Whatever Happened to Escape Capsules

[CMDR_Havok]

In Elite 1 we had the concept of escape capsules, which you could launch immediately before ship destruction and they took you to the nearest starbase, sometimes when attacking another ship you would see their capsule launch and had the option of letting them go or scooping it up (in which case you got a tonne of slaves), or of course, you could just shred it with your lasers.

In Frontier/FFE the idea moved forward and you could actually pilot your escape capsule, there was even the 'stowmaster' fighter which was an escape capsule with limited defensive capabilities.

Why have they abandoned this in ED ? the auto teleport to last location mechanic is far less fun or challenging.

Also, if escape capsules were bought back then bounty hunters could have 'wanted alive' missions which would be so cool.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

This comes up a fair bit every now and then. Probably something that will come in the future but can you imagine If I scooped your escape capsule and decided to go for a trip to Sagittarius A*? It needs some thought and detailed mechanics and I think the Dev's are busy on other things atm but It's probably on the "To Do list" somewhere

 

[dynamicbob]

escape cryopods are for npc characters only

Or youre thinking of eve online

And btw this isnt eve online either

 

[micky1984]

This comes up a fair bit every now and then. Probably something that will come in the future but can you imagine If I scooped your escape capsule and decided to go for a trip to Sagittarius A*? It needs some thought and detailed mechanics and I think the Dev's are busy on other things atm but It's probably on the "To Do list" somewhere

thats just the risk you take with th egame afterall its supposed to be a risky game

 

[Sentenza]

This comes up a fair bit every now and then. Probably something that will come in the future but can you imagine If I scooped your escape capsule and decided to go for a trip to Sagittarius A*? It needs some thought and detailed mechanics and I think the Dev's are busy on other things atm but It's probably on the "To Do list" somewhere

Also they are not of much use if you are halfway to SagA, or even in an unpopulated system in the bubble. In Frontier you could reload the game; in ED, you would be probably be forced to 'die permanently' and restart the character. Not much fun for most people.

 

[SAB380]

This was a whole thing pre-release and had looooong threads in the DDF discussing it.
Like Ironman mode, it's one of those many things that isn't yet in 2 years later...

 

[Han Brannigan]

Also they are not of much use if you are halfway to SagA, or even in an unpopulated system in the bubble. In Frontier you could reload the game; in ED, you would be probably be forced to 'die permanently' and restart the character. Not much fun for most people.

You could have life savers akin to the fuel rats who go and scoop up CMDRS who are caught in their pods somewhere and bring them to the next station. ( Could also add NPCs who do that ).

 

[CMDR Argent Steel]

Agony Aunt dumped 64 of them on the other side of the core. That's where you can find at least 64 of them.

 

[Goose4291]

escape cryopods are for npc characters only
Or you're thinking of Eve online
And btw this isnt eve online either

No theyre not. Escape pods were in game and usable by players in Frontier, First Encounters and I'm fairly sure Elite too. They've also been discussed at length by the developers and DDF early on.

Stop accusing everyone of trying to bring eve into this game, particularly when the mechanics in question existed in prior iterations

 

[W4rSkuLL]

I miss escape capsules. There is much "content" in these. If you had an escape capsule, lets says and got it to the space station you could only pay half insurance, or you could actually be captured and if you had bounty on you. Be cashed in by other players. This had to happen fast in couple of minutes or the captured player would be taken to the insurance screen buying himself out. Full price off course. So that this wont get "miss used" like transfering a player to Sagetarius A and so forth. There could be a whole new content around escape capsules and corpses in space. Well, in due time that is

 

[imski]

I think the main problem is that if you are out exploring, the jump capabilities of escape pods would have to exceed that of any ships to get you back to civilisation in a reasonable timescale.

Imagine being forced to spend your time jumping back to the bubble in a pod. It would be excruciating.

 

[bitstorm]

I miss escape capsules. There is much "content" in these. If you had an escape capsule, lets says and got it to the space station you could only pay half insurance, or you could actually be captured and if you had bounty on you. Be cashed in by other players. This had to happen fast in couple of minutes or the captured player would be taken to the insurance screen buying himself out. Full price off course. So that this wont get "miss used" like transfering a player to Sagetarius A and so forth. There could be a whole new content around escape capsules and corpses in space. Well, in due time that is

I love that idea. Make it optional so the player can abort and revert to station at anytime, but reward the player if they pilot back to a station in the escape pod.

