Forums » Suggestions
capital ships: easy-to-disable-but-nigh-invulnerable
..a lot of this might depend on armoring the capships to make them impervious to small arms (anti-fighter weapons); but I'd like to see large capital ships, HACs especially, become mobile bases that last for a very long time, years even.. they can be "destroyed" just as they are now, but they don't explode....
..after a capship drops to 0% hull, it becomes "dead in the water" (the leaking plasma might die down after a while, to reveal large burns and gaps in her armor) and can be salvaged, repaired, or gutted over the course of many hours.. for example:
- the SMV Nemesis is disabled in Deneb, but all Itani attackers are driven off shortly afterwards.. a recovery team is dispatched from Geira Rutilus to tow it back to the nearest station (moving veeeery slowly) for an extensive refit that might take 12-36 hours or more and involve re-investing a significant amount of its purchase cost in repairs..
- alternately, after the Nemesis is disabled the Serco might be routed from Deneb for long enough for an *Itani* salvage team to drag the burned-out hulk to the nearest Itani station... it might be rebuilt and re-christened the IDV Righteous..
- or, a third option, the CLM might have a significant force in the area; hearing that the Nemesis is down a mighty pirate fleet might descend upon her to whisk the ruined ship off to greyspace.. either to gut her and sell the parts piecemeal, or rebuild her as the CLC Blackjack
...any comments?
..after a capship drops to 0% hull, it becomes "dead in the water" (the leaking plasma might die down after a while, to reveal large burns and gaps in her armor) and can be salvaged, repaired, or gutted over the course of many hours.. for example:
- the SMV Nemesis is disabled in Deneb, but all Itani attackers are driven off shortly afterwards.. a recovery team is dispatched from Geira Rutilus to tow it back to the nearest station (moving veeeery slowly) for an extensive refit that might take 12-36 hours or more and involve re-investing a significant amount of its purchase cost in repairs..
- alternately, after the Nemesis is disabled the Serco might be routed from Deneb for long enough for an *Itani* salvage team to drag the burned-out hulk to the nearest Itani station... it might be rebuilt and re-christened the IDV Righteous..
- or, a third option, the CLM might have a significant force in the area; hearing that the Nemesis is down a mighty pirate fleet might descend upon her to whisk the ruined ship off to greyspace.. either to gut her and sell the parts piecemeal, or rebuild her as the CLC Blackjack
...any comments?
I like it.
[stamp of approval]™
Yea it should take like 10 moths to tow it or something.
Or just 1, but really frackin slow.
10 to engage wormhole!
Or just 1, but really frackin slow.
10 to engage wormhole!
I actually imagine a moth full of EZ-BOOST brand strap-on thrusters to place around the wreck
..maybe just by docking and unloading them, leaving any surviving engineering crew to mount them as needed
..maybe just by docking and unloading them, leaving any surviving engineering crew to mount them as needed
Um, well 10 hours to haul it might be okay... 1 month? are you crazy? I don't even know what will happen to me in one month. If the game progresses that slowly I would become bored of it. It would be easier to build a new capship than do defend one for 1 month.
Also from an RP point of view say 4-5 moths should have enough power to tow the hulk at about 30-40 m/s. Or even 20m/s that still would take waaaay less time than what you gus suggest.
Also from an RP point of view say 4-5 moths should have enough power to tow the hulk at about 30-40 m/s. Or even 20m/s that still would take waaaay less time than what you gus suggest.
I guess it all depends on where this "Repair Station/Ship Yard" is.
It should be possible to repair and refit a damaged capital ship hull on-site, using mobile repair vessels, however it would be far less efficient (and therefore take much longer than) repairing it in a shipyard 'drydock', so unless you're really far from the shipyard, or are unable to tow it there, you would want to do that rather than try to repair it on-site.
[APPROVED]
It would be nice to see some floating dead ship hulls with chunks missing, etc... Realistically, that's more likely than it just simultaneously exploding. Instances of a ship's reactor core going critical and causing an explosion which completely destroys a ship should be VERY rare or intentional. Considering it is very difficult to meticulously dismantle a billion-ton hunk of metal and armor-plating with small arms fire, or even heavy bombings, ships should ne very hard to destroy... destroying the engines, weapons, and even bridge would be trivial in comparison.
[APPROVED]
It would be nice to see some floating dead ship hulls with chunks missing, etc... Realistically, that's more likely than it just simultaneously exploding. Instances of a ship's reactor core going critical and causing an explosion which completely destroys a ship should be VERY rare or intentional. Considering it is very difficult to meticulously dismantle a billion-ton hunk of metal and armor-plating with small arms fire, or even heavy bombings, ships should ne very hard to destroy... destroying the engines, weapons, and even bridge would be trivial in comparison.
I think this should be true for all ships that explode. At least a certain percentage should remain in the sector as a floating hull which should be 'harvestable' for weapons and batteries and if it really is in good shape, it should be possible to repair the ship after you dragged it in the repair station. This way it could be nice to get somewhat more exotic ships.
Malicious:
Small fighters are designed such that they would most likely disintegrate if enough damage was done to them to render them inoperable... remember, these are ships with very little armor, and designed to take a beating before losing critical systems. By the time you lose your engines and life support, there wouldn't be much of a fighter left, since the structural integrity would be compromised to the point of breaking up (the frame of the fighter is the weakest part).
While it would be difficult to destroy a massive carrier outright, it would be equally if nor more difficult to disable a fighter without destroying it. Perhaps damaged components should be salvagable and repairable by crafting eventually, as undamaged components and scrap metal is now.
