' Wrote:I only saw one thing in here that I have to comment on, from a rules perspective. If you make a transport into a poor mans gunboat, be prepared for us to have to modify things. The PTrans is a perfect example of this, and the rule modification where official faction caps can engage transports in house space is a direct response to this.
I don't have a problem with upgrading some weapons / cargo / armor on a transport - but make the tradeoff. You want something that can survive, cut the cargo capacity down to 3K. If you want to make the absolute most money for a run, then you fly something with less protection.
And of course, if you're going to fly through California towards Riverside from New York, expect that something is going to jump you, and don't take the trade lane.
If certain equipment had a cargo value attached to it - then the tradeoff makes itself. A player could configure their ship to suit their needs - cargo space for more firepower.
Think of it this way - military ships are less configurable, being mostly purpose built. Even so, one could strip the guns off one in exchange for more room and weight allowance for cargo. Same with civilian craft - they can be pimped out with weaponry in exchange for less cargo space.
Military ships will tend towards more armour and guns, civilian tend towards more cargo space. If the balance people have a think about it - they might be able to find a happy medium.
A trend towards putting a cargo value on equipment leads to new ways of balancing ships, as well as new ways for people to customise them.
How about doing it in other way than pumping transports with steroids? For example, bombers might have to temporary disable shields to fire a torpedo, the same method as in Starlancer. That makes bombers vulnerable for few seconds and depend more on cooperation.
Changing torpedoes into easily destructible targets would also make a big diference (and a nice target for pea shooters).
' Wrote:How about doing it in other way than pumping transports with steroids? For example, bombers might have to temporary disable shields to fire a torpedo, the same method as in Starlancer. That makes bombers vulnerable for few seconds and depend more on cooperation.
Changing torpedoes into easily destructible targets would also make a big diference (and a nice target for pea shooters).
The other way is wrong, because bombers don`t need to be nerfed more,you should keep in mind that bombers are supposed to destroy warships, and transports are secondary bomber targets,the bomber torpedo, I mean torpedo because thare is only one of this - nova is easy to be destroyed by Solaris warship turrets, and nice timing with the CD can make shieldless bomber to go kaboom when he shoots torpedo because of the starting delay. Forget about nefing a bombers - right now they are may be the best balanced ship class in the game.
(10-09-2013, 10:51 AM)Knjaz Wrote: Official faction players that are often accused of elitism, never deploy them and have those weird, immersion killing "fair fight/dueling" suicidal hobbies. (yes, i've seen enough of those lolduels, where house military with overwhelming force on the field willingly loses a pilot in a duel. ffs.)
The point is that transports should not be as easily destructible be a single pirate/terrorist, which happens often. And the mentioned pirate is usually using a bomber (VHF is rare).
I just recently joined Discovery and to me it seems that some of the suggestions had been packed in an update already (4.00 Refirerat for TTurrets 4)
What a transporter needs is not proper Weaponry to fight the pirate, or shields to over-protect the cargo, but guarding wingmen to make a slipaway possible. Traders wouldnt hire escorts because a player-escort would be far too expensive. I hired a Gunboat for 3 Millions and a GB-cargoload full of ores yesterday. Ran into a group of four rogues: The Gunboat wouldnt have stood a chance if I hadnt paid the fee. On another sidenote: A Liberty Navy captain passed by when all that happened and uttered to be delighted by the show. Didnt even twitch a finger.
The optimum would be having two Fighters as an escort. They probably wouldnt stand a chance either, but they might distract the hostiles long enough for a slipaway. Now - having two escorts or more would most probably eat away half of the profit. In a lot of cases - even more. On the other hand a lot of people might ask why they should fly the same route as some random Freighter for 3 mills when they could earn ten times as much themselves with their own transport. Escorting or enforcing the law just doesnt pay off.
I have two possible solutions:
1. Have every Pirateplayer bear some kind of ID or token that drops upon death. This token would sell for a nice lot of credits at Military or police-stations so that Policeofficers may actually have some means to earn the cash they need themselves, instead of relying on some kind of trader-char.
2. Let there be NPCs guarding you.
Im feeling a little itchy about this as this is inspired by another Freelancermod I play. FLAK88 utilizes Wingman-licenses purchasable as a commodity. By purchasing such a license upon leaving a station or entering a system youll have two wingmen assigned to your ship. They have a pretty standart loadout on a middle-class ship but they do a good job on diverting fire from you.
I dont want to steal Fox' (FLAK-creator) Ideas here, but someone might get in contact with him. He might be able and willing to help with that issue.
' Wrote:Ran into a group of four rogues: The Gunboat wouldnt have stood a chance if I hadnt paid the fee
Well your escort was not experienced, he should scout and inform you for such things, you don't need GB for escort,some LF or even starflyea can do the job, it is not expensive at all, Penny is full of new players and they would scout for you for 2 hours for one mill in credits.The way here is to scout, escorts are for battleships, traders need scouts.
' Wrote:why they should fly the same route as some random Freighter for 3 mills when they could earn ten times as much themselves with their own transport. Escorting or enforcing the law just doesnt pay off.
Well Imagane people with several bilions in their bank accounts,they play for fun, for RP encounters etc, there are several good merc companies around Sirius indeed they are not so cheap as new player scouts but experienced enough to save you even in the worst situations, not everything is credits per second, actually credits means nothing here.
' Wrote:1. Have every Pirateplayer bear some kind of ID or token that drops upon death. This token would sell for a nice lot of credits at Military or police-stations so that Policeofficers may actually have some means to earn the cash they need themselves, instead of relying on some kind of trader-char.
This is indeed good idea.I hope that can be implemented via FLhook, it will solve the problem with inactive police factions.
Anyway your post go far away from the main topic, the topic is not about how to evade the pirates or why the transports die from bombers as they should be but about the Transport class role in general.
(10-09-2013, 10:51 AM)Knjaz Wrote: Official faction players that are often accused of elitism, never deploy them and have those weird, immersion killing "fair fight/dueling" suicidal hobbies. (yes, i've seen enough of those lolduels, where house military with overwhelming force on the field willingly loses a pilot in a duel. ffs.)