Yeah I didn't know that you see.
Scared the pants off me as I was deep in thought about which tactics to use lol
USS appreciation society
- Thread starter spacejumbofudge
- Start date
Yeah I didn't know that you see.
Scared the pants off me as I was deep in thought about which tactics to use lol
I find USS so annoying I don't stop for them aanymore.......the first wedding and funeral flights we're ok, one sighting being near rings.......I even called my wife in to look at the Wedding party in space.............after 20x, not so keen to see them anymore......and it was an immersion killer for me.
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In a viper, loaded for war......can't even get 600light seconds to my local ring system to fight 100s of Pirates without getting interdicted and attacked along the way (carrying no cargo of course)....yet these weddings and funerals seem to drift past the same battle zones I am in, wihtout anything happening to them......if I dropped in one, and it was being attacked......Great......if I scanned one and one of them was wanted.....Great.......but for me, it was always the same result........and then came the "Seeking Technologies"...............pffffffft......
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In a viper, loaded for war......can't even get 600light seconds to my local ring system to fight 100s of Pirates without getting interdicted and attacked along the way (carrying no cargo of course)....yet these weddings and funerals seem to drift past the same battle zones I am in, wihtout anything happening to them......if I dropped in one, and it was being attacked......Great......if I scanned one and one of them was wanted.....Great.......but for me, it was always the same result........and then came the "Seeking Technologies"...............pffffffft......
I agree that it would be nice if numerous USSes spawned at the same time in logical locations like along direct routes between stars and stations for pirates and the trade Type-9s, out in boondocks for smuggled goods or rebel transmissions. It should also be possible to determine their general type without having to waste time dropping in and out of them. Getting close should reveal ship activity, debris, etc. without giving away the exact nature. If we have a mission to kill pirates, stop making us drop into endless floating cargo USSes hoping we finally roll a natural 20 on the die.
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Thinking about this more, I realize USSes need to continually generate during an SC instance. Probably best to have it generated past detection distance. Otherwise, if you're tasked with finding Rebel Communications, another player who got into the instance before you could have already scooped them all up, even if it's not in their missions.
USSes are already unique for each player (or Wing come 1.2 perhaps), that doesn't need to change. They just need to spawn a bunch of them at the same time rather than dribbling them out one by one randomly. They don't need to be permanent, either, when you drop in to one after getting close to determine the general type and see it's not what you were after, just spawn a bunch more when re-entering SC.
I'm not sure about this. When I'm flying with friends in SC, we're clearly in the same instance, and see the same USSes. I'm not sure if the USS is predetermined before dropping into SC, but I'm pretty sure I've found assassination targets that weren't mine. If I recall that correctly, that implies the USSes were the same for everyone in the instance, and each USS already was a set encounter (assassination target / rebel transmissions / etc).
Is that now how it works now?
I think the simplest ways to improve USSes are: (1) display discovered USSes on a proper systems map to give them context, and (2) foreshadow what's there with the signals already mentioned (radiation levels, distress signal, visible laser fire on approach, mass/gravity well, etc.), and (3) make salvaging a valid career option so people have additional reasons to check them out when not on a quest.
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I bet you are right: USSes are generated per instance. When in SC within a system, that is an instance. There could be 5 other parallel instances where players are also in SC within the system, but are not visible to one another. This would explain: (1) why you and your friends see the same details, and (2) why being interdicted (i.e., leaving and re-entering the instance) can cause previous USSes to vanish.
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If that's the case, it's something I've never experienced flying with my friend. He sees USSes that I don't and vice-versa. I always have to target his wake and drop on it to join him in them.
Well, yes, but only one or two at a time randomly. Just spawn a bunch of them immediately all over the place that you can see at a larger distance at the same time and fly between without them despawning simply because you move out of some arbitrary radius.
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I agree completely!
And I also think...
Beyond just having a marker (representing where a ship has come out of SC and got into a fight/destroyed/dropped cargo/gone for a stroll etc...) it would also show the path the ship took to reach it...
These trails would give you clues as the nature of the USS:
--Traders would tend to be flying from nav beacon to station
--Explorers would be flying all over the system
--Pirates would tend to be buzzing around the traders, but not going neatly from station to station
-- Police ships would be patrolling between stations
--A whole load of trails ending in one USS would probably indicate an ongoing battle.
--A USS with trails entering and LEAVING would probably indicate a ship has been destroyed.
--A USS with no trail would indicate something has been there for a long time
This sort of thing:
Apart from all the info that might be gleaned, it would look pretty cool and give a sense of the life within a system.
Furthermore, it could all be procedurally generated using the stuff they already have.
USS's I'm sure will evolve into something great. They have already said that they have a lot of great ideas for them. I'm pretty sure the luxury traders were a form of fixed USS's. And I can see them having unique USS's for you alone for certain mission, e.g meet someone at these coordinates and when you enter SC, you see the USS but it will be marked as the person you need to meet.
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Stick that on an orrery view, and have it appear with a toggle (like viewing imports and exports / trade routes in the galaxy map), and we have a winner.
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I believe you. I do. But I would love to read whatever source you are referencing. Do you have a link?
Can't remeber which thread I read it from. Pretty sure it was Michael who said that they had lots of plans for the USS mechanic. It was a while ago. I'm thinking it will evolve when the missions get the revamp they said was coming, but is taking time due to the complexities of it.
Hopefully it will happen.
