This idea has been bothering me for a while now and I wanted to see what people thought of it. I tend to have these ideas from time to time, but I can never get rid of them unless I get some feedback.
So basically it's a relatively small ship, about the size of a starflier except more streamlined (more flat and pointy I guess) extremely high maneuverability. Thrusters that reach up to 250 (or at least 10 faster than the fastest Light fighter) Has no guns on it and only equipped with a Countermeasure Dropper hardpoint.
Here's what sets it apart:
It has 2 Shield Mounts. One of the mounts are Class 5-8 Light Fighter Shields. The other one is a Class 1 (or 2) Freighter Shield that is similar to the Cargo Pods for the Train and Transport ships. The difference here is that this secondary shield would go over the existing ship acting as a camouflage. there would be different colored camouflage shields you could buy, depending on the situation. If you were in a cloud in the Rhienland, you would buy an orange tinted camouflage. If you were empty space, you may want an all black camo. If you're sitting in an asteroid field, you'd get camouflage that makes you look like a hunk of rock. Hanging around Sigma 13? A teal/bluish colored ship would be helpful.
The more Sophisticated the Camouflage is, the more expensive. Probably the most expensive Camouflage would be the decoys, which are made to look like house fighters, transports, even battleships (though these prices should never exceed 10 mil, unless you can see a reason why it should).
The purpose of this ship is to conduct deep reconnaissance into enemy territory, an advanced warning platform, and a checkpoint platform for trade and traffic monitoring. It is either unmanned, or piloted depending on the situation and equipment.
So ladies and gents, what are your thoughts? Your suggestions? Ideas? Flames? Help me refine this thought.
P.S. If this is in the wrong section, please move it. I'm always confused on where to post this type of thing (Mod Discussion or here?)
I've seen a vision of the world that you describe. It is a bleak place of smoke and flame. Mothers clutch their dead children amidst burning buildings as above circle invulnerable LOL ships with hostile tags/iffs bugging everyone who can't touch them with 5 units of cardi in their cargo holds telling the cops that they're stupid lolol.
' Wrote:I've seen a vision of the world that you describe. It is a bleak place of smoke and flame. Mothers clutch their dead children amidst burning buildings as above circle invulnerable LOL ships with hostile tags/iffs bugging everyone who can't touch them with 5 units of cardi in their cargo holds telling the cops that they're stupid lolol.
I vote nay nay.
I'm a quite bit confused by this Dusty, there are no type of of weapons on this ship. the secondary shield would most likely be useless when hit (probably disappear once it's hit) Practically no cargo room to speak of (except enough room for an ID of sorts) Its only purpose is for espionage. And only RP opportunities can occur. If it gets in a fight, it can only flee. Probably could be instakilled by a stray nuke mine. And the Decoys, they only LOOK like the ship supposed to resemble.
Take this senario, RM forces finaly decide to invade Liberty, Their first objective is to attack the gathering fleet by the Bering Jumpgate, much to their surprise, the Dreds aren't dreads at all, and Liberty Forces get the jump on them and attack hamburg from hudson.
Many people enjoy employing (such as the Camera ship, before the practice was outlawed) small fast vessels that are nearly invulnerable for the purposes of annoying their fellow players.
For instance, player X loads up a Liberty Rogue recon ship and buzzes about Manhattan spamming chat with catcalls at the local lawfuls, or vice versa or whatever.
There are a certain class of persons out there whom enjoy being annoying, this vessel is tailor made for them. Rather than simply remaining docked or hovering over a battleship they can now fly circles around the baddens, lulzing it up.
All this has happened before, but it need not happen again.
My two cents is that if you wish to operate a recon ship, employ a light fighter and take your chances that you might actually eat a dirt sandwich due to your endeavors rather than operating behind a shield of near invulnerability.
the point of this ship idea is stealth, which would require "silence" however it is unfortunate that people like that exist.
Possible Solutions:
How about taking out the maneuverability and long cruise charge time and no thrusters. (give it the turning speed of a train) also, make it purely an unmanned drone.
-OR-
Make it available to official factions only with strict RP rules. (perhaps only military groups, such as Kusari Naval Forces or Rhienland Military)
(personally I like the first one, almost makes it a one time launch)
Another thought!
Perhaps have special Camouflage Shields for the fighters/bombers. They replace their current shields with slightly (or significantly) weaker shields but different colors. for "Special Forces" Missions (restrict to official factions and/or guard ID ships)