I mean folk would moan about how just an escape pod can get you a 50% insurance discount but still.

 

[Privata]

escape cryopods are for npc characters only

Or youre thinking of eve online

And btw this isnt eve online either

No , he is thinking of the early concept and promise of an ironman mode were you would die unless you went in a escape pod.
I belive that the escape pods are in the artbook , never to be seen again.

 

[Noddie]

I think it's because you - for obvious reasons - can't save your position in a mmo. So everyone has to have one, or it'd be too annoying to get blown to bits and have to restart in a freewinder.

I agree that the game mechanism of an ejector seat is somehow appealing, though. Perhaps it could save your exploration data, bounty vouchers, data packets and so on? And give you a choice of stations to respawn at? And lessen your rebuy?

 

[subhouse07]

I could see this coming into play with space legs (though I have my doubts that it would happen). Say your ship gets blown up in a fight. Your pod shoots out and you get a 5-10 minute countdown or something. If you don't make it to safety before the timer runs out, you get put into cryostasis (aka rebuy screen).

While your timer is running you could have the option to scoot around space in your pod, perhaps a wingmate could scoop you up (maybe a distress beacon included in pod to get the attention of passers-by?), or if you are quick enough with your pod controls you could latch on to an enemy ship and sneak in through the cargo door, then get ready for hand to hand combat! In the event you kill the enemy pilot and now have posession of their ship, I would think this would require the stolen ship to be flagged as stolen disallowing you to park it at a star port. Then you could just eject at the star port, buy a new ship or get into another that you own.

I think it could work!

 

[geoffrey.hdt]

Maybe FDev thought about implementing this, but then had some nightmares about people whining on the forum that "some gankers stole my pod, I can't play", and decided to simply do as if nothing happens...

BTW, how does a little pod travel back to the bubble from Sagittarius A? How long does it take?

For immersion, I wish ED would have stolen the idea from Eve about piloting your ship remotely...and we would then have an excuse to push FDev to implement "fast-travel" between stations as long as you buy a new ship or own an existing one over there.

 

[saremun]

escape cryopods are for npc characters only

Or youre thinking of eve online

And btw this isnt eve online either

Sigh there we go again, an escape pod is NOT EVE online only, this excuse is very easily used to close discussion and turn down forum posts which you don't agree with(by you i mean people who uses this argument)...

 

[Goose4291]

I love that idea. Make it optional so the player can abort and revert to station at anytime, but reward the player if they pilot back to a station in the escape pod.

I mean folk would moan about how just an escape pod can get you a 50% insurance discount but still.

I doubt people would even use it though. Insurance prices are laughable as it is.

If someone asked me if I wanted to respawn instantly or potter about for 30 minutes in a pod, I'd pick the latter (because I'm slightly wrong in the head, I think) but for most players it'd be an unused feature due to how easy it is to accrue money right now.

 

[W4rSkuLL]

I love that idea. Make it optional so the player can abort and revert to station at anytime, but reward the player if they pilot back to a station in the escape pod.

I mean folk would moan about how just an escape pod can get you a 50% insurance discount but still.

Yes, it would off course make more sense to use these in iron man. But why not give full discount on insurance if you had an escape capsule and actually got back alive in it to a base. If you flew out without insurance and having an escape capsule and make it with it to the nearest station you got your ship at a free price back. Witnessing your arrival back in an escape capsule gave you full discount on the insurance. This would make it very useful to actually try using your escape capsule to get the benefit of saving millions in insurance money. And also add much content when NPCs use those.

Yeah, they could also be dropped by exploding ships and picked up and sold as slaves or if the escape pod was containing a high valued individual you could catch a great price on the black market for this NPC. Either as ransom or just bounty. If ships was releasing data recorders and escape capsules this would add to the depth of the game and content. (Check my thread about data recorders) How would the escape capsule look? Well, why not just release the cockpit section of the ship and it will have jump drive capability or why not something like the cryo pods which are scattered around Cryo pods makes much more sense, smaller and could have small engines and enough oxygen to get you to a safe haven.

 

[Kaocraft]

This is a perfect opportunity to exploit the new materials system and use it as an incentive to use escape pods. You launch an escape pod and make it back to civilization = you hold onto your materials. You "die" in the usual way = you respawn at most recent station like normal, except all your harvested materials are gone.

I'm sure there are better and more interesting mechanics which could be employed in an escape pod system but this would be a good "lazy" solution that adds depth to the game without penalizing existing playstyles too much.