Forums » Suggestions
Fuel and cruise speed
There are two ideas that have been floating around for a while that I think are worth bringing up again: fuel and cruising speed
Fuel - This has generally focused on requiring fuel per sector/system jump. I would prefer to see turbo require fuel, not jumps, so that turbo and weapons don't use the same resources. This would solve a lot of grief around balancing battery capabilities vs. ship drain, it would moot the concerns of stranding pilots, and it would also make endless running away more difficult.
For each ship variant, set a fuel capacity -- there's no reason to have different fuel efficiencies because different capacities already does the same thing. Whenever the ship fires its turbo engines, some fuel is consumed. At higher speeds, the consumption rate might increase -- something like 1 unit of fuel used per second up to a certain point, and 2 per second after that. Top speeds over 230 m/s might require 3 units per second. When your fuel runs out, you cannot turbo.
Whenever a ship docks, the fuel is automatically refilled. Weight shouldn't be a factor, because fuel can be small fusibles that weigh 1 kg or so.
Cruise speed - This was described very well in Celebrim's post here:
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/7296#87467
The short version of that post is that cruise speed is infiniboost at whatever speed your ship can manage it. I'd modify this slightly, because there is no infiniboost with my fuel proposal. Cruise speed would simply be the maximum point before fuel consumption starts to go up, somewhere around 2/3 of maximum turbo speed, to allow long-range flying around in the universe without burning up too much fuel.
Fuel - This has generally focused on requiring fuel per sector/system jump. I would prefer to see turbo require fuel, not jumps, so that turbo and weapons don't use the same resources. This would solve a lot of grief around balancing battery capabilities vs. ship drain, it would moot the concerns of stranding pilots, and it would also make endless running away more difficult.
For each ship variant, set a fuel capacity -- there's no reason to have different fuel efficiencies because different capacities already does the same thing. Whenever the ship fires its turbo engines, some fuel is consumed. At higher speeds, the consumption rate might increase -- something like 1 unit of fuel used per second up to a certain point, and 2 per second after that. Top speeds over 230 m/s might require 3 units per second. When your fuel runs out, you cannot turbo.
Whenever a ship docks, the fuel is automatically refilled. Weight shouldn't be a factor, because fuel can be small fusibles that weigh 1 kg or so.
Cruise speed - This was described very well in Celebrim's post here:
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/7296#87467
The short version of that post is that cruise speed is infiniboost at whatever speed your ship can manage it. I'd modify this slightly, because there is no infiniboost with my fuel proposal. Cruise speed would simply be the maximum point before fuel consumption starts to go up, somewhere around 2/3 of maximum turbo speed, to allow long-range flying around in the universe without burning up too much fuel.
I still say both fuel and infiniboost are bad. Reasons:
Fuel- Turbo and jumping are both integral parts of gameplay. What happens when you have CtC cargo and run out of fuel? What about when you are in a duel and run out of fuel?
Infiniboost- Infiniboost makes the game too easy. I am not an aggressive player, but I'd say that the Care Bears are winning. Vendetta is not EverQuest, and danger is nice.
Cruise- I view turbo as an overloading of the ship's engines. It's not a controllable thing. Cruise would essentially remove all sub-cruise speeds. Why go less than it if you can go cruise speed without incurring any penalty?
Fuel- Turbo and jumping are both integral parts of gameplay. What happens when you have CtC cargo and run out of fuel? What about when you are in a duel and run out of fuel?
Infiniboost- Infiniboost makes the game too easy. I am not an aggressive player, but I'd say that the Care Bears are winning. Vendetta is not EverQuest, and danger is nice.
Cruise- I view turbo as an overloading of the ship's engines. It's not a controllable thing. Cruise would essentially remove all sub-cruise speeds. Why go less than it if you can go cruise speed without incurring any penalty?
I agree that infiniboost is a Bad Thing (tm) -- that's what fuel is for. It stops you from boosting forever. I don't think your arguments against fuel are very strong (i.e,. what if you can't turbo anymore?), because the very point of fuel is to have situations where people can no longer turbo.
Cruise speed isn't a "no penatly turbo" when fuel is involved. (It /is/ a no-penalty turbo with batteries.) You still use fuel. Cruise just caps your turbo speed before you bump up into high fuel consumption. As for the idea that no one would use regular maneuvering speed -- how much time do you spend not turboing when you are moving around the universe? Very little. So nothing would be different in that regard.
Cruise speed isn't a "no penatly turbo" when fuel is involved. (It /is/ a no-penalty turbo with batteries.) You still use fuel. Cruise just caps your turbo speed before you bump up into high fuel consumption. As for the idea that no one would use regular maneuvering speed -- how much time do you spend not turboing when you are moving around the universe? Very little. So nothing would be different in that regard.
Except someone who can't turbo is effectively dead... We've seen this back when cappers couldn't turbo. It would be worse now with storms.
yea... running out of fuel in the middle of an ion storm would make so many people quit the game, it wouldn't be funny.
I'd like to know how that's different from being caught in an ion storm flying an IBG.
You can dodge around for a bit while your battery charges right now. With fuel, you can't do that, now can ya?