Aethercraft Specializaitions

by Estarra

Back to Common Grounds.

Unknown2006-02-12 03:58:20
I don't know if this has already been taken into account, but maybe a way to transfer crew between ships near to each other could be helpful?

Aside from one ramming the other. laugh.gif
Estarra2006-02-12 04:07:46
That'd be part of synchronizing.
Shorlen2006-02-12 04:33:24
QUOTE(Estarra @ Feb 11 2006, 10:56 PM) 257131

The "lifeline" skill idea was meant to make it easier if you die on a bubble.


My thoughts on the Lifeline skill in depth:

Though this is a nice idea, one can assume (in my eyes) that 90% of the people flying in aetherships already conglutinate. So, all this does is make it so they don't have to travel back to the ship from Prime. Though useful, I do not consider that on the same power level as other trans skills. It also has no real use during ship combat - yes, it would allow people to revive on death, but it means that they are undeffed and if htey died, they are probably on the losing side. So, they get to just die again and lose more experience. I only see it being used to give people with out Conglutinate the ability temporarily for raiding purposes, thereby even further decreasing the loss raiders suffer, while not really effecting the loss the defenders suffer. Raids are already rather one-sided most of the time, as the attackers nearly always have conglutinate and often have cubixes, whereas the defenders are whomever is on at the time for the side that's being raided.

Now, as for the usefulness of it in aether bubbles and not planes or in ships, right now it wouldn't be terribly useful. There isn't anything of great value on the bubbles. There is no reason for there to be huge conflicts there. If every time a ship with a full crew of six or so sailed somewhere, they lifelined every crewman, that would be 60 power, not an insignificant amount at all. It would also take a very long time for the ship to regenerate that much after each use. And for all that power and time, the benefit is what? If the people die, they conglutinate, possibly losing all current power like all other conglutinate effects. Vitae is the same cost and has the same effect in this situation, and it is not wasted if the player does not in fact die.


All in all, I personally do not see this skill seeing much use at all.
Estarra2006-02-12 04:50:31
Regarding lifeline, the main point is that you would conglutinate onboard the ship rather than on the prime plane (perhaps many many leagues away from your ship).

I agree it wouldn't be a great advantage in combat for the reasons you specified.

I would like to point out that ships will probably not consider 60 power a big great deal insofar as they can gain power from vortexes fairly easily.
Shorlen2006-02-12 04:56:52
QUOTE(Estarra @ Feb 11 2006, 11:50 PM) 257153

Regarding lifeline, the main point is that you would conglutinate onboard the ship rather than on the prime plane (perhaps many many leagues away from your ship).

I agree it wouldn't be a great advantage in combat for the reasons you specified.

I would like to point out that ships will probably not consider 60 power a big great deal insofar as they can gain power from vortexes fairly easily.


Well, the cost was only when in comparison to Vitae, which costs the same and has the same effect when bashing/questing. The bigger cost is time - a ship cannot instantly regain 60 power, but I suppose the Empath can lifeline people while in flight. It still seems like a skill that noone would ever bother with as I understand it. Unlike the trans skills for the other two classes, it gives no edge in combat, and I personally think that, for the skillsets to be balanced, it should be a ten power combat skill like the other two. Just my opinion, of course.
Unknown2006-02-12 04:57:43
Or PvE skill! Poor empaths. sad.gif
Nokraenom2006-02-12 07:48:55
QUOTE(Shorlen @ Feb 11 2006, 09:33 PM) 257146

My thoughts on the Lifeline skill in depth:

Though this is a nice idea, one can assume (in my eyes) that 90% of the people flying in aetherships already conglutinate.


