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making dreads more important & increasing teamwork |
Lark of Serenity Grand Admiral Raven Warriors
Joined: June 02, 2002 Posts: 2516
| Posted: 2003-11-26 19:42  
ok, the idea behind a dreadnaught to my understanding is that in a fleet environment, or in a low ratio fight, it should be an awesome weapon, but if an enemy fleet catches it alone, its fried bacon. right now it doesnt really work that way, its more like if the enemy has a cruiser, any dread in the area is fried bacon no matter what.
so, i was thinking, what if groups of ships automatically organise themselves into a sort of fleet-format when theyre in a certain radius of eachother, i.e. thered be a set of *capital ship slots* that the largest ship class in the fleet would fill into. depending on the number of other smaller vessels around, the ships in the capital ship slot would receive a defense bonus of some sort (could be called supply resources or something, characterized by a resource level on the dread commanders screen)
Ex: a dreadnaught is surrounded by 2 cruisers, and several dessies/frigates (n00bs), the dreadnaught (and possibly the 2 cruisers?) would fill the capital ship slot. the other ships around it would give the dreadnaught increased protection from enemy fire.
so how does this make dreads important and increase teamwork?
if a veteran player in a dreadnaught sees a bunch of n00bs idling about, hes going to want to get them grouped around him to give him a protection bonus, and will also want to keep them alive (i.e. give them some pointers on how to play the game, and watch their backs with his ship), thereby creating a teamwork environment. With the protection bonus from the little fleet around the ship, the dreadnaught will become a rather imposing presence in the field, not only because itll be able to take a much larger beating then a lone dread, but because itll also have all the support fire from its smaller companions.
to avoid groups of Assault Cruisers becoming 200% armour because of several minelayer frigates zipping around, a limit of 4 capital ship slots could be imposed on the fleet layout, if theres more then 4 of the largest ship class in the fleet, the bonus becomes void. so a fleet would have to balance itself evenly, dispersing itself between large a small ships, this would bring a new element of mixed-ship combat into the game i dont think weve seen much/enough of, and also increase the valuability of teamwork (big ships keeping the small ships alive again)
just an idea =)
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[ This Message was edited by: Lark of Serenity {C?} on 2003-11-26 19:43 ]
_________________ Admiral Larky, The Wolf
Don't play with fire, play with Larky.
Raven Division Command - 1st Division
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PanelBeater Vice Admiral
Joined: February 07, 2003 Posts: 47 From: Next Door
| Posted: 2003-11-26 20:14  
i think as long as you can keep getting small ships into the fleet ur can keep adding capital ship slots and not stop at 4
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Bigwolfe Fleet Admiral
Joined: October 16, 2003 Posts: 156 From: Bland County
| Posted: 2003-11-26 23:15  
that won't work, maybe on a boardgame, people are humans, if ya'll want it like that, get them to do that
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Ash'elth Grand Admiral Galactic Navy
Joined: June 07, 2002 Posts: 1128
| Posted: 2003-11-26 23:41  
"Dread space is bad! it's making it too hard on those without high ranks!"
"Dreads suck! make them able to kill a cruiser"
Funny how that works.
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unknown force Cadet
Joined: September 27, 2002 Posts: 69
| Posted: 2003-11-27 00:23  
[quote]
On 2003-11-26 19:42, Lark of Serenity {C?} wrote:
ok, the idea behind a dreadnaught to my understanding is that in a fleet environment, or in a low ratio fight, it should be an awesome weapon, but if an enemy fleet catches it alone, its fried bacon. right now it doesnt really work that way, its more like if the enemy has a cruiser, any dread in the area is fried bacon no matter what.
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Basically though any ship that is outnumbered is toast. I don't think there are any ships that can beat 2 against 1 or more odds with ships of its same class. I prefer to compare a ships fighting value by comparing it one on one against another ship.
If you match a cruiser against a dread i think the dread will usually win depending on the exact ships and mods though.
