The BARGE -how-to-fly-a-BARGE-

[MarvinCZ]

it would ruin the whole economy if regular players were allowed to fly/play it.

It most probably wouldn't. It can use lanes, but having the lane disrupted by NPC pirates is an event I wouldn't recommend to those with a weak heart. You can cruise in space, but it takes SO LONG... There is a chance some short route through one system would allow this ship to be uber-effective in trading, but that would probably be a bug.

One thing for the guide:
Asteroid fields, you CAN fly through them.
I don't have a movie, I have some screenshots of a Barge in the middle of Badlands somewhere. Asteroid fields aren't such a problem as the ship size would suggest. Tested in Bering, Tau 31, Tau 23, Omega 5 and Badlands.

Btw...
Escorts, you will BEG for them if you meet a group of hostile NPCs, spinning you around, unhittable for your guns...

[slashhammer]

its only available when you filled in a very good Special character request,

Thx for the nfo,

apart from that, what's that ship in your sig?

Looks like something bretonian and I do like it a lot.

John

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Cheers

John

-=- The Independent Junkers Movement -=-

[Captain]

actualy its the Zoner Carrier,

not bretonian,

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[Niezck]

I have it on good authority that the Barge requests will be opened when the Special Roleplaying Forum is.

[Jinx]

requesting the barge is less an issue of if its allowed yet or not.... its more an issue that we re still balancing - and that includes minefields, minefield yields etc.

so having a barge beamed to a minefield that is profitable at the moment might well turn out to be rubbish when the beta is over so its really more the protection of the players that make it not available atm.

the way it can be used....

as a hub for a VERY WELL organized mining operation ( really only a big faction or an unofficial faction ) - 25.000 cargo don t only need to be piloted well.... but imagine an almost full barge - being attacked by a bomber ( no, a single barge WITHOUT escorts cannot defend against a bomber )

if a full barge was destroyed by a pirate faction, you can be SURE that the diplomacy between the mining faction and the pirates will suddenly becomes a lot more...... active. ( especially the physical contact diplomacy )


currently - i can see the IMG / CR being able to mount such a ship and make a full use of it, they have very experienced pilots AND the organization to make more out of it than a RP trophy. - i haven t seen other factions as organized in mining since 4.85....

the barge has a status like the kusari emperors palace. the one that destroys it will probably gonne live in very interesting times.... for a long long time after.

come to that - have we given the ship battleship shields or only transport shields.... and imo - we could, cause its really really big - increase the armour to at least juggernaut level ( that does mean that a single bomber needs to work very long at least )

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Shipdesigns made for DiscoveryGC

[Linkus]

It's a big space warehouse.
With engines.

To solve the admin beaming issue, just give it a jumpdrive. The FLHook code is there and it does work perfectly. Some people have raised concerns over lag when lots of people use it but I've yet to see that properly tested in large numbers.
That said, the barge is not going to be common. 10 at most are what I think will be on the server in the end. Them being able to jump to a different system every 24 hours or whatever would solve the issue of beaming.

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Facilitating the rise of robotics since 0 A.D.

[slashhammer]

@Jinx

Battleship shields may be a bit too much, but cruiser shields sound ok to me,
maybe even 2-3 hardcoded Flak turrets could be worth a thought, depending
on the ships turret-hardpoints and its size.


@Linkus

How will you limit the number of possible jumps within 24 hrs.?

I'm not sure if FLHook is configurable that way - and if not abuse
might be too infatuating to resist and who will be "punished" to
controll all Barges logfiles every 24 hrs.?

Regards

John

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Cheers

John

-=- The Independent Junkers Movement -=-

[tazuras]

@Linkus

How will you limit the number of possible jumps within 24 hrs.?

I'm not sure if FLHook is configurable that way - and if not abuse
might be too infatuating to resist and who will be "punished" to
controll all Barges logfiles every 24 hrs.?

This should be pretty easy. Create an integer (x) for every account with a barge who's base value is 0. When the jump has been used the value changes to 1. If x=1 do not allow jump. Whenever the server restarts the value will revert to 0. This is generally every 24 hours. You could probably do it based off of time as well, setting a time for every one of these variables to be reset automatically, as FLhook can access server time. That would require work though.

The real issue with this command would be that the barge could just fill up once every other day with mine-able commodities and then jump directly to the base with the highest buy price. This would be bad. Also these ships would only be seen in EW and maybe BW systems, but even that is pressing it. So if you could restrict the jump to those systems that would solve that problem, but it still doesnt solve the money making problem.

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[worldstrider]

I have an RP for a barge that has been tenatively approved but I am still scraping up the credits--its a lot slower in the current economy and I have less time. Its rp or trading but hard to do both for me at the moment.

I am 300 mil of the way there...200mil to go.

My rp won't change as its been long planned and is unaffected by a system economy change--it will be in a fixed location essentially.

I've flown it and its cool to see but insanity producing to fly. For me it is a way to concentrate and attract rp in a certain direction.

Hopefully soon I can squeeze out the credits and demonstrate. Its a beast but I love it. It won't fly for you without love;) Quick...someone loan me another 200mil!

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[zeinstruktor]

There's quite an error there...

The barge CAN use jumpholes... Dock on them when the front of the ship is over 200m away, not when it's IN it.

If I try what you did in that jumphole video in my Rheinland Battleship, sure, it won't dock either.
Here's a handy guide: