New Additions to GSF?

[TrinityLyre]

There's been recent topics crying about: Manglers, Razorwires, Stings, Bloodmarks, aces, servers, cheating, premades and a bunch of questionable UI changes. Maybe they're warranted, maybe some people find them interesting, but I figured I'd change the pace (for at least one thread). Forget all that. We're not in the Galactic Cryfighter forum; we enjoy this game no matter how much we say otherwise. I stumbled across FractalSponge's awesome website (accidentally, right? lolstasieyou'resuchanerd) and it brought back a lot of memories of TIE Fighter and other cool Star Wars games of the past. It also reminded me of interesting features not present in GSF. This thread was created with the goal that we don't cry about what is already in game, but to add requests for interesting, new features.

 

We know (or can assume) these features are planned (and feel free to speculate and talk about them):

 

 

• New Ship Type (presumably the Infiltrator)
  
• New Game Mode: Cargo Runs(?)
  
• Type 3 Gunship
  
• Type 3 Bomber
  
• New TDM Map: Denon Exosphere
  

 

... but what about things that aren't on this list? What would you like to see that's new and interesting? There's been various ideas all over the forums but it's hard to find them all amidst all the whine threads. What do you want to see? Maybe Tractor/Jamming Beams? New...

 

 

• Components?
  
• Ship types?
  
• Game modes?
  
• Map ideas?
  
• Customizations?
  
• Upgrades?
  
• UI additions?
  
• Something I haven't covered?
  

 

Be as detailed (or not) as you like. Show your creativity! I have a few ideas I'll post later, but I have no clue what the current platform can support. I figure this feedback could be just as useful for future development, since the SWTOR developer team seems serious about GSF so it's unlikely they'd ignore a list of potential new features. If there's enough positive interest and ideas posted I can start forming a list of requested features/additions in this post.

 

- In before nerf railgun/mines/UI/copilot abilities/premades/matchmaking/my dog/etc. Can we assume I've covered all the potential whines and move on?

[Altheran]

As I had suggested in another thread long time ago, Interference Beacon. It would work similarly to Sensor Beacon but instead of incereasing Sensor and Comms radius as well as reducing ennemy evasion, it would reduce ennemy sensor and comm radius and would disable missile-locking warning (not "incoming warning")

 

Found my old post :

Systems

 

Interference Beacon (System for Spearpoint/Bloodmark)

 

Cooldown : 60s.

 

Place a beacon that lasts 120s and disable ennemy communication reception and warning for missiles in locking process to all ennemies 4000 m around it. Only one beacon can be active at a time.

 

T1 : Reduce CD by 15s

T2 : Increases the beacon's armor and hull

T3 : Also disable ennemy communication emission

T4-A : Lengthen ennemy missile locks by 0.5s - T4-B : Increase area of effect by 1000m

T5-A : Maximal number of active beacons increased by 1 - T5-B Also disable ennemy warning for incoming missiles.

 

Now I think back about it, CD should be 90s down to 60s with T1 upgrade to be in line with other Beacons/Drones.

Effect Radius probably has to change as well, in order to normalize with other components.

 

 

I also had an idea of a new component category, but had an hard time finding a good name for it.

It would be a secondary component, such as armors, magazines and such, but it would mimic the bonus granted by Offensive-type crew member that are not equivalent to any component yet (accuracy - firing arc - reload time).

Edited April 23, 2014 by Altheran

[Kuciwalker]

Type 3 gunship musing:

 

On strikes we have one ship that swaps primaries, one that swaps secondaries, and one with a "command" system.

 

With scouts we also have the theme that the Type 3 is a "command" ship.

 

On gunships we have two ships that swap secondaries.

 

I don't think a "command" gunship really works. Gunships don't really like hanging out next to their buddies (unless their buddy is a minefield) and they don't have the legs to dart in, fire off an ability, and dart out.

 

You could fix this by giving a gunship "command" ability ~10km range... cue QQ. Not going to happen.

 

So I hope that we just aren't going to see a "command" gunship, and we'll actually see something new.

 

I'd love to see a gunship that traded in the "swap weapon" ability for a regular system - basically trading ion railgun for targeting telemetry. That trade would actually be worth it. But it would also make one-shotting scouts happen actually pretty often, so probably shouldn't happen either.

 

Letting the Type 3 swap shields or engines (as in you have two shield or engine components and can switch between them mid-flight) would be too zany.

