A Bit Of A...Shift...

[ghostcat]

:D
I do believe that was what is known as a joke.

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........Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;..........But when the blast of war blows in our ears,.....
........Or close the wall up with our English dead...........................Then imitate the action of the tiger;.................
........In peace there's nothing so becomes a man........................Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,.........
........As modest stillness and humility:........................................Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage!....

Dasher

"Another popup faction. Great. What's wrong with my popup blocker?" - Denelo
"Oh come on, slow and steady doesn't win any races, fast and steady does."

Back, if I can get this thing working!

[Stratus]

Things are good the way they are, hire a merc or an escort, complete the RP cycle.

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[Skorp]

I must say that I agree with the last posters ... it was way too easy for a single Train/Transport get away from a single pirate who flew anything smaller than a gunboat; many a times I had it that my target told me on system chat "Ah, you can't hurt me with your teeny-wheeny-weaponry, so have a nice day" and engaged cruise engines, all the time mentioning on system chat what a loser pirate I am.

Now at least there is a realistic chance for a smaller pirate ship than a gunboat to do his business (and do some damage over time with his teeny-wheeny-weaponry)

And another good possibility to offer my services as an escort:DWhen the pirate is distracted, it's much easier to engage cruise again...

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originally by sjmuup in #trevanian (irc)
<sjmuup> I really need to learn russian
<sjmuup> I want to be able to go like destroyska destroyska kabumschk!
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"Wait... An escape pod within an escape pod? This is like some sort of Escher painting, the eternally ejecting LPI agent." (LPI-Sean.Toronto)

[globalplayer-svk]

in last version i was fyling with very good armed container transport.and when someone try to pirate me,and he was solo in something smaller as gb he has no chance to pirate me because i was having very good firepower and armor to protcet myself.and i escaped or destroyed the pirate,but now when i see pirate that he is close to me and he tax me,i know that i have little chances to escape him or destroy him.so i think now is that good as that is.traders now need hire mercs to protect them.

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[P*Funk]

Wait... why should a fighter be able to pirate a train? I get gunboats, even bombers, but why a fighter? All the pirates are jumping for joy but christ I'm scared everytime I fly a new character out of the trade lanes cause he'll get destroyed no matter what. "Incomi--" *CD impact*.

Everyone says yea this is how pirating should be but wheres the fun? We are going from it being nearly default that a train gets away to nearly default that anything a fighter wants to take down has to sit around even if it doesn't get destroyed.

We always talk of 'balance' but why is this suddenly differnet? Yes it should be harder, but CDs are so effective that I can't even get through some systems quickly cause of the numbers of NPCs that haunt the jump holes.

Balance applies to more than just the one thing that people are obcessed with. I can barely fly the outer rim without getting waylayed every 2 minutes now... why should a fighter get to play god with my propulsion just because he bought a CD? And what will hiring escorts do for the NPCs?

Lastly why should you be able to take down a huge train in a measly fighter (it is measly you dorks, accept it). If youre in one, get a group together. If I need to hire an escort to get by, why don't you hire a merc too?

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Out of hibernation. Gauging the winds.

[Rogue63]

I agree wiith the last couple of posters, things are better now for pirates and the train CD's actually seem to work better. Before if you were in a fighter, pirating solo was an excercise in frustration for the most part. A gunboat you had a pretty good chance if, a big if, your train CD worked as advertised. If this was a true scenario a trader would be a sitting duck versus a gunboat. Any warship versus a commercial trader should be a gross mis-match. Let thing be as they are now, traders will make tons of money reguardless,they make get destroyed on occaision or have to pay a tax. Dont set things back or nerf gunboats, and as far as big trading ships go they have plenty of defenses as it is 500 batts/nanos on some.

[McNeo]

Trader's dont need their chances increased of getting away.

I wont use a real world analogy and explain it, because its about 5 minutes until school starts.

But seriously, if you think its hard, then hire an escort. Make the economy turn, redistribute some cash. The fun I get is from forcing the pirate to fight my escort rather than myself. Its not fun to be chased, and its certainly not fun for the chaser.

I see no issue that needs to be addressed here...

[Jinx]

i don t know what a gunboat will use ( not need ) the CDs other than pirating. when it comes to real fleet vs. fleet fights, there are other ships featuring CDs, too.

so a solution would be... take away the CD mount from gunboats, give them a mine slot instead. keep their firepower. i do believe, that todays transports need the firepower of a gunboat. fighters CAN destroy a transport, but its not really a fun thing to do. a transport captain can usually endure a fighter easily for a long time and / or just repeatedly hit cruise.
so the fighter pilots job is not only to shoot ( and hit ), to repeatedly CD but also to dodge transport shots aswell as check the radar for incoming assistance for the transport. while that might be how pirating should be ( in terms of things you should really do ) its maybe a bit too much for a GAME. so, i d say...

do not increase transport armour anymore. its good as it is.

if we take away the gunboats CD mount ( too bad the program does not allow a restriction to only specific kinds of missiles ) at least a gunboat alone cannot pirate anymore ( but of course it looses quite a tool in a pvp fight - but oh well ) - the pirate would team up with someone with a CD.
it leaves the heavy bombers to pirates. ( which are more than enough most of the time ) with one CD and one supernova, a bomber can easily threaten a transport.

one alternative way is:
like suggested on capital ships greater than a gunboat ( cruisers, battleships ). it would be possible to tenfold their armor BUT take away their shields. what effect has that for a fighter?.... easy thing, like on capships, it would be possible to target subsystems which is impossible due to the high shields and recharge of the shields usually.

but yes, that d be a big step - and the idea is not welcome among most of the users of such ships:). but think of the advantages:

- gunboats could remain the way they are, but would take longer to kill a transport ( if a transport had like 4 times the armor )
- fighters could maybe hardly take out a transport as a whole, but they could destroy its turrets, leaving it defenseless and so its only a matter of time so that even a light fighter can kill it.
- EVERY hit ANY ship lands on a transport will cost the captain cash. soo, why not damage it to 50% and ask again, damage it further etc. etc. the transport captain can very easily evaluate how much damage he wants to take untill he is willing to pay - if he doesn t manage to get away.

another idea is to simply slow down train disruptors. Flak cannons and novas have some sort of that behaviour... they need a certain time to "accelerate"... maybe make train disruptors firstly 150 speed only, lower their turn rate and give them a slow start.

edit: its nothing new with that version, imo... i was able to CD every transport before the beta, too. ( not when they were cruising allready ) - but when a transport cruises allready and i shoot a CD, he has plenty of time to drop a CM ... uh.. provided that ship HAS a CM , which i think should be on every bigger transport. if we justify their thick armor and shields, installing a cheap CM would be simply natural for any cooperation.

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Shipdesigns made for DiscoveryGC

[Spear]

I have to go with the others that say it's better this way, a trader should not have a very good chance to escape a fighter. The trader should have an escort on dangerous journeys.

Lastly why should you be able to take down a huge train in a measly fighter (it is measly you dorks, accept it). If youre in one, get a group together. If I need to hire an escort to get by, why don't you hire a merc too?

I have to disagree, you are comparing a small agile heavily armed ship to a large cumbersome transport?

This..



versus this



How many missiles would picture number 1 need to fire to bring down picture number 2?
What chance does picture number 2 have of escaping picture number 1?

Measly fighter?

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=LSF=

[Jinx]

@Spear:

:Dnice .. but doesn t really fit in, does it? -

Re-post the image please to These limits

thats rather what a freelancer transport is like... armoured trains. ( just my opinion ) - anyway ... of course your fighter takes that one out, too... in one shot.

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Shipdesigns made for DiscoveryGC