Ok, we all know that aetherspace is -vast-. Really, really huge.

Also, we know that ships are expensive. More expensive than manses. Which means they will always be relatively few in number.

So, combining these two pieces of information, crossing paths with another ship is going to be a very, very rare occurance. Remember also that they will become harder to crew, as there really isn't too much incentive at the moment to set out on fully-crewed voyages. (Experience for joining a crew is non-existent, power gathering is laborious and difficult, and travel is easily accomplished with a single pilot).

So, I think there needs to be some sort of reason or mechanic which encourages ships to fight over some resource, trophy or geography. Estarra mentioned in another thread that perhaps this would be accomplished by allowing each organization a 'mother ship', which could travel to an enemy nexus and attempt to drain it of power. I think this is a good idea, particularly if the pod idea is realized so that everyone gets a chance to be a part of it, whether they have a ship or not.

I'm also interested in alternatives:

- What about a limited number of creatures/items that are scattered throughout aetherspace and can be towed back (slowly) to a particular nexus dock in order to provide it with a certain bonus? Then, enemy ships can attempt to steal the items for their own organization. There would need to be some sort of inertia mechanism so that the items didn't change hands every few hours. Maybe a new one would appear every few months somewhere in aetherspace, announcing its arrival to everyone in the game, then the first team to drag it back to their nexus gets to keep the effect for 6 months before it disappears again.

- Maybe there can be a few quests in which waves of aetherbeasts/aetherships are spawned against a pair of organizations. I don't mean toggle state quests, where you do it and the attack continues until someone does the counter quest, I mean you complete a quest in which your ship has to be in a certain location, and as soon as you leave or are forcefully removed, the attack ends.

What other suggestions do you have to make sure ship combat is not a blue moon occurance?

How many power siphoning locations are there?

I like the idea of having to get an item/creature and tow it back to the nexus and hold it somewhere, and have it give the whole city a bonus, like 5% health, or 5% extra damage, maybe 10% physical resistance etc something worthwhile but not something that will insanely overpower anyone (5% isn't anything to crow about)

They're the yellow 'O's on his maps.



Lusternia doesn't need any more buffs, even if they're viewed to be relatively small. The straw that broke the camel's back, or something. +1000 power per month to the Nexus. Half cost for discretionary powers. Half cost for guards. The such. We certainly don't need more factors to cause people who are already tipping the scale of balance to topple it entirely.

There's a lot, I'd guess at around 100 or so across all the planes.

Have to agree with Soll, we don't need personal buffs. I was thinking more about reducing the costs of certain activities, maybe affecting some of the city/commune quests making them either easier or more difficult, maybe increasing the effect of completing power quests. Organizational things like that.

I'd like to hear some alternate suggestions though!

At any given time, Lusternia has how many locations? And how many people? Just create some way of scrying other aetherships. Find them, chase them, attack them.

I'm still curious why you think you want more combat in aetherspace for it to be a regular daily thing?

I don't recall anyone saying they wanted it to be a daily thing.

For all the effort that has gone into designing the skillsets, coding aetherspace and aetherships, I would like to see the occasional skirmish.

At the moment, it is unlikely ships will properly engage over intervals of weeks, let alone a few days.

Two words:

Aethership arena.

As long as we don't call it an arena.

Battle Bubble!

I was SO thinking that the other day, how we needed a place to test our new Aethership abilities.

Bubble Bobble.

OOOOH I LOVED BUBBLE BOBBLE!!!!






IT KICKED ASS!

Woah. I never played bubble bobble, only bust a move. Bub and Bob were cute though.