Forums » Suggestions

Purchasing DEFBOTS

Dec 10, 2003 Phaserlight link
Before I even write this I can see a million and one problems with it, but here goes anyway:

What if it were up to each nation to purchase their defbots? Each home sector would automatically start out with five Centurions using blue ions, but these could be replaced with more powerful defbots, purchaseable at the station. It would look something like this:

Lvl 0 Defbot: Centurion - blue ions: default
Lvl 1 Defbot: Vulture - turret wpn: 10,000cr
Lvl 2 Defbot: Warthog - sunflares: 30,000cr
Lvl 3 Defbot: Ragnarok - dual screamers: 100,000cr
Lvl 4 Defbot: Furie - dual turret wpn: 250,000cr
Lvl 5 Defbot: Valkyrie - tri turret wpn: 1,000,000cr

When a new bot was purchased, it would replace the weakest bot in the defbot fleet. If it was destoryed or issued, another centurion defbot would automatically be spawned in 2.5 minutes. There would be a 2.5 minute delay between when a defbot was purchased and the next one was available for purchase.

Now obviously, the problem of the defbots issuing and killing each other would have to first be resolved, but how cool would it be to save up 10 mil and buy a 1337 f1337 of Valk Defbots for your nation? It would really give players something to save up for and work toward, and wouldn't unbalance the game overmuch. Plus it would be fun as heck to see the rag defbot you purchased flying around the sector, unloading screamers on interlopers.

edit: changed rag weapon in response to roguelazer's post
Dec 10, 2003 roguelazer link
What would you do about ammo? As it's been done, bots have infinite ammo. This would lead to about 4000 swarms in a sector at any given time, which is laggy as heck. But bots don't know how to dock. So I'm lost as to how to prevent the 4000 swarms.
Dec 10, 2003 Phaserlight link
rogue: I had the same thought, actually. They could use screamers, I guess.
Dec 10, 2003 Celkan link
Keep Valks out of it. The Furies are good enough. They have the best AI in the game except for the defbots.
Dec 10, 2003 Magus link
Two words.

Avalon hogs.

I don't know how useful they would be, but it would sure be pretty.
Dec 10, 2003 Celkan link
/methinks if Hogs with avalons were used, that would be exploited so that the nukes exploded in the bot's own face... errr... COULD be exploited. ;)
Dec 10, 2003 Suicidal Lemming link
Yup, valkyrie defbots in s2, makes perfect sense.
Dec 10, 2003 roguelazer link
Avalon hogs would be fun for both teams. The offending team gets a person on the defending team to ram the avalons and set them off in the bots face. The defending team enjoys the carnage.
Dec 10, 2003 andreas link
Mhm. Why not allow players to fly the defbots? If you dock at a home station, you can select to fly one of the defbots for free. If not enough players do, the rest is AI. That would be lots of fun.
Dec 10, 2003 Magus link
Bad idea. A person with those uber-defbot ships would be unstoppable. The only reason the current bots are beatable is because they're dumb as rocks.
Dec 10, 2003 Urza link
first it would suck with the way the AI is now (issuing and all)

Second.. Give blues Valks, red's proms and golds furies.
Dec 10, 2003 roguelazer link
Not unless the proms had a better weapon. With current AI, a ship as unmaneuverable as the prom would be useless with a frigcannon. We could just fly around it.
Dec 10, 2003 LordViking link
Yeah definitley think the golds should have a tie in with Furies...
Dec 10, 2003 Skyfox link
Furies with turret guns? OMG. 1 shot would kill you.

The only real problems i see with this is:
a) right after a reset, you have no money to buy a sufficiant defbot. What prevents an enterprising enemy from coming in and killing newbies/capping easy?

b) The AI is so retarded right now, killing defbots has become a popular way of gaining score. Its easy to go in, proxmine the bots as they follow you, and then go get more. Now that would be a real bummer if they killed your uber l337 valk defence bot wouldn't it?
Dec 10, 2003 Spellcast link
skyfox in response to point #1. please reference the above post by phaser, i've pasted the important part.

When a new bot was purchased, it would replace the weakest bot in the defbot fleet. If it was destoryed or issued, another centurion defbot would automatically be spawned in 2.5 minutes. There would be a 2.5 minute delay between when a defbot was purchased and the next one was available for purchase.

as for #2 well the AI is stupid.. we all know that, it's on the to fix list. Actually I like the whole Idea of purchasing defense ships.. but not for flag defense, thewe would be perfect for guilds protecting guild owned stations. Any guild owned station comes with a hanger bay and a certain number of generic defense craft. You allot a monetary "account" in the station for replacing ones that are destroyed, and you can choose to upgrade or replace the generic bots with custom made ones, even up the "default" bot to a more expensive version if you like.
Dec 12, 2003 wolfman12 link
think this would just cause problems - some people would be concerned about defending while others only worried about themselves, and thus only some people would be paying for the bots.

maybe a better idea with buying bots is allowing people to buy one or two escort bots. they wouldn't be extremely good - perhaps only 150 or 250 bots, and they'd only escort trading ships. this would aid slow trading ships against hosile bots in different sectors.