Forums » Suggestions
This is a rash idea I literally just came up with, and really shouldn't matter that much (and I understand this, so please don't post saying 'the devs have enough work as it is!').
What if you could pay a station to send out some ship of theirs to go bring back one of yours that is left at another station? It would be something that one *could* attack, if you're part of an opposing faction, but it would be like the convoy and able to jump without being 3000 away. It should be expensive and long enough that I couldn't just stockpile valks in Jallik and bring them all down to Sedina for fun, but cheap and fast enough so that if I die once fighting someone in my valk, I can grab a vult knowing a valk is on the way, instead of the buying of a vulture just procrastination to getting my valk.
So, again, please don't post negative comments unless they contain suggestions other than "have a better idea."
What if you could pay a station to send out some ship of theirs to go bring back one of yours that is left at another station? It would be something that one *could* attack, if you're part of an opposing faction, but it would be like the convoy and able to jump without being 3000 away. It should be expensive and long enough that I couldn't just stockpile valks in Jallik and bring them all down to Sedina for fun, but cheap and fast enough so that if I die once fighting someone in my valk, I can grab a vult knowing a valk is on the way, instead of the buying of a vulture just procrastination to getting my valk.
So, again, please don't post negative comments unless they contain suggestions other than "have a better idea."
i think some way of moving your ships around (other than doing it manualy by yourself) would be usefull. I know i'm tired of having to fly all the way back to gray space from Itan every time i get killed. And i have yet to finde a station in gray space where i can buy neutron II, and plasma dev. II.
PS: if anyone knows about a station that fits that description i'd be gartefull if you told me about it
PS: if anyone knows about a station that fits that description i'd be gartefull if you told me about it
I believe you have to raise your standing with that stations faction in order to buy improved versions of weapons/ships.
I think that if you have neutral with Sedina L2 (Xang Xi or something) then you can buy neu2's and probably dev. 2's. But I lost 300 standing with them for attacking players, and once I got it back I still couldn't buy that stuff. Anyone know why?
Not neutral, you need a positive rep with them.
In response to the original idea:
I dislike it. It provides a distinct balance problem. One of the main balance's of the game's PvP is that a player sometimes has to choose between having the best gear, or the best location. What i mean is, you have to choose between homing somewhere you can buy an awesome ship, and homing somewhere you are close to the action.
The travel time it takes to get back into combat is an important factor. If you could have ships transported for you, a rich player could purchase and outfit 50 ships, then fly to a base where he is much closer to the action, and just pay to have all of his ships brought to him.
20 minutes later or so, that player could have 50 ships based anywhere in the game. Do it early in the morning when there arent many people on, and the odds of a ship getting shot down in transit is slim, especially if you have them all moving at the same time.
Perhaps adding a check so that you can only have 1 ship moved at a time, but all that really does is double the number of ships you can move.
(home at the station you buy the ships in, fly to destination, request a ship be moved, leave station in bus, explode, grab second ship, escort your own ship to new station, rinse, repeat as needed)
I dislike it. It provides a distinct balance problem. One of the main balance's of the game's PvP is that a player sometimes has to choose between having the best gear, or the best location. What i mean is, you have to choose between homing somewhere you can buy an awesome ship, and homing somewhere you are close to the action.
The travel time it takes to get back into combat is an important factor. If you could have ships transported for you, a rich player could purchase and outfit 50 ships, then fly to a base where he is much closer to the action, and just pay to have all of his ships brought to him.
20 minutes later or so, that player could have 50 ships based anywhere in the game. Do it early in the morning when there arent many people on, and the odds of a ship getting shot down in transit is slim, especially if you have them all moving at the same time.
Perhaps adding a check so that you can only have 1 ship moved at a time, but all that really does is double the number of ships you can move.
(home at the station you buy the ships in, fly to destination, request a ship be moved, leave station in bus, explode, grab second ship, escort your own ship to new station, rinse, repeat as needed)
THIS IS AN AWESOME IDEA!!!!!!! It would make pirating more profitable. First off if we have an "E" slot then we could add a grappling gun. If someone paid an npc to haul one of our ships (which you should not be able to fill up with cargo for trading reasons) then someone could go out and shoot down that npc. Then take the ship and grapple on to it. Sell it (or man it). This would be soooooo cool. Pirating would get a boost. Also you could hire MORE npc guardians for the transport of the ship. Depending on how badly you wanted it. This would make for some more organized pirating I think... You could hire different levels of guardians for the transport. Different levels of transports... It would be a taxi service with a ton of npc's ridin shotgun :) I don't think this would make the game unbalanced. I mean all your transporting is ships right? It wouldn't be automated trading.... or if that's even possible the transportation of a ship would cost too much for it to be profitable.