 

Depending on how the Infiltrators work (presumably they have some sort of stealth component, maybe as a system) maybe you could make a "stealthy gunship" that's able to choose between booster recharge, EMP, and some sort of stealth as a system ability. Give it a thruster component (in place of magazine) for good measure. Now you've got a partially defanged gunship (only one secondary) with much stronger legs and evasion. That's a tradeoff I'd be willing to fly.

 

All of the above is pointless though because we're going to get a "command" gunship that will be totally useless (though maybe not as useless as the Type 2) because of the tremendous anti-synergy between gunships and the "command" role.

[Zoom_VI]

Unless there has been some more recent finds all the previous datamines I have seen on the type 3 gunship point towards it being a hybrid between scouts and gunships. So like cluster missiles and BLC

[Fractalsponge]

I'd like an actual dogfighty gunship, rather than the type 2 that we have. Would need at the minimum a thrusters component, a close in weapon like BLC/quads, and the option to equip 2 missile breaks (one of them doesn't even have to be barrel roll). It should lose ion railgun, and ultimately top out at just about stock strike manueverability and mobility if you build it that way. Bonus points if you can't use secondary swaps at all, and there's an interesting systems slot instead.

 

I I could trade ion rail for telemetry - yes. I would like that yesterday please. Won't happen, as much as I would like it to, since it means something like a 4800 crit for every other slug rail shot, at almost 100% effective accuracy without cooldowns, half the time. A watered down telemetry that doesn't grant crit chance but buffs evasiveness and accuracy, possibly AOE (like a bastard combination of combat command, telemetry, and tensor field) that affected railguns, that would make it very interesting, and be a worthwhile trade for ion rail's utility.

 

UI things I'd like:

- Focus target window - duplicate the current target window, show relative facing to me and target of the focus target. Might be a bit too powerful though.

- Target friendly option, or an ops frame showing shield and hull hp.

 

Interesting new component idea:

Turbolaser - have it hit for a little bit less than what slug can do, but no zoom (lead indicator shot), no charge time, a multi-second cooldown, and immediately drains your weapon pool by 1/4 or 1/3 on use. Tune the dps out to be less than sequential full-charge slug shots. Basically a souped-up heavy laser with a much higher energy cost, and a much higher cost for missing, but railgun range and fire-on-the-move potential.

 

I also approve of the OP, because he mentioned my website

Edited April 23, 2014 by Fractalsponge

[Kuciwalker]

Unless there has been some more recent finds all the previous datamines I have seen on the type 3 gunship point towards it being a hybrid between scouts and gunships. So like cluster missiles and BLC

 

If they think getting new weapons can make a gunship like a scout... then they are probably the same people who designed the Type 2 gunship.

 

Sigh.

 

I'd like an actual dogfighty gunship, rather than the type 2 that we have.

 

This, but I'd already given up hope. We already know how to do it; take the type 2 gunship, drop sensors for thrusters, and you're already a decent part of the way there. Add concussion missiles as a secondary option.

[Kuciwalker]

Interesting new component idea:

Turbolaser - have it hit for a little bit less than what slug can do, but no zoom (lead indicator shot), no charge time, a multi-second cooldown, and immediately drains your weapon pool by 1/4 or 1/3 on use. Tune the dps out to be less than sequential full-charge slug shots. Basically a souped-up heavy laser with a much higher energy cost, and a much higher cost for missing, but railgun range and fire-on-the-move potential.

 

That would be ridiculously OP.

[Fractalsponge]

That would be ridiculously OP.

 

Looking at my older post again, yeah. Call it a work in progress . I do think there's space between the heavy laser and the railgun in terms of usage and capabilities. Just a question of tuning the damage, power cost, and cooldown to appropriate levels. Slug railgun damage for on the move would be horribly OP, so, my bad. Mid-way between heavy laser and slug damage, 75% of total weapon pool, 4s cooldown?

