(07-29-2021, 05:06 PM)Hidamari Wrote: the bomber transport balance is absolutely disgusting right now
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Transports need vastly more survivability in return for - probably - slow travel times under fire (destructible thruster(s) that provide the majority of their speed, for example). This would make piracy much more interesting, and if the time-to-kill of transports was high enough it would even make escorting an actual viable activity.
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I second this idea. Give transports a bonus to their survivability to make escorting more viable. Non-5k transports can still find ways to differentiate themselves (speed, firepower, etc). Having a TTK above 30 seconds won't make an un-escorted 5k any less vulnerable to pirates, but it will make escorting viable.
@Haste
Just make sure Transport vs Transport firepower increases with the tankiness to not make solo cargo piracy obsolete
In general if it were up to me I'd give transports a massive shield buff vs everything - 90%, 95%+ vs cruiser + to nerf Squiggly even...except for transport guns to encourage cargo piracy and transport on transport carnage...
You want to threaten my transport bitch? You better bring one too -,- And somehow...people don't mind if you ask for 38% of their cargo in a transport, even though it's often more money than even 15,000,000
If the goal is to increase 5k survivability, I wonder if a multiplier bonus to shields based on the number of empty weapon mounts you have is an option?
What a stupid notion to think that traders are a match for pirates (unless escorted). Traders stand no chance against a pirate. They are not even allowed to carry CD, the only weapon that perhaps could stop a pirate while you the trader makes and escape. In a pirate vs Trader event there is only one result and that is the pirate wins. If have even been robbed by a pirate and then he still destroyed me for the hell of it. There is a tip that says pirate demands must be reasonable. Fine but it is not a rule. Pirates win and the trader losses unless the trader can carry 10 Charon Turrets then he may have a fighting chance.
Well done the pirate who talks well and asks for a donation to his cause. That is good interaction.
I have even been pirated by a junker while in a junker ship with junker ID. Better rules governing pirates may help.
(07-29-2021, 05:06 PM)Hidamari Wrote: the bomber transport balance is absolutely disgusting right now
FTFY. It's not bombers
No, it is the bombers and you literally explained why in the very next paragraph
(07-29-2021, 08:47 PM)Haste Wrote: the majority of ships in the mod have gotten buffed into viability over time.
Thats called Power Creep. Its extremely bad for every game its ever happened in and you need to stop it.
Things dont need to be buffed, bombers never had any trouble destroying capital ships or transports in the past ten years and dont even try to tell me that they did lol, they had trouble destroying nimble gunboats.
literally that is why bombers are disgusting right now unchecked power creep over the years. it ISNT transports that are bad.
VHF vs transport and gunboats vs transports feel normal like they should, you're not going to kill them and more likely than not you WILL die due to your defiance but they cant just instantly delete you with 0 compromise, you have time to radio for help, stall it out, perhaps run a short distance to saftey, hell you even have enough time to roleplay while you're being shot.
The experience isnt terrible, you defied the pirate you're probably going to die but you stand a chance of doing at least something
(07-30-2021, 10:34 AM)Selken Wrote: This seems like a small issue compared to the lack of players.
More players more interactions, more piracy, more noob pirates to be able to escape from
100% right on that one. Wierdly enough there are sure ways to increase interest and bring up player population but there is a simple refusal to entertain any serious change. Its a shame because the place basically died for no reason but bad decisions on how to utilize the game for players.
Its simple, no one trades much anymore because there's little to no reason behind any of it. There also seems to be people here that think the hayday of this place is passed so we should just let it go. The belief this mod shrank up over its age is totally off.
We don't use the game or the world for anything real and don't allow for a fairly applicable system by which player factions can actually try to grow and have impact. For anyone in power who cares, we can save this place, people just need to let the old line of thinking go, and accept some real change is needed. Ironically, it seems that because I didn't beg and treat some people here like 'gods' they locked themselves into ignoring me and my suggestions, when it was the most obvious choice of any proposal made to bring up activity in years. It actually seems like they refused to budge to spite one individual.
