[idea] rocket boosters?

[feenix]

i had this idea basted on the shuttle discovery that landed recently. why not have a sort of boosters that take the place of hardware bay, and cost may be 15,000 or more, to help a player shoot accross the system.

now before u say no, here's the catch, you can only use it once, and it only gives a 5 sec burn (at first i was thinking 3 secs but after realising it takes more than 5 secs to get accross i changed it to 5 secs burn.

ps: i am willing to negotiate the burn time.

edit: in 5 secs with the alien ship it enables me to get to half of the system, 3 secs with the turbo on

edit: poll added

[urablahblah]

ps: i am willing to negotiate the burn time.

Oh, you are so kind. Go get yourself the default ship.

Just kidding... I just don't think its a good idea, because it just seems like another way to be lazy.

[vecna]

these are in the game. whenever you "reverse" you are using retro rockets just like on a shuttle when they are slowing down for re-entry.

[Freakazoid]

I like it.

It would enable all ships to have a sort of a merchant cruiser special, right? Would be useful in running away from groups and not terribly overpowered at the same time. It would give a lot of newbies in whales a good chance of running away. It would make it easier to travel long distances for slow ships, like vultures or barges.

A very sound idea, and even though I vowed to never say these words, I'll say them anyway:

Way to go, Feenix!

[feenix]

I like it.

It would enable all ships to have a sort of a merchant cruiser special, right?

right

Would be useful in running away from groups and not terribly overpowered at the same time. It would give a lot of newbies in whales a good chance of running away. It would make it easier to travel long distances for slow ships, like vultures or barges.

A very sound idea, and even though I vowed to never say these words, I'll say them anyway:

Way to go, Feenix!

thank you i am impressed to say the least but don't worry i won't let it go to my head

[ibanix]

I like it.

It would enable all ships to have a sort of a merchant cruiser special, right? Would be useful in running away from groups and not terribly overpowered at the same time. It would give a lot of newbies in whales a good chance of running away. It would make it easier to travel long distances for slow ships, like vultures or barges.

Right, but everyone will carry one or two around, and then use it to catch up with said running ships so they can nuke 'em.

[urablahblah]

I like it.

It would enable all ships to have a sort of a merchant cruiser special, right? Would be useful in running away from groups and not terribly overpowered at the same time. It would give a lot of newbies in whales a good chance of running away. It would make it easier to travel long distances for slow ships, like vultures or barges.

Right, but everyone will carry one or two around, and then use it to catch up with said running ships so they can nuke 'em.

Agreed. Bad idea.

[Mr.Boombastic]

I like it.

It would enable all ships to have a sort of a merchant cruiser special, right? Would be useful in running away from groups and not terribly overpowered at the same time. It would give a lot of newbies in whales a good chance of running away. It would make it easier to travel long distances for slow ships, like vultures or barges.

Right, but everyone will carry one or two around, and then use it to catch up with said running ships so they can nuke 'em.

Agreed. Bad idea.

So what? That's just two less nukes the n00b tormentors will have to blast them away with. I still think it gives the n00b a better chance than they have now. Idea supported.

EDIT: Added quote.

[Jwilson6]

Hmmmm... It kills me to say this but I actually kinda like this idea, would be a good way for newbs to survive, and I can't see the people preying on these guys carrying these around because it would take away from their nukes

[dirt]

If you launched a nuke while boosting it would go across the sytem in 3 secs lol. Sweet!

[ibanix]

I think to be balanced, you'd have to remove the ability to use other ship devices while boosting - no nuke launches.

[Freakazoid]

I like it.

It would enable all ships to have a sort of a merchant cruiser special, right? Would be useful in running away from groups and not terribly overpowered at the same time. It would give a lot of newbies in whales a good chance of running away. It would make it easier to travel long distances for slow ships, like vultures or barges.

Right, but everyone will carry one or two around, and then use it to catch up with said running ships so they can nuke 'em.

Actually you don't need rocket boosters to catch up with the running ships. I can catch up with almost anything in my ISC and just grav them to
death. At least this hardware allows them to quickly escape the grav lock.