[SammyGStatus]

Interesting concept. Would love to some sort of tie in between the GSF and the rest of the game - feels like we're so seperated. Granted, this is a "mini-game" that GSFers spend A LOT of time playing, but it'd be nice to feel the connection with the rest of the swtor community (When I see someone in full 78's, or a sorc with 37k health, I can assume that he's running HM / NiM ops. When it comes to GSFers running around on the fleet, even seeing the name "Test Pilot" doesn't engage me in the sense that I believe that this person is one of the imps / pubs test pilots, and as such is a phenomenal flyer.) This has been my biggest hope for GSF. Well, that and to actually make the matches more meaningful (like in a conquest mode a la battlefront 2's galactic conquest). Start with the skies. Whoever wins the space match can have access to advanced utilities in a ground-based pvp match for control of the planet (or something to that affect). We'd need to bring on massive scale pvp (and I don't mean 50 players raiding an enemy outpost... I'm talking control of the PLANET)

 

Shipwise - I guess I like the ships they have now *shrugs*. The stealth class idea is pretty cool. I wish they added an objective based mode (not like "Hold Satellites" which makes for a good game but not for a very realistic one). If BW added a capture the supply depot and hold it until reinforcements arrive (then npc ships would come and you move on) followed by "regroup with X Squad and engage the enemy", incorporating both elements of the game (or VIP escort mission would be cool too).

 

A water world map would be really neat too (as well as GSF maps for every planet, to incorporate the galactic conquest concept)!!!

 

PLEASE give us more paintjobs / color options. The pub side looks awful, and that's being polite. The imp side looks better, but I would still enjoy seeing both sides get some much needed cosmetic work.

 

These thoughts really don't have much in terms of improvements to GSF per say, but more so the tie-in to the rest of the game. I really can't complain except for the fact that my once seemingly-immortal devastating gunship more fragile than a doilie from the 17th centuray. Boo for dying, (and yay for making missiles turn bad players into "meh" players without actually increasing their skill levels).

Edited April 23, 2014 by SammyGStatus

[Altheran]

This, but I'd already given up hope. We already know how to do it; take the type 2 gunship, drop sensors for thrusters, and you're already a decent part of the way there. Add concussion missiles as a secondary option.

You can give Gunships the hull/shields and mobility stats of Strike for all I care, but I think it should never play like one. Giving Concussion Missile (and to a lesser extent Thrusters) would allow to play it almost exactly like like a Pike/Quell.

 

So... not liking it.

[Nemarus]

New Gunship Variant = Healer!

Ignoring early mines about the Type 3 Gunship and playing off the "Command Gunship" suggested above, imagine a Gunship healer with a repair railgun!

 

I could actually see this being super popular.

 

It could work like an Ion Railgun ... aim it at an ally and if you hit, it main-heals that ally and splash heals nearby allies. Maybe it only recharges shields. Maybe it repairs some hull too.

 

I'm sure it would be very hard to balance, and it might make premades utterly invincible, but I'm just thinking Pie in the Sky ideas.

 

New Bomber Variant

 

As for the Type 3 Bomber, datamining suggested it was going to be a Heavy Dogfighter. For its System, it could choose a Mine or a Drone(!), and for its Secondary it could choose either ship-to-ship missile or torpedo. If I recall, the description made it sound like it had Thrusters, but at the expense of Armor. At first blush, it sounds pretty interesting. Give it some good short-range weapons, turning thrusters, an engine option with turning increase ... then combine that with a mine or drone and it could be a little bulldog of a ship.

 

I wouldn't mind if it lost Sensors in exchange for a Capacitor, and it would definitely need some missile-break engine options. I'd also wish it'd lose the Reactor and keep the Armor, since the Armor will further emphasize the Bomber's best-in-class DR and hull. Having a Dogfighter with 39% DR or 2400 Hull would make it a lot more distinct from the Strikes. Whereas a Bomber's base shields are actually worse than a Strike's, thus reducing the differentiating impact of a Reactor.

 

New Map Ideas

 

I've posted these before in their own thread, but I still think they're fun ideas

 

* Dynamic Asteroid Field -- we've seen plenty of static asteroid fields (where asteroids sit motionless or slowly spin). I want to fly amongst fast moving asteroids of all different sizes going every which way and bouncing off each other ... like in the ESB chase. Reactive piloting skill would be as much a factor of victory as gunnery is currently. Unfortunately, we're unlikely to see this given current collision detection constraints.

 

* Fleet Battlespace -- I want to weave in and out of destroyers and dreadnoughts, all of them too busy blasting away at each other to attack fighters, like the Battle of Endor or the beginning of RotS. Of course, this could mesh with a gametype that requires attack/defense of capital ships by fighters. Denon matches this, at least in atmosphere, but I'd love to see the capital ships involved in the gametype objective somehow.

