Combat Bonds should scale with Ranking of pilot killed

Simply the title. I feel that if you are in a combat zone, killing an Elite Anaconda should net you more than just 36,000 credits. I think the current fees paid out should be the base line for killing Competent combateers and scale accordingly for each rank after with a larger jump in value for killing Elites.
 
I only spent about 30 minutes in a conflict zone when I saw that you get about 5 times as many cr€dits in a RES.
 
I dunno, I can already make a couple million an hour in combat zones just due to the number of targets, a buff in payouts could make them too good.
 
Well, it would make sense. Maybe making more skilled pilots rarer, and reducing payout on newbies would help keep them balanced? I like the idea, but only if it could be kept decently balanced.
 
Agreed. That is all.

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I dunno, I can already make a couple million an hour in combat zones just due to the number of targets, a buff in payouts could make them too good.

2m an hour isn't nearly the best income you can already get in the game. Even if that was tripled, it still falls short.
 
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Combat zones should be made more exciting instead. Right now they're RES sites without asteroids and with lower pay per kill. One way to do this would be to considerably expand the scale of the fights by designing and introducing a few new subcapital classes for NPCs (frigates, etc) to be mobile and enrich the fights. Allow (or encourage) them to take place around stations and in asteroid fields. What's so special about a particular bit of empty space that there's a high intensity combat zone there?

The space battles should be occurring in strategically important locations. Space stations, rich asteroid fields, space elevators/skyhooks, shipyards (fighting amongst the ribs of an unfinished, half-alive Farragut? (and seriously, shipyards!)), orbital refineries...

I also hope to eventually see capital-sized civilian bulk freighters. Just more stuff. And I still think the demand for this could be met by contracting with content developers in the community.
 
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Combat zones should be made more exciting instead. Right now they're RES sites without asteroids and with lower pay per kill. One way to do this would be to considerably expand the scale of the fights by designing and introducing a few new subcapital classes for NPCs (frigates, etc) to be mobile and enrich the fights. Allow (or encourage) them to take place around stations and in asteroid fields. What's so special about a particular bit of empty space that there's a high intensity combat zone there?

Yes. And the battles should have structure. Not just infinite spawns. Each location is a stage. Each stage allows only so many reinforcements and has distinct phases, from set up through to success/rout. And every war should feature multiple stages that can reach a conclusion, or a stalemate.
 
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Combat zones should be made more exciting instead. Right now they're RES sites without asteroids and with lower pay per kill. One way to do this would be to considerably expand the scale of the fights by designing and introducing a few new subcapital classes for NPCs (frigates, etc) to be mobile and enrich the fights. Allow (or encourage) them to take place around stations and in asteroid fields. What's so special about a particular bit of empty space that there's a high intensity combat zone there?

The space battles should be occurring in strategically important locations. Space stations, rich asteroid fields, space elevators/skyhooks, shipyards (fighting amongst the ribs of an unfinished, half-alive Farragut?) , orbital refineries...

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I think it would be a lot easier to up the prices with a few minutes of coding first, then work on your suggestion though. I have admittedly been thinking the same thing about the location of combat zones. Particularly when I get all worked up over the launch trailer displaying combat as including quick transitions to SC and weaving between pylons of a station while toggling FA and shooting down the guy tailing you... ok I already do that last one, but you get the idea.
 
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I think it would be a lot easier to up the prices with a few minutes of coding first, then work on your suggestion though. I have admittedly been thinking the same thing about the location of combat zones. Particularly when I get all worked up over the launch trailer displaying combat as including quick transitions to SC and weaving between pylons of a station while toggling FA and shooting down the guy tailing you... ok I already do that last one, but you get the idea.

No idea where that gif is from, but for some reason, it made me laugh
 
Well, my point was more that if combat zones were more exciting you wouldn't mind spending more time there for the money you get currently. I think it's not rewarding enough in ways other than money. The inclusion of subcapitals would increase payouts, as well.
 
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I agree there should be non-flyable ships out there to fill the middle gap between players and the single big capital ship each side has. These factions have been around for centuries, surely they have destroyers, corvettes, tankers, etc. Taking one and its guards down should be a major effort that a even a well-equipped solo player ship should be extremely challenged to pull off, if not find it impossible. Who wouldn't want to see a couple of destroyers trading fire if they happen to converge in a conflict zone with us zipping around? Even the minor criminal factions seem to have endless numbers of Anacondas at their disposal, the major factions probably have thousands of bigger warships.
 
Half the reason space battles are so exciting in sci-fi films is the amount of close, visceral combat taking place between ships larger than those owned by protagonists. Scenes in Star Wars where big boats are popping shots off at each other with our protags caught in between are really exciting. I'd like to see the capital ships have some REALLY BIG GUNS to use strictly on opposing factions' subcapital classes.

I won't normally praise the prequels, but the bit from the beginning of Episode 3 where the Venator fires a SPHA-T from its ventral docking port and absolutely destroys that CIS ship was pretty awesome. Stuff like that wouldn't be able to hit your smaller ships, but it'd be utterly hair-raising to be near one when it takes out a ship three times your size.

[video=youtube;ZWoGkrt5Upg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWoGkrt5Upg[/video]

@1:05. This scene was great until Hayden Christensens face got on the screen. :(

I don't even feel like player ships should be able to do much to capitals. The objective should be escorting subcapitals to the capitals to damage their bits.
 
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I agree there should be non-flyable ships out there to fill the middle gap between players and the single big capital ship each side has. These factions have been around for centuries, surely they have destroyers, corvettes, tankers, etc. Taking one and its guards down should be a major effort that a even a well-equipped solo player ship should be extremely challenged to pull off, if not find it impossible. Who wouldn't want to see a couple of destroyers trading fire if they happen to converge in a conflict zone with us zipping around? Even the minor criminal factions seem to have endless numbers of Anacondas at their disposal, the major factions probably have thousands of bigger warships.

Not that I'd say no to more ships but you do understand that they can't have ships in the game when they've yet to create them, right?
 
The faction rank of the opponent should probably be more important to their combat bond value than their combat rating, although the latter should probably have some bearing.
 
Yes, CZ bounties should scale with rank, though how much is up for debate. But it would make taking down an Elite Chiggy von Richthofen type in an Eagle more satisfying than just another Novice.
 
Actually I would scale the combat bond value by ship type AND combat rank of the killed target.

Killing an Elite Eagle shouldn't pay more than a Novice Anaconda, but it should be a lot better than a Novice Eagle.
 
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Actually I would scale the combat bond value by ship type AND combat rank of the killed target.

Killing an Elite Eagle shouldn't pay more than a Novice Anaconda, but it should be a lot better than a Novice Eagle.

I guess in a way that depends.... largely because I also don't think any Novice in the universe should be flying an Anaconda ;)
 
Not that I'd say no to more ships but you do understand that they can't have ships in the game when they've yet to create them, right?

Oh, of course, I understand they aren't even modeled yet. I'm assuming there's some difference in the amount of back end work involved in creating player-flown ships vs. larger ships that we just see an external physical model of, though. Just one of those "down the road" kind of things.
 
Aye - I just figured since we're discussing making CZs more worthwhile, I'd propose an alternate solution. Instead of (or alongside of) tinkering with numbers, there needs to be more substance.

FD mentioned the possibility of FPS boarding combat at some point so there'd still be a ton of work involved in creating more classes of capital/subcapital ships, and I wouldn't expect to see anything like that for a while.
 
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