With the addition of the repair "kit" on friday, the game has taken a huge step in the direction of teamwork. Now for an idea to take it a bit further.

What if there was a L-port item that allowed you to reload another ships ammo weapons. not your own, just someone elses. You could store ammo as cargo, and you would have to have ammunition of the appropriate type to reload someone.

...and if it gets blown up, it should go BOOOM like some of the transport and volatile chemical bots do.

lol i was just thinking that a centaur with a repair kit and a reload kit would be the best thing since sliced bread for a group combat.

park it a sector away and leave it a fighter escort, it provides a great support role.

Outstanding idea.
How would dispersal of munitions be handled? Use an 'ammo kit' or jettison crates of ammo for pickup? -or both, and how would a uni-ammo system work...or simply, projectile ammo, or missile ammo, etc....with the ability to balance the loadout.

I was thinking that with a "ammo reload kit" you would be given access to buying all ammo types in the game. You then purchase them and they are stored in your cargo hold (they show up as cargo?). When someone needs more ammo, you get to within 5 to 10 M of them and "fire" the ammo reload kit at them. their ship knows what ammo it needs, so if you have ammo of the appropriate type, it leaves your cargo bay and appears on their ship. I'm thinking a transfer rate of about 30 seconds to reload most weapons to full from nothing.

I'm also guessing that different missiles would have different amounts per cargospace.

I dont like the idea of "jettisoning" an ammo reload into space. it seems wrong somehow. After all, just running over a missile wont get it positioned correctly in a launcher. i'm thinking the reloader is more of a robotic arm type deal.

Automated reload system - I like it!
Battles could take on quite the twist with this new secondary target to take out (ammo transport)
Not to mention the intensity of the fighting would go up a few notches, with an imminent reload nearby.
Good stuff.

could also allow for completly empty systems, that have some very valuable bots in them, you could base your operations out there in a group mission with a small army of repair and rearm ships sitting in an empty sector while the rest of the group bots.

I think a gun that fires specialized "ammo widgets" which automatically reload your weapons would be nice. The widget can have a little symbol on the side of it to indicate what it is.
Didn't the game used to have special powerups anyway? We could recylce the old icons and add new ones.

the powerups were more consistent with the gameplay of a FPS than an RPG. Vendetta is neither, but as far as outfitting, reloading and repairing ships goes, i personally am more fond of the RPG aspect than a FPS style setup.

You mean something like the "Mid-flight-refuel" thing in the old NES "Top Gun" game.
Ragnarok extends ammo tube.
Vulture delicately approaches as .5 m/s.
Vulture jerks to far to the left and wingbugs.
Game Over. :P

There are probably 5 or 6 people here that get that.

I think the real name for ammo reload ship is...

... frigate.

asphy =)

Let's see how well the repair gun works in game. I think if the repair goes smoothly then there is a framework in place to add the reloading guns.

would this support ship not gonna make you stay in space forever?
now there is gonna be a repair device you can stay longer in space but when you get your ammo reloaded time after time you can be in space forever, was that not something the devs didn't wanted?

webserver, whilst this repair/ammo ship does technically mean you can stay in space forever, you definately wont get much trading done =)

Besides, this just seems to be a technical prerequisite to cap-ships.

I for one hope they allow ammo to be handled as cargo. This would mean capships can hold stockpiles of ammo etc. Would be great for large space battles

asphy

You won't be able to stay in space for long, and logistically, it's just not feasable to have a support ship out there to maintain just one ship. This is intended as support in the middle of a battle for a big squadron.

exactly magus.

1 or 2 support ships could keep an squadron of 5 or 6 fighters in the battle much longer, and rearm them a lot faster. Because you could base the support ship in an empty sector near where your teammates will be warping in when they need repaired, getting to it and away would take significantly less time than going back to a station. (no 3k distance to fly from roids)

Plus, you could switch location of the rearming group after a set interval, making detection far less likely. In any case, you need one or two fighter escorts for the rearming group, diminishing the actual force of the entire group could bring to effect.