 

* Nebula Cluster -- Imagine a field of different colored nebulas, with different nebula types having different effects on your ship when you fly through them. Some would drastically reduce sensor and communication range. Some could disable shields. Some could slow you down or cause slow, steady damage to your hull. Of course, this map would really only work with an objective gametype that gives you reason to fly into the nebulas... but what if each time you played the game, the color/effects of the nebulas was randomized? It'd force you to have a wide range of ships to deal with a wide range of possible battle environments.

 

* Cloud City -- whether it's really Bespin or not, I don't care ... but imagine flying in and around the buildings of a floating city, jetting through visibility-obscuring clouds, or weaving in and out behind explosive tibanna gas canisters

 

* A Black Hole -- Imagine a map where between each team's spawn point is a small black hole. The map is wide enough such that you can fly around the Black Hole without suffering its effects, but get closer, and your ship begins to get pulled in. At a moderate distance, you could use this gravitational effect to slingshot around the map at high speed. But get too close, and you slip past the event horizon and fall in.

[Kalphitis]

I like your map ideas Nemarus, especially the dynamic asteroids idea. It would be more cool if the asteroids or other objects moved.

 

More than anything though (besides cross-server queues), I want more game types.

 

Assault: Game consists of two rounds. One team starts off as offense, the other defense. The offense has 7-8 mins in order to successfully assault a built up base (with plenty of defense turrets, missile drones, etc). The end objective could be something cool like destroying a component inside a large capital ship or space station, causing it to explode. After time expires, switch sides. Fastest time or most success wins.

 

King of the Hill: This is similar to existing domination, except that the objective points will randomly move, and there won't be defensive turrets. Do you get to the objective points quickly with a scout to maximize your time there? Do you get there slowly with a bomber to hope to hold it longer? Do you say screw objectives, "prepare to be sniped!"?

 

Last man standing: Game consists of rounds that do not end unless everybody on a team dies. Players cannot respawn if they die, until the next round. Play until a team wins 3/4 rounds. In order to prevent hiding/overly defensive play, there could be items (similar to powerups) that if attained by the team currently losing, boosts their damage significantly and/or allows a teammate to spawn. The losing team could also attain passive buffs that increase based on their score (such as damaged taken minimized by 10% or so for every additional player the other team has active)

 

It would also be neat to have a capture the flag type event. Could have 'flags' at each 'base' or have a neutral flag in the middle.

[Kuciwalker]

You can give Gunships the hull/shields and mobility stats of Strike for all I care, but I think it should never play like one. Giving Concussion Missile (and to a lesser extent Thrusters) would allow to play it almost exactly like like a Pike/Quell.

 

So... not liking it.

 

Bioware's entire theory behind the Type 2 is that it should play like a clumsy strike fighter with extra range.

[Kuciwalker]

New Gunship Variant = Healer!

Ignoring early mines about the Type 3 Gunship and playing off the "Command Gunship" suggested above, imagine a Gunship healer with a repair railgun!

 

I could actually see this being super popular.

 

Yes but it is so stupid if you try to actually think about it

[Kuciwalker]

Rather than dynamic asteroids, I'd want something more specific: mobile satellites in domination. Imagine Lost Shipyards (minus the structure around C for the moment) or Denon where A and C orbit around B in the horizontal plane, periodically approaching each faction's spawn (though not close enough for the turrets to be a problem. Control of B would be crucial, but each team would still have to actually go out and capture the enemy's satellite as it approached. Edited April 23, 2014 by Kuciwalker

[Nemarus]

Yes but it is so stupid if you try to actually think about it

 

That is why you fail. <(o_o)>

Edited April 23, 2014 by Nemarus

[Kalphitis]

Rather than dynamic asteroids, I'd want something more specific: mobile satellites in domination. Imagine Lost Shipyards (minus the structure around C for the moment) or Denon where A and C orbit around B in the horizontal plane, periodically approaching each faction's spawn (though not close enough for the turrets to be a problem. Control of B would be crucial, but each team would still have to actually go out and capture the enemy's satellite as it approached.

 

Satellites moving in an orbit? What kind of crazy ideas go on inside your head?!

 

That would be neat

[Altheran]

Bioware's entire theory behind the Type 2 is that it should play like a clumsy strike fighter with extra range.

 

Like a clumsy Strike Fighter with Extra Range, yes... But not like a real Strike Fighter. And that's what giving Concussion would allow.