I think it could be done without too much balance problems Spellc ast. First off the amount that this would cost + the risk of having it shot down would deterr most people from using it. It would be used by players with money though. And it would be cool to hire npc's to do the basic work for you.
/givemoney Devs 2c
I think it could be done without too much balance problems Spellc ast. First off the amount that this would cost + the risk of having it shot down would deterr most people from using it. It would be used by players with money though. And it would be cool to hire npc's to do the basic work for you.
/givemoney Devs 2c
I gaurentee that it would be exploited. Badly.
Money is not a deterrent. using the cost of items/services as a balance is a bad way to keep a game fair. It always ends up that a few "haves" end up controlling the game if money is a balancing factor, usually the players with the most time to devote to a game.
And the idea wasnt to pay an NPC to haul the ship, it was to have an NPC pilot the ship. Actually having a ship towed to another station isn't nearly as exploitable, assuming the ship doing the towing takes a significant performance hit, and only PC's can tow another ship. Then a player with a good reputation could set up a towing service to make money.
That however would require a huge amount of new code, and is probably not feasable in the short term.
Money is not a deterrent. using the cost of items/services as a balance is a bad way to keep a game fair. It always ends up that a few "haves" end up controlling the game if money is a balancing factor, usually the players with the most time to devote to a game.
And the idea wasnt to pay an NPC to haul the ship, it was to have an NPC pilot the ship. Actually having a ship towed to another station isn't nearly as exploitable, assuming the ship doing the towing takes a significant performance hit, and only PC's can tow another ship. Then a player with a good reputation could set up a towing service to make money.
That however would require a huge amount of new code, and is probably not feasable in the short term.
"It always ends up that a few "haves" end up controlling the game if money is a balancing factor, usually the players with the most time to devote to a game."
So what? The person who plays the most SHOULD be the most powerful.... I mean how could this be exploited? The person who cannot pay for the service doesn't get it.... So what it doesn't matter how fast you can get a ship to a station. Unless you plan on dieing alot. Besides it takes barely anytime to get around in this universe as long as you avoid ion storms. Also it would be possible for the ship being transfered to be captured. So it would not be full proof and the players with money need to be able to use it.
/givemoney Devs 2c
So what? The person who plays the most SHOULD be the most powerful.... I mean how could this be exploited? The person who cannot pay for the service doesn't get it.... So what it doesn't matter how fast you can get a ship to a station. Unless you plan on dieing alot. Besides it takes barely anytime to get around in this universe as long as you avoid ion storms. Also it would be possible for the ship being transfered to be captured. So it would not be full proof and the players with money need to be able to use it.
/givemoney Devs 2c
You are still ignoring the fact that where ships and equipment are availible to a player and the time it takes to get those ships into action IS a part of the balance of the game.
In a situation such as the CtC wars, having another top of the line ship close at hand is a lot different than having to start well away from the action in that ship. It is also significantly different than choosing to start close by with a less effective ship. TIME is a balancing factor in vendetta. If i kill an itani convoy raider who is in a valk while in ukari, He has to choose between 3 things(he actually makes the choice before combat, but the choices are still there).
1. Start in an itani system to get his valk back
2. Start in a closer system without his valk
3. Spend a significant amount of time bringing spare valks to the combat theater.
Anything that allows a large number of ships to be moved quickly to another location is a balance issue. It makes it possible to eliminate the above choices, and start in a close system with a valk without expending time.
Have a good day.
In a situation such as the CtC wars, having another top of the line ship close at hand is a lot different than having to start well away from the action in that ship. It is also significantly different than choosing to start close by with a less effective ship. TIME is a balancing factor in vendetta. If i kill an itani convoy raider who is in a valk while in ukari, He has to choose between 3 things(he actually makes the choice before combat, but the choices are still there).
