Explaining Losses in RP

[Benjamin]

Hamburg is currently a pretty great argument for the above suggestion.

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Join Cryer Pharmaceuticals

[jammi]

That would give clans a massive leg-up as well, because of clan funds that can be dumped on each capitalship to stop it running dry. That's probably a good thing - after all a faction really is a massive group of indys who are trying to further their faction's RP. If you work as a team you deserve the reward.

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News article library, feedback and content requests.

[Dashiell]

completely realistic it will never be...

smaller craft can rp the eject-system saved em. capitals, well. I always rp my cap to take critcal damage when destroyed. (a part of) the crew sometimes dies in rp but never the main rp charas (captain, c engeneer etc.) they always live trough the use of escape pods/shuttles
that way you can rp that the ship wreckage has been towed back to the neareast allied base, hence solving the naming "problem" as well. although as stated earlier: what would stop people to call their new ship the same as their old, destroyed one?

also, from a logical point of view: it`s a game. you can`t get it all 100% realistic.

as for posting screen to stroke yer ego: I don`t agree. action reports look better with some sort of screens in em. and what about bounties? people won`t take your word for it when you say you bagged a target:P

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[bluntpencil2001]

The /renameme function is good for named capital ships that get blown up. The captain may use a lifeboat, then be assigned a new flag, similar to the old one.

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[Seth Karlo]

Well Dreygon, I had the same problem with my Salazar Kithe character. What happens if the Immortal Hunter is shot down? RP gone, ship gone, character dead, game over.

So, in my story I've Rp'd that they've started building a shipyard inside an asteroid above the Tau 31 system. This let's people claim the bounty on my ship while not ending my character for good. IE: "Launch the fighters! Get out of here now!"

Etc etc.

However, I agree with you that it IS a pain... running when you have 6 bombers, 2 gunboats, a destroyer etc on your tail can be difficult...

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Signature by Sleipnir.

[Linkus]

If I fly a capital ship into a battle and know I am going to lose, I get out.
There are some of my characters, all of my fighters/bombers/gunboats and one or two of my larger ships, that will fight till their ship goes boom.
Mostly though, I like keeping it realistic by getting out of the battle and living to fight another day.

If my fighter etc does go boom, I RP it as getting another.
If my larger ship does go boom, I RP it as the ship suffering extreme damage and being rescued eventually and then undergoing repairs. So I leave it docked for a few days at least.

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Facilitating the rise of robotics since 0 A.D.

[Derkylos]

I always let the capship driver decide what happens to their ship, be they friend or foe.

Wording such as "We inflicted heavy damage on the enemy cruiser, but could not confirm the fact that it blew up or not.", "I did not witness the end of our battleship, but I am sure captain X's piloting skills recovered it mostly intact." "When I lost contact with the enemy battleship at the edge of the nebula, she was severely damaged, I imagine she will be dry-docked for an extended period of time." to give but a few examples, leaving the other guy to decide if his ship made it home intact, or if it was abandoned in the void (which can potentially make for some good RP).

Fighters are much easier to deal with-the pilot simply ejects and is tractored by his comrades...many's the time I've flown home with seemingly the entire SCRA in my hold...:P

As for posting kill messages in message dumps and the like, I feel it is unnecessary. If high command cannot believe the reports of it's pilots, what sort of high command do we have? A pilot's word is his honour, if he gives it, it should be respected as such.

Excessive "blue message posting" just looks, to me, like an attack on the other faction's players. Sure, take screens of their demise and keep them as souvenirs (I like to count the number of kills I got on my Xeno Preagle in 4.84 (something like 60-70% of all the kills I have...)), but there's no real reason to wave them all over the forum (I have one or 2 screens of me getting the kill message on The Necrosis, but you will not find them posted anywhere...I see no need to).

Bounty posts are the one exception I take to this rule of thumb, as there is an actual cash transfer involved...fortunately, all my Bounty Hunter/Mercenary characters tend to make rather succinct reports, meaning I don't have to worry about exactly what happened to their ships/them, and that is their choice.

Essentially, leave the particulars of each player's demise to the player in question.

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[Seth Karlo]

Well, I died a few hours ago in the Immortal Hunter.

@Linkus: It's a bit difficult to "Get out" when you have nowhere to go, and have 4 bombers behind you spamming Train CD's at you.

Good thing I could RP making a new one...

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Signature by Sleipnir.

[Agmen of Eladesor]

completely realistic it will never be...

what would stop people to call their new ship the same as their old, destroyed one?

1. NX-01 - U.S.S. Enterprise - Archer
   
2. NCC-1701 - U.S.S. Enterprise - April, Pike, Kirk
   
3. NCC-1701A - U.S.S. Enterprise - Kirk
   
4. NCC-1701B - U.S.S. Enterprise - Harriman, Sulu
   
5. NCC-1701C - U.S.S. Enterprise - Garret
   
6. NCC-1701D - U.S.S. Enterprise - Picard
   
7. NCC-1701E - U.S.S. Enterprise - Picard
   

What was that line - eventually they're going to run out of letters of the alphabet?

Either way, even in real life, ships names continue on, even when one ship is lost. For example,there've been five ships named named HMS-Exeter. In the Honor Harrington Universe, there is ALWAYS a Nike, and she's ALWAYS the lead battlecruiser of the fleet. Naval traditions continue - so you can RP that the ship was destroyed, but another ship was christened with her name to carry on the tradition.

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Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.

[Faidd]

It's a question that's been discussed at great length for centuries if not millenia. If a ship loses its mast, replaces this mast, then over the years has many of its parts replaced, is it the same ship? Although in our case, the ship looks to be almost if not totally destroyed and it is suggested that the ship and its pilot are toast. Ejection pods are entirely upto the discretion of the player and no such pod is seen in-game, perhaps then with this flexibility in RP, we can also assume that enough of the named ship has survived to be reserviced.

It kind of reminds me of 'boss spawns' found in large MMOs. In a lot of these cases, these spawns are said to be unique and the enemy crucial to some plot. The people who have just killed this enemy know that they will just respawn in maybe fifteen minutes, but they still have the satisfaction of destroying that enemy. This relates to something like that of Mon'Star, who is hugely popular and is a kind of unique boss that everyone wants a piece of. Perhaps then, with this kind of ship, we can in RP assume that he hasn't really ever been destroyed however unfeasible it sounds.

Characters whose actions in game reflect on that of their stories however, with both organically working together in some kind of parrellel are more difficult. Surely if they die in-game, there should be consequences in the story. I'd truly think that this comes down to the ship not being the same ship, instead the ship is defined by its captain and although it would not be the same 'ship', it would retain its same personality and identity, unless we go as far as to involve sentimental value. Perhaps placing a captain's name in-game and such could solve this a little more neatly.

TL;DR it's entirely upto the individual pilot, obviously and we could argue philosophy until we've been blown up by lolwuts on the matter.

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Sco Rooj