+- Discovery Gaming Community (https://discoverygc.com/forums)
+-- Forum: Discovery Development (https://discoverygc.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=7)
+--- Forum: Discovery Mod General Discussion (https://discoverygc.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=37)
+--- Thread: Transports (/showthread.php?tid=11296)
Transports - Jinx - 08-15-2008
i think transports are balanced - from both, the pirates point of view as well as the traders point of view.
the pirates point of view and experience first:
i have been flying everything on Clover, from a light fighter ( griffin, wyrm ) over a VHF ( eagle, chimaera ) to a bomber ( praetorian, civi bomber ) to a gunboat ( kusari GB ). ... in light fighters i was not able to efficiently take on a transport - but i would have been surprised if it had worked anyway. - in a VHF though... i am EASILY able to drain a transports shields, while even a container transport cannot do much about it ( aiming transport guns isn t really THAT easy ... and i can basicly strafe the transports shields with my shield busters, cause they regen sooo slowly ) - in a bomber, every transport ( with the exception of some liners ) are just a cakewalk. - container transports are tough, if they aim well, but when they are too good.... i simply retreat ( again.... when an enemy turns out to be too tough, why not simply retreat - no 4 hours rule apply when a piracy attampt failed... nothing lost.... )
in a gunboat, no transport has a chance, cuase gunboat weapons are superior to any transport guns. - only when being overconfident ( like going into close combat with a container transport ) things can turn ugly.
so, my experience is that i had to "work" for some of my money or kills... but it is that work that makes it interesting. - the trader must have a CHOICE - a valid choice. when i ask a trader if he is willing to cough up some cash or not, its NOT a rethorical question.... it is a real question. - the trader should have a choice to weigh his chances. the ships that are used for trading are spread wide... i can always get into situations that are unbalanced. - when i fly a gunboat... ambushing an advanced train is .... NO challenge. - the train has no chance. it cannot hurt me and i can lock it down and kill it. - when i chose ( yes, the pirate chooses ) to attack a liner or a C-trans however, and i m about to loose, its my frelling fault and it is only i that is to blame.
i remember loosing against global in his C-trans ( quite some time ago ) ... it was one of the BEST experiences i made against traders. up to then, i felt like the request was only a silly ritual. - asking a trader for cash when the trader has no chance anyway. - that incident opened my eyes.. ( mind, i retreated... i did not fight to death )
but the best experience i had ( i wrote about it before in an older thread ) was when i ambushed a traders convoy in Tau-31. ... i happened to get the a train at the jumpgate... on the kusari side ( safe for gaians ) ... and i felt utterly safe. - routine started to kick in. - but one by one, more transports of the convoy jumped in.... and after a few seconds, i faced over 6 transports, 3 contrainer transports, 2 trains and something smaller that i cannot remmber anymore. - although this was one of the worst things to happen to a pirate ( in a gunboat ) ... it was also one of the most intense. - seamlessly getting from being the hunter to the hunted. - the traders were pretty cool there. - they just asked me if i wanted to "think again" about it... i did and fled.
i WANT transports to be a match for me - i don t want to be superior to transport - i want to work for it... i am in the advantage already, cause i can choose to attack or not. i get into the engagement prepared for combat, the traders are usually taking up a defensive position by default. ... but nothing would be worse than utterly harmless transports.... how boring things would be.
the traders point of view:
right now, i am flying a whale, no armour, no weapons. - no chance to fight. - furthermore, the whale has no CM and can be CDed by even a wasp. - a no chance ship after all.... . before that i was flying a C-transport.
in the C-transport i was attacked by a hackers GS. the hacker was a bit impatient, he wouldn t haggle, nor would he even chat much ( 2mil or die! ) - i was left with the CHOICE to fight or pay up - in the end, he was flying the biggest and meanest ship there was for a pirate. ( in terms of shipclass, i know that the gunship isn t really great ) - i decided to fight. ... and forced him to retreat.
one could say that "why should a single transport without escorts be able to make a military grade warship retreat?!" - it would have been a close call - and he might have won ( in open space ) by gaining more distance from me. - but he chose the wrong space for it ( near the bretonian shipyards ) - so he was short on time and chose to go for a close distance fight.
but if transports were just helpless, harmless, we won t need to "ask" for cash anymore when we pirate them. - we don t need to leave the transports a choice, we can simply take it or destroy them. but i think that *choices* and *chances* make the relationship between pirates and traders interesting.
so - do believe that transports are currently well balanced. - all of them. i enjoy the heavily armoured and armed liners, the gunship like C-transports, the bulky heavy tankers and the strong pirate transports. - they are all fine.
