Forums » Suggestions

Combat Simulator

Nov 07, 2004 Imek link
Has anyone played the game Jumpgate? Well, it had one really good feature; in the form of a simulator, where players anywhere in the game world could connect to a single arena and practice PvP against each other without consequences or limitations. I think this really added a fun aspect to the game, as well as creating places for newbie training and to try out ships & weapons before buying them. I know this has been mentioned before, so my question is this: are there any actual plans to implement something like this soon? Or has it not been considered that much?
Nov 07, 2004 KAos_nyrb link
Some of the joy of the combat is that you have somthing to lose.

Try betting all your cash on a duel with a guy then getting hit down to 10% in 5 seconds.

really gets your heart pumping :D
Nov 07, 2004 KixKizzle link
O_O
LOL
O_O
Nov 07, 2004 Taljin link
This is a good idea and would be alot of fun .It lets you test ship setups without penalty as well as , makes a great gathering place for players.
Nov 07, 2004 Spellcast link
<<<It lets you test ship setups without penalty as well as , makes a great gathering place for players.>>>

At which point everyone stays safe in the stations and plays the game within the game.

No thanks.
Nov 07, 2004 Starfisher link
Be funny if the simulator contained the old 18 sector universe every full moon, so that those that remember it can go on a nostalgia trip with massless sunflare valk battles.. ahhhh those were the days...
Nov 07, 2004 Taljin link
Spellcast ,if you played Jumpgate you would understand why your assumption is wrong. You get no xp or gain money in there ,you have no permanant holdings nor is there any adventure to be had . It's merely a place to practice your skills , and learn from skilled pilots . We usta have classes in there once a week , the skilled combat pilots would teach us noobs the ins and outs of combat. It was alot of fun , and would be a nice addition to the game.
Nov 07, 2004 roguelazer link
/me concurs with Spellcast
Nov 07, 2004 Aramanu link
I'm from Jumpgate and while JG's sim does have some benefits for noobs, there was more flaws than advantages.. i won't go into depth about it but in JG too many PvPers would rather just doss in the sim than actully come out to fight even when people where "outside" to fight properly, then the ones outside would bet bored and go into the sim to fight, and it only took the fight to a level of "quake-in-space" which got boring quick cos of no consequences, and then only gankage would happan "outside".
So i say a big NO for Sim.

Maybe if it was limited to 0/0/0/0 players only, so noobs could "practice" for a while.
Nov 07, 2004 Smilodon link
Ex Jumpgate player here too.

I'm very much for a combat simulator. It makes sense to me. I saw meaningful PvP in Jumpgate outside the sim and the sim gave us everyday pilots the opportunity to brush up our PvP skills and provide more of a challenge against those who PvP by trade such as pirates and the like as well as learn some basic anti flux ( bots ) skills.

I do however think that it should be restricted to the current ship and loadout you are flying. It creates a great testing ground for people that have just upgraded their ship. Want to fight some bots that are causing you grief? Go ahead, learn the techniques at least to a basic extent then you can do it for real.

Perhaps mentoring could be worked into this as well. Also it provides a place for people to have fun duels rather than "to the death", and would make it easier to mentor people in PvP. Could also restrict it to you and a friend ( 2 people max ) to avoid the large groups of people just going to the simulator. So each station could have a simulator and you'd need to meet at that station to either run solo or duo simulation / pvp practice with a friend, essentially like having one "zone" off each station limited to 2 people ( to avoid instancing which I imagine is a bit of a pain to code? )

We don't have ship insurance in this game, so blowing up repeatedly can get rather expensive when you're new as you start to have to take on the advanced combat mission to progress your combat skills. I think a sim would offset that quite nicely, to decrease the amount of explosions while getting to grips with things, more encouraging to newbies too.
Nov 07, 2004 CrippledPidgeon link
I'm against the simulator idea.

PvP works just fine in the Vendetta universe - if you're looking for a fight, you can usually find someone to pick one with (for example, Eldrad was looking for some action last night and challenged four people to a 4 on 1 fight). If PvP were possible in a simulator and would cost nothing and risk nothing, then there'd be no reason to go risking money and time for what's essentially the same thing.

And a simulator for newbies has the same problems plus a host of new ones. If you play in a simulator, then you'll only be playing against people of your same level. Two people who don't know how to play trying to fight each other. Gawd... That would be just like the three sector universe of the early Alphas.

If this were real life, then simulators play a valuble role - if you die, you stay dead. But in Vendetta, dying really is of no consequence. You don't lose any experience, and there aren't any credit penalties except that lose your ship and whatever cargo and equipment you might be carrying, but there are no lasting consequences - ships can be rebought, cargo can be rebought, money can be re-earned.

And ships and weapons are CHEAP. True, it's a hassle if you kill yourself bankrupt (I've done it before, so yes, I have been in this situation before), but that's what the free bus is for. It's a crappy ship, but it's a FREE crappy ship. And a crappy ship is better than no ship at all. With the bus, you can kill bots and steal cargo - enough to get a bit of a bank account - trade more expensive cargo if that's your thing. Rebuild your financial empire. And you can bet your bottom that you aren't going to let yourself get in that position more than once.
Nov 07, 2004 kriss link
One of the strengths of VO is that it - as opposed to next to all MMO out there - contains one universe. Not "one of four servers" where the world is verbatim, players differ.

It makes little sense to have a virtual world inside the virtual world - and if it'd be limited by some means, why not just pop out into your average empty sector instead, when you feel for some one-on-one quality time?
Nov 08, 2004 Smilodon link
Ok, it appears I completely misunderstood one aspect of the PvP system. I had no idea that you could go to a sector with someone on your own faction in any ship you chose and fly against them, doing zero damage. So.. there's already really enough simulation for me! All I need to do is grab someone keen to hone some skills and get to it by the sounds of it, should I not want to lose my ship.