Rudo and Dusty got it. It has to be about something more than profit. Buffing the transports as Rudo said has multiple advantages. Make the transports dangerous and they'll be fun to fly more people will do it not just for the profit as Dusty said. It will also force pirates to coordinate their actions and actually have a plan to take down the transports. This equals more RP on both sides, which is needed. I don't care how cool your transport is, it's not fun if there are never any obstacles in your path. This will also cut down on lolwut indie pirates.
Now here's the kicker. Make these buffed transports for corporations only. The corps are the ones with the money to beef up their ships. This way the smugglers will still have to stay out of sight to survive, and the pirates will still have to work together as well. Otherwise, you'll just have pirates in these new beefed up transports attacking the beefed up transports.
Actually, Hawk -- that's actually the scenario I was going for. Make trade and piracy a group activity. If there are more pirates than trade ships, the trader is toast. If there are more trade ships than pirates, the pirate would be wise to step aside.
If there are equal parts trader and pirate? It's a fleet battle.
Everyone wins.
EDIT: It'd also call for revision of tactics. Pirates would have to strategize their stop points a bit better so the newly armored and armed trader can't run and gun his way to a safe haven. They will in turn group up, which is not a far cry from current piracy tactics. They generally have it more together than a lot of military players. Traders in turn would do well to group up, and with their newer, better guns and more robust defenses will provide ample support for their escorts and each other.
New tactics will be written, people would be more willing to talk, and more scenarios will turn into the Wild Bunch.
There are enough pirates that adding police/military players to this equation is almost a non-factor.
' Wrote:Yes, and that route provided a lot of entertainment for the player group whose base played host to every single pirate who preyed on that route, I assure you. The roleplay was excellent, player happiness was higher across the board and there were much less rules being broken on all sides.
Again I give you the single power-profiting miner scenario. Trust me, it fits with the diamond-niobium route too. All those higher profits resulted in was more caps to less worthy players. We do not need more of that.
Trade needs to be entertaining. By that, it's possible that the ships just need to be fun to fly and not feel so impotent when faced with people that might actually do more harm to you than themselves.
<strike>Troll again?</strike>
It did. Sigma 13 became a hotspot for activity, much like Tau 23.
Player happiness was better than it is now and the current rules would work fine for that situation.
Actually, I contest that point. Raising prices meant real role-players who would deserve their capitals if they could be bothered grinding did not get them whilst people who could power-trade did.
Trade does need to be more entertaining. I have no objections to this.
Strikethrough removes all offence.:rolleyes:(Try again moderator.)
I'm sitting with Rudo. I'll go so far as to say Rudo's copying me. He is. I did it first, so there:P
Dusty, I'll say that its there, and its not there. Done by half measures and not hugely well...which has something to do with the agility of the transports against that of bombers and gunboats, and the difficulty of camera angles and the effective range of snacs.
' Wrote:Otherwise, you'll just have pirates in these new beefed up transports attacking the beefed up transports.
Wouldn't that be wonderful, though? Transports fighting things that are basically the same as them, so that the fights would be just as balanced as, say, fights between ships of any other class?
Transports should be the 'poor' man's cruiser/gb. Most pirate groups should be able to get their hands on a stolen transport, but not be able to build a gunboat or cruiser (or, even if they are, find it more equitable to steal the transport...).
Now, while I'm extolling the virtues of transports as frigates, I want to point out the main argument against, which is the 'but they could make it to base'. Well, 1: if you up their guns, a transport vs transport fight will go faster, meaning a fleeing transport couldn't get as far. 2: even with nice strong guns, a pair or more bombers could quickly kill a transport.
But, if that isn't satisfactory, is it possible to change the CDs so that they slow down transports? (I mean, after they get the cruise killed..can you also kill the normal engine, or the thrust?)
Along with that suggestion, its very necessary for CMs to be boosted. As they're pointless right now.
![[Image: DTdrqPU.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/DTdrqPU.gif)
![[Image: hG0lGaj.png]](https://i.imgur.com/hG0lGaj.png)