ENGINE's Idea

[Agran Harper]

Mind, I was only thinking out loud about the possibility of implementation, no tthat it would be acknowledged by anyone, really:D
I don't see different propulsion stuff coming to Discovery as long as somebody agress to free up modders for it.

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To hunt the prey is life,
to lose the prey is death,
to hunt the loss is insane...

[sobuor]

No.

Changing a core aspect in the gameplay and fighting? Noooo. Hard to code and IMPOSSIBLE to balance, we can't even do it with thrusters, because, come on, when was the last time you saw a dude with a cheetah thruster?

cheetah thrusters are the best i us them when ever i can in rp and i used to see them all the time but of lately yes less so and i'm not sure why but any ways yeah i no if not done right it could screw the game and i always said to balance it would not be easy but i feel it would be worth it

Cruise Engine reactivation cooldown: rather unlikely but; perhaps?

reactivation would be a small part but i was thinking if you could stop and start right away
but it would cool faster when shut down and the better the cooling system the longer it would take to over heat
so only fear would be burning out engines from running full out for 2 long
but as i said it needs work

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[reavengitair]

Its not a bad idea - but I would put it only for battleships.

I have a small idea myself that might work... but ill post it later:D

[airage]

Good idea and it would be nice to see but in another game, not FL.
I love the way it is now....
Maybee, but only mayBE there should be upgrades like armor only for engine. Capitals only.

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[Jamez]

Just because Digital Anvil didn't do it doesn't mean we can't. We don't have deadlines.

Upgradeable engines would be an interesting addition.

P.S. AiRaGE, that sig is fantastic.

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Andrew Skye
Starflier thrill-seeker

Evangeline Knight
Seasoned fighter pilot

Shinji Takeda
Renzu Corp ex-COO

[airage]

P.S. AiRaGE, that sig is fantastic.

//sorry for OT

thanks Jamez:)

Anyway, I like the idea of engine upgrades but Id keep it rather simple

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[Agran Harper]

but it would cool faster when shut down and the better the cooling system the longer it would take to over heat
so only fear would be burning out engines from running full out for 2 long
but as i said it needs work

I just browsed the entries of engines and thrusters and the likes of that, and it will be a tad tricky with the running time of the cruise engine. Please note, it was just a quick browse, so that means I could have missed something. Perhaps there could be some timer based stuff, I hope this is doable client-sided and not FLHook dependant.

Other ideas which are possible; you can increase or decrease the time it takes to go into cruise speed, if I didn't misinterpreted the parameters I just browsed through. That could mean slightly decreased into-cruise time for smaller vessels, and slightly longer time for larger vessels, as it takes significantly more juice to thrust a Battleship, than thrust a light fighter. Please bear in mind the keyword "slightly".

What also might be doable is; the energy to fly with cruise engines is derived from the energy that is normally used to fuel weapon systems, hence we cannot shoot while cruising. So, perhaps we might link our yellow energy bar with the cruise engine, and if it runs dry, you stop. This COULD lead to the interesting szenario, that you don't really get far if you try to flee from a fight, as you barely have enough energy to sustain a lengthy flight. On the other hand, I do not want to have cruise engine severely suck away power. I can imagine it to be very exhausting if you have to attempt several cruise activations to get from one end of a system without tradelane connections to the other one... So there has to be enough power that you do not start to hold a grudge against the game.
However, I am not very convinced that this idea would be acknowledged, even though it would perfectly fit into the game, lore-wise (energy from weapons transferred to cruise engines).

On the long run, we might as well as pool ideas, check for possibility, and then consider what might be good, and what not, including balancing attempts, and last but not least; what would be PERMITTED by the Mod Supervisor.

(( offtopic; AiRaGE; thats by far the best signature I've seen in this forum *drool* ))

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To hunt the prey is life,
to lose the prey is death,
to hunt the loss is insane...

[Tenacity]

The general concept isnt bad but I dont exactly agree with some of your specific ideas, particularly overheating or increasing max cruise speed (if we do this, then players in formation flight will be kicked off the server for speed modding).

My suggestion would be to have several different items which occupy the armor upgrade slot, and provide differing benefits.

Right now we just have armor upgrades, sure they improve survivability, particularly on capital ships and bombers, but there are other tactical approaches to combat which would benefit from something other than an armor upgrade.

So here's my suggested items:

1. Shield Capacitors

Shield Capacitors would replace the armor upgrade when used, and would increase both the regeneration rate and maximum damage absorbtion of the player's shields. There would be tiered improvements, just like we have for armor upgrades, like so:

Fighter Shield Capacitor Mk1:
Increases maximum shield capacity by 20%
Increases shield regeneration by 10%
Occupies 20 cargo space

Fighter Shield Capacitor Mk5:
Increases maximum shield capacity by 100%
Increases shield regeneration by 10%
Occupies 20 cargo space

Capital Shield Capacitor MK1:
Increases maximum shield capacity by 20%
Increases shield regeneration by 10%
Occupies 300 cargo space

Capital Shield Capacitor Mk5:
Increases maximum shield capacity by 100%
Increases shield regeneration by 10%
Occupies 300 cargo space

Of course mark 2 through 4 would be 40/60/80% respectively.

2. Power Cells

Power cells would, again, replace the armor upgrade when used. Rather than increasing survivability, the power cell would increase the weapon energy regeneration rate of a craft, allowing for more constant use of weapons. Obviously we cant make power cells increase maximum energy, because we'd end up with 2-3 SNAC bombers firing all of them at once, or capships firing off 2-3 heavy mortars at a time... way too much burst damage potential. Regeneration, on the other hand, just allows for quicker refire (which is still limited by the individual weapon's refire rate).

Fighter Power Cell Mk1:
Increases weapon energy regeneration by 5%
Occupies 40 cargo space

Fighter Power Cell Mk4:
Increases weapon energy regeneration by 20%
Occupies 40 cargo space

Capital Power Cell Mk1:
Increases weapon energy regeneration by 5%
Occupies 500 Cargo Space

Capital Power Cell MK4:
Increases weapon energy regeneration by 20%
Occupies 500 Cargo Space

Nomad Power Cell:
Increases weapon energy regeneration by 30%
Occupies 50 Cargo Space

The Nomad Power Cell would be usable by any ship, cap or fighter/bomber. Of course, use of such an item would be controversial for any house ship or civilian craft, and it'd go along with the house laws against use of nomad weapons or carrying nomad specimens. Such an item would be more common in the borderworlds for outcast, corsair, zoner, BHG, or order craft, but once again The Order would be able to add that to the list of nomad contraband they are able to demand from a ship (now, being an equippable item, the scanned craft couldnt jettison it - but the order player could force the target to land and unequip the device).

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