Basically we need a change in leadership, and need a single leader for once that's actually on the forums, involved and follows the events of the server. There is no real reason for this place to be so dead, and I won't be one of the doublethinkers that try to get people to not care and love every rework even though they suck and typically ruin things we knew so well for years. Back in the day, caring about what happened to a planet or station, or the fate of a House, was all we did, and that was fun. It was immersive roleplay and pvp. Maybe if we changed back to the old server, we'd get the old server back. Allow for more freedom, more people will return. Shrinking things drove people away and is almost always short sighted.
Shallow gravedig, just thought I'd add my personal observations and recent experiences.
I think the transport vs. X discussion is a side issue when PVE has made trading 100% redundant. I've had a 4-year break and started with the veteran's package with a very nice transport 3 weeks ago, haven't used it for a minute (and I am never going to) because I've already gotten 3 accounts full of ships and more money than I am ever going to spend just by shooting NPC's. I did a bit of piracy, but there are no traders other than base suppliers, and they just pay up instantly and get on with their business. Piracy is completely dead. It's a complete waste of time from the pirate's perspective. Hours flying around with zero encounters until a mob of lawful players in combat ships desperate for action swoop in on you. I don't blame them, there's nothing else for them to do - there are no traders, so hardly any Pirates either.
Not only is piracy dead due to PVE, but the ridiculous NPC's also impede general player interaction. I tried a couple of hours of unlawful bounty hunting yesterday (even though it's pointless, just shooting NPC's nets me far more $) and had one guy break off a fight in the Badlands complaining about the Rogue NPC spawns and he instead went to WP with about a billion lawful NPC's waiting. We both logged off with no fight. Later I flew for 30 minutes to find some hostile players in Cortez that didn't even register my presence or responded to my greetings because they were busy doing PVE missions. Waited until they finished the mission and CD'd one of them only to get jumped by a spawning NPC razor gunboat death squad making it difficult to type and interact, not that the other player cared anyway as he just wanted to run some more missions. In both instances player interaction was directly killed by NPC's, and it's not like we were in the orbit of a capital planet that could excuse the excessive spawns. I really cannot understand why PVE and NPC's in general has been buffed to this level, it is so counter-productive.
No, I'm not upset that I didn't get any blues, I might as well have died if those fights had happened, the point is that it was never possible to properly interact in the first place, meaning that solo logging for anything other than Manhattan one-line text chat or PVE (and the occasional scheduled PVP events) is pointless. I'm not going to go to Cortez to seek out players again, because chances are that they are in a oorp PVE state. Piracy is pointless, people are doing PVE instead of trading. Between new added in bases, POB's and buffed NPC patrols, a lawful player is never further than 30 seconds away from safety within house space, so all solo PVP has to be more or less consensual where you PM and ask for a fight like it was conn. The dynamic nature of the gameplay has been undermined by the direction the mod has taken.
Players should be interacting with one another and that way propel their story and gameplay forward, rather than interact with NPC's. Rheinland vs. Liberty 4.85 lolbattle unquestionably provided far more RP and exciting spin-off activities than shooting NPC's in Cortez will ever do, for the life of me I cannot understand the thought process behind making PVE a "thing" on a roleplay server.*
Tl;dr: It's not ship X vs ship Y that is the issue, it's the fact that the mod has been gradually changed to be almost hostile towards unscripted player interactions, including piracy. It's just not a lot of fun, and sadly I don't think its possible to roll back when PVE is such a big part of the Discovery experience as it is now.
*That said, if you view the mod as an "enhanced and expanded" sandbox co-op/singleplayer version of Vanilla it is better than ever!
@Mímir there are factions that are haul nonstop, fill PoBs, haul RP cargo etc.
Then there's barges
I won't out who they are because I myself try to limit the times I go to them unless I have some new fun angle and you need to figure out who they are for yourself, but there are very active people that are doing just that and never even check player list unless you are a known dick. Piracy has changed, now you need to provide a service to the trader in the form of a fun interaction, because it's so easy to avoid people.
Also, Cortez is a bad example - you can get a bomber and seriously contest anyone without a repair ship. There are still unbalanced PvE zones where one side dominates that completely erase any chance for PvP