I think the stats for rocket boosters should be the following:

Cost: 15,000 credits
Energy to use: 400
Forced thrust increased to 9 for 5 seconds.
Top speed increased to 10 for 5 seconds
Only available at starbases

Think of the many uses for this device:

1) Cutting the time for long-distance travel.
-While it won't help people in ISCs and IGSs much, it will enable other ships to cross the systems a lot faster. A barge with 24 boosters can get to the destination point much faster, for example.

2) Giving people a better chance of escaping unfair battles. Since most ships are slow, they have very little chances of survival if the attackers are in fast ships. If they have nukes on board those poor newbies don't stand a chance...unless they have rocket boosters.

Now remember this piece of hardware doesn't make you invincible. First, for each booster you lose one hardware hold which you could fill with a nuke instead. So the more boosters you have the less damage you can potentially dish out. This makes boosters a primarily defense mechanism.

Secondly, every time you want more boosters, you have to go to a starbase. Obviously that would cost some fuel, which would limit people's ability to exploit these.

Also note the forced thrust. For five seconds you can outrun almost anything, but at the same time you can't really change your trajectory. It makes it useful for those final dives into the warp gates, but not for anything else.

Oh and in response to Ibanix:

think to be balanced, you'd have to remove the ability to use other ship devices while boosting - no nuke launches.

I don't think nukes really need more thrust, they have trouble tracking fast moving targets as it is. If the nuke's launch speed is boosted but turning speed remains the same it will just be easier to dodge. Besides, the attacker will be forced to spend 5 seconds moving forward at incredible speed, which gives the defender ample opportunity to escape.

I definitely think this is a worthwhile change.

[feenix]

Hmmmm... It kills me to say this but I actually kinda like this idea, would be a good way for newbs to survive, and I can't see the people preying on these guys carrying these around because it would take away from their nukes

LMHO a lot of plp seem to feel this way . i am just glad i got a good idea for once

BTW Freakazoid: your statistic about the rockets are ok with me, you actually made it better than i had intended to do it , so it's fine by me.

altho i had thought about making the rocket booster carry their own energy supply, but i can see how this could become a problem, for example it could be easy for someone to turn on the rocket and fire at a ship at same time, so i guess making the rocket boosters carry their own energy supply is a bad idea, but even if it is. The original plan is great also.

LMHO=laugh my head off

[nukahn]

I like this idea, I think it could add some fun to the game, for example bringing a full 8 of these with you and rocketing around, and also would have some strategic value.

[CrazyChef]

I have a feeling this would give speedhackers an excuse.." no i am using the booster!" and then they get 8 nukes too! seems like a loophole

[feenix]

I have a feeling this would give speedhackers an excuse.." no i am using the booster!" and then they get 8 nukes too! seems like a loophole

that excuse wouldn't help them much because to be accurate and non obvious, they would have to use only for 5 secs and no longer. another idea i just got reading this is to prevent this, you could show something specific on the radar so that everyone knew the difference between a speedhacker and a rocket booster, say for example a different color in radar when the rocket booster is active.

[feenix]

bumped

[Weylin]

I think it would be nice to have those I often find myself getting relentlessly stalked by someone in a fleet cruiser, out accelerated, and not near as fast as them.

Even in a merchant cruiser, its special booster doesnt seem to cut it.

What you propose would be like a merchant cruiser burst but is used up

[feenix]

right what i propose is for all ships to have the ability of the merchant ship but they would be used up everytime u used it

[feenix]

bump should've been done before

[Catfish]

completely overpowered with the new ceo.

[feenix]

completely overpowered with the new ceo.

huh? the new ceo? oh you mean the new ceo ship?

well, all i can say is i don't think a lot of plp would agree with that because as we said before they are limited in several ways, one, the distance per booster, and also you can only have a certain number of them. as they get used up per boost. so if a ceo would have 16 then he couldn't have any nukes untill he used some of them or jettison them.

oh and if no one noticed freakzoid was rejecting 90% of the ideas posted in this forum and he thought my idea was great, so i think that alone speaks for it self i never had an idea other than this one where freakazoid and jwilson6 both thought it was a good idea. all i wish is it would get implemented XD

[Paneak]

Anything that would help a new player survice those first couple weeks is a great asset, i think the quick getaway provided by this would only be used by new players...i wouldn't give up any of my nukes to carry 1.