Forums » Suggestions

The return of the ever growing toys thread.

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Jul 29, 2003 UncleDave link
Kinda like stealth/cloaking on today's ships :P
Jul 29, 2003 Phaserlight link
Once solid object occlusion is in, 'roids will block your radar signature anyway.
Jul 31, 2003 toshiro link
now, if any of these have been listed before, just ignore them, or, if you ike, tell me that i am an ignorant man. i have read the entire post and havent found these, soi posted them.

tractor beam; s port; turreted; 20 energy/s; ranged (300 m), albeit decaying power with increasing distance; instantaneous or very quick.
it could be used to pull in floating cargo while standing still, or to hold back fighters when you want to pummel them with your guns.
of course fighters can break free if at a certain range, and Newtons third law of motion would apply, i.e. actio=reactio.
if your ship is much smaller than the other (imagine a freighter and a mid-sized cap ship) you could "hook up" and let yourself be carried around by the large ship.

larger versions of this weapon require larger ports, more energy, and more money (tug a station =)

physical resupply/refuel tube, L port, ranged (50 m), expendable ammo type (like, 5 shots, then it has to be rearmed for lotsa money).
sort of like modern airborne refueling systems for transports and bombers, e.g. for rearming purposes for a greater fee, quicker battery reload

physical hacking wire, S port, ranged (10 m), expendable ammo type (as above).
you shoot this at a ship while cloaked (cloaking is almost a must for this), thus it has to be a FDC weapon. as soon as you're hooked up, you can hack into the ships comm system weapons system etc. it requires your ship to be flown at the same flight path as the other (traktor beam useful), else it disconneccts and you are detcted.
like in uplink, you could buy upgrades, say, at level one, you could be detected with a 30% chance when hooking up, level 2 20% and so on, increasing prices (of course)

cloaked missiles (damage like the weakest homing missile, agility a little higher, speed a little higher). if anyone of you ever played wing commander 3, you'll know what i mean. they skip out of cloak every other second to maintain contact with their targets and can be destroyed, sort of like a mine/missile mixture.
during the time they are cloaked, they simply follow the path they calculated before, so every second they're thrown off for a bit, but will reacquire target.

chaffs/flares taken out, read the other post about it...

a rear-mounted turret with a conical or semi-spherical range of action (flying fortress turret type), auto-targeting, auto-firing, requires extra battery and weapons to be equipped (separate energy source). L port, and maybe special ship types (that are not cap ships) with turret battery slots or something would be in order.

paint jobs! paint jobs! paint jobs! all of you who know EV:Nova know what i mean. i want to be able to choose the colour of my ship. in NWN (and most other MMORPGs) you can choose the exterior appearance of your avatar (heck you can even choose the size of the chest in THPS4 iirc), and i want that too.
i see problems with the graphic engine making these paint jobs scratchable, so maybe a no-good-wish. it's my right to dream tho =)

disabling taken out due to diminishing ignorance

you did read until here? see where studying for my exams in september gets me? grr...
Jul 31, 2003 Phaserlight link
toshiro: sweeeet.....
/me drools :)~

• Hacking wire is a great idea! I think this one oughta be added to the master list. Perhaps this would be the opportunity you wanted to steal a few credits from an opponent.

Tractor beam has already been suggested. see #72.

• Resupply tube: neato! One question: where would you hook this thing up to? A station? It would be cool to be able to resupply/restock/repair without having to dock. Great time saver for traders!
Would it hook up to other special refueling ships? This option may not work as well. Which ships could it hook up to? Does the refueling ship need the consent of its target to refuel? Is a "quicker battery reload" really worth an expensive/expendable resupply tube? Imho, this option creates too many unanswered questions and would be "kludgy."

•Cloaked missiles: :)~........

•Rear mounted turret: :)~

Paint jobs are also already on the list. See #88 and #89.

