Discovery Gaming Community

it came to my attention that the Marsflyer is the best (or 2nd best) VHF in the game

Mjolnir said: VHF with bomber firepower.


I agree, and as such I'd like to post my personal view about it.
I think I've used enough to see the obvious things, so id suggest
the following balance methods:

-People shouldn't fly it unless they have AI ID equipped.
cause the AI ID itself requires admin permission and
approved roleplay. If you don't people will say its a zoner
ship (or even worse, civilian) and ruin the whole roleplay behind
it.

This above, is the only non-personal balance method i could think of
and it should be applied to the Harvester Cruiser as well.

Next thing id like to say, is that other than being very sad that the
Harvesters didn't "earn" exclusive rights to these 2 ships, i find it
very irritating (at least) that the Cruiser bears our name.
Mind that i speak for myself, not the rest of the harvester faction when
i say: "Why did you call it Harvester Cruiser? Why????"

One day a Zoner tagged, AI IDed character is gonna buy it to hunt
Harvesters, i just know it. Its unfair that we should be humiliated
like that. If you didn't want to give us any ships you could have at
least told us...and...:(


I'll stop here not to turn this into a flame thread. I think you get my point.:sleep:

I want to add the removal of the "Harvester" name of this cruiser as a
RP fixing suggestion. Again, this is just me, as a member of the community,
not as a member of the harvesters - asking this.

The problem is, I'm already getting PMs like: I cant wait to buy the Harvester
Cruiser! And they aren't even members of the Harvester faction. It hurts
my ears....and ego.


Now lets continue with the Combat balance. The Harvy cruiser is ok,
but id like to ask the development team to change the Marsflyer to
a bomber. It is us, the Harvesters, that will use this ship
more often than anyone else, ever. So its my (yes, personal)
point of view that it would be great if you made it as useful as
one would expect from a solo bomber. We should be at least
capable of solo piracy with it since we have no other ship
to do piracy with anymore. Our only in RP ships are those
2, and at least one of them should be able to perform piracy.

Since torpedoes don't really fit the awesomeness of the VHF's
AI ultrabeams id like to suggest the following:


increase the shooting range by double (at least 1200 range) and nerf the
projectile speed as you see fit. That would make the VHF
practically a long range artillery unit (simmilar to bomber)
and more useless against VHFs.

What do you think? Can you grant us at least this much?

EDIT: don't get me wrong, i still love the ships. But why not
make some things right while we're still in beta?

1.

the problem with calling it harvester cruiser / harvester drone comes from ... well.. they were meant to be faction ships for the harvesters. - when ... lets say... the harvesters were more popular with the community. - at that time, it wasn t clear how it would evolve. - into a major movement, or a faction that is frowned upon.

2.

i am not sure about the SHF getting a torp. - really not sure. - it has a unique powerplant ( a little less max energy than a 58k bomber, but a better regen ) - giving it even one torp/CD slot might turn it into a monster that is hard to "keep within your own faction"

3.

making the ship exclusive is up to the harvesters, i guess. - we cannot make the ID cards exclusive, cause the harvesters are a custom disco RP server faction and not a global custom faction. - don t know how much you can ask other AI RPers not to use these ships.

i d go more into detail, but i m currently blockade running through a very red gallia.... so i don t have the time atm =)

' Wrote:- at that time, it wasn't clear how it would evolve. - into a major movement, or a faction that is frowned upon.

Gee.... thanks a lot. I guess its time to do one of my "how do you feel about harvesters" polls.
I'm not so sure we're actually "a faction that is frowned upon" since i got a lot of positive feedback
lately. If I'm wrong, it will at least refresh my perception.

' Wrote:i am not sure about the SHF getting a torp.

Hell no! Please no torp, as it does not fit the ship's "character".

Come on Jinx, you can do better than that. Please take your time and read
my post from the beginning to end.

' Wrote:making the ship exclusive is up to the harvesters, i guess.

Up to us? What can we possibly do about it? Despite our efforts it has been stripped away from us.
Or were you referring to something else?

' Wrote:the harvesters are a custom disco RP server faction and not a global custom faction. - don t know how much you can ask other AI RPers not to use these ships.

Did i even mention something ridiculous as this? Why would i want to limit indy choices
if they are good roleplayers. Those ships don't belong to us thanks to the recent
admin unexpected "surprise decision". So i would never be as rude to tell anyone to
forfeight their freedom of choice IF it was granted by the admins.





AGAIN: what im asking is:

-Marsflyer and Harvester cruiser need AI ID.

-Marsflyer becomes a uniqe type of bomber that fires
slow almost-longrange powerfull beam surges instead of
the classic longrange torps.

-Harvester Cruiser is renamed unless you plan on giving us
exclusive rights to distribute it in the future.


This is just a summary, please read my original post again, cause i don't think you
understood my motives.

I think I recall reading somewhere that it now IS a restricted ship, but I could be mistaken, as I can't find the thread right now. If it's not, then I agree with you, it should be due to its traits that you mentioned.

-Marsflyer and Harvester cruiser need AI ID.

yes, thats a fact alright

-Marsflyer becomes a uniqe type of bomber that fires
slow almost-longrange powerfull beam surges instead of
the classic longrange torps.

gotto propose that to mjolnir, he knows best about weaponbalance ... basicly i don t mind ... but aren t those two turrets doing 1500 dam each not powerful enough? make a weaponconcept then. since the weapons are staying on that ship, must not be moved and the ship itself is an AI ship, there re no problems with those weapons suddenly appearing on another factions bomber.

-Harvester Cruiser is renamed unless you plan on giving us
exclusive rights to distribute it in the future.

no problem here


and yes, it was hard to read and fly at the same time...:laugh:

When the Harvester Drone first showed up months ago, I talked to ScornStar about an idea I had for my mad scientist, Xavier Hackworth. He uses a cybernetic implant (a personal and unique design) to neurally link with computer systems and ships to control them. His main force would be drones of various sorts. Scorn was open to the idea of a limited number of non-Harvesters being allowed to use it. Of course, ScornStar no longer leads the Toasters.

I wouldn't really understand most non-AI using an AI ship, except in certain RP'd circumstances (such as i'd do with Xavier, if I ever got around to it). At the moment I think it's against the rules for anyone but AI-ID'd characters to use either of the ships without Special RP permission. As far as non-Harvester AI using the ships... Well, I can see why the Harvesters would be generally against that, but since the ships were not, in the end, given to the Harvesters, I don't see how to prevent it. Anyone, even an AI, flying such a unique ship should have a reason to have it. It's not something for all AI, it's something for some AI.

' Wrote:It's not something for all AI, it's something for some AI.

Exactly the way the developers/admins chose it to be.

Even if youre Xavier, your ship's "intelligence" (or "AI") is empowered by a living being.
But i'd still force the AI ID on to players so that we prevent spamming that ship as a civilian line
brain-controlled vessel.

My personal opinion:
1) AI ID for the ships, definitely.
2) I believe the proposed weapon changes can be implemented in a way to create a unique and balanced weapon. It could even become a prototype ship for new concepts.
3) Name change makes sense.

"Automated" instead of Harvester sounds good name wise. "Unmanned" doesn't sound as nice.

1) I think you should need a A.I. I.D. for the Harvester cruiser, and Marsflyer.
2) We definitely need weapon changes, more efficiant, less fast, longer range would be good.
3) I think both ships should be made AI only.