well this is just to say that there's a too simply way to distract the defense station near flag... : go in a station dock and hide there... station def will shoot on the station and u r covered... maybbe the docking bays should get an electro field as electromines so that will down all aproaching ships

I've been thinking about the 'electromine' idea too, but related to a different problem.

Ideally, the artists creating ships and stations are given a large ammount of artistic freedom. It's too contraining on an artist to expect them to fully conform to a functional design, or even to know what a functional design for something that doesn't exist is. Moreover, the average viewer is going to judge the art by non-functional standards, for we can't expect the viewers to know what functional designs are anymore (and indeed even less) than we can expect the artists to.

Not that it isn't good when an artist speculates over what might be a functional design. Just he should not be constrained by it, even in the context of such rigorous secondary creation as a game.

All that's a little abstract, but it is what I'm thinking about. The particular problem I had in mind was the concave surfaces of capital ships. Probably realisticly, space warships would be designed to avoid having these recesses, but that really contrains the artist and makes for designs that are visually uninspiring. Probably realistically, it would never be that big of an issue because weaponry would be lethal enough to destroy anything that got within 30km of another ship with near 100% certainty - but that makes for a nearly unplayable game. So we have to accept that these depressions will exist and will be accessible. These depressions give 'hiding places' that a enemy fighter can nestle in and blast away without fear because the capital ship's defences don't have los with the fighter. Giving the capital ship projections which are sure to overlook every surface helps, but it doesn't solve the problem because the capital ship is then forced to shoot at itself (with predictably ridiculous consequences). Putting turrets down at the bottom of the depressions solves the problem (assuming turrets aren't destroyable) but results in alot of turrets with very narrow fields of fire, and an excessive number of turrets becomes necessary to adequately defend the ship. Things will be better when the Frigate moves, and for any ship closer to the same scale as the fighters, but there will always exist 'docking bay' problems like you mention.

So maybe most large things should be equipped (or equipable) with a sort of lighting mine defensive field to keep the attacker 'fair'.

Not sure about all large things, maybe just the home sectors. The home sectors are supposed to be the areas in which the nation has a strong military presence right? So having a mine sheild around their stations (and rail highways *hint hint, nudge nudge*) would be quite reasonable. But for balance reasons, I don't think a lightning sheild should be available for moving craft. Stationary things like stations (and rail highways *wink wink*) could be protected, but anything that is destructible or moveable needs to be destructible by a swarm of fighters without randomly blowing up by reaching a certain range.

PJ: I'm only thinking of something with a 30m range or so, and it wouldn't be random (not that it really matters whether it is or not). The problem is that at present you can move to range 0 and destroy things at your leisure with the only hazard being the thing blowing up in your face. You think that is balanced?

Touché Celebrim.
I thought you were talking about a sheild that would resemble the size of the clouds some station miners create all the way around the ships.

But it would be nice to have a sort of personal shield, maybe even less than 30m, that will zap anyone who gets too close to you. It would certainly put an end to rocket ramming and give heavier ships a fighting chance against maneuverable ones.

For Sage:

Personal Anti-Ramming Protection Shield
Cost: 9350 credits
Range: (Length of ship)+ (25 meters)
Damage: 650/second
Energy: 20 energy/second
How it is Used: This addon is purchased at any outfitter. It is activated when an assigned key is pressed, say 8. while activated, whenever a hostile craft is within the specific range for the ship equipped with the shield, the enemy takes the damage value listed above. the energy is only used when the shield is being used on another ship. If it is being used on more than one ship, the energy/second is multiplied by thenumber of ships being hit.
Note: this weapon is instantaneous, so it always strikes the enemy. there are no misses.

High Power Personal Anti-Ramming Shield
Cost: 21400 credits
Range: (Length of ship)+(30)
Damage: 2000/second
Energy: 75 energy/second
Works exactly the same as the normal model.

actually, the broken bot code helps, because when the def bots ram the station walls you get little splash each time they die ;)

If only bots fired flares when they know that at least the splash will hurt.

Celkan, both the Shields you describe would be extremely broken on a valk, or any other fast ship.

I think it is a reasonable idea to have large ships (ie the Frigate and bigger) have defensive fields with ranges somewhere between 0-30m from the surface of the ship. If you put it on anything faster it will cause a lot of ramming and abuse.

As for the problem mentioned in the original post, it will become a non issue when the bot AI is improved. They won't have a problem killing someone hiding in the dock entrance.

What about tiny little drones that patrol the surface of the ship? Sort of like tiny interceptors, but with a limited range (and good AI). They would be able to take out ships in weak spots, while not horribly breaking anything...

Pyro: There is nothing wrong with that, just that it has alot higher badwidth and processing requirements.

Regards to Eldrad's comment: I think that the high power shield is broken. I don't think that the personal shield is broken on a Valk (but I don't think it necessarily adds anything to gameplay either), but that it would be if not broken then a bit overpowered on a large ship because of its variable range. A 40m radius personal screen isn't going to cause much problems, but a 750m radius personal screen is just excessive and too constraining on gameplay.

How about I take out the x2 in there... and leave the plus 30 on the high power one. the damage is the addon I meant for it to have.

Celebrim the personal one has the lowest energy consumtion of any energy weapon in the game (and only uses energy while it's doing damage no waste ever). It doesn't take up a weapon slot, and it auto hits anything within 40m.

It's just that I don't recall staying at 40m for any length of time, because at such range the energy shield would be the least of my worries.

Imagining however that I bump aginst this thing, I wouldn't imagine that I'd take more than 200-300 damage, which is pretty much inconsequential compared to what I'd take for letting myself get inside a rocket's prox radius.

I'm not saying I like them, because I don't think 'ramming' is very interesting outside of fleet action by galleys - and even then I prefer age of sail tactics - I just don't think that the personal shield would have much impact on the game.

Actually, I think it would have a huge impact. Put one on a Centurion and give it a heavy battery and watch it dance circles (with a 30m radius) around their victim. If it's anything less than a sunflare packing Valkyrie, the ship is as good as gone. I was thinking the personal shield be a capital ship class weapon that covers a very small radius around the ships so that fighters don't get underneath the turret's aquisition range.

Ok maybe it wouldn't be good for rammers but Pavan is right. Put it on any of the fighters and you can do constant damage. It's easy to stay that close if you don't even have to look at the target.

Celebrim, it's not common now but if this was implemented you'd see it a lot.