Discovery Gaming Community

Hi everyone

The reason for this thread is that us at Platinum| have been considering building a second base in Alberta for several months now. There has been much internal debate on whether we should or shouldn’t go ahead with the idea and I would like to take this opportunity to ask the wider Disco community for their thoughts on it as well.

Without going into too much detail on our specific plans. We have currently decided on a location for a possible new base. It would be approximately 15K away from the edge of the Platinum field in Alberta. Now firstly I’ll give the reasons for this:

• You see our current base is 50K away from the field which makes it a 100K trip in total to take ore in a miner from the field to the base and back again. Which is a significant journey, however a base closer to the field would cut down on that time, hopefully encouraging more independent miners to utilise our facilities, in turn meaning we’ll fill up and begin selling quicker.
  
• Having the 2 bases will also allow us to continue mining ore while the original base is in sell mode, this will mean we’ll be able to help stockpile more for the next sale which means shorter times inbetween sales and miners can mine at any time at all.
  
• Also this base will open the possibility for more RP we’ve been thinking about for a long time, however the specifics of this you’ll have to wait and see.
  

Now of course there are some possible downsides to this in terms of the community, hence the internal debate and why I want to start this thread:

• There are people (pirates in particular) that might have an issue with a base in or near an ore field as it makes it harder to pirate the miners there. One of the concerns I have is if our new base would negatively impact on RP and player encounters in-game. Believe it or not I do enjoy RP’ing with pirates from time to time, some are more reasonable than others and we have a good time, and I don’t have a problem lightening my wallet. A base in the field would likely kill all these interactions, that is why we still want our bases a certain distance from the field. We believe 15K can accomplish this. While it might be difficult for a lone pirate to kill a transport or mining ship before it flees to a base, if the pirates team up in pairs say they’d have a much easier chance. And cooperative play is the whole point of Disco afterall.
  
• Another potential problem is that if a new base is too close our factions group mining efforts would be less needed. As many of you might have seen we team up in groups and it makes the mining and hauling to our base more efficient. If a base is too close Hegemons could solo mine too easily and so our faction might have less need for our ops. That might mean less group activity for us and less people would feel the need to join us. As for exactly how this would affect our faction is more up to how we continue to run it, but it is still worth noting. That is another reason why we don’t want a base directly in the field itself, but still some distance away.
  
• Also with 2 bases the Ba requirement would become considerable, maybe we’d eventually scrap the first base but that is a long way off and we don’t know what the future holds that far down the line.
  

So those are the lists of pros and cons that spring to mind, I invite anyone to post their thoughts here, whether you are in our faction or have worked closely with us, whether you’ve ever used our facilities as either a miner or transport. Whether you’re a pirate (side note, I'd be interested in LH~'s thoughts on this to, as they pirate us from time to time) or even if you’ve never actually met us (although try to be relevant if you’ve never actually been to Alberta). You can also vote on the poll which has all the main relevant options I think. We’ll keep in mind what people think as we want to know your opinions, of course if we did go ahead with this we’d still need to clear with Liberty Government etc so nothing is decided for certain yet. Only thing I ask is that the thread is kept civil and on topic, while there is wriggle room for discussion on ore bases in general etc, I would like to get to the bottom of everyone’s thought on our specific case, if possible.

Thanks everyone

build this base as junkers in Humboldt! 6 defense turrets, hostile to all without docking rights, maximum effect!

(03-06-2013, 08:35 PM)belarusich Wrote: [ -> ]build this base as junkers in Humboldt! 6 defense turrets, hostile to all without docking rights, maximum effect!

For reference, a lot of people hate that base. Although the field had huge activity when it was first made, the popularity of Humboldt seems to be dieing down quite a bit.

I like the idea of how you suggest pirates should use teamwork to catch their targets, my only issue with that is that cornering prey is quite hard.
You'd also need a lot of escort whilst making that base, because I know a lot of pirate cruisers frequent Alberta often.

As a pirate, I would do anything is pop that base before it goes to be a threat. Once it gets going its gonna be like the base in penn. I hate that base
Everyone runs to that base...

However, i'd just camp outside and wait form someone to get out.

(03-06-2013, 08:42 PM)Lythrilux Wrote: [ -> ]

(03-06-2013, 08:35 PM)belarusich Wrote: [ -> ]build this base as junkers in Humboldt! 6 defense turrets, hostile to all without docking rights, maximum effect!

For reference, a lot of people hate that base. Although the field had huge activity when it was first made, the popularity of Humboldt seems to be dieing down quite a bit.

If you build the base like Humboldt, expect every unlawful and their mother to come bashing on your door before you even get the shield built.....

A second (or replacement) base would probably be a good idea. If you're looking for possible locations, perhaps somewhere between Camrose and the field? I'm not sure on the distance for balancing pirates' chances (which I admire by the way), but there should be a good spot somewhere.

Generally, if you want to be fair to the pie-rats, give them 20K to work with. That's the minimum distance we devs try to keep bases from ore deposits. If a pie-rat can't frag a transport in 20K distance he's either alone against a transport with armor, or the transport managed to dance a bit to evade fire.

Putting a base in the middle of an ore field prevents any chance of it remaining a secret - so you'll be building it up under fire. Which can be fun if you have some folk willing to guard it, and if you're not pissing off -too- many unlawfuls. But putting a base in an ore field locks that field out for pie-rats, which tends to annoy them.

Devside, we are discussing means to allow players to siege bases more effectively. We do want to get rid of the "well, send 20 battleships or don't bother" mentality, while still making sure that a base, if properly supplied, won't keel over in a few seconds (or hours for that matter). Ideas ranged from a siege cannon barge to (my personal favorite) having the destruction of weapon platforms eat up some resources - and if there's none available, the platforms don't respawn.

Do what you want man, Id hate it as a pirate, but its just a game, and Id pirate you on the lane or something instead.

(03-06-2013, 10:30 PM)AeternusDoleo Wrote: [ -> ]Generally, if you want to be fair to the pie-rats, give them 20K to work with. That's the minimum distance we devs try to keep bases from ore deposits. If a pie-rat can't frag a transport in 20K distance he's either alone against a transport with armor, or the transport managed to dance a bit to evade fire.

Putting a base in the middle of an ore field prevents any chance of it remaining a secret - so you'll be building it up under fire. Which can be fun if you have some folk willing to guard it, and if you're not pissing off -too- many unlawfuls. But putting a base in an ore field locks that field out for pie-rats, which tends to annoy them.

Devside, we are discussing means to allow players to siege bases more effectively. We do want to get rid of the "well, send 20 battleships or don't bother" mentality, while still making sure that a base, if properly supplied, won't keel over in a few seconds (or hours for that matter). Ideas ranged from a siege cannon barge to (my personal favorite) having the destruction of weapon platforms eat up some resources - and if there's none available, the platforms don't respawn.

Though i generally agree with your point, cloaked cruiser pirates prevent a transport, or a hegemon from fleeing those mentioned 20k.

15k distance would severely lower the efficiency of mining effords, while it isn't much more to a hauler flying through several systems anyway - as such i'd suggest to place it as near to the field as possible, 3-4k is possibly the far-est i'd suggest.


About base sieges:
My base is located in a radiated scrapfield, sponsoring immobile obstackles, as well as shootable rocks.
As such i don't use weapon platforms, and those long-range weapons would need to close in to melee range as well.

Though i'd support your two suggested changes, they would not affect my base at all (only if that long-range weapon would deal significantly more damage than a bs).


Regards,
Talesin

i dont see why they cant have a base in middle of the field, DHC has theres