Forums » Suggestions

Some Suggestions

May 01, 2003 SyberSmoke link
Hello,

I find the game fun and I use it to relax after I get upset. I just like trading...but I have found that with the latest upgrades, that has become harder. Especialy on the more lucrative routes. One thing I have found that makes it this way is having to wate till your batteries are charged before you can jump. So my suggestion is not to remove that. But to allow players with a certain amount of power to make an Emergency Jump. Something so that after you have goten to the gate you can get out of dodge with out having a missle or red hot energy cramed up your tail pipe. Or certain ships have that ability where as the others do not.

Second, I might sugest that there be some sort of poliec force...computer controled of coarse. The idea is a player who has been pirated can put in a complaint. Enough complaints that match the logs gets the offending player in trouble. Say cops and a fine. More complaints, they get a harsher punishment...banishment for some time frame. Now of coarse the offending player can try to dodge the cops. So staying away from them increases there bounty some. What do you think?

SyberSmoke
May 01, 2003 Whistler link
What would the consequences of making an "emergency jump" be?
May 01, 2003 Cmdr. Freeman link
Reducing the limit to 50%-75% has been batted about as a thought, but nothing has come yet.
I'm in favor of setting the limit at 75%
May 01, 2003 Celebrim link
I'm still in favor of fuel but no one else is.
May 01, 2003 Nihm link
LOL, I would never EVER want fuel, fuel is obsolete... Recharging battery power is the future....

Second, I dont like the AI-Police idea, that would ruin the game IMO, someone does somethiing bad and they get a fine? This isn't Earth-Society contolled space, this is a Free-for all war against three different nations...
May 01, 2003 SyberSmoke link
Ahh but the idea is they are only fined if they are caught. If your not caught your not fined. As for the jump cost...not to sure. But having your battery capacity reduced to 75% of norm would be good. Then you need to goto a station to get them fixed.
May 01, 2003 Suicidal Lemming link
Ehem, read the thread that continues info on the "void", i want it implemented.

Recharging should be slowed down a bit, but if you point at the sun it will double the rate, it would be perfect for charging up the 'charged cannons'
May 01, 2003 haywired link
How about... bounty hunter bots? Or bots you can hire to go and get someone? I'm not sure on prices though. Also, if this idea runs, how about multiple skill levels of these bots, like cheap bots are easy, average priced bots are med, etc.

I am in favour of the fuel idea also, but we would need a 'ramscoop' (like from EV) to slowly recharge your fuel. It would have to be slow.

OR... fuel & battery! I'm not sure about balancing this though, didn't Ares (Ambrosia SW) have something like this?
May 01, 2003 SyberSmoke link
I kind of like the idea of the Bots. As for Fuel...I don't know about that. I think I like how it is right now. I mean not having to gas up is a good idea. Though may be you have like anothewr stsem with fuel that boosts your recharge rate or something. No that's to much like Terminus.
May 01, 2003 Pyro link
Actually, EVx had the same supply for weapon and jump energy, but there were only a few weapons that used energy. It was a great setup, though... And the amount of fuel it used depended on your ship. It was set at 100 units per jump, meaning small fighters would have 2 jumps, while capital ships would have 10 or so, and my uber-Raven had about 25 or 30 jumps, could jump up to 10 times as if it were one, and had an insanely fast recharge rate, meaning that by the time I was done with a jump my battery was nice and topped off... >:D
May 01, 2003 Usafunrunner link
I would rather have the ability to pay an amount to put a larger bounty on a person's head if they are causing problems. ie pay 1000cr to get an added 1000 bounty. Once a character gets a high enough bounty, more players will be out to collect.
May 01, 2003 Celebrim link
"It was set at 100 units per jump, meaning small fighters would have 2 jumps, while capital ships would have 10 or so, and my uber-Raven had about 25 or 30 jumps..."

While I don't want to do away with the batteries, its exactly this issue that I think having fuel addresses. If you don't have fuel, basically the whole universe is open to exploration on one tank of gas. That has an upside as far as a player is concerned, in that that is one less restriction he has, but it seems a downside to me from a world builder perspective.

Not having fuel also prevents us from selling gizmos (like ram scoops or fuel efficient engines) that give you advantages with regards to fuel consumption.

And ideally, fuel capacity would depend on cargo size increasing the interest of trading (in that each jump or two would mean one less widget you could carry without refueling), and giving cargo heavy ships real operational military advantages - increased range.
May 02, 2003 perfect tommy link
Celebrim-- "Not having fuel also prevents us from selling gizmos (like ram scoops or fuel efficient engines) that give you advantages with regards to fuel consumption."

This argument's pretty silly though. That's akin to saying "Not having guns prevents us from getting to treat gunshot wounds!" What's the advantage to creating more inventory items? Just "more is better?"

I'm torn on the fuel idea. Seems it could get to being a huge problem if the "10000+" sectors idea pans out...
May 02, 2003 Celebrim link
Imagine we had teleporters that let us transport ourselves and our cargos anywhere to anywhere else instantly.

That would prevent us from selling engines, gizmos that make engines work better, and even probably the whole idea of space ships.