[ This Message was edited by: unknown force on 2003-11-27 00:23 ]
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Tiffy Rando Grand Admiral
Joined: January 19, 2003 Posts: 354 From: Austin, Texas
| Posted: 2003-11-27 02:21  
I've been saying this for about a year now:
all that really needs to be done to make dreads 10 times more viable, is to give them about twice as much armor as they have now
oh yeah, and the UGTO command dread could use another drone slot
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Axianda The Royal Fleet Admiral Terra Squadron
Joined: November 20, 2001 Posts: 4273 From: Axianda
| Posted: 2003-11-27 05:47  
1 number
1482
thank you for your time
[ This Message was edited by: Axianda *XO* on 2003-11-27 05:48 ]
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thebold Grand Admiral Pitch Black
Joined: September 28, 2002 Posts: 327 From: England
| Posted: 2003-11-27 10:07  
Quote:
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On 2003-11-27 05:47, Axianda *XO* wrote:
1 number
1482
thank you for your time
[ This Message was edited by: Axianda *XO* on 2003-11-27 05:48 ]
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AHAHAHAHA THAT CRACKS ME UP
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Lark of Serenity Grand Admiral Raven Warriors
Joined: June 02, 2002 Posts: 2516
| Posted: 2003-11-29 16:02  
even if the dreadnaught is improved, this would certinaly improve gameplay conditions for n00bs in the MV which is what we really want to do if you want the game to stay afloat. i dont suspect n00bs will stay around too long if their frigates keep getting toasted every time they spawn.
and yes, any ship is toast outnumbered 2-1, with some exceptions, but its rather ridiculous how easy it is to cut up a dreadnaught right now
_________________ Admiral Larky, The Wolf
Don't play with fire, play with Larky.
Raven Division Command - 1st Division
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Gideon Cadet
Joined: September 14, 2001 Posts: 4604 From: Oregon, USA
| Posted: 2003-11-29 16:19  
Quote:
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On 2003-11-27 05:47, Axianda *XO* wrote:
1 number
1482
thank you for your time
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I would like to thank you for the vote of confidence, but I also want to remind everyone of a few things.
The update with v1.482 is not a panacea for us. It will have it's own flaws, and it's own shortcomings. I am sure there are several ways to improve upon it, so nobody should concider it the end all of ship changes. In fact, we concider it to meerly be the next stage in the ongoing evolution of DarkSpace. It may seem like a big leap at the time, but really it will just be the accumulation of the past year or so of changes, all lumped into one. The game will, and must continue to refine and evolve.
In fact, I think much in v1.482 will be flawed. Ships will probably take too long to kill, power will probably be in too short of supply on ships. We already know that mines are far too weak vs ships in v1.482, and that will have to be addressed. Also, planets vs ships will need a long period of detailed balancing before it will work even remotely right. Then, planets will be revamped shortly there after, throwing everything out of whack again, for more rebalancing. This just scratches the surface, and doesn't even address where potential flaws might crop up. There are a few ship layouts that we may have to completely strip and start over from scratch, and numberous other balance issues to test with various faction specifics, and also with the auto hull repair and cloaking devices in particular.
The long and the short of it is, no system is perfect. We have no doubt overlooked possibilities that others may have thought of, because we are only so many people and cannot hope to match the variety of the imagination of the whole of the player base. While I always suggest people who put up specific ship and component designs "wait until v1.482", this is either because their designs have already been thought up and integrated in some way, or because I would like to see them revise their concepts after they have a better handle on v1.482.
This is not a post suggesting specific components or layouts, so it bears thought even within the context of v1.482. I'm not saying we will go this rout, but I am saying that no idea should be simply discounted out of hand.
Thanks for your time.
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[ This Message was edited by: Gideon on 2003-11-29 16:25 ]
_________________ ...and lo, He looked upon His creation, and said, "Fo shizzle."
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