1. Start in an itani system to get his valk back
2. Start in a closer system without his valk
3. Spend a significant amount of time bringing spare valks to the combat theater.
Anything that allows a large number of ships to be moved quickly to another location is a balance issue. It makes it possible to eliminate the above choices, and start in a close system with a valk without expending time.
Have a good day.
Letting a NPC pilot/tow your ship from a station far away is also dangerous, the NPC could fall into a storm and get destroyed by the drones.
Suicidal Lemming> In my experience, NPC's don't get targetted/destroyed by bots in Ion storms
Spellcast/KixKizzle> I know this would take a long time to code, but after reading KixKizzle's first post I realized that this could be as close to boarding a ship as people might get, and boarding seemed to be a popular idea that got shot down because of what it does to a ships owner. As for your latest post Spellcast, I understand what you're saying, but I've been in large battles, and when I die it comes down to:
1) Flying all the way to Jallik and back, at which time the fight might be over. Or I might have my home base there, but it still takes a while.
2) Get in the best vulture availible and try to fight in that, but I will be disadvantedged since I personally am used to three neu 3's.
If I knew a valk was on the way, I'd be much more inspired to grab a vulture and try to hold out as long as possible. Though this would make it more complicated, maybe it could be set that you could only get one ship towed to you per station. Sure you can get one at every surrounding station, but still...
Spellcast/KixKizzle> I know this would take a long time to code, but after reading KixKizzle's first post I realized that this could be as close to boarding a ship as people might get, and boarding seemed to be a popular idea that got shot down because of what it does to a ships owner. As for your latest post Spellcast, I understand what you're saying, but I've been in large battles, and when I die it comes down to:
1) Flying all the way to Jallik and back, at which time the fight might be over. Or I might have my home base there, but it still takes a while.
2) Get in the best vulture availible and try to fight in that, but I will be disadvantedged since I personally am used to three neu 3's.
If I knew a valk was on the way, I'd be much more inspired to grab a vulture and try to hold out as long as possible. Though this would make it more complicated, maybe it could be set that you could only get one ship towed to you per station. Sure you can get one at every surrounding station, but still...
thank you for making my point for me smittens. that is exactly the choice that provides the balance.
Death has no real penalty other than time. IMO taking that away is a bad idea. If you die, you are effectively out of the battle, or you are returning to the battle at less than your best. That is the reward that the person who killed you gets.
And the problem isnt that another ship would be on the way, but that several other ships would allready be there. Maybe having a limit of 1 extra ship towed to each station could work however. the balance would still be there, just lowered a bit.
Death has no real penalty other than time. IMO taking that away is a bad idea. If you die, you are effectively out of the battle, or you are returning to the battle at less than your best. That is the reward that the person who killed you gets.
And the problem isnt that another ship would be on the way, but that several other ships would allready be there. Maybe having a limit of 1 extra ship towed to each station could work however. the balance would still be there, just lowered a bit.
Alrighty then Spellcast. Suppose that a very rich player did have more ships stationed in grey space than you and killing him would just home him back to his ships. This would make it easier for him to win in ctc but this could be balanced by the amount of credits it takes him to purchase the convoy. Sure he would still have the ships at the station but credits are incredibly inflated at the moment. A million credits for most players isn't that much. If this was put into the game, then the npc's could charge a decently high amount for the service. I think this would balance it enough. Plus the ship might not even get there! Someone could steal it. And if your so worried about stockpiling ships at stations then why don't you just stay around at the wormholes and kill the less protected convoys so that YOU can stockpile your own collection of valks in grey space? This idea IS possible.... Though i admit it's most likely not going to happen :) Still it's an interesting idea.
/givemoney Devs 2c
/givemoney Devs 2c
"-If this was put into the game, then the npc's could charge a decently high amount for the service.-"
What part of the phrase "cost is a bad way to balance a game" dont you understand? Besides, you cant put a monetary value on being able to quickly move top quality ships to a forward base. Maybe, just Maybe if it were to cost 10 million credits for each ship you wanted to move you might get it reduced to the point where it was used rarely enough that it would be balanced.
"-Plus the ship might not even get there! Someone could steal it. And if your so worried about stockpiling ships at stations then why don't you just stay around at the wormholes and kill the less protected convoys so that YOU can stockpile your own collection of valks in grey space?-"
Because there will ALWAYS be a time when there wont be anyone on to intercept transported ships.