Small fighters are designed such that they would most likely disintegrate if enough damage was done to them to render them inoperable... remember, these are ships with very little armor, and designed to take a beating before losing critical systems. By the time you lose your engines and life support, there wouldn't be much of a fighter left, since the structural integrity would be compromised to the point of breaking up (the frame of the fighter is the weakest part).
While it would be difficult to destroy a massive carrier outright, it would be equally if nor more difficult to disable a fighter without destroying it. Perhaps damaged components should be salvagable and repairable by crafting eventually, as undamaged components and scrap metal is now.
While interesting that could become a bit complicated, unless it takes lieu of crafting in the game...
I think this thread needs an example:
Think of jet fighters when they get hit... *BBOOOOMM*!!!
Think of a large sea-going vessel (e.g. Titanic, Bismark, etc.)... it's STILL on the bottom of the ocean for us to gawk at 50+ YEARS later.
As for suggestions, how about if a "destroyed" hulk were essentially a dead ship-looking asteroid that could only be mined for scrap metal; hopefully have the graphic change at 50% depletion. That would solve the "exploded ship becomes nicely boxed scrap metal crates" thing. Then we could add some special ship (or ship variant of like the Marauder or Centaur) with no ports but that can tow asteroid objects (including dead capital ships) at 5-10 m/s. If a dead ship is towed to a docking place, it would turn into all its scrap metal AND have the possibility that some of its components (i.e. the engines, bridge, etc.) are salvaged as well. These large components are too large and complicated to reasonably salvage intact in the field. "Returning the ship to service" would operate the same as building a new one, just with fewer parts to add. This suggestion is meant as an addition to crafting.
Think of jet fighters when they get hit... *BBOOOOMM*!!!
Think of a large sea-going vessel (e.g. Titanic, Bismark, etc.)... it's STILL on the bottom of the ocean for us to gawk at 50+ YEARS later.
As for suggestions, how about if a "destroyed" hulk were essentially a dead ship-looking asteroid that could only be mined for scrap metal; hopefully have the graphic change at 50% depletion. That would solve the "exploded ship becomes nicely boxed scrap metal crates" thing. Then we could add some special ship (or ship variant of like the Marauder or Centaur) with no ports but that can tow asteroid objects (including dead capital ships) at 5-10 m/s. If a dead ship is towed to a docking place, it would turn into all its scrap metal AND have the possibility that some of its components (i.e. the engines, bridge, etc.) are salvaged as well. These large components are too large and complicated to reasonably salvage intact in the field. "Returning the ship to service" would operate the same as building a new one, just with fewer parts to add. This suggestion is meant as an addition to crafting.
Zed1985, I hope you realize that's 10 moths, as in "Ten Behemoth-class ships", not "10 months" as in "allmost a friggin' year!!"
Anything that takes more than about 2 hours without significant progress, would probably never get done.
As for the towing, I think it would be great to use some of the same mechanics as the mining beams.
The mass of the thing towed versus the thrust of the towers, determines the speed at whick the towed object would move.
The range of the towing beam would be ... 200 meters? If you go outside 200 meters, then the beam breaks and the towed object stops.
Ofcourse, the stopping part is not because of air resistance in space (there is no such thing), but from the gravitons still in the hull and reactor from when the ship was operational.
Also, on the note of fighters *BOOM*ing and not becoming derilects:
Capital ships are huge shells of armour plating that have alot more empty space inside them than any fighter would have.
There is no walkway from the cocpit of a Centurion to it's engine room, and you probably couldn't close the hatch to the engine compartment if you left your glove in there.
When the fighter blows up, there is no empty space to contain the explosion, and it becomes a basic bomb of its own.
In the Constellation engine "compartment", however, they probably have heavy equipment to move the spare parts around, and large signs that say "CRANE OVERHEAD, WEAR A HELMET!"
There's lots and lots of empty space here and there, that will absorb the blast a bit. Everything in the hallways (or whatever) will be burned to a crisp, and the hull will probably rupture in several places, but it won't all become shrapnel.
Figher -> *BOOM* -> Shrapnel
Capship -> *BOOM* -> "What the [beep] was that?" -> *HUUUGE BOOM* -> Derilect spacecraft
Anything that takes more than about 2 hours without significant progress, would probably never get done.
As for the towing, I think it would be great to use some of the same mechanics as the mining beams.
The mass of the thing towed versus the thrust of the towers, determines the speed at whick the towed object would move.
The range of the towing beam would be ... 200 meters? If you go outside 200 meters, then the beam breaks and the towed object stops.
Ofcourse, the stopping part is not because of air resistance in space (there is no such thing), but from the gravitons still in the hull and reactor from when the ship was operational.
Also, on the note of fighters *BOOM*ing and not becoming derilects:
Capital ships are huge shells of armour plating that have alot more empty space inside them than any fighter would have.
There is no walkway from the cocpit of a Centurion to it's engine room, and you probably couldn't close the hatch to the engine compartment if you left your glove in there.
When the fighter blows up, there is no empty space to contain the explosion, and it becomes a basic bomb of its own.
In the Constellation engine "compartment", however, they probably have heavy equipment to move the spare parts around, and large signs that say "CRANE OVERHEAD, WEAR A HELMET!"
There's lots and lots of empty space here and there, that will absorb the blast a bit. Everything in the hallways (or whatever) will be burned to a crisp, and the hull will probably rupture in several places, but it won't all become shrapnel.
Figher -> *BOOM* -> Shrapnel
Capship -> *BOOM* -> "What the [beep] was that?" -> *HUUUGE BOOM* -> Derilect spacecraft