Thrusters and Scanners

[Malcolm_Reynalds]

with all the talk of new ships, guns, missiles, and economy. I'm going to talk about something else.

Thrusters and Scanners.

We already have 7-8 choices for each, but do we?? in the end I only really chose between 2 for each.
Enhanced Thruster or Capital Ship Thruster.
Discovery Scanner or Adv. Cargo scanner (or a 250M BS lic.)



Thrusters: yes I know, people have been down this road before.

Currently they all produce the same thrust force, and better thrusters just use less energy to do so. The premise being that a thrusters are used for "short burst" of speed, and better thrusters can do it longer.

I was thinking, what if the thruster system was "reversed"?
instead of the "better thrusters" having higher efficiency (use less power).
Have a simple linear progression of force/power.

start with a low speed/low power thruster and go up from there. As technology moves forward and the power output of the newer engines climb, so to would the output of the newer thrusters.
So with the newer power cores, the older model thrusters can be driven nearly continuously, but you don't go as fast. The better the thruster is, the faster it goes, and the more power it draws.

The more expensive thrusters use more power, not less, while keeping the highest speed of the thrusters around 200. (where all thrusters are now)

.........................Current Force/Power---->New Force/Power
Thruster....................72000/164------>48000/110 (max speed 160) Slow, but it's the energizer bunny of
Deluxe Thruster..........72000/150----->54000/115 (max speed 170)
Advanced Thruster.......72000/125---->60000/120 (max speed 180)
Heavy Thruster...........72000/133----->66000/125 (max speed 190)
Enhanced Thruster.......72000/115---->72000/130 (max speed of 200) "top of the line" model
Cheetah Thruster........72000/110---->78000/150 (max speed 210)"bleeding edge" Technology. Very fast , Very expensive.

Capital Ship Thruster...72000/125---->72000/150 power hungry, but tough as nails.

AI Thruster.................72000/115---->72000/120 (max speed of 200)
Nomad Thruster..........72000/115---->72000/120 (max speed of 200)


I thought the Cheetah Thruster should live up to it's name as the fastest, but also that it can't maintain continuous thrust for long periods of time. Yes, it is faster and I know what has been said about faster thrusters no matter how much power they use. . .but it isn't much, and you still do have to fear the words "Radiation Damage Detected"

As for the capitol ship thruster getting a nerf, I figure it may deter fighters/bombers from mounting it for the sake of it's toughness. (it's kind of a pet peeve of mine, fighters mounting equipment labeled for "capitol ship" use)

as a new player, fighting npc's could be easier since your starting thruster takes less power, and once you buy a better thruster you may be able to outrun them since many npc's only use standard thrusters.

Scanners:

currently the are 3 "types" of scanners: Standard, cargo, and special.

Standard scanners lean toward their range (the range that they discover things like jump holes and wrecks)
Cargo scanners lean toward cargo scanning range (self explanatory)
Special scanners are the BS license, and spyglass scanner.

I would make a greater difference between the classes.
Standard scanners: maintain a 4:1 range/cargo scan.
Cargo scanners: have a 1:1 range/cargo scan.
Special: extend the cargo scan range to match the new Endeavor Cargo Scanner range of 4500.

. .Old Range/Cargo......New Range/Cargo..Space

Scanner......................2500/1000.......4000/1000..............0
Deep Scanner..............4000/2000.......6000/1500..............5
Advanced Scanner.......6000/2000.......8000/2000.............10
Discovery Scanner......10000/2500......10000/2500...........15


Cargo Scanner.............3000/2500.......3000/3000............10
Imp. Cargo scanner......4000/3000.......3500/3500............15
Adv. Cargo scanner.......5000/4000.......4000/4000............20
Endeavor Cargo Scanner..8000/2500....4500/4500............25

Capitol Ship scanner.(Does not exist)....8000/4000..........35

Spyglass scanner........12000/4000......12000/4500...........50
BS lic.........................12000/4000......12000/4500...........50



IMO there needs to be a greater trade off in choosing a scanner. Either scan range, or cargo scan range. (unless you want to shell out 250M for a BS license to have both)
Also, since scanners are internal equipment, they can take up space (just like armor). I would also make them take up progressively more space so players also have to also choose how much cargo space they want to sacrifice to get longer scanning range.

I'd also like a scanner for non Battleship capitols that's "the best of both worlds" but only as good as the second best scanner (of the new scanner and cargo scanner). Make it expensive enough 50M? that along with it's "second best" stats it becomes the choice it's meant to be instead of the next "Adv. Cargo scanner"

note: BS scanners take up enough space so it becomes difficult mount one on a fighter (same pet peeve about fighters mounting "capitol ship" equipment.)



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Even if 100% of these changes actually happened, (and that's a big IF) I'm not sure myself if adding more variables to scanners and thrusters would do anything to change the choices players make.

[jxie93]

Uber scanners? Sure, why not.

I actually quite like that varying thrust speed system, it's like varying cruiser speed but less likely to cause extensive butthurt.

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[tansytansey]

I do quite like the idea of the thrusters. Although I don't think the Cheetah should be 210, since most fights don't use the thruster for extended periods, making the thruster drain null.

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