(The stat/gameplay difference would barely be noticeable, especially on a Heavy/Concussion/Proton/Directional/Barrel build)

[Kuciwalker]

Like a clumsy Strike Fighter with Extra Range, yes... But not like a real Strike Fighter. And that's what giving Concussion would allow.

(The stat/gameplay difference would barely be noticeable, especially on a Heavy/Concussion/Proton/Directional/Barrel build)

 

Hardly. Even with a thruster component the handling would be far worse on a GS, and the railgun would create a solid incentive to play things differently.

[DamascusAdontise]

Components

 

System Ability - T1 Scout - Tow Cable - Fires a tow cable at friendly target, attaching target behind player. 20% drain on engine power, blasters non functional while tow cable is attached. Toggle to cut cord and restore to normal. (Allows players to tow slower players albeit at a cost to themselves - Id like to see where you could cut cable from either side - If towing player hits obstacle or dies tether is cut and towed vehicle 0's out throttle immediately)

 

Secondary Mine - Minelayer - Ghost Mine - Mine generates false holographic images of itself. (Radius Detonation Mine) - 3000 meter range AOE shield and hull damage (gains phase ability through unlock that reduces damage by 30% but ups evasion by 80%)

 

Missile(okay its a drone but it uses missile slot) T3 Strike / T2 Strike - Mine Hunter - Drone that targets player dropped mines and drones as well as defense turrets within 15000 meters. Drone scans for targets, once locked will travel to weapons range and open fire until target is dead then scans for the next nearest target. Fires EMP Type Missiles at 8000 meters and Lasers at 5000 meters. Travels at proton speed or slower. Can be upgraded to target stationary players (think gunships, or other ships who stop to shoot)

 

Drone - Dronelayer - Sapper Drone - Drone will a) be launched with target or b) launched without target will seek out players in a 10000 meter radius, boost to them and attach to the hull. Once attached drone causes a immediate 25% drain on all power levels, power continues to drop at x per second, also causes Hull DOT as it burrows into the ship. - Duration 20 seconds or death? Detaches after duration and after short activation seeks again (with same target lockout for x seconds) Falls off on engine ability use.

 

(^ was thinking of buzz droids as the inspiration, though with a more support oriented goal, or as something to help kill bombers)

 

 

 

Map Idea:

 

Ship Factory

 

Short Version: Domination or Deathmatch map contained within a gigantic starship factory - Large Entrances on either side of facility branch off into multiple sections accessible via tubes, several large rooms including a large spherical room at the center of the facility (with either a dreadnaught being constructed or perhaps a large reactor)

 

(Think deathstar, with a little more breathing room in the tunnels, and some other rooms)

 

 

(click below for the full detail on the map)

 

 

A large map, mostly concealed within a large ship factory. For Domination one node would be on the south end of the map outside the facility, near a set of very large double hanger doors(entryway into the main structure) the second node would be located within a large central chamber (inside the factory) the third node would be on the north side of the map outside of an identical set of large hanger bay doors. (Think of a hexagon, or possibly an irregular polygon with some appendages at the ends, and large open doors on its sides)

 

inside the facility would be a series of access tubes and interior rooms of varying sizes culminating in a very large central chamber. I imagine the access tubes starting from a large entrance room just beyond the bay doors, attached to the walls of the room access tubes branch left right and middle.

 

In the various rooms would be supplies, partially constructed ships, construction equipment etc. Would be nifty if there were mobile construction skiffs whizzing around (even if just non-collidable fluff) In essence a chaotic mess full of ship construction stuff.

 

The central chamber would be large and round with entrances at the north, south, east, and west ends. Possibly some structure inside to break up the immense space (pieces of a large reactor, or perhaps something more ship related like a dreadnought being built)

 

There would be an exhaustion zone in the shape of an oval, encompassing the north and south nodes (the space just outside the doors of the facility) there would be enough room to cap the nodes and defend them, but the focus of the map is inside the building.

 

(additional notes)

 

The access tubes should vary in size from small to large (larger as you go toward the central chamber or larger rooms) inside some could be obstructions to avoid.

 

Players launch from cap ships just outside the north and south entrances to the facility.

 

The idea is to give people the feeling of zipping through the corridors of a large facility, ducking and dodging obstacles and going from confined spaces to larger rooms. Could be a blast (who doesn't want to relive a deathstar assault eh)

 

*Note* on further reflection, cap ships / deployment could be too close to the north and south nodes, if this is the case they could be moved to the "entrance chamber" and players could continue to spawn at some outside of the facility.

