Or mirrored! Randomly!

Ooo, even better! Nice one, Shorlen!

What if being connected to an empath grid increased the speed that your insanity went away.

How about an empath or commander skill to drop scout bouys? If a ship enters a 1 square radius of them, they send a ping to the empath of the ship that placed them?

That's nifty... or maybe being able to convince aethermonsters to spy for you?

I know this is slightly offtopic, but could we have an aethercraft skill for SHIP SURVEY to see what terrain we are in and what plane we are on? And a SHIP QL to see what's there without looking at the room description? Gets kinda spammy...

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I love the idea of ships having afflictions which aren't easily cured, since the empath has to choose what to cure, and if they're curing, they can't be healing hull.

Doesn't SHIP STATUS already cover the first one?

EDIT: Wth is with the combatteer skill names btw?

So, more minor afflictions for combateers to deal in addition to the ones I suggested before:

Hesitation - target module: any - next command issued to that module fails, but still takes balance. OR: Amnesia for all modules - next command sent to each is ignored.

Misfire - target module: turret - turret's ship takes 10% of the damage the turret deals when it fires.

Leak - target module: command - causes five times normal energy drain for just being in flight.

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Not in the slightest

Yes, but I meant something more like Quickening. You burn some power, and double your speed for a few seconds. Or something like that.

I really don't think that's possible without throwing things way out of balance (i.e., being able to heal/cure a ship at double rate). If we go to 2 empath stations, then we'd have to reduce the healing of one empath station, making it almost a necessity to have 2 empaths. I think you would also find once the initial excitement of ships wears down that you'll have trouble getting a (skilled) crew of 3 together whenever you want.

You'll have to trust me on this that 2 empaths would be a very bad thing.

The very best part of aethercraft, as I've seen it so far, is just how much you can do with so few lessons. The difference between someone with 4 lessons and someone who is trans commander isn't that much when just moving a ship around, really, especially on fast enough ships. It's the same with the other stations, really. You really don't *need* more than the basic functions really except in heated combat, really.

I wish there was something more we could do with ship personalities, something that makes them seem more alive.


Like a living ship should be able to kick out people that enter that don't belong there

Or something along that lines. Or shout at them. INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!

Anyone ever hear of farscape? They way our ships are kinda reminds of the living ships in that series. Pilot reminds me of the empath.


Ah.. I loved farscape.

Ka D'argo was kinda hot.

Nuts. But fair enough. I was thinking that if you have two, each decreases in effectiveness by 1/3, or something like that.

Oh well. I'll just have to be more aggressive in claiming it first.


Haha, so true.

And I initially thought ship personalities would be ambience messages you could set to go off occasionally for anyone standing inside.

I don't think we need other afflictions able to be given, as remember that we only have one empath with potentially many things to do and needing to cure tons of things could easily get to be too much as it's all on the same grid balance, not grid balance for repairing hull and a separate grid balance for fixing modules, etc. However, malfunctions could be an innate part of what happens when a module's damaged in the same was as getting a concussion gives you ... amnesia or confusion or something? but those things are cured along with the repair of the module and not needing a separate specific cure of their own.


Instead of this, it might be nice if people on the aetherbubble could activate and deactivate an SOS/alert signal at the dock to send out from the bubble for about a day, or maybe until the next 'dawn' (that would fade at that time, like Moondance Light fades at dawn ... ) that the empath or everyone on a ship coming in range would hear. Doing so might be something everyone can do or something to add after Channel in basic Aethercraft. Either the same generic signal, or attach the person's name to it. And either knowing which bubble, or just from the general direction of the signal.

(Ship): Avaerin, the Living Forestship says, "Receiving a signal from Crumkindivia."
or
(Ship): Avaerin, the Living Forestship says, "Diamante at the Facility requesting assistance."
or some variation able to be heard only by the empath, for them to relay to the rest of the crew. Probably better that way, actually.

New ideas for combateers:

Either or both of these, please.

Ranged targetting on creatures: From the same distance you have a chance at being able to fire on them, be able to target or have a chance to target.

Persistance targetting on creatures: If you target one hydrian, the turret also recognizes other hydrians and will let you fire on them. I can see how that might be a problem in determining the specific group during firing and difficulties perhaps in coding to be able (ideally) to fire on one specific one until it's dead and then switching to the next 'in the room', but I think I'd rather (in the less than ideal version which might be easier to code) fire on hydrian80, then on hydrian 93, then on hydrian37 and have a chance at killing them all then have to fire on hydrian80 til it's dead, retarget for hydrian 93 and fire until it's dead, retarget for hydrian37 and fire until it's dead. When you've got a swarm of 8 gorgog groups around you, you want to be able to fire on any of them easily.

This is something I am concerned about... part of the thought behind multiple empaths. Maybe it will be taken into account somewhere, but you've potentially got three combateers afflicting a ship/damaging it, and a single empath trying to cope with that. Additionally, while you can upgrade the speed of each turret, you can't upgrade the speed at which the empath station works. I'm not entirely sure, but I would have thought combat would be pretty much the first person to target the other wins, simply because any ship won't be able to keep up with an attacker.

That's why the commander has things to be able to avoid getting hit, I imagine. So it's potentially the aggressive efforts of 3 versus the defense of 2, not 3 versus 1.

Yes, which is why the afflictions shouldn't be hosingly powerful. They should be such that you can deal with them, but they do hurt some. Something like amnesia would be really nice, since it goes away on it's own after it fires once. Little effects, like having a chance to make you go the wrong way, or confusing your map, or taking a bit of damage back, are ones you can deal with not curing immediately.

"Folks, this is your Commander speaking. You may have noticed the seat-belt sign flashing. Please, take your seats, fasten your belts, and ignore any peculiar sounds you might hear. We're in for a bit of turbulence..."

I think there's actually a lot of strategy here.

Do you target their modules? Or their hull? Their power? Or do you throw afflictions?

Yes, they may have three turrets, but all three turrets are using power for their good afflictions, while you can cure for less power. It costs them 10 power to blow up a module - it costs you 5 to repair it. Other than that, all they can do is throw off the balance of modules or give you aeon, aside from normal damage.

Getting hit with aeon first, in a situation when your defence and offense are all working seperately isn't really a big deal, since one of your turrets firing won't delay you getting that crucial hull-damage repaired, unlike in a PvP fight.

And don't forget there's also the Commander, who can help you avoid hits all together and give you that much needed time to heal. They can roll, spiral, or simply steer you out of turret range, break targets, then swoop back in and reacquire. There are also monsters you can use to your advantage, since moving spawns creatures.

I'd say there is a lot of room for tactics in Ship vs Ship combat, because there are so many different pieces that effect the whole, and so many ways you can effect those pieces.