I strongly disagree with this idea. Most of the people I sail with don't conglutinate, because I've encouraged a number of less experienced (or credit-loaded, depending on how you want to look at it) Magnagorans to learn basic Aethercraft skills. I've actually used guild credits to help interested Nihilists learn basic sailing/empath/turret skills, none of whom conglut.
Unknown2006-02-12 08:01:11
I didn't think vitae was much different in experience loss to conglutinate?
Shorlen2006-02-12 08:06:17
QUOTE(Nokraenom @ Feb 12 2006, 02:48 AM) 257188

I strongly disagree with this idea. Most of the people I sail with don't conglutinate, because I've encouraged a number of less experienced (or credit-loaded, depending on how you want to look at it) Magnagorans to learn basic Aethercraft skills. I've actually used guild credits to help interested Nihilists learn basic sailing/empath/turret skills, none of whom conglut.


Hmm, true, but what about Vitae? I always give out Vitae to those who do not conglutinate and urge them to use it.

Oh, and for the record, I do not conglutinate. I will be spending the credits I was originally going to trans planar with for transing Commander instead. I still think Vitae is more than good enough to prevent experience loss aboard ships.
Vix2006-02-13 03:02:26
How about a combateer skill that gives a higher chance of hitting from far away?
Unknown2006-02-13 03:33:26
Oooo...

Syntax: GRID DAMPEN
Ship Power: 0
Soothing the inner workings of your algontherine, you will be able to dampen its energy field and thus smooth its wake through aetherspace somewhat. This will mean that for a very short time creatures will not be attracted by your movements. This will consume more of your empathic grid's balance than usual.

So you can temporarily stop a swarm forming. It should last, say, 15 seconds?

Edit: Ok, make that 30 seconds. dry.gif
Shorlen2006-02-13 04:02:16
Now that vortexes have a chance to teleport you away when linking, I really think we need an ability like:

Empath or Commander ability:

ENTRENCH - negates chance of being teleported away while in a vortex. Moving cancels. (10 Power)

Without an ability like this, the strategy of running in, siphoning as much as you can, running away until the hoards start following, then rushing past them to siphon more is the only time-viable siphoning strategy, and I personally don't like that sad.gif

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Commander ability: SLINK - Movements have a lessened/zero chance of awakening (spawning) aetherbeasts. Drastically decreases radar range and/or movement speed while active.

- The purpose of this skill is to allow people who are trying to clear an area of aetherbeasts to actually do so. Right now, if an area has 20+ beasts, no number of ships will be able to deal with them, as they need to be constantly moving to avoid dying instantly to the hoard, and I find that ships spawn as much as, if not more, creatures than they kill in this situation, even with three manned starbusted turrets.
Shorlen2006-02-13 04:15:33
-----

OOH! Now that the code is already there....

Commander skill: TUNNEL - Navigate your aethership into the wild energies of a vortex to make a quick escape (3 Power).

If you're at a vortex, it teleports you randomly as if you had been teleported by someone siphoning. Dunno if it would be useful at all, but it'd be trivial to code!

What would be better would be if you could use vortexes to teleport more controlably, say, to another vortex, or in a certain general direction, but that would be much more complicated to add.
Shorlen2006-02-13 04:41:10
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To clarify, the reason I think we need the entrench skill or something of that nature is not that the teleporitng is a huge problem, or that it is really making linking unviable or anything. It is that the teleporting encourages players to not kill what they spawn, and it gives great benefit to those who use the link and run strategy, helping them get away after linking a lot, and gives detriment to those who use the kill everything strategy by making them find their way back each time.
Estarra2006-02-14 05:58:38
Ok, here is the list that I believe we will use.

Now then, in deference to those who want to make sure that aetherships don't tilt too far into the scifi universe, are there any skill names that anyone would like to see changed? (If so, please provide alternate name suggestions.)