It's possible it's wishful remembering. I'll double check again when I get a chance.
That's what I'm keeping my fingers crossed for. I agree with the OP that there's nothing necessarily wrong with the basics of the USS system, just that it's presented in such a bland mechanics-exposing way. It reminds you that you're playing a game and it reminds you that you're playing a game with a lot of grinding in it. I'm hoping they're being quiet on the issue because they've got a genius plan to improve it. Or they can steal my plan for free no questions asked!
USS's are only good for smugglers and pirates at the moment. I want some bounty hunting ones. They used to spawn a decent amount of pirates but not anymore.
Additionally, I think they should be used as a means of providing scale to bounty hunting (something that doesn't exist currently), so that larger combat ships have a larger pool of income at their disposal. Currently, the same number of ships are available to you for hunting whether you have a viper or anaconda (other than the rare elite anaconda that is outside of viper ability). USS's are a great means of giving that scale. Instead of a wedding or funeral, it could be a illegal goods convoy by wanted mafia or pirate ships. etc. Roll in with your kitted out asp or anaconda and wreck the whole crew. Something a smaller bounty hunter would not be able to solo successfully.
That's doable right now for USS's.
Additionally, I think they should be used as a means of providing scale to bounty hunting (something that doesn't exist currently), so that larger combat ships have a larger pool of income at their disposal. Currently, the same number of ships are available to you for hunting whether you have a viper or anaconda (other than the rare elite anaconda that is outside of viper ability). USS's are a great means of giving that scale. Instead of a wedding or funeral, it could be a illegal goods convoy by wanted mafia or pirate ships. etc. Roll in with your kitted out asp or anaconda and wreck the whole crew. Something a smaller bounty hunter would not be able to solo successfully.
That's doable right now for USS's.
Such a ridiculous mechanic. All other appeals to realism and immersion are moot until this gets fixed. Dropping into local space at a random point in a system and just happening to stumble across the very person who's looking for you??? That's gotta be a million times worse than needle in a haystack odds.
There are a lot of things in ED which don't make much sense. I think that's the worst example.
I just want to say that I dislike the USS mechanics with a passion and I'll be happy if they replace it. Thank you!
No kidding. Hence my first proposal to allow people to program filters for their scanners: alert me when you find an Anaconda that's flying without a transponder (or if the transponder is active, alert me when you find the guy/gal). Give me some clues as to where they are, and what routes they take, and let me hunt them down.
But that's just one mechanic. I'm sure there are better ones.
I'll start by stating that super cruise and USS are meant to make space feel big and remove the feeling of rooms in space. They fail, if anything the current implementation makes it worse.
What I would do to fix it would be to change how Super cruise works.
If you have a target such as a planet or station I would have your jump drive charge time be based upon how far away the target is, then when you enter super cruise your speed would be set so that your travel time takes a fixed interval say 1 to 2 minutes or a multiple off depending on very long distances. You would then drop out of super cruise automatically. We almost have the automatic drop out as your ship slows down of its own accord all we do is press the super cruise key.
For those wanting to interdict, if your target is a ship your jump drive would charge and you would enter super cruise at a speed that would allow you to intercept and attempt an interdiction. If you fail then you have to try again, obviously this would add time pressure as you recharge and try again.
If you don't have a target then super cruise would function as now allowing free flight and acceleration.
The second part to this is I would not have USS appearing in super cruise, I would have it so that you would have to be in normal flight you would perform a scan which would then show signals of different types within you scan range, you could then target them and use the mechanics above. I would also have spontaneous signals being received by comm. such as distress or calls to action that you could then target and fly too.
The signals should have some persistence so that you could jump to one and if quick enough jump to another. They would decay at different speeds for instance a distress call is going to have a short time before its too late, a battle would last until one side wins and cans floating in space would stay there until someone picks them up.
Also signals should be persistent for everyone in your instance.
Is this perfect no, but I thinks its a hell of a lot better than what we have now.
What I would do to fix it would be to change how Super cruise works.
If you have a target such as a planet or station I would have your jump drive charge time be based upon how far away the target is, then when you enter super cruise your speed would be set so that your travel time takes a fixed interval say 1 to 2 minutes or a multiple off depending on very long distances. You would then drop out of super cruise automatically. We almost have the automatic drop out as your ship slows down of its own accord all we do is press the super cruise key.
For those wanting to interdict, if your target is a ship your jump drive would charge and you would enter super cruise at a speed that would allow you to intercept and attempt an interdiction. If you fail then you have to try again, obviously this would add time pressure as you recharge and try again.
If you don't have a target then super cruise would function as now allowing free flight and acceleration.
The second part to this is I would not have USS appearing in super cruise, I would have it so that you would have to be in normal flight you would perform a scan which would then show signals of different types within you scan range, you could then target them and use the mechanics above. I would also have spontaneous signals being received by comm. such as distress or calls to action that you could then target and fly too.
The signals should have some persistence so that you could jump to one and if quick enough jump to another. They would decay at different speeds for instance a distress call is going to have a short time before its too late, a battle would last until one side wins and cans floating in space would stay there until someone picks them up.
Also signals should be persistent for everyone in your instance.
Is this perfect no, but I thinks its a hell of a lot better than what we have now.
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I can get on board with both of these ideas. In fact, let me "lock on" to any signal source received via. comms be it a distress call, or just some friendly banter between traders.