[IDEA] Un-nerf the Dreamsower

Ideas for improving Starport:GE

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ibanix
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[IDEA] Un-nerf the Dreamsower

Post by ibanix » Thu Feb 28, 2008 1:44 am

I ran some calculations on all the ships recently. Yeah, I'm a geek.

The Dreamsower seems woefully less than useful in comparison to the nearest type of ship, the Galaxy Whale.

A Galaxy whale gets you 4000 more shields, twice top speed, twice turning speed, twice thrusting speed, twice regen rate, and 2 less WF/hop. In return, you only lose 40 holds? The hauling efficiency of the Dreamsower is only very slightly better than the whale - 18.18 holds/wf to 17.77 holds/wf.

The Whale does cost $400,000 more, but this is trivial in any game, including rebangs, where I can get a fully-loaded whale by the second day; or the first if I'm not trying to get my first dome down fast. On permas... yeah, no point there.

My suggestion: Increase the cargo capacity of the Dreamsower to 300 holds. This makes the ship an attractive option for colonizing, haulers and traders, as hauling efficiency goes up to 27.2 holds/wf.

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Turkey
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Post by Turkey » Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:35 am

Image

And you think you're a geek... :P

Remeber that docking at ports and planets uses 1 fuel. With this in account, the flower is more efficient than the whale unless you have 10 or more wisdom.

I personally never use the flower, it's not worth the risk. Nor is it worth the fuel to get from the starbase to the trade route/colonies. A slight reduction in fuel usage or improvement in carrying capacity would be nice, but 300 hold is far too much - the efficiency would be off the scale, far greater than the IGS. Even 250 holds is too much.

As I see it you have 2 options: Reduce fuel consumption to 10/hop, or increase max cargo to 220. Either will make it comparable to the IGS (and far better than any other ship), but at much greater risk.

ibanix
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Post by ibanix » Thu Feb 28, 2008 4:17 am

Nice graph!

I see your point about high wisdom having an effect. Good points to consider.

As it is now, no one uses the Dreamsower. Any one want to chime in and say they do, and if so why?

It's sort of pointless to have a ship that isn't used. And while going up to 220 holds would be more useful, I still don't see people giving up their Galaxy Whales or SpeedStars for it, due to the weakness of the ship in combat. I wouldn't use it at 220 holds!

So in order to give incentive to use it - and hence make the risk worthwhile - I'd want at least 250 holds... 300 would be better.

Just my $0.02

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Inigox5
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Post by Inigox5 » Thu Feb 28, 2008 5:00 pm

The only ever time I use a dreamsower is when I'm moving stuff from 3 systems away max, and there's a colony/empty planet/ port in each system.
Yes.

I'm paranoid.

Get over it.

But yeah, I say incr. the cargo or reduce wf AND increase shields. 2000 is not enough.

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hydr
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Post by hydr » Thu Feb 28, 2008 5:20 pm

i love series :D

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Post by McGrod » Thu Feb 28, 2008 7:19 pm

when I was on FW I used to travel about in a flower as a point of principle....Look at me I can fly around and nobody is gonna shoot me down....and mua'Dib came out of his millenia slumber and was 'oooh flower!' and bang :p
I was shocked...shocked again...then pissed off....then really pissed off...then went back to be shocked....then thought Id not sell tokens to there corp anymore (and had a fair battel and lost ....it was at this point I learnt about laser turrets in space combat ...along with McCrazy and Kermit using them in the same period ....before nuke patches came into effect and changed into something requiring a bit of skill)
So yeh use Flower if you wish to Lord it about and feel pretty big....umm but dont cry if you get laughed at for lack of streetcred.

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Lovecraft
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Post by Lovecraft » Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:11 am

Awesome I love charts :)

You should put that in the wiki if its not there

ibanix
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Post by ibanix » Fri Feb 29, 2008 4:02 am

Lovecraft wrote:Awesome I love charts :)

You should put that in the wiki if its not there
Ooh, good idea.

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The real Hellbent
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Post by The real Hellbent » Sat Mar 01, 2008 12:40 am

I personaly think that as it is the flower is a waste of a ship. Anyone who has ever flown one knows that its far too slow, has far too little thrust (Try docking at a port that is close to a sun) and has far too little shields to compensate for the other failings.

For just a few creds more you can get a whale which has more thrust, energy regen and only 40 less cargo holds.

As it is right now the flower is like a barge with only 12 holds and at that amount the barge losses a lot of its appeal.

Ppl use a barge because it has 3 times the holds of any other ship so i say that the following should be done for the flower.

1) The flower should have only 1000 max shields.
2) The energy regen of the flower should be reduced even more.
3) Its warp fuel per hop should go up by about 3 or more gph
4) The base cost of the flower should go up to 1 mill creds.
5) Just like the barge the flower should have at least 3 times the cargo holds of any other ship
6) The flower should not be able to buy or sell at ports in U.N space

I personaly belive that all this will increace the use of the flower and not overly unbalance it.

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Post by ibanix » Sat Mar 01, 2008 12:51 am

That's a lot to ask. The flower is already the most dangerous ship (to the owner!) to fly around in.

Isn't item #5 enough? Just up it to 300 holds and people will consider using it - and consider the risk of getting blown to bits.

Asking for one thing is more likely to happen than 6 changes ;-)

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The real Hellbent
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Post by The real Hellbent » Sat Mar 01, 2008 12:57 am

ibanix wrote:That's a lot to ask. The flower is already the most dangerous ship (to the owner!) to fly around in.

Isn't item #5 enough? Just up it to 300 holds and people will consider using it - and consider the risk of getting blown to bits.

Asking for one thing is more likely to happen than 6 changes ;-)
I don't think that 300 holds would fullfill "Risk VS. Reward"

Edit: also iI remember Toonces saying that he was looking for ways to make building less time taxing.

ibanix
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Post by ibanix » Sat Mar 01, 2008 12:59 am

The real Hellbent wrote:
I don't think that 300 holds would fullfill "Risk VS. Reward"
In what way? The flower is designed as a weak fighter, big cargo carrier. It just isn't big *enough* for people to use it more.

I'd love a 300 holds Flower for colony building!

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The real Hellbent
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Post by The real Hellbent » Sat Mar 01, 2008 1:14 am

ibanix I will admit that i could be wrong about the whole
"risk vs. reward" thing so how about a test.

I say we go to a sever and i will pick a trade route that is 2 hops each way with the ports somewhat close to the sun and at least 1 hostile npc flying around. I will go in a whale and you in a flower and we will see who makes more creds in say 20 mins

I will give you a handicap that will be like you haveing 300 holds
so if you make 2 mill creds we will just say you made 3 mill.

ibanix
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Post by ibanix » Sat Mar 01, 2008 6:01 am

The real Hellbent wrote:ibanix I will admit that i could be wrong about the whole
"risk vs. reward" thing so how about a test.

I say we go to a sever and i will pick a trade route that is 2 hops each way with the ports somewhat close to the sun and at least 1 hostile npc flying around. I will go in a whale and you in a flower and we will see who makes more creds in say 20 mins

I will give you a handicap that will be like you haveing 300 holds
so if you make 2 mill creds we will just say you made 3 mill.
I'm less worried about hostile NPCs then I am of hostile PCs.

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