(BAMF will most likely be changed. As someone accused me in a message, I really don't know anything about some character named Nightcrawler who might have been in some group called the X-Men.... No, I don't own any X-Men comics that date back to the 1980's... honest.... )
lies.gif

CODE

Commander Skill List

You have gained the following abilities in Commander:
Command             Decrease balance of command module
Distribution        Distribute extra power to modules
Trail               Follow a ship without its permission
Spinning            Spin the ship to help prevent ramming (POWER 3)
Shadow              Prevent a ship from moving away
WideScreen          Increase range of display at cost of speed
Maneuver            Maneuver past a shadowing ship
SLINK               Aether creatures will less likely notice your ship
Sluice              Quickly slip away  on the aetherways (POWER 2/room)
Bamf                Teleport ship to buoy or synchronized ship (POWER 10)
IMMERSION           Immerse in a vortex, hide from scans (POWER 10)
Rolling             Roll your ship to decrease chance to be hit (POWER 3)
Block               Block entrance to a dock or rift
Evade               Break away from a trailing ship (POWER 1)
TUNNEL              Enter a vortex and bamf at will (POWER 3)
Spiral              Prevent all hits for a limited time (POWER 10)

Combateer Skill List

You have gained the following abilities in Combateer:
Turret              Decrease balance of battle turret
Strip               Temporarily strip a shield (POWER 3)
Repulse             Push away a ship or aetherbeast
FarTarget           Target a ship or beast from afar
Murkle              Disrupt one module on an enemy ship (POWER 1)
Sludge              Temporarily slow movement of a ship
PowerMine           Lay a mine that damages a ship or beast (POWER 3)
Worble              Cause aeon-like effect on one module (POWER 1)
Siphon              Siphon energy from a shieldless enemy ship
Marmuckle           Disrupt all modules on enemy ship (POWER 5)
Shock               Briefly paralyze ship or aetherbeast
ShockMine           Lay a mine that shocks a ship or beast (POWER 8)
Marwurble           Cause aeon-like effect on all modules (POWER 5)
Ultraviolet         Blow up modules on enemy ship (POWER 10)

Empath Skill List

You have gained the following abilities in Empath:
Grid                Decrease balance of empathic grid
Analyze             Analyze other ships or aetherbeasts
Channel             Hail another ship and open a channel
AwayTeam            Form a channel that expands to aetherbubbles
Clarity             Unfreeze any module or clear an ailment
Scan                Find all non-cloaked ships in same environment
Flare               Send a signal to all nearby empaths (POWER 3)
Static              Block communication in a 9 room radius (POWER 3)
Buoy                Drop a temporary buoy in aetherspace (POWER 10)
Feedback            Damage ships who try to hail you
Parasite            Synchronize with a ship against their will (POWER 10)
Synchronize         Synchronize two ships to always stay in touch
Lifeline            Conglutinate those on same non-prime plane (POWER 10)
Regenerate          Regenerate blown up modules (POWER 5)
Powersurge          Clear all ship ailments (POWER 10)
BAFFLE              Aura that temporarily hides ship from aether mobs (POWER 10)

Sidra2006-02-14 06:06:56
Yay! Score 2 ability names for me! happydance.gif

Hm. Now i'm curious as to the ability's specifics aside from hiding you from scans.

Edit: And I think that Baffle ability looks great. I wonder though, if you attack, will they still be unable to hit back? If so, that'd make it really nice for PvE. But I can already imagine some fun for it in PvP as well.
Unknown2006-02-14 06:12:27
May I ask how baffle will work?
Estarra2006-02-14 06:18:01
QUOTE(Avaer @ Feb 13 2006, 10:12 PM) 258018

May I ask how baffle will work?


It's the DAMPEN idea above. I didn't like the name "dampen" (and no sure I like the name "baffle").

(*NUDGE* Looking for name suggestions for any of the skills.)
Unknown2006-02-14 06:22:59
Erk, but its 10 power... for 15 seconds? And isn't it much the same as slink, which costs none?

Edit: Names... I liked dampen. tongue.gif What about, erm... Nullfield? Biorhythm? Stealth? Camouflage? Shapeshift? Masquerade?

And, I'm not fond of powersurge, but I can't think of anything better.
Sidra2006-02-14 06:31:03
I'm guessing the time was lengthened.

And slink slows the ship, and doesn't have a 100% success rate.

I'm sure it was balanced in terms of slink, given they went in at the same time