Lendren2009-03-21 21:03:43
While working on some help files for aetherspace stuff, I had a few ideas I thought I'd share.
Ramming
There doesn't seem to be much point in ramming right now. Here's something that might make it an interesting tactic.
Edit: Deleted the ideas about changes in scan skills to make piracy more viable since it turns out they're already possible, just no one uses them.
Ramming
There doesn't seem to be much point in ramming right now. Here's something that might make it an interesting tactic.
- A new Combateer skill, Destruct. A combateer has to be standing next to the command chair of a ship for 15 seconds without doing anything else (similar to instakills like Bardoon) to carry this off. Takes 5p of his personal power. If he succeeds, the ship will start a one-minute countdown (which it will announce every ten seconds on SHIPT) to self-destruction.
- A new Empath skill, Soothe. This takes an extra-long grid balance (of about 15 seconds) to do, even if it fails because of the grid being damaged. It will stop a self-destruct sequence in progress.
Edit: Deleted the ideas about changes in scan skills to make piracy more viable since it turns out they're already possible, just no one uses them.
Gero2009-03-21 21:29:27
QUOTE
While working on some help files for aetherspace stuff, I had a few ideas I thought I'd share.
Ramming
There doesn't seem to be much point in ramming right now. Here's something that might make it an interesting tactic.
A new Combateer skill, Destruct. A combateer has to be standing next to the command chair of a ship for 15 seconds without doing anything else (similar to instakills like Bardoon) to carry this off. Takes 5p of his personal power. If he succeeds, the ship will start a one-minute countdown (which it will announce every ten seconds on SHIPT) to self-destruction.
A new Empath skill, Soothe. This takes an extra-long grid balance (of about 15 seconds) to do, even if it fails because of the grid being damaged. It will stop a self-destruct sequence in progress.
Thus, a valid tactic will be to ram and attempt to start a self-destruct. You'll need to have overwhelming force to break in to the command chair and protect your combateer long enough to start the sequence, then be able to get out alive. If the targetted ship has a sufficiently skilled empath they can stop the sequence, only at the cost of losing their grid for a while, which means the attackers still get some benefit for all the time they put into the ramming attack. Also could provide interesting suicide-run attacks.
Piracy
Since piracy never happens, though it seems the coders intend that it should, here are some ideas.
I'm not sure if GRID SCAN tells you anything about the ships in the same environment, other than just their presence. But if it doesn't, it really should show both short and long names of ships, so that the stupid-name technique is not so effective. It should also show a very general sense of whether the other ship has cargo (like it might say "No holds" or "Unladen" or "Lightly laden" or "Heavily laden" and that's it).
I don't know what GRID ANALYZE or GRID ASTRALSENSE tell you about a ship, but if neither does, at least one of them should show you about the target ship's capabilities, perhaps more info depending on distance. For instance, if you're in the same room, it can tell you the number of rooms of the ship, a list of the modules, which ones are occupied, and which ones are damaged, plus what cargo is in the holds. If you're within 10 rooms, it can list the modules and ship size, and give a general sense of cargo level. Farther away, it can only tell you the ship size and how many modules.
There should be, if there isn't already, an Empath skill that can tell you the direction to a ship even at great distances. At closer distances, it should show distance as well.
Some of these things might alread exist. It's really hard to find anyone who knows and will tell me what some of these skills do.
Ramming
There doesn't seem to be much point in ramming right now. Here's something that might make it an interesting tactic.
A new Combateer skill, Destruct. A combateer has to be standing next to the command chair of a ship for 15 seconds without doing anything else (similar to instakills like Bardoon) to carry this off. Takes 5p of his personal power. If he succeeds, the ship will start a one-minute countdown (which it will announce every ten seconds on SHIPT) to self-destruction.
A new Empath skill, Soothe. This takes an extra-long grid balance (of about 15 seconds) to do, even if it fails because of the grid being damaged. It will stop a self-destruct sequence in progress.
Thus, a valid tactic will be to ram and attempt to start a self-destruct. You'll need to have overwhelming force to break in to the command chair and protect your combateer long enough to start the sequence, then be able to get out alive. If the targetted ship has a sufficiently skilled empath they can stop the sequence, only at the cost of losing their grid for a while, which means the attackers still get some benefit for all the time they put into the ramming attack. Also could provide interesting suicide-run attacks.
Piracy
Since piracy never happens, though it seems the coders intend that it should, here are some ideas.
I'm not sure if GRID SCAN tells you anything about the ships in the same environment, other than just their presence. But if it doesn't, it really should show both short and long names of ships, so that the stupid-name technique is not so effective. It should also show a very general sense of whether the other ship has cargo (like it might say "No holds" or "Unladen" or "Lightly laden" or "Heavily laden" and that's it).
I don't know what GRID ANALYZE or GRID ASTRALSENSE tell you about a ship, but if neither does, at least one of them should show you about the target ship's capabilities, perhaps more info depending on distance. For instance, if you're in the same room, it can tell you the number of rooms of the ship, a list of the modules, which ones are occupied, and which ones are damaged, plus what cargo is in the holds. If you're within 10 rooms, it can list the modules and ship size, and give a general sense of cargo level. Farther away, it can only tell you the ship size and how many modules.
There should be, if there isn't already, an Empath skill that can tell you the direction to a ship even at great distances. At closer distances, it should show distance as well.
Some of these things might alread exist. It's really hard to find anyone who knows and will tell me what some of these skills do.
These would be awesome ideas, however I see some problems. First off most of the time you don't have enough crew to man a ship properly anyways, with ramming you need additional people. Granted they don't have to be part of the crew just fighters. I like the idea a lot with the purpose of blowing up the ship, gives someone a reason to ram. Second is piracy. Piracy won't work because of the current situation of aetherspace. A) Most of us don't have the crew to run a ship and go aetherspace hunting for dust and particles and such. B ) Aetherspace hunting is a terrible income maker, only getting 2-5 tons of dust per kill it taking 100 or so just to get 1 particle and 100 particles or so to get 1 sphere. It just isn't a worth while means to gold, so people won't go hunt.
So these ideas are great, but there has to be some change for these to work.
Lendren2009-03-21 22:18:44
Yeah, some of this is chicken-and-egg stuff: we don't have enough people to do stuff, but maybe if we make suitably interesting stuff to do, we'll get more people. I'd certainly hope that addressing the low returns (on experience and gold) comes before these ideas, for instance.
Gero2009-03-21 22:50:12
Well, from an economic stand point, there isn't a great enough incentive for people to learn aethercraft; let alone buy a ship and outfit it. What we need to do is increase the benefits or rewards for owning and using an aethership. I mean, look at commander, pretty much the only skill I ever get to use is flashpoint. They're aren't many aethership battles that I can actually put my skills to use which is a big disappointment. We need more prolonged conflict in this area.
Lendren2009-03-21 23:44:49
I've been informed that:
- GRID SCAN shows both the full name and short name of ships in the same environment;
- GRID ASTRALSENSE shows the direction to a ship anywhere on the plane;
- GRID ANALYZE lists modules with their status, and status including cargo.
