Tactical Features for PvP

[Warlander]

I would like to suggest a few features I think could really help to get pvp going or making patrolling and dispatching people easier.

 

First I would like to suggest a flagship radar array which allows an org to have one capital flagship that can potentially house 1 orbital array radar system which can pick up targets from a long distance out. An orbital array would allow a fleet to both track friendly allies and enemy targets or identify any allied Orgs you have with various icons.

 

In addition to an orbital array a fleet should also be able to set up sensor beacons as well to extend the range of an orbital array if a fleet puts one down it then extends their capability to see targets or allies passing through perhaps 10/25/50 SU pocket of space.

 

In addition to the beacons and orbital array there should be another smaller ship mounted beacon you can also plug into the fleet array network which gives your fleet the ability to track their individual players of the fleet but also tap into each of their ship mounted radar systems and further increase the awareness of a fleet. Not only does it show your location and radar but it also serves to take a heal report of your ship. The Orbital array should then show the type of ship you fly and also if they click on it see some kind of diagnostic check to see what all the parts on your ship's status is.

 

Also I think missles should have a new ammo that is not meant to destroy as much as it is a tracking beacon you can fire at a ship that lodges into the side like a balista but allows PvPers to track where your ship is to better allow ambushes or just stalking until they discover the tracker lodged into the side of the ship and remove it. I think this could also really help to stimulate pvp if the intial warp attack fails you still can have a shot on the other end since you cna see where the ship is currently.

 

Decoy missles A missle with a core attached to the payload that contains the signature of your ship and temporarily forces incoming missles to auto target the dummy core as a form of chaff.

 

Missle seeking missles that hone in on and take out incoming missles.

 

Emp chaff that if you are caught in the blast disables all elements for 10-30mins. It can only be deployed out of the back of the ship and it has no propulsion and is meant for more of players chasing a ship.

 

I also think there should be an auto repair droid that you can link to a container that can slowly use scrap to repair a ship during combat 1 part at a time. Perhaps being able to set a priority of element types or just set to random.

 

I also think there should be a welding droid that can repair voxels 1vs at a time to a set blueprint spec.

 

I also think that the Destructive Elements system needs to be brought back. It should be harsher then it was before as well to where everything has one break. The only difference being some kind of 50/50 shot that it can be repaired upon destruction. I think if there was always a chance you could heal and get things back or needing to replace parts. This type of system makes PvP require more skill to not destroy what you intend to take or if you just want to destroy the ship you have the option as well but if you intend to enguage in piracy then you need to have some kind of skill to surgically remove and disable a ship.

 

I also think that ships when destroyed should keep traveling the same way they were when they were destroyed. The attacker should have to perform the exact right boarding as the ship they destroyed is traveling and then either enguage landing gear if they can land on it or they have to attempt to board the ship. If successful they can claim the core and enguage space breaks to loot the ship or get it opperational again.

 

I also think the way combat is being handled should be changed as well. There needs to be a better range of physical guns, lazers, beam weapons, etc that use a calibur or Pound rating system. One in which it should take fighters a while to soften up a target with sustained fire with physical bullets doing damage along with lazers doing more damage to shields or forcefields but less damage to other elements if they are using polished voxels. Where beam based weapons just eat through voxels and dod stream based damage the longer they are able to hold the beam onto a surface.

 

Like for instance a .30 cal machine gun should do 30 damage to a voxel or have it do a smooth effect to a surface until it eats through voxels or you can pepper the engines and make them lose efficiency. Each shot also does 30 dmg to a voxel to help break up sections. Larger calibur weapons would obviously do more damage and rip through voxels faster and L/XL+ versions could take a voxel out and smooth with the Xl going through multiple surfaces or going through the ship.

 

Not to mention cannons being done differently as well where it is not about the explosion as much as the hole it rips into a ship. Cannons should have a 2x2 base voxel radious for small ship based cannons and go up to where they are 10x10 for larger weapons. Cannons should not use splash damage as much as it should act as a DD or direct damage to whatever it hits doing 2-10k damage per shot. Using a 2lb cannon shell or a 10lb shell is also somewhat balanced with ore weights.

 

Or that lazers should also have a sort of intensity / calubur system that does damage to a voxel, element, or shield differently. Depending on the voxels or grade should add resistance to a Lazer to where it always does max damage to a shield but the defense enherant to the voxels matters.

 

Beam wapons should rely on the energy system with the diameter in a spere can be mounted on a star fighter to hold the mouse to shoot a beam for energy cost at a trade off to the shield at will to constantly stream damage while the beam is running the size of 1vx to potentially 5 depending on the drain cost of the energy as a trade off for defense to get more damage.

 

Missles should have their homing capability nerfed in space vs in armo. If they are traveling at a ship from a dirrerent direction entirely the missle should have a really slow turn to allow players the chance to actually dodge missles in more agile craft. Missles should also be changed to where they have a lot of damage to a small area like cannons but also that the spash damage should be calculated and distributed from the full AoE to those items collectively sharing the damage it would have done after the initial hit.

 

But also that Warping should be no different than regualr space travel in which there are a range of warp speeds and speeds associated with weight calculation. The difference is that instead of the 30kmph limit it just uncaps the speed limit to double the last speed limit if warp acted like an engine vs a light speed travel. Where you could have warp 1 start at 60kmph, warp 2 at 120knph, warp 3 being 240knph, warp 4 being 480kmph, and warm 5 being 960kmph. Where warp cells are more like gas than being made intentionally expensive they should just act like nuclear rods you have to add anc change every so often once the energy is spent.

 

That way PvPers dont have people just escaping. If warping was more like faster levels of fast travel they have a 1 in 5 chance to actually catch up to a player going warp 1-5 and it creates a 20% chance gamble that if you bet wrong you are going to either be too slow or too fast but if you bet right to the speed they chose to warp then you have at least a chance to hunt down and fight. Otherwise they are likely gone.

 

There needs to be some kind of NPC meta in this game. To where you can hire an npc tied to all the talents into the talent tree for what they can do. Players have to train new npcs themselves by hiring the npc then being allowed to build up its talents with an additional tab in the takent tree window for a list of npcs. You should be allowed to que up their talents but knowing full well that every talent you add will cost you more to pay them with everything they learn. You should be able to trade workers with other players if you cannot afford to pay their salary for whatever reason.

 

But if you could have a pilot npcs, merc npc, soldier npc, transport npc, market npc, or industry npc, or mining npc, trader npcs, and all sorts of sentry types, gunners, and things you will never be able to fill for a loyal npc could do a lot in this game to stimulating combat.