 

 

 

 

Universal Systems (a new key bind ability - think x for fullstop or c for target camera)

 

 

Shutdown Sequence

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

components are all from another post "dream components" by Verain, took the best IMO of the ones I posted there and carried them over. These are open to suggestion / change - the listed effects especially range were all just thought up on the fly and could use some fine tinkering.

Edited April 30, 2014 by DamascusAdontise

[Ramalina]

UI wise horizontal plane and vertical plane HUD heading ticker tapes would be nice. Auto orient is a poor substitute for instruments that keep you from getting disoriented in the first place. This would be a prerequisite for any sort of heavy visibility impairment existing in maps such as clouds or nebulas. I've flown in IFR conditions in sims and even with a stable airframe and full IFR instrumentation it is VERY easy to wind up flying upside down, backward, and sideways (yeah, all three at the same time) if you lose visual references. Knowing what your yaw, pitch and roll are relative to a fixed reference is tremendously useful. The map gives some positional information and some vector information, but since both are partial it's still relatively easy to get confused in some situations.

 

Ability to see friendly shield and hull levels would be greatly appreciated now that we have support strikes and scouts.

 

Would also be nice to have obvious and bright flashing of missile weapon icon when positive lock is achieved. Or some equivalent clear signal (indicator light, HUD target symbol changes shape and color, something like that. The targeting HUD info in GSF is less clear and unmistakable than what you see in a flight sim that does a good job with simulating the pilot interface of modern fighter jets. Square indicator to circle or diamond is better than color and line thickness changes, stuff like that). The lock tone and visual cues that currently exist are a little bit too easy to lose in the background. If nothing else, have the audio tones for missile warning and launch authorization set so they have independently adjustable volumes.

 

I get a lot of kills with missiles, but part of that is me being good at correctly guessing if I have a lock yet because the UI isn't doing its job at an adequate level. GSF has a lot of bright visual noise in the background that can overwhelm the HUD's smaller visual cues, and the tone isn't nearly as distinctive as an AIM-9's growl lock on tone is when competing with environmental noise and voice communications. I think the beeps during the lock establishment are ok, but lock achieved audio cue needs a bit of work. As obvious as the warning tone that someone is shooting at you, and it would be fine.

 

Probably not possible, but bigger battle space before running into exhaustion zones would be nice. Dying from running into solid obstacles is fine, but I've played too many true free flight sims, and GSF does often feel like a dogfight happening in a little goldfish bowl. At least it does to me. It's especially constrained in the vertical axis.

 

As far as wall of crazy sorts of things, one idea that would require new ship types would be some sort of boarding action. Pilot your assault shuttle in pursuit of the diplomatic courier/long range reconnaissance and mapping patrol ship, hit it with ion missiles and sabotage probes, then maneuver close enough to engage the docking clamps so spacetroopers can board it and do whatever it is that they do when they do ship assaults. Then either escape the battle with the files they retrieve, or help escort the captured ship to friendly lines. This would probably require relatively slow speeds at docking and perhaps a short range (250 m or less?) tractor beam grab of some sort.

 

Wandering flock of mynocks that interfere with vision and engine regen until you do an engine maneuver to shake them off? On second though, after the first ten seconds of coolness people would probably hate this. Ditto for space slugs.

 

Morroddo the Hutt's grand prix space races. Asteroid field/trench run/cityscape racecourse. Fly from spawn point to course entrance then complete as many laps as you can before time runs out. Team with the highest number of laps wins. How fast can you fly, how many competitors can you eliminate? Might have sections allowing for alternate strategies, 'gauntlet' shortcuts that only bombers would survive, forcefield that can be taken down by shooting a power regulator 12 km off of the course as the gunship shortcut. Sounds like it could be a nightmare to balance, but if you could balance it (and the easy way would be to have a designated hutt racing ship), it might be really fun. Might allow the breakneck highspeed piloting some people want without needing to deal with the problems of collision detection for moving obstacles.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Ramalina

[Devrius]

We need the ability to target allies and see their health and buffs/de-buffs.

 

As for new modes: grounds conquest, random disable, last man standing.

 

- Ground conquest: rather then only destroy each other we destroy enemy bases, the one who loses all it's bases and their automated defenses looses.

 

- Random disable: on each spawn a random ship is unavailabe and a ship component is disabled (a number: 1,2 ,3 and 4 do nothing).

 

- 3 Ships per pilot, the last one standing wins!

