Yay, I'm so glad to see people are still interested in aetherspace and making it even more interesting! 
Krellan, you've got some really good ideas too.
This would work. I've always shied away from this because I want aetherspace to remain vast and physically separate, but that's just personal nostalgia, perhaps. Fusion to everyone on a more conditional basis would be better than what is there now, anyway.
The distribute skill is actually not entirely as useful as it could be. Out of the 6 modules that you can transfer power from, only the shield orb is safe to do so while aetherhunting.
...
Another potential solution could be making it so that they don't malfunction at under 100%, while still decreasing the effectiveness of the modules. To clarify further, modules under 100% already work less effectively. Grids repair less of the hull each time, turrets do less damage, and the chair moves slower.
I'm not sure I agree with the reason behind this - Distribute has to be one of the most powerful and universally useful Empath skills out there. It certainly doesn't need to be boosted, +speed, +damage, +heals or +shield all able to be adjusted at need is very helpful, not to mention keeping key modules like the chair or grid from suffering much damage during a fight, even if that is more difficult to maintain.
Having said that, I think your solution is elegant and helpful, even if toned down a little. There's no need for modules to fail and consume a whole balance cycle when they're at 90%. That makes the Empath's job incredibly difficult, when even a single hit can cause ship-wide failures. I agree that until the module is below a certain damage level, medium or heavy say, the only effects should be increased balance time or other manageable effects. For example, no/light damage does nothing but slightly (and SLIGHTLY) slow balance time, medium might slow it a bit more and have a 10-20% chance of 'shorting' and causing 50% ego damage to the crewmember. Heavy might start failing occasionally, and have a 20-30% chance of shorting. Critical might start failing regularly and having a 30-50% chance of shorting. Ego burnout means you are unlocked and cannot lock in - your sense of self is not strong enough to safely bond with the algontherine. Or maybe burnout allows you to lock in, but you take continuous damage over time.
Anyway, that's just rambling, but your idea is sound. Keeping modules functioning should be relatively easy unless beset by a clever foe, although not so easy that an Empath never has to make a survival choice.
AT FIRST GLANCE I think it would be more fun if:
Combateers missed less.
The empath grid went faster and didn't misfire so much.
Ship power regenerated faster.
Everyone had better transport in aetherspace via wormhole-type things (it takes inf longer to get to Glom nexus world from Seren than it did to get from Celest to Mag...I hope that wasn't just us).
I think all this sounds good. Total agreement.
I actually think the empath system is going to need work to be enjoyable in real combat (assuming it isn't happening already, it didn't seem likely in my time). I'd like to see some temporary drain/heal statuses that can be used to take some of the load off from the heal/heal/cure/heal/heal pattern of Empaths. Even if they went into Combateer or Commander specs, so the Empath can make more tactical choices and have time to coordinate a fight as well. Combateer is another one that is stuck in a shoot/shoot/shoot/afflict/shoot pattern, and maybe they need more synchronous afflictions and other non-damage abilities against both beasts/ships in order to engage their creativity and style.
Edit: Do you know, what would be very nice is an empath ability that slowed your chair balance by half, but healed the ship a certain amount every few seconds. Smaller than active heals, but enough to take some of the emphasis off the boring parts.
Well, after reading some of this and doing more thinking, another possible change idea is to make it so damage doesn't touch the modules. All master aethercrafts can target modules. Why not make use of it! This combined with powers for other modules will make more and more skills viable to use. No combateers to afflict with malfunctioning? Then target modules first. Target the grid so they can't cure and target the hull at the same time. As much fun as I get from just blasting the hull pewpew pew. Pew! Pew! I realize eventually it'll start to decline in popularity and get old by people not as simply as amused as I, especially if these aetherbattles increase in frequency.
Plus it becomes less annoying when aetherhunting. One attack ripping into the hull won't damage every single module you have.
I agree in reference to ships, excellent idea! (I don't agree in reference to beasts, we need to spice up pve somehow, not make it more bland.)
The power sharing idea is hard to gauge. I like the teamwork necessity of sharing power, as opposed to individual power prompts which would be more like traditional ganking. I think the main change I'd like to see in terms of making abilities easier is having more scaled responses to resources as opposed to binary can use/cannot use. I'm not really sure how that works in practice, and I'm only thinking of the top of my head here... but maybe something like the power abilities of turrets having a certain effect when power is used, but a lesser effect or chance when it is not. Or being able to store regenerating charge on a station that is not being actively used and then convert it into a few extra power points instantly. Ahem, anyway, I like sharing power.
I would realy like the following change to the way healing modules works:
Put a 3rd command into AB AETHERCRAFT EMPATHY that would let you heal all modules for less that what they are healed for now. Then make a 3 power skill in Empath that heals a module alot.
Also, if grid scan could say how far or give a direction, that would be peachy.
I like this too!
I realize that since I don't play anymore, my opinions don't mean too much, so take this with a grain of salt if you want. I just thought a bump was worthwhile on this topic, aetherspace really is the most beautiful concept and deserves a lot of creative input from all players!