A few other "toys" I would like to see on the list:

•Tether: a low-tech version of the tractor beam. Fires a solid grappling tether with a 50m range that can be used to tow other ships. See thread:

http://vendetta.guildsoftware.com/?action=msgboard&thread=2052&page=4

•Mining Laser: similar to the Mining Drone launcher (#34), except less expensive and a little more effecient. Fires a laser with a 10m range that can be used to mine widgets from asteroids. See thread:

http://vendetta.guildsoftware.com/?action=msgboard&thread=1838&page=7

•Laser Boomerang: (S) - 4,900 cr
Energy: 60
Speed: 160 m/s
Damage: 1600
Proximity: contact
Explosive Radius: none
Range: 1.5s*
Repeat: 2s
Ammo: 1* (900cr/shot)
*Special: Fires a re-usable bot that flies straight ahead for 1.5 seconds and then returns to the firing ship as a smart homer. If the bot hits the target, it dissapates 1600 damage into the target and immediately flies back to the firing ship to recharge. Minimum refire rate is 2s (so if you caught the bot at the outward end of its orbit, you would still have to wait .5 seconds before firing it again.)

a1k0n likes this one! :D See thread:

http://vendetta.guildsoftware.com/?action=msgboard&thread=2104&page=3

So any chance these will be added to the master list?
/me looks at Celebrim hopefully
Jul 31, 2003 HumpyThePenguin link
ack you stole my tether! Bad you!
next will be my flak cannon and my PCC!
Jul 31, 2003 Celebrim link
Ok, hmmm...

Hacking Wire: I don't particularly like it for two reasons. One, I prefer that hacking be done 'wireless'. Two, I don't like any sort of 'attack' which you can't defend yourself against with _player_ rather than _character_ skill. For this reason I don't like boarding/hacking/theft/etc. So I'm more inclined to limit 'hacking' to use of the 'scanner' (#17) described above. That's sort of like hacking, in that it gives you information you wouldn't have otherwise, but it doesn't involve as klunky of an interface or creation of an extra object in the sector (the wire). And 'scanning' the contents of a ship is alot different than being able to take control of it or to steal those contents. As for the comm system, the 'Radio Scanner' (#52) provides a more robust means of hacking that without even needing to be near whoever is broadcasting. However, it might be cool to have a variation (listening device launcher?) on the homing becon launcher (#55) which made listening to the enemies radio chatter easier.

Resupply Tube: Cool idea, but what are you resupplying? Why not just 'jettison' the stuff (with a more robust jettison command)? If you need direct ship to ship transfer of a widget, I'd prefer a 'courier drone' (#53). Simply having a drone (basically a homing missile) flying back and forth between the two ships seems simplier to me and probably more like the way cargo would usually be transfered between ships.

Cloak Missiles: I'm really just indifferent to this idea. If it wouldn't be much trouble or bandwidth to implement, then cool. If not, don't bother.

Rear Firing Turret: I'm all for it, but I want to implement turrets differently. Basically, I'd like ships to have 'Turret Slots' just like they have small and large weapon slots. For some ships, turrets are just too abusable. There is alot of discussion on turret behavior in the archives if anyone is interested in hunting it down.

Paint Jobs: I like this idea, see #88 and #89. Note that fully customizable paint jobs probably consume too much bandwidth (not to mention raise moderator issues), but it would be nice if there was some degree of custimization.

Tether: Of all the wire/tube/cable ideas, I like this one the best. However, its only really needed if ships can be heavily disabled, and I'm not sure I really like that. Also, the physics of a wire conecting two moving objects is I would think pretty complex, so implementation would depend on how complex it would be to render such an object. A tractor beam is probably a better and more flexible solution overall.

Mining Laser: Been discussed before (as you know) and I still like the idea. I just like mining drones better. But if we can have both, then great!

Laser Boomerang: I concur with a1k0n, it is a good idea, but I'm not thrilled with the name. I'd prefer to call it a 'hunter killer drone' (or something). It should have a reasonably large prox radius, since I prefer to think of its as dumping a mini-gatling weapon or other energy attack into the target (since a literal laser boomerang seems to much like anime magic-tech.) Also, it should consume energy like a charge cannon for 2 seconds after returning (while its powering up), but cost no energy to hold the weapon powered. Also, I think it needs more range and a little less speed but I'm not certain enough of the balance to make exact suggestions. Finally, what happens to the drone if it can't get back to you after a certain time? Does it only run out of fuel on the way out, or sometimes on the way back if you happen to turbo off and leave it?



