[IDEA] Fighters

Ideas for improving Starport:GE

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RocketmanX
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[IDEA] Fighters

Post by RocketmanX » Tue Jul 01, 2008 7:58 am

How about something else to put in your hardware slots instead of nukes and turrets?
(this idea has probably been posted before, but here's my take on it)

Fighters:
They pretty much behave like missiles in regards to targeting (closeness of what you want to launch them at)
Armed with a 1/4 strength fusion blaster. They could have the equivalent of 700 shields before being destroyed.

Fighters would need fuel, so you would have to carry spice in your cargo holds. A fighter could fly for 30 seconds before having to refuel, and each refueling would cost 10 spice. Refueling would take 20 seconds before they could launch again.
Fighters can be repaired while in the hardware bay, but only if there is equipment in the cargo bays. 5 equipment would repair a fighter.

Turning, thrust, and top speed of fighters would be greater than that of ships like the ISC or Seth.
Laser turrets wouldn't be very effective against fighters, but flak cannons would be devastating.
Regular mines and compound mines would have no effect on fighters.

Fighters could attack other incoming fighters. The fighter's fusion blast would be 1/4 strength against regular ships, but would be full strength against other fighters.

This probably wouldn't work too well for invasions, but fighters are made for space combat.

MuTAnT
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Post by MuTAnT » Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:16 am

7k shields is too steep.

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DarkLStrike
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Post by DarkLStrike » Tue Jul 01, 2008 12:32 pm

Pretty nice idea, could bring some variety into the game play. It's very hard to implement though :(.

lamby227
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Post by lamby227 » Tue Jul 01, 2008 2:18 pm

only one problem with that in my opinion nice idea but cost would probs be steep and for 700 sheilds they would be destroyd with one hit from a laser canon i think about 6-7 k sheilds would be better

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RocketmanX
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Post by RocketmanX » Tue Jul 01, 2008 4:47 pm

MuTAnT wrote:7k shields is too steep.
Read it again. I wrote 700 not 7000.

lamby227 wrote:only one problem with that in my opinion nice idea but cost would probs be steep and for 700 sheilds they would be destroyd with one hit from a laser canon i think about 6-7 k sheilds would be better
Read it again. I wrote that laser turrets wouldn't be effective against fighters

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BMF1000D
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Post by BMF1000D » Tue Jul 01, 2008 6:05 pm

Sounds like a cool idea to me.

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toast
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Post by toast » Tue Jul 01, 2008 6:42 pm

i have seen a few ideas like this...and never really given it much thought beyond "wow that would never happen"

this topic seems to be getting more positive response, so ill add my two cents ;)

I think that while 700 shields is far to low, 7k shields is far too high. I think 3-4k shields would be just about right. These fighters aren't meant to be doing the fighting for you, rather they are adding a distraction, and perhaps a small amount of damage. (remember...they would not be likely to have much more intelligence than an npc, because that would make toonces rewrite a whole ton of stuff).

They also should be effected by lasers. They are real ships afterall. To compensate for low shields they should be given very high dexterity, but also should not have the ability to weild negs or nukes. This combination would give the fighters the ability to outrun your missiles, dodge lasers, and force you to kill them using you primary and secondary weapons. At the same time, once hit they would not be impossible to kill.

Anyone like these added ideas?

Toast

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BMF1000D
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Post by BMF1000D » Tue Jul 01, 2008 6:58 pm

toast wrote: Anyone like these added ideas?

Toast
I think the only way you can tweak stuff like that is to implement it and get feedback on balance.

One of the best parts of his idea is just being able to put more things in slots that give different abilities. That might be an easier way to introduce a form of customizable ships.

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RocketmanX
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Post by RocketmanX » Wed Jul 02, 2008 2:54 am

toast wrote:i have seen a few ideas like this...and never really given it much thought beyond "wow that would never happen"

this topic seems to be getting more positive response, so ill add my two cents ;)

I think that while 700 shields is far to low, 7k shields is far too high. I think 3-4k shields would be just about right. These fighters aren't meant to be doing the fighting for you, rather they are adding a distraction, and perhaps a small amount of damage. (remember...they would not be likely to have much more intelligence than an npc, because that would make toonces rewrite a whole ton of stuff).

They also should be effected by lasers. They are real ships afterall. To compensate for low shields they should be given very high dexterity, but also should not have the ability to weild negs or nukes. This combination would give the fighters the ability to outrun your missiles, dodge lasers, and force you to kill them using you primary and secondary weapons. At the same time, once hit they would not be impossible to kill.

Anyone like these added ideas?

Toast
You bring up some good points.

First, my idea of fighters not being effected by laser turrets is because they're such small ships. Which is why I'd say flaks would be good as fighter killers.

Intelligence wise, fighters would behave just like any other npc. They would have higher turning, thrust, and max speed than player controlled ship. That's why having say 700 shields would balance out their high speed (maybe 1K shields would be ideal)

"Doing your fighting for you"...I'm not sure what to think of that. They'd be like any weapon you would use like nukes and negs. Just like nukes, if you use them properly, you can take down a ship with them. And the same with nukes, your opponent would learn to counter them.
(maybe there could be a primary weapon added to the game specifically designed to take out fighters, but it wouldn't be good against "regular" player ships)

My whole concept here is that when you buy fighters, you're basically turning your ship into an aircraft carrier, sort of.

MuTAnT
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Post by MuTAnT » Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:24 am

I swear you changed it, or I'm going blind. Anyway yea 700 seems.. yeah I dunno, incredibly hard to balance but a cool idea.

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RocketmanX
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Post by RocketmanX » Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:55 am

MuTAnT wrote:I swear you changed it, or I'm going blind. Anyway yea 700 seems.. yeah I dunno, incredibly hard to balance but a cool idea.
You're going blind :D

The fighters would be really fast as was discussed before....so having low shields and lower powered weapons would be what balances them.

Plus they're reusable....so having the fuel option ala spice in cargo holds would balance that.

Maybe even add something else.....say if you have a fighter, you need to have X amount of colonists in cargo for upkeep (pilot, and a deck crew for refueling). A fixed amount of colonists per fighter.

That may seem like a lot of stuff to have to have for that hardware option....but it's a reusable weapon. Launch fighters, then they land and need maintained to be able to launch again.

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toast
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Post by toast » Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:06 pm

i am liking this idea more and more... it might be wayyy to hard to implement though.

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