 

 

We need a long range component able to disable drones/mines reliably, right now all the options are somewhere between suicidal and lackluster.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Devrius

[TrinityLyre]

Some of these are really cool! I love Nem's map styles and a healer gunship actually sounds interesting (granted they'd have to show allied health). Rotating satellites sounds like an interesting dynamic but I'd be afraid of all the random collision issues that would occur. Tow cables sound interesting but Tensor Field already fills a role like that. The drone sounds nasty, I'd love to see more interesting utility drones/mines/missilesthatdon'tsuck.

 

One of the additions I was thinking about was utilizing capital ships. I always thought it kind of silly that the capital ships just sit back and let a handful of fighters take important satellite objectives. I know they said they likely wouldn't do it (cap ship battles) soon, but imagine this:

 

One side has to defend an attacking cruiser/destroyer, the other side defends their shipyards. The cruiser has to go through hardened targets like defense satellites and torpedo/turbolaser platforms to get to the shipyards. Destroying defense platforms advances the cruiser faster (think kind of like Voidstar, I guess). The attacking side wins when the cruiser hits the enemy shipyards and destroys them (which only it can do). The defending side wins if they can delay the cruiser/destroyer/whatever in an allotted time. This would give bombers something to do other than sit under satellites.

 

You could even make this feel more "spacey" by having a cruiser below and to the right and up and to the left relative to the center plane. There would be multiple avenues of attack (rewarding coordination for both defenders and attackers) and it wouldn't feel like a flat environment (another thing I'm not a fan of). Thoughts?

 

Maybe give bombers a method of reloading missiles faster so that they are interesting in this mode?

Edited April 24, 2014 by TrinityLyre

[Taleek]

@Trinity I like the idea, although I think it would work better with the goal for the defenders to be to help the defenses destroy the enemy ship, rather than delaying it for an arbitrary amount of time, which would, I imagine, basically just result in the attackers all ganking a defensive battery all as one to overwhelm it then moving onto the next.

 

Rather, why not have multiple defensive positions, each of which will target specific sections of the attacking enemy ship. perhaps with the defenders able to augment these positions in some way by hanging out near them. The attackers' role would be to neutralize or weaken defensive positions causing the most trouble for their cap, taking pressure off of specific areas of the ship under fire, preventing critical damage to important systems, as well as defending their capital ship from attack runs by the enemy squadron.

 

The defenders, meanwhile, could defend the various batteries and weaken or destroy defensive systems on the attacking enemy ship. At first, attacking the enemy capital ship would be nearly suicidal and inflict little damage, but as the battle wore on and it sustained more damage, the defenders could target defensive systems like local shield generators or point defense weaponry to allow turbolaser/ missile batteries to do more damage to specific sections of the ship.

 

Basically, divide the attacking ship into a few sections, each with their own unique health pool. Once a certain section of the ship has sustained too much damage, the attacking ship would either be crippled in some way, or outright destroyed, depending on how large these quadrants were made. Would probably want to keep them fairly large to avoid having the mode become overly complex, and to keep the number of things the defenders need to defend and the attackers need to attack down.

 

Once the round ends with either the attacking ship destroyed or its target being destroyed, the defenders and attackers would swap places in a second round, with the winner being determined basically the same way it is in Voidstar.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Taleek

[DamascusAdontise]

New Map Ideas

 

* Dynamic Asteroid Field

 

* Fleet Battlespace

 

* Nebula Cluster

 

* Cloud City

 

* A Black Hole

 

I love all of these especially fleet battlespace (busier than denon, a real furball! think the intro sequence to movie 3) I want to be skimming along the bellies of ships, through peaks and valleys etc. Your typical space battle chaotic goodness!

 

Also love cloud city, I have imagined this or perhaps a gas mining operation in the atmosphere of a huge gas giant. Could really be a lot of fun.

 

Dynamic asteroids would be cool, and I have thought the same thing about ship debris (in maps like denon where ships are firing at one another) how cool would it be if there were time based events in some maps such as a cap ship exploding and separating into two pieces with some shrapnel as well (doesnt have to be true dynamic can be a time / event sort of thing)

 

We need to keep the ideas coming, some really good stuff in here already Re-tuned some of my abilities especially the sapper (which was struggling to find its final form, and now I think I have it) added a new map idea as well.

 

A refreshing break from .... erm... other stuff

Edited April 27, 2014 by DamascusAdontise