Forums » Suggestions

it would be very helpful to separate mining from fighting in ships and weapons

Jan 18, 2005 ananzi link
Well, the way i see it, if they try to make a good mining ship, someone uses it as a fighter, then they have to nerf it, and then it's no longer good at mining.

The Centurion Mk III was the best ship for prospecting minerals. But people used it to fight and CtC, so now it has been nerfed. So now it is worthless for prospecting minerals.

The Mineral Marauder was ... ... well.. it was a great transport and was OK as a 'fast & light' mining ship. However, people used it to dogfight and CtC, and so it has been nerfed. So now it is possibly worthless for trading and for mining. (Haven't done too much trading/mining at 180 m/s, but something tells me pirates would eat it for breakfast)

It would be a lot more helpful if mining ships could be separate from fighter ships. Whether this would take specialized 'mining' slots, scanner slots, or what, I don't know. But I think many would agree that it would be very helpful.

Here are some suggestions, again:

Centaur Miner:
1 scanner, 2 mining beams, 1 small weapon, 50 cargo,
14,000kg, 18000 armor, 50,000 credits.

Centurion Scout:
280 turbo, 1 scanner, no cargo
Jan 18, 2005 NoAddedSugar link
The Mineral Maud was not used as a fighter because it was fast.
200 was never fast. It was used as a fighter because it was lighter than a warthog.
If they would have made it 1000 kg heavier than a hog, nobody would use it to fight with beside in ctc situations as a transporter. Remember: it is a big target! And it would still be good to trade with or to mine with.
It should be good though. Think about all the work to reach the faction standing you need for it...

But with 180? No... useless.

Perhaps we should not just write "nerf the mineral maud" but write "I think the maud should be a bit heavier"
or "this ship needs some <insert suggestion here> than before to even it" in the future... That will hopefully prevent those weird fixes.
Jan 18, 2005 Solra Bizna link
All ships except the EC-107 should weigh a million tonnes.
-:sigma.SB
Jan 18, 2005 Lonestar00 link
I still want to see the TPG EC-110 'Winabago' that weighs only 5 kg, has infiniboost at 280 m/s, and has 60 holds. Oh, and three large + 2 small ports ;)
Jan 18, 2005 madisonsuicide link
perhaps one solution would be a dramtic overhaul of the ships and weapons.(maybe too much so?) make several different kinds of slots, weapons/battery/add-ons(min scanner seems to be the only one, but others would be very welcome addition)
then give all weapons ammunition, maybe energy weapons would be run from their own battery with a limited charge but could be recharged very slowly from the ships main battery. then "military" or "gun" ships would be just that, they would have very little or no cargo room, could say their weapon slots use all the extra room to carry the ammunition, and mining/cargo ships would have maybe one weapon slot and lots of room for cargo and slots for mining beams and scanners.
ammunition might also help solve some of the battery drain issues with the ships which render the cents and rags pretty unusable or the whole fire three times and run out of power problems.
i know some of this has been suggested before, but with ammo ships would seem to become more of the flying arsenals they should be and not just three shots every couple of seconds, and make some weapons more pratical since their drain on the main battery wouldn't be an issue.
(ships almost out of ammo and exposed and racing to get home to rearm is also an inviting idea)
well its just a thought, but having generic slots seems to cause alot of these mining ships fighting issues.
Jan 18, 2005 johnhawl218 link
preaching to a deft congrigation ananzi, but your right!!
Jan 18, 2005 ctishman link
Yeah, I do think you've gone as far as you can on the current port system. It's high time to separate them out to:

Light Weapons
Heavy Weapons
Light Equipment (Scanners, radar enhancements, cloaks?, etc)
Heavy Equipment (Mining beams, tractor beams, high beams etc)
Jan 18, 2005 genka link
I too think that rebuilding the whole game from the bottom up is a great idea. While at it, you could impliment landing on planets, walking around it stations, voice chat, a redo of the hud, about seventy new ships and a duck or two.

Sarcasmometer:

[---------^-]
Jan 18, 2005 CrippledPidgeon link
That's all fine and dandy, but please don't take me out of my Mineral Extractor Warthog!
Jan 18, 2005 ananzi link
crippled pigeon the only reason you fly that thing is so that people will be fooled into attacking you. lol.

genka I somehow do not think that adding 'Mining slot' is equivalent to landing on planets, walking aroudn in stations, voice chat, a redo of the hud, and about seventy new ships.

They already have code for (s) and (l), and code to detect which equipment can be loaded into which slot. It somehow doesn't seem that hard (unless its total complete spaghetti code) to add in an (m) and (e) slot. Then they would have to make a couple of new 'mining ship' variants that were targeted at the different levels of miners, from level 2 on up to level 8 miners. Everything else could be left as it is.

There might be a balance problem... as in it becomes too easy to make money. Well, then, just make the miner variants very similar to what already exists... at least for now. At least no dogfighter/ctc people will be complaining about the ships being 'too good'.. because they will be very poor fighters.
Jan 18, 2005 CrippledPidgeon link
Okay... the Mineral Extractor Warthog is already a poor fighter (compared with most other fighters). It's heavy. It has slow turbo (albiet Infiniboost). But I've developed an attachment for it (I've explained its good points and bad points to several people).

In 4 fights against a Vulture, I won once. And I was very very close to dead (5%, Shape, if I didn't tell you). One of the fights, I didn't connect with a single shot. The only thing is that people underestimate the miner hog, and don't think that I can do a lot with it... until I return fire. It may be crappy, but I'm getting a lot of practice :)
Jan 18, 2005 ananzi link
i have found the vulture to be a crappy ship as well... especially when compared to other mining ships. i have tried to mine with it several times and found it to be lacking.
Jan 18, 2005 CrippledPidgeon link
The Vulture and Centurions really AREN'T MEANT to be mining ships. I could SWEAR that all of the Centurions were reduced to 1cu of space after the update, but that disappeared after the server restart. Centurions are hit and run ships, Vultures are light dogfighting ships (their cross-sections are so narrow that they're tough to hit, balancing their light armor).
Jan 19, 2005 ananzi link
crippled i was just yanking your chain.