Krellan, you've got some really good ideas too.QUOTE(Krellan @ Nov 26 2007, 10:17 PM) 460448
As I've been writing this, I realized that fusing would just become the trueheal of aethercraft and everyone having that would be kind of crazy. So to polish it off, make it so that one can only fused if the ship is at full hull strength (and/or undamaged modules). This means that the trans commander skill would be the best means of escaping during a dangerous battle and not just anyone could do it.
This would work. I've always shied away from this because I want aetherspace to remain vast and physically separate, but that's just personal nostalgia, perhaps. Fusion to everyone on a more conditional basis would be better than what is there now, anyway.
QUOTE
The distribute skill is actually not entirely as useful as it could be. Out of the 6 modules that you can transfer power from, only the shield orb is safe to do so while aetherhunting.
...
Another potential solution could be making it so that they don't malfunction at under 100%, while still decreasing the effectiveness of the modules. To clarify further, modules under 100% already work less effectively. Grids repair less of the hull each time, turrets do less damage, and the chair moves slower.
Having said that, I think your solution is elegant and helpful, even if toned down a little. There's no need for modules to fail and consume a whole balance cycle when they're at 90%. That makes the Empath's job incredibly difficult, when even a single hit can cause ship-wide failures. I agree that until the module is below a certain damage level, medium or heavy say, the only effects should be increased balance time or other manageable effects. For example, no/light damage does nothing but slightly (and SLIGHTLY) slow balance time, medium might slow it a bit more and have a 10-20% chance of 'shorting' and causing 50% ego damage to the crewmember. Heavy might start failing occasionally, and have a 20-30% chance of shorting. Critical might start failing regularly and having a 30-50% chance of shorting. Ego burnout means you are unlocked and cannot lock in - your sense of self is not strong enough to safely bond with the algontherine. Or maybe burnout allows you to lock in, but you take continuous damage over time.
Anyway, that's just rambling, but your idea is sound. Keeping modules functioning should be relatively easy unless beset by a clever foe, although not so easy that an Empath never has to make a survival choice.
QUOTE
AT FIRST GLANCE I think it would be more fun if:
Combateers missed less.
The empath grid went faster and didn't misfire so much.
Ship power regenerated faster.
Everyone had better transport in aetherspace via wormhole-type things (it takes inf longer to get to Glom nexus world from Seren than it did to get from Celest to Mag...I hope that wasn't just us).
I think all this sounds good. Total agreement.
I actually think the empath system is going to need work to be enjoyable in real combat (assuming it isn't happening already, it didn't seem likely in my time). I'd like to see some temporary drain/heal statuses that can be used to take some of the load off from the heal/heal/cure/heal/heal pattern of Empaths. Even if they went into Combateer or Commander specs, so the Empath can make more tactical choices and have time to coordinate a fight as well. Combateer is another one that is stuck in a shoot/shoot/shoot/afflict/shoot pattern, and maybe they need more synchronous afflictions and other non-damage abilities against both beasts/ships in order to engage their creativity and style.
Edit: Do you know, what would be very nice is an empath ability that slowed your chair balance by half, but healed the ship a certain amount every few seconds. Smaller than active heals, but enough to take some of the emphasis off the boring parts.
QUOTE
Well, after reading some of this and doing more thinking, another possible change idea is to make it so damage doesn't touch the modules. All master aethercrafts can target modules. Why not make use of it! This combined with powers for other modules will make more and more skills viable to use. No combateers to afflict with malfunctioning? Then target modules first. Target the grid so they can't cure and target the hull at the same time. As much fun as I get from just blasting the hull pewpew pew. Pew! Pew! I realize eventually it'll start to decline in popularity and get old by people not as simply as amused as I, especially if these aetherbattles increase in frequency.
Plus it becomes less annoying when aetherhunting. One attack ripping into the hull won't damage every single module you have.
The power sharing idea is hard to gauge. I like the teamwork necessity of sharing power, as opposed to individual power prompts which would be more like traditional ganking. I think the main change I'd like to see in terms of making abilities easier is having more scaled responses to resources as opposed to binary can use/cannot use. I'm not really sure how that works in practice, and I'm only thinking of the top of my head here... but maybe something like the power abilities of turrets having a certain effect when power is used, but a lesser effect or chance when it is not. Or being able to store regenerating charge on a station that is not being actively used and then convert it into a few extra power points instantly. Ahem, anyway, I like sharing power.
QUOTE(Greleag @ Dec 5 2007, 01:55 AM) 462366
I would realy like the following change to the way healing modules works:
Put a 3rd command into AB AETHERCRAFT EMPATHY that would let you heal all modules for less that what they are healed for now. Then make a 3 power skill in Empath that heals a module alot.
Also, if grid scan could say how far or give a direction, that would be peachy.
I like this too!
I realize that since I don't play anymore, my opinions don't mean too much, so take this with a grain of salt if you want. I just thought a bump was worthwhile on this topic, aetherspace really is the most beautiful concept and deserves a lot of creative input from all players!