Transports - ProwlerPC - 08-16-2008
I don't feel that there needs to be a game mechanics change here.
I just posted in the petition about how my trader's RP should be improved not my Pirate. I am guilty of not taking the opportunity of being pirated as way of perpetuating RP and I'll be posting bounties now. I make more than enough money that I don't need to be worried about what I lose to tax and what I pay out in Bounties. The payoff of having more RP Sirius-wide outweighs my meager one time losses.
Transports - SGTMatt - 08-16-2008
I have been an avid contrans pilot for about a year and a half so I'll tell ya why I use it.
It is a balence, we don't get pirated as much but also make about a fith less per run then the ADV train. Yeah, contrans's are powerfull but you pay for it by not useing something with more cargo.
They can limp away from a fight with a GB but only barelly, if the GB has any fighter support at all it is toast.
They don't need to be nerfed just because they are hard to fight.
Transports - AdamantineFist - 08-16-2008
I am biased as a trader. Shields should be heavily nerfed, hull somewhat nerfed. The shield is hell to break through, and transports are, on the whole, rather tough for mere cargo vessels.
Transports - Rudo - 08-17-2008
I'm actually of the opinion that everything bigger than a bomber should have shields nerfed and hull boosted through the wazoo, aside from corporate transports. They are meant to be escorted. Smuggler ships and Borderworld Transports are meant to take a beating.
This would mean amping up gunboats, cruisers and battleships more than transports, though. As it is, there's too much regenerative "health" in the shields.
But a denser hull would offer the chance to target components as a penalty for not ponying up. It'd also open a new niche for fighters unable to outright kill a bigger meaner cap as a result -- hit the components and weapons. It'd also make fighting back as a cap more difficult in the face of swarming enemies -- all that shaking from hull impacts.
Transports - AdamantineFist - 08-17-2008
' Wrote:But a denser hull would offer the chance to target components as a penalty for not ponying up. It'd also open a new niche for fighters unable to outright kill a bigger meaner cap as a result -- hit the components and weapons. It'd also make fighting back as a cap more difficult in the face of swarming enemies -- all that shaking from hull impacts.
They'll suicide, I'm afraid, if they lose anything worth anything.
Transports - Capt. Henry Morgan - 08-17-2008
I've got no problem with the way things are now, having experienced this on both ends of the issue.
One thing I do believe, though, is that all the trains should have the same armor rating, since, in RP, they're the same class of ship, with more pods on the heavier types. The forward section is still the same on all of them.
Transports - Keshi - 08-17-2008
Based on what people are saying, it sounds more like we should nerf transport guns, along with bomber torpedos, instead of touching the shields and armor.
Transports - C.law - 08-17-2008
I don't think any of the transports need to be changed, especially not to make piracy easier.
Piracy should be difficult. They are supposed to be threatening enough to make a trader give up his goods. I would think it would be insulting to pirates to suggest nerfing the transports because they are "too hard."
There are a variety of transports in the game that should give every level of pirate opportunities to test their skills and refine their roleplay. The variety also provides an opportunity to generate some very ingenious team building and tactics.
Transports - dr lameos - 08-17-2008
Some transports are tough to beat... the ones that are designed to be.
You don't spend so much money on a lux liner - for its hugeness and fairly small cargo
The point of it is: That it can fend of bombers or gunboats - so its absolutely correct as it is.
The whale for example - low hull, high cargo, low weaponry. The point of it is to make money, therefore it cannot defend itself. the train employs this to a certain extent, but because of low manouverability it has a few guns
Transports are fine as they are