Admin Notice: Rule Update

[Jack_Henderson]

You also seem to say here that a 5K'er is equally dead when faced with a bomber/gb as it is when facing a cruiser, which sort of defeats the purpose of this discussion.

There is a difference. A big one.
Facing a bomber means: a fight, an uneven one, but it can still be called a fight. If done right, the transport can dodge, run, turret steer, zoom-shoot, evade... for - and that is the main part - a few minutes. He has a tiny bit of a chance to survive (= motivational factor) plus he has an interaction of some duration that is worth being called "interaction.

Cruiser - big transport "interaction"? Pay withing 20 seconds, or die within 10-50 seconds. That's not interaction. That's not fight. That's massacre and no fun.

See the difference that "not having a chance" still carries? In case 1 you are hopelessly outgunned, but you at least can try to stay in the fight, do something, participate for a small time.

In the cruiser scenario, you pay or die in seconds. Big difference, at least for me.

Well perhaps it just means a different balance then, that you bring a larger escort, also fielding bombers? IMG has a large player base and some very good pilots that I reckon enjoy firing novas at lone pirate cruisers.

I don't need advise how to avoid pirate interaction or how to scrap cruisers. That's not the point of the complaints. My complaint is that the big transports (5kers, 4kers, Battle transports, Hegemons) die much too fast, so that no meaningful interation is possible once the "pay" option has not been chosen.

I think that is where our opinions differ the most. For me, when I undock on a trading ship, I accept that I will be shot to pieces if someone jumps me and I can't talk my way out of it.

Again: I don't have a problem with flying a ship that is hopeless in an armed confrontation. But: I want to have a chance, even if only a minimal one, to get away when I have done everything the right way. And against a cruiser you do not have that chance (in any transport that is a real 'transport', in the sense of: > 3.5k cargo). And - in addition - you do not even get to participate in the fighting part as it is too short and too one-sided.

I don't like this "I have a right to have fun", when you at the very same time can broadly define what fun is yourself.
[...]
The problem with an individual demand for fun (that you in addition define yourself) is that this is a community base multiplayer game, where there really isn't much room for an "I" if fairness is to be upheld for all players, new and old alike.

I worded it provocatingly on purpose because many people seem to think that flying transports is a chore and that it doesn't have to be fun. They accept their transport grind means not having a chance in confrontation. As a player whose transport chars have families, relations, friends, names, stories, etc... I have fun in flying them. And that fun was struck badly by the introduction of "you are dead in seconds, whatever you do" cruisers. So, yes, I think even flying the weakest class should allow me to have fun. Fun means - and I think we can find a compromise here - to be able to participate in the game. 15 seconds before Hegemon goes boom after a /l1, /l2 interaction of 20 seconds is not what I regard as "participating".

So the entire |IMG logs off to avoid confrontation with one single pirate? Come on...

If I see the known Kusari unlawful gunboat group position themselves, ofc we log off the convoy, log on somewhere else and log back later. It's no use trying to outwit people if the odds mean your chances of doing it successfully are very slim and that the loss will hurt (adding 4h punishment + unbeatable class of enemy now did not help to encourage stupid bravery and the notion of "ah, come on. We beat the odds!").

As for the new players, you are right it is difficult for them - but those new players would also be very dead against bombers/gunboats.

That's not a valid statement. It would say: You die anyway to the "minor threats" so no need to adress the problem. When a bomber or GB attacks you, you have time to learn. You have time to try different things. In anti cruiser, you are dead before you could actually start to understand what is happening. No learning process involved except: "next time, pay". Great choice. 30 second pay-"rp" or 30 seconds die-"rp".

[...]I was hoping we could bring back the thrill of it by tweaking a few things here and there and make it more difficult to trade or make sure it has consequences when you die in a system.

No problem with that. But share the burden equally. Transports are the all time losers in the equation. You lose cargo/profit, time, 4h and in addition you are pretty much dead whenever caught.

If you say that beaten the odds that just became a lot worse is "thrill" for you, I simply have to disagree. The weakest class just got struck down badly, twice. That is not a "challenge that one tries to beat" but for me "frustration that needs to be avoided".

The best moments in flying transports when you manage to beat the odds by having done everything the right way. Guess what.... the chances to actually get this outcome became really, really bad since the version change.

> novas made bombers very powerful
> turret steering made GBs very powerful
> cruisers added another unbeatable class
> 4h punishment added another frustrating hurdle to group activity ("I cannot fly transport today, I was killed in T23")

What I want to say is: transports were weak enough. Their players were just put at an even bigger disadvantage by the recent changes.

P.S. A CAU VI Shire is not worth a billion. You got robbed:D

Just a typo.:)I normally know what my ships are worth.:D

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