The future of the barge?

[Mímir]

4, 6 & 7 (I don't own one, but has been guiding one around/helping it dock with lanes).

I like the idea of a jumping-only huge can, that will take some time to unload by transports, and thus provide a target for pierats for a brief window of time, while requiring a group effort to use. I would like incentives for jumpgroups to jump with a barge, a handful of whales to unload it and escorts to keep the barge safe, and I think a weak-ish barge that is unable to dock with anything would provide that incentive - perhaps lower the hull and put on a larger shield. Faster turning (perhaps only vertical if possible) to offset the slamming/lackluster physics.

And make sure there is fair and equal access to the ship, i.e. provide bases where it is sold or make it possible to construct on player bases.

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[Cris]

Option 1 or 4

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[Daedric]

Maybe start with what the barge should be designed for and move from there?

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[монолит]

Option 1.

[Lunaphase]

1 seems to be the best option on the table, making it publically available.

low armament and speed mean this thing is defenceless on its own, and promotes teamwork.

Perhaps add the ability to jump itself as well would be a good idea, so that we dont have to use battleships to do it. (prevents jumpships from being military only)

Honestly the thing is slow and vulnerable as hell already, no need to nerf it more.

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[Shinjosaki]

I would like to see "mini" version's of the barge for all house faction's as well as a few non-house faction's, maybe give them 15k cargo space, descent armor,the ability to jump,ect. but i think one person should be able to fly it, as well as being able to dock only on certain place's....my vote is 4,6,7.

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[TLI-Inferno]

My personal opinion: Barges should not be used for cloak hauling or jumpdrive powertrading; they have a wonderful potential for very fun roleplay, and I love nothing more than mining for a barge convoy, and watching them slowly fly away, hauling the old-fashioned way and talking on their very long trip.

From reading the possibilities, this is what I believe would be best:

6: Prohibit docking barges on anything, requiring a smaller transport to work together with the barge

And, also, I believe that barges should be unable to be jumped. Jumping barges is complete powertrading, and removes the fun of flying back and forth between destinations.

Of course, to compensate for this, the barge should be given a bit more armor for surviving long journeys, and a bit more cargo to make the very long travel time, and extra effort of requiring another person to unload it, still profitable.

At the moment (without jumping) a 5k transport is more profitable than a barge, as it reaches the destination much quicker, with use of faster engines and tradelanes.

Basically:

Negative nerfs for barges:
Disallow docking
Disallow jump drives

Positive nerfs for barges:
Increase armor
Increase cargo (from 40k to 60k)
Remove ridiculous spinning

At first a person may think: "60k cargo OP!"... But, consider this: Barge flies at 90 m/s max, while a 5k transport flies at 350 m/s minimum (cruising) and over 1,000 m/s in tradelanes for most of its route.

[Lucky Luke]

The current problem is that the barge is more or less unbalanced with respect to the economy.


What other options are there? What combinations? Your thoughts please?

Remove possibility to jump and use cloaks. The powertrading with barges is simply ridiculous. No wonder the economy aspect is unbalanced. In RL, a barge is something that's towed after another ship. Translated to FL, I think that means: Don't go alone! I think the Barge should have more turrets for defense, and maybe also a different shield. Maybe a cruiser shield, or something like that. The Barge already has more armor than any other ship here. Slap a CAU 8 on that, and it should be able to hold it's own for a while. If you have a valuable cargo, and want to haul it on a Barge... Bring some heavy escorts! It could make some great RP, especially when/if you travel to a different House. Make it easier to use lanes and gates. Speed is good as it is.

If you still wanna go alone... Accept the risk of getting pirated. We can't have ships that are impossible to kill because they have astronomic armor and shield, have a built in jumpdrive and has a cloak. That would just set the economic balance off even more. Docking access should be restricted to certain types of bases, i.e some planets or shipyards. This could be related to how many people there are on the base/planet/shipyard.

And last but not least... If it's not possible for everyone to buy, then remove it altogether, and replace it with some kind of supertrain that's slow and bulky. Cargo max 8-10k.

[Gorva]

Maybe start with what the barge should be designed for and move from there?

I think this is what we should do.. go back and rebuild it from ground up....
I know the admins having issues with it. The see it as a powertraders dream -and thats what many are using it for..

I for one am not.. Ask Rory.. he seen me..and so has BDM and several others. I travel from system to system in one RPing.. not caring that it can take 3 dasy to travel to my destination. many of yo know me as

Gorva IC BargeMaster - I run the barges for IC.. which I actually own.

there is so many oppinions of the barge from good to bad.. so lets do this..I agree it needs balanced.. and I have heard many good ideals in this thread and many not so good or spiteful Posts. So lets do this ..what is the barge designed for??

if we design it for storage..then its good as it.. nerf it further so its never far from a dock. and pirates will never see it. But even if thats what the admin originally designed it for.. its been more. And the infocard was wrote up as something else. A mobile base

so thinking on a mobile base... what does it need from ground up....??

1) a ship that can move about..slowly but move.. maybe even requiring a jump to get lond distances in a hurry.
2) it will need to have docking mods or the abiality to dock gunboats and fighters and transports.
3) it will need the /base and /shop commands so that docked transport/players can buy and sell off it.
4) give ti the ability build shields but using them requires resources.. --make it costly to run
5) Guns.. it should be allowed something better then the transport turrets.. maybe something built automated.. like base platforms.. but more stationary..
6) hull its fine..even if nerfed a bit... cap 6-8 makes it good and can last a bit..if you give it a bit better shields it will be fine
7) jumping -- not really needed --must pay for a ride - and even now it cant use cloak
8) finally docking... not sure about this....maybe only moorings -- and unless something can be done about killed restart and or drifft when logged off -- it should be allowed to offset the death restart place

so once agian -- what is it for?? if a deep mobile base/factory --lets make it such.. but as all bases it needs to use materials for things as well as mats for repair and food/oxy and such -- great RP tool.. "Hey you can you supply my vessel with the basics Oxy and food.. we are starving over here"

I have been all over in mine..from all 5 houses to mega 3-49 to most the omnicron and even ---drum roll--
alaska... that was fun. and totally RPd.

Junkers knew me.. Corsails and Sails - Outcast and Mollies -- all lawfuls have seen me... so it can be used wisely... not as a powertrading tool.

--Gorva BargeMaster of IC

[Echo 7-7]

I favour keeping Barges in a fairly traditional role of mobile storage. I'd like to see their speed increase to what it was in 4.85 in exchange for moderate limitations on where they can dock.

As far as armour is concerned; I've not spent a lot of time shooting a Barge or being shot in one so I make no comment. If one were to play around with cargo capacity, plus or minus 10,000 (ie. 30,000 to 50,000) is acceptable. If the cargo capacity decreases, the speed of the ship absolutely needs to increase.

Earlier in the thread, the concept of an all-in-one jump carrier-style ship has been suggested; while that's a really nice idea, I don't think the current Barge model really looks the part for something like that.

Making Barges available (by request, even if not like standard ship purchases) is a necessity. They are a seriously steep investment on the player market at the current time; the value of which only represents their rarity, not their utility.

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