaters as long as there is metal to be used.
3. Repair Specific Vessels (Varients)
Again, I know this has been mentioned before, but I thought it was time to bring it up again in a different context. Ports, there needs to be more "types" of ports available on ships, other then just weapons. It only does a disservice to the different varients to have everything based off of a weapons port. If your base ship style (MkI) is a trade vessel it should obviously have a weapons port (s/l) and should have some kind of equipment port (s/l), then when you take it and make a second variant, say for mining (MkII) it should be given more equipment ports and less if any weapons ports at all. Same goes for repair equipment. If you take a Centaur and make a new Mark Four (MkIV) specifically for repair, giving it better armor,thrust, and torque then any of the others. Give it a fairly nice cargo hold of say 30 (lower then any previous mark) and only equip it with 1sw 2le (sw=small weapon port & le=large equipment port), it's stats can't be taken advantage of as a fighter because the configurability of the variant has been neutralized for weapons and is now only good for for repair beams/cannons, or possibly mining equipment, unless someone really wants to fight in a centaur with only one small port weapon..
By dividing the ports up more, the variants will start to actually reflect the descriptions that are given to them, whether it be "Basic", "Assault", "Light Assault", "Armored Assault", "Cargo", "Increased Hold", "Mining", "Upgraded", or "Elite". Those that fall under the "Assault" category should have minimal to no Equipment Ports, and those with the "Cargo" or "Mining" should have minimal to no Weapons Ports at all. The "Upgraded", "Elite" should vary depending on the variant of the original mark and should follow the previous two descriptions as needed.
It would also be nice to see a new model ship designed specificly with the Medic/Mechanic in mind, possibly with a "+" or cross to show that it is specifically a medical vessel. This could have no weapons ports on it at all.
1. Repair Beam vs. Repair (Charged) Cannon
Personally, I'd much rather see a beam that locks onto the ship and stays attached as long as I'm within 100m of the ship for the repair to take place. This would eliminate the confusion of the pilot being repaired thinking he/she is under fire, even though the screen flashes blue. The beam could draw power from the repairing ship to maintain the beam and have different rates of repair.
At the same time, there is a place for the repair cannon. When your not healing those who only like to duel, and are in a group situation or massive battle, it's not as easy to get close enough to get a lock or they are too fast to maintain a 100m distance. Being able to fire a charged blast that delivers anywhere from 400-3400 points of armor is a good thing to have available.
2. Ammo and Repair
When I first started using the repair cannon, I thought it was like any other weapon, though I didn't read the specs, and that it was a point-n-shoot. Doing it this way you only deliver 400 points per shot and can go though your reseve of 30 shots pretty quick. Then after someone made the comment to "charge" the shot did I realize the potential for the cannon. By charging the shot you do have a much longer repair time vs. reload time, but there still is the need to reload.
My suggestions here is not a new one, but one that I've thought about and makes much more sense IMO. When you buy a repair beam or cannon, it does not come with ammo but instead is merely a nanite replications/distribution device. You then have to decide which type of nanites to use. Each type of repair nanite would require a different type of "nanofeed" to replicate its self. The better the "nanofeed" the better the repair amount (either through points per second via beam, or, points per shot via the cannon). Then once you have your nanite selected you could then fill your hold and have as much ammo as your cargo hold will allow, and allow you to collect "nanofeed" from your enviornment instread of having to reload at a station, unless you wanted to switch your nanite type. Types of "nanofeed" could include the actual Nanofeed widget its self, or collected ores from local asteroids, to other types of trade widgets since nanites are indiscriminate eaters as long as there is metal to be used.
3. Repair Specific Vessels (Varients)
Again, I know this has been mentioned before, but I thought it was time to bring it up again in a different context. Ports, there needs to be more "types" of ports available on ships, other then just weapons. It only does a disservice to the different varients to have everything based off of a weapons port. If your base ship style (MkI) is a trade vessel it should obviously have a weapons port (s/l) and should have some kind of equipment port (s/l), then when you take it and make a second variant, say for mining (MkII) it should be given more equipment ports and less if any weapons ports at all. Same goes for repair equipment. If you take a Centaur and make a new Mark Four (MkIV) specifically for repair, giving it better armor,thrust, and torque then any of the others. Give it a fairly nice cargo hold of say 30 (lower then any previous mark) and only equip it with 1sw 2le (sw=small weapon port & le=large equipment port), it's stats can't be taken advantage of as a fighter because the configurability of the variant has been neutralized for weapons and is now only good for for repair beams/cannons, or possibly mining equipment, unless someone really wants to fight in a centaur with only one small port weapon..
By dividing the ports up more, the variants will start to actually reflect the descriptions that are given to them, whether it be "Basic", "Assault", "Light Assault", "Armored Assault", "Cargo", "Increased Hold", "Mining", "Upgraded", or "Elite". Those that fall under the "Assault" category should have minimal to no Equipment Ports, and those with the "Cargo" or "Mining" should have minimal to no Weapons Ports at all. The "Upgraded", "Elite" should vary depending on the variant of the original mark and should follow the previous two descriptions as needed.
It would also be nice to see a new model ship designed specificly with the Medic/Mechanic in mind, possibly with a "+" or cross to show that it is specifically a medical vessel. This could have no weapons ports on it at all.