What about Barges?

[Stewgar]

As of right now the only active change in the test build of the mod is that we have applied a bumping "band-aid" that massively reduces the effects of player-to-player and npc-to-player collisions. The Barge, by virtue of being the slowest and (one of the) largest ship in the mod is one of the biggest beneficiaries of this change.

We have code ready to prevent select ships from taking tradelanes. This code is primarily intended to be used for the Barge. However, as of right now we haven't fully decided on what kind of compensation buff (if any) could be applied to offset this change. We want the Barge to be a side-grade of 5k transports with a niche or two it might be particularly good at, but given its enormous cargo space simply buffing its cruise speed or charge time will very quickly make it print hundreds of millions of credits running remote, non-lane-bound routes. Since we're aiming to keep the Barge viable, but trying to prevent it from remaining the game's most effective credit printer (which it was never intended to be, regardless of its high cost), we have to make sure whatever changes we make are well-balanced and make the ship feel worthwhile to own. It is very likely that we'll postpone Barge-specific changes to a hotfix after 5.0 itself so that we have enough time to fine-tune things.

I would like to briefly touch on the cost aspect of the Barge: in Discovery, credits do not buy you power. A Cruiser can take on a Battleship several times more expensive than itself, and win. A handful of bombers costing less than a hundred million credits total can take out a fleet of capital ships worth billions. The Barge is not an exception to this rule. It is not meant to be a straight upgrade.

Thank you for responding.

Disabling trade lanes is a way of limiting the barges capabilities and one that I've actually pondered myself. It would even make lore sense to say that the trade lanes cannot handle the mass of the barge, even empty. The only problem with that change would be for people like me (who did not use it as a credit printer) who used it for base supply. It's a very useful supplier. A couple of items that can be used as a balancing agent to no trade lanes:

1. No clip. Some systems and routes are impossible to make because of environmental factors (rocks etc). Make the barge no clip in that no ships can hit it and the barge can fly through any environmental obstacle.

2. Increase cruise speed and decrease charge time. Not by a lot, but to some degree.

I really wish that something was said awhile ago - transparency is an incredible way of rooting out rumors and calming nerves. My only other feedback would be that I wish the dev team reached out to the people that are the subject matter experts on the specific subject (in this case, the barge). This will involve the community and make us feel part of the process.

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It ain't about what you are capable of, it's about what you're willing to do.