You don't think of the fact that we have to travel from point to point at finite speeds as a limitation imposed by the designers, but it is. In every game there is a rules set imposing strict limits on what the player can do. Queens can't jump. Knights can only move in a somewhat awkward fashion. Pawns cannot capture peices directly in front of them. Without those restrictions the game has no strategy. It in fact stops being a game at all.

If batteries provided infinite power, then we couldn't provide gizmos that increased power storage, or gizmos that refreshed power more quickly, or even just better batteries. What is the point of offering gizmos? Well, if we restrict players with small number of 'gizmo' slots available on a ship, and provide a rather large number of gizmos then we are again adding another restriction that will force the player to adopt a strategy.
May 02, 2003 Cmdr. Freeman link
Well, Celebrim, I see what you're saying and what perfect tommy is saying - it's a matter of finding the right balance - more gadgets isn't always better.

Personally, I think fuel isn't the best idea - cutomizable ship subsystems such as sensors and navigation should be added first.
May 02, 2003 Renegade ++RIP++ link
me wonders if the game will be a RPG or a strategy game.

In a RPG, you have food, but you can stock up on that and you can wonder around endlessly, there will always be some kind where you can pick up some extra food if needed

But in a strategie, you need to plan every little step where and when you are going to eat/use the food.

Last time I checked , they were planning of making a massive Multiplayer RPG not a massive multiplayer strategy game

I rest my case.

Besides, if they do want that in, then it will come oin, whatever we say. So I'm just going to see what they'll do, but I prefer that it wouldn't be an obstruction of scouting, or if they do it, giving the Itanis a kind of advantage in it "we ae scouters for godsake :D".

cheers
May 02, 2003 Celebrim link
You mean there isn't any 'strategy' and problem solving involved in RPG's? You mean that success in RPG's doesn't usually involve carefully hordoing your resources?

Have you played Fallout? Have you play Planescape: Torment? What have you played?

I demand an appeal. ;)

Seriously, I see what you are saying. There is some reason not to go head over hills and make a game that is so complex that it is approachable only by a limited few. To a large extent, I think that is one of the mistakes I see EVE making. If you aren't familiar with the EVE-Online project, then I suggest you haven't a clue what 'complex' means in terms of a MMORPG. But who knows. Maybe they'll make it work.

But I would think that with all the EVN players around here they might see why not having fuel in EVN would have made it a less interesting game, if only because you wouldn't have had the satisfaction of finally getting a ship that could go 30 jumps without refueling. Frustrating at first? Certainly. Bad for the game? I don't think that the case is that clear cut.
May 02, 2003 SyberSmoke link
Fuel as a elemenet of the game is dependent on your view point. We already have a form of Fuel...energy. And if you consider the limated scope of your map at this momnent and the scale they are planning...then a regenerating fuel supply is best.

This though does not remove the gagets factor. I mean with the amount of power weapons drain...there is always a need for a faster recharge rate, So solar cells, a ram scoop, high output nuclear reactor...you can still have gadgets and they just make you faster or more lethal.

I would though apply fuel or materials to say a auto repair system. The idea being it costs you energy and cargo to repair 1000 points of health. But that is just a general and simple idea.
May 02, 2003 Renegade ++RIP++ link
celebrim ;) : Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, Icewind Dale 1 and 2 , Neverwinter Night , Dungeon Siege, Planescape Torment, some of the old dungeon and dragons games. Oh yeah almost forgot Diablo 1 and 2, so actually I think appeal is Withdrawn :D right ?

I have to give you a little slack, you need to carefully think about what you are going to do, but mostly always you'll find some things that make you last untill the next city or provisionplace or how you even call it :D. So for instance:

you're taking down a boss, in one of the sideentrances you find some potions, another sword of some kind , sopme armor sometimes some boots or a belt or money or juwels, ... It is always provided even if you don't buy it, so if I didn't buy fuel, then if I plan it strategically I have more then enough to go there come back and get to the halve of the next mission, but if I don't plan I need to maybe buy one more , maybe 2 if I really really am not carefull with it. But for the normal RPG player , you always have enough with the potions provided.

What I meant is that if you allow fuel in it, you shouldn't make it that difficult to get, because I can't envision that in a 10000+ sectors big galaxy there is in evereyone a station to resupple. But in most of the RPG's you can buy as much mana and healthpotions as you want. If you want 10 then buy so, if you want 100 do so, have fun with it, but if I read your explication right, you will only be able to buy a full tank of fuel nothing more, so you will narrow it to much. If you could buy as much fueltanks as you want yourselve, then maybe, even maybe I'll find it interesting. But I really don't like being hampered in my movement because I forgot to buy another fueltank. Like syber said, we are already hampered with our batterie, in my opinion tha tis more then enough.

But like I said before, the devs will know what they are doing, and I trust them completely. And if it involves fuel, then so be it.

cheers
May 02, 2003 Pyro link
Ummm... Celebrim, it took me days to get the raven to where it was (hell, it took me a week to even GET the raven), and I didn't have much space left for weapons... I had enough, though...