Forums » Suggestions

Not about frigates

May 15, 2003 slappyknappy link
Well... not entirely. :-)

I've been playing Vendetta for a while now (pre version 3) and have always disliked fighting. This is largely because I'm poor at dogfighting. The current "bomber" type ships in 3.2 appealed to me but I still found them lacking somehow. I've been searching for the right balance for me, and while exploring the many options available in 3.2.x and trying various weapons I think I've found two legitimate holes in the current line-up of ships and weapons. I'll leave the numbers and such to others (like Cele) who are good at those things, and I'll just give general descriptions of what I would like to see for new ship classes.

1) The Tactical Bomber: A fast-attack bomber useful for quick strafing runs. This ship would be poorly suited for dogfights, but would provide a very useful role in capital ship attacks. I envision this ship being one of the fastest ships available without turbo, with a medium-to-low agility. It should be able to travel long distances at a fair clip, allowing it to approach large aggressive forces in a fast formation.

This would allow it to approach and dive-bomb effectively; giving it some ability to target and dodge on its approach, drop its payload, and then get the hell outta dodge. The balance of speed and agility should be such that it is very difficult to maneuver in tight spaces, but can be effectively piloted on a bombing approach. Also, unlike the current "bombers" I think this ship should be relatively small and with a relatively weak hull (maybe 7000?). Optionally, you may want to deny this bomber energy weapons.

As I've stated, I'm bad when it comes to applying numbers to these things, but I envision:
- 2 engines for 2x normal speed without turbo.
- 2x the cost for turbo, same max turbo speed as one engine
- 1 battery
- room for 1 heavy bomb and a small compliment of weaker bombs

With this configuration, you would be able to outfit this ship with two medium engines and a fast-charge battery; you couldn't sustain turbo forever if you wanted the extra speed for a long run, but could cruise at 100m/s. Agility (as in turning) would be poor overall, but you would be able to strafe at higher speeds, allowing you to aggressively approach thickets of turret-defended capital ships with some chance of success... at least more-so than other ships. With the engine/battery combo, you would only be able to use energy weapons in very short bursts, really limiting this type of vessel to the role of bomber.

2) Someone with more knowledge of military vessels could probably come up with an accurate title for this one. This might even be accomplished via a new weapon or armor implementation, but it may require a whole new ship.

The goal with this ship type is to have variations of exploration-oriented ships that are (again) of limited use in typical fights, but that could potentially represent a real danger when attacked. I'm thinking of a ship that had limited offensive power, but a great deal of offensive defense power (if that makes any sense). It would be the ship that could not really initiate an attack very well, but could dissuade others from attacking with a quick-hit and fast-flight capability. The smallest variant of this ship would be the "spy ship" discussed at length in another thread and would be defensive strong due to its extremely high speed and maneuverability. But a heavy variant could possibly be something like this:

hull: 14,000
weapons: 1 large, 0 small
cargo: 6 or 8..?
agility: medium/high

This really isn't my ideal, but I'll get to that in a bit. For now, the limit of a single large weapon would make this a sub-standard bomber or attack vessel, but would give the ship the ability to employ a swarm or adv. gattling for defense. The cargo hold is enough to make this a modest trading ship as well.

What I would really like, though, is the ability to add a few new weapons that supported this role better. Maybe two new weapon categories: the XL-S and XL-L (Extra-Large, Short Range and Extra-Large Long Range) The XL-L would be for large attack ships and a compliment to smaller capital ships and would consist of long range torps, high-energy lasers, etc. The XL-S would be ideal for this new ship: Think an adv. gattling turret that did more damage but had a more limited range or a slower fire rate.

The result is the "I'm not really a threat if you leave me alone" ship that you can truly explore in. Pirates would not want to get too close to such a ship, although it would also in turn make a very poor pirate ship itself. They ***could*** be used offensively in groups, but would strongest in non-combat roles.

Again, I hope someone else can work out the numbers that would create these ships in a balanced manner. That's not my strength and it's really the concepts that I'm after. Celebrim...?
May 15, 2003 Arolte link
Just so you know, the Wraith makes a wonderful dive bomber. It has a pretty high agility for a ship that size. Load it up with an avalon tube and an efficient engine/fast charge battery combo, and you'll have the ability to shoot avalons at 160m/s without having to stop. This works for any other bomber, actually. Unfortunately, because your max boost speed becomes 160m/s... you then become an easy target for bots and pirates.
May 15, 2003 slappyknappy link
Thanks... I'll definitely try this... it sounds like a good short-term compromise. But I'd still like to see a more specialized ship for this use. Maybe creating some more use-specific weapons to apply to the current ships would accomplish the same thing. I also suspect that support for multiple engines and/or batteries would allow some creative ship-configurations that would provide what I am looking for. Like I said, it's not really how this is accomplished, I am after the concepts.

If anyone else has any suggestions on how to accomplish these ideas with the current ships and weapons, I'm all ears :-)