The only other way I can see it being balanced would be to make it so that only players could do the towing. That forces someone to actually expend the time, which is far more valuable than mere money.
What part of the phrase "cost is a bad way to balance a game" dont you understand? Besides, you cant put a monetary value on being able to quickly move top quality ships to a forward base. Maybe, just Maybe if it were to cost 10 million credits for each ship you wanted to move you might get it reduced to the point where it was used rarely enough that it would be balanced.
"-Plus the ship might not even get there! Someone could steal it. And if your so worried about stockpiling ships at stations then why don't you just stay around at the wormholes and kill the less protected convoys so that YOU can stockpile your own collection of valks in grey space?-"
Because there will ALWAYS be a time when there wont be anyone on to intercept transported ships.
The only other way I can see it being balanced would be to make it so that only players could do the towing. That forces someone to actually expend the time, which is far more valuable than mere money.
"The only other way I can see it being balanced would be to make it so that only players could do the towing. That forces someone to actually expend the time, which is far more valuable than mere money."
Oh yes.. I like this idea... Player towing is excellent...
- Price negotiation
- Possibility for tower to sell ship to other risking bounty
- Limit towing to Heavy cargo (Tow truck) class ships
- tow trucks may need escorts to survive.
Encourages group efforts.. Love it!!
Oh yes.. I like this idea... Player towing is excellent...
- Price negotiation
- Possibility for tower to sell ship to other risking bounty
- Limit towing to Heavy cargo (Tow truck) class ships
- tow trucks may need escorts to survive.
Encourages group efforts.. Love it!!
Actually, that does seem like a good idea...
It makes it more complex if a player is towing it because you're likely to take at least SOME damage, and then if there are escorts....
Still I'd rather see a /esccort _____ first, but then I'd like this.
And being able to sell the ship to the highest bidder? That is a great idea!
It makes it more complex if a player is towing it because you're likely to take at least SOME damage, and then if there are escorts....
Still I'd rather see a /esccort _____ first, but then I'd like this.
And being able to sell the ship to the highest bidder? That is a great idea!
There has to be some loss to the tower if they loss the ship too. We can't just have players towing ships off for themselves :) How about they put up the amount of money the ship is worth. Then upon arrival at destination they get the rest of the creds for their service.
/givemoney Devs 2c
/givemoney Devs 2c
That's a great way to make it work Kix...
The tower has to put up the $$$ value of the ship and will recieve X$ upon succesfull delivery. Presumably X$ is negotiated to be greater than the $$$ value needed to "put up".
I'd add another possible idea to this as well... While the tower could hire escorts (provided the /escort is implimented)... perhaps the ship owner could also hire escorts for the run too. Not only protecting the ship from pirates, but also from dishonest towers.
Might make things interesting to have opportunities for Escort vs Escort conflicts.. ;-)
The tower has to put up the $$$ value of the ship and will recieve X$ upon succesfull delivery. Presumably X$ is negotiated to be greater than the $$$ value needed to "put up".
I'd add another possible idea to this as well... While the tower could hire escorts (provided the /escort is implimented)... perhaps the ship owner could also hire escorts for the run too. Not only protecting the ship from pirates, but also from dishonest towers.
Might make things interesting to have opportunities for Escort vs Escort conflicts.. ;-)
BTW...
I'm not totally against bot towing... I do think that if bot towing was implimented, I would hope that it would come at considerable risk.
- tow bots must be hired and sent from the current station to retrieve your ship. (longer wait)
- you could only dispatch one tow bot at a time.
- tow bots are basically defenseless. (opposing faction tow bots easy targets, easy XP, easy $$)
- tow bots have no turbo
- tow bots have flashing bright yellow caution lights, making them extremely visible.
Basically, allow for ship transfer if no real towers are available, but stack the odds significantly against NPC towers and significantly favor RPC towers.
I'm not totally against bot towing... I do think that if bot towing was implimented, I would hope that it would come at considerable risk.
- tow bots must be hired and sent from the current station to retrieve your ship. (longer wait)
- you could only dispatch one tow bot at a time.
- tow bots are basically defenseless. (opposing faction tow bots easy targets, easy XP, easy $$)
- tow bots have no turbo
- tow bots have flashing bright yellow caution lights, making them extremely visible.
Basically, allow for ship transfer if no real towers are available, but stack the odds significantly against NPC towers and significantly favor RPC towers.