Jul 31, 2003 Phaserlight link
.....about the "Laser Boomerang"; I hear you all the way, Celebrim. After all, this isn't Star Wars. The Devs seem to favor quasi-scientific weaponry, so how about calling it the "Pulse Bot Launcher." The Pulse Bot would store a large charge of ionized particles from the ship's battery, kind of like a capacitor. It would work by riding a focused magnetic field generated by the firing ship, and by releasing its charge into the target the bot would reverse polarity and ride the magnetic field back to the firing ship. (Effectively, it would fly straight out as a rocket and get drawn back as a smart homer)

When charged, the Pulse-Bot itself could look sort of like a crazy-jack firework (I'm really attached to the whole spinning thing) and when it got within 20m or so of its target it would release a large (red?) lightning bolt into the target... *KZAP*

If it does have a prox radius then I agree the speed needs to be slower.... say 100m/s? With a range of 4s perhaps. The thing about this weapon is that you can't fire it again until you get it back and charge it up, so giving it a long range might actually be somewhat of a disadvantage.

On its way back, the bot would never run out of fuel since it's riding a magnetic field back into the ship, but if it got beyond a certain range it would be lost (600m or so). If after 4 seconds the bot hadn't hit anything it would automatically dissapate its charge in order to reverse polarity and head back to the ship.
Aug 03, 2003 toshiro link
celebrim:
i understand your point of view on stealing. i am basically fine with the scanner hack, i was only extending the idea (to what suits me... i prefer thieving :). so i think, thieving is part of many RPGs, why shouldn't it be part of this one.
i agree with you that a player should be able to defend her or himself actively against it, depending on player skills instead of making this a "success percentage" dependant thingamabob.
the phsyical line resembles hacking better, btw. if you know Ghost in the Shell (the manga!) you know what i'm talking about, especially because of the second volume, called man machine interface. there, you have a scene with two submarines, one driven by our beloved protagonist, the other being hacked, and she uses a hard line, because that minimizes detection probability.
the possibilities of the hacking line could be limited, the stealing was basically just an idea, and i'm happy to be criticized (after all, critics force me to be more careful).

on paint jobs: i agree with the moderator issues thingy (me imagines pr0n paint jobs). i missed that this had been posted in the big post (well, outfits there are hard to miss. it's almost unreadable the way it is now. please put a one-line space between things next time. worth the space.

on the resupply tube:
i imagine merchant ships with ports for the tube, and you could buy widgets, weapons and refill your batteries (supply and demand). it would add to the rpg aspect IMO, as people could become real merchants, putting up moveable stores.
the courier drone is an interesting thing, especially if the drone could be hijacked and looted. it's pretty much the same thing as the tube, as the ships would have to be in a certain constellation for the time they are exchanging drones.

about the turrets, you are absolutely right. for most ships, it wouldn't make sense to have a turret anyway (anything lighter than a hornet, basically. again, think Wing Commander... the hornet pretty much resembles the thunderbolt in appearance, sluggishness and armaments).
the L port thing was written without much thinking.

on the thether: why does it have to be a line, couldn't it be some sort of grapple arms that hold the ships together tightly, some sort of bridge? that way, ships could be linked together (maybe only two, to keep it realistic), forming a bigger ship. if any of you have read black magic by M. Shirow, there are two submarine vessels that are able to link together as well, adding the one ship's engine power to the other, as well as the armaments. combined with the turret idea, this could make for a very versatile way of fighting, imagine a bomber (with player-operated turrets) hooking up with a fighter, the agility would be somewhere in-between.
or a fighter linking with a trader to boost faster from enemies, who in turn, link to hunt...
Aug 04, 2003 UncleDave link
Uh... do we really want a transformapowerranger massive 12-ship... thing flying across the universe?
Aug 04, 2003 toshiro link
that's why i would limit the number of ships you could couple to 2.
i think it'd be cool, but your point is a valid one, it's probably more of a wish than of a real suggestion...
Aug 05, 2003 ctishman link
This is more of a plot element than a weapon, and it is most certainly not a toy.

Controlled Pulsar Core (CPC): A pulsar is the ultracompacted core of a collapsed star. Taken from this region, a sample with the volume of a teaspoon would weigh as much as Earth's moon. The CPC uses forcefields to fling a baseball-sized pellet of pulsar at (or more accurately, through) the targeted planet or station. Use upon ships is, given the difficulty of controlling a pulsar economically impractical. While the initial impact might seem minor, the shock wave is quite simply an Extinction Level Event. This weapon is to the age of Vendetta as flat out nuclear war is to ours. The technology behind its manufacture and maintenance is tightly controlled, and governments that have it pray to whatever God they've chosen that nobody else ever gets ahold of one. If anyone did, they could hold any system in the galaxy at their mercy.
Aug 05, 2003 Phaserlight link
OOoooOooO.... very cool/scary idea, ctishman! I like the concept..... smashing a planet with a baseball with the mass of Mars. Muahahahaha. Would be a very neat plot device/mission thread.

