Thoughts on battleships

[Jinx]

i m really sorry to warm that post up again, but its one of the few posts about capital ships that had some very very good ideas in it.

so we had that post about cap ship users ( whoring or not ). and even if i don t think its such a problem - there are mechanics that can be done. if igiss might consider them. - there is only one thing that hits a player hard in her/his decissions - and that is money.
making battleships admin approved, restricted to factions will only increase their status symbol value. no way to go in my opinion. putting them to guard systems and making them available only to green faction status will only hold up the purchase a bit.

increasing difficulties and prices to actually GET the ship won t do much to it. what is needed is a progressive cost of big ships ( and smaller of course, but due to their size - its lower then )

so how does that sound :
- a capship that is destroyed will be respawned with 1hitpoint armor
- a capship that is destroyed will be respawned with all equipment, but at only 50% of all its hitpoints
- suicide, npc, player kills are treated the same in that case - so there is no suiciding to repair anymore ( do i hear people whine? - good, think again if you want to actually afford that ship then )
- remove the shield from teh capship, but double its armor, one of the best suggestions to capships - and i include gunboats, too. every shot, every little damage will go straight to the owners purse!
- remove NANOBOTS from capships ! - ships can make use of a repair ship. but they can t repair - or lets say only slightly by themselves ( maybe 100 bots for a BS ) - do i hear unfair? the majority wanted big ships restricted to big factions - there s a penalty to independant owners on a roleplay base. they just can t effectivly use those ships without proper support.
- increase collision damage by a lot. make moving through debris a major and difficult thing to do. BS are floating and mobile bases - but moving them through such difficult space like asteroids requires a good team of repair ships ( again, advantage when you have a good faction and teammates to assist you - something you can t really do alone )
- increase the cost of armor for all vessels. now its like 1$ for each armor point? - make it 10$ for each. a fighter would still be cheaper then - 15k armor lost = 150k - nothing a little mission can t fix. 500k armor lost = 5mio - now thats a lot more for a death -a nd you can t suicide!
- at the same time make it so that capships can defend themselves from others well - they are still major warmachines and in skilled hand should dominate any other vessel one vs. one at the very least. ( except other battleships )

what do we get when that would happen? -( and i know it won t ever... )

not the initial purchase cost will matter much - but the cost to RUN that ship. an independent player will think 5 times untill he runs his precious ship into trouble - cause in the end, you might win, but you might pay more than your victim. a nice quote from the FASA BattleTech Mechwarrior source "Commanders can t use superheavy units in combat situations properly, cause they can t afford to damage them" - but these units still show up - behind lines, as bases, to scare ppl, etc. they DO serve a purpose - they tell each any everyone "i won t engage, but i MIGHT do .. and when i do, i ll dominate you" - it makes sense in a roleplay way. you might win the battle, but it ll cost you a fortune - still a faction would take those costs in a MAJOR engagement - not in a minor little argument - and thats the point, isn t it?

and the impact on the individual battleship captain is greater, he ll spend more time trading to actually supply his precious BS with the needed repairs than spending time inside the ship - IF he runs into trouble too much with his ship.

high running costs of those ships will restict them to people that either don t care much for cash or factions that have the means to maintain those ships. there might be an increase of trading then - good for pirates - as long as routes like tau -31 get nerft.

any thoughts on that? - those are all not new thoughts - and i m sure they crop up every time. but anyway - try to think of it - in my opinion its the best way to lower capital ship appearings ( ppl can still buy them - but they might just sit in the dock ) - i made that after reading all the posts about capship abuse, yelling at independents, yelling at rediculous cap ship uses etc etc. cause after all - that matter troubles the players much

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