.......now this is the part where Celebrim comes in and explains why it would wreak havoc on a persistent universe :(
Aug 05, 2003 toshiro link
it needs not being integrated in the game as a weapon. as ctishman said, it could be a plot element, causing a universe-wide struggle for or against one nation holding such a power.
there could be a deadline at which certain missions that involve fleet-sized attack numbers (and coordination) would have to be accomplished, the nation would have to earn money (by trading) to support the military units (who have no time to trade to make a living), else a planet dies or whatever.

thus, it wouldn't destabilize the universe but rather give some incentive for real "patriotism" within factions (realistically speaking: a nation can *not* survive without a proper (albeit not too high) percentage of patriotic people. foreign threats are an ideal way of creating such patriotism, as has been proven by the history of mankind).

i like the idea of an intergalactical war... in the game.
Feb 11, 2004 Celebrim link
Uncledave: Is it? I assume you are talking of the 'Electron Flux Pod'. I forget which ideas were first mine, and which ideas I got from other people. I appologize for not giving people any credit, but often times I draw on lots of sources and I can't really recall who the original authors were. Please don't ask me to take note cards.

All I can say is that in every case the implementation is all mine, even if the idea was inspired by reading elsewhere. I might have been inspired to fix the problem I had with holes in the turret coverage (posted the second day after the frigate was introduced) by half-remembering your idea, or it could very well been an earlier or latter post by someone else (who might have been thinking about your idea). All I know is that I was thinking about that problem some time ago (some long time ago), and decided that the 'lightning shield' was the best solution I had yet thought of. I might just have easily been inspired by the 'engine wash' on Star Wars/X-Wing type games, because that is what it seems most similar to me to.

If you can link to the original thread, and you really want credit, I'll credit you.
Feb 11, 2004 UncleDave link
Oh yeah, Id like to state that the lightning mine shield thingy credited to Celebrim was in fact my idea, as is evident from my post in there somewhere :p
Feb 11, 2004 Celebrim link
*bump*

We were getting so many suggestions for 'gizmos', I thought I'd bump my collected list. Since its been a long time since I modified it, there are probably 20-30 good ideas that people have made since it was last edited. If you had an idea I liked and want to see it on the list, post a link to the thread or repost the idea here. Or if you've got a completely new idea post away.

As always, see my 'sensors', 'armor', 'turrets', and 'taking all my toys and going home' (capital ships) threads for more details.
Feb 11, 2004 Ceadda link
Wow, I'm shocked... no Andromeda fans? :-D

Anyway, I watched like, 3 episodes of that show ever, and.. well, just one weapon to mention cause its just plain fun :)

Point Singularity Projector

Fires a micro-singularity through the target, ripping massive holes through everything it comes withing about 10 meters of...
Feb 11, 2004 UncleDave link
Lol, I dont really mind, Ive just heard "Celebrim's lightning mine shield" a lot, and wanted to set things straight. You are the god at coming up with ideas here, and people credit a lot of ideas to you, and forget who did what.

Anyway, this is pointless, doesnt matter. On with the toys.
Jul 05, 2004 oninoshiko link
Ceadda: the "point cingularity weapon" from "Andromida" (or, as I like to call it "Herculese in Space" (hehe Kevin Sorbo)) is certinly not an original concept, "Mobile Battleship Nadisco" had a similer weapon (the capt. refers to it as "the walking stick," but the description is the same, it fires micro-black-holes.)

I dont know how it would affect the plot, but because a wormhole is two points in 4D space which are folded such that they touch in 5+D space and gravity is mearly the curviture of 4D space across 5+D space, wormhole would be HEAVILY affectied by a micro-black-hole.

another note for a released version, someone might take a look at "Cowboy Beobop"'s gate system, which operates like an intersteller tollway. to keep the amount of funds people have under control.

someone also might consider putting a "cap" on the amount of Creds that can be in circulation.

Oct 23, 2004 Magus link
*BUMP*