Hello fellow CMDR's!
As I was trundling around on a random planet in the middle of nowhere I got to thinking - how useful having different types of SRV's would be and their associated new game play options they would bring. So without futher ado, here is a brain dump of several ideas I had whilst bouncing down the side of a mountain...
New SRV vehicles for the most discerning of CMDR's
The "CHUNK":
This beast of a vehicle is slow and heavy but packs a mean punch due to its ability to mount two small ship-sized weapons. A heavy shield generator compensates for its lack of mobility by allowing it to soak up heavy damage. Primarily used for settlement defense the model has now found its way into the hands of commanders after recent upgrades to ship based vehicle hangers allowed them to cater for a more diverse array of vehicles.
Expected in game use:
- Base assault missions
- Player Arena combat
The "MOLE":
The mole is a mining rig that comes equipped with a mining laser and a specially modified pulse wave scanner for planetary use (1). The MOLE is able to detect and mine resources from the ground directly into the its extended cargo bay. It is however unarmed and only lightly shielded. The MOLE is equipped with caterpillar tracks allowing it to traverse even the most rugged of terrain.
Expected in game use:
- Exploration and mining
The "SPARK":
The spark is a engineering SRV that is capable of repairing ship hull and module damage. After deploying on a planet surface the SPARK can use its powerful thrusters to scoot around the ship to repair any damage. This SRV can also extract more detailed data from data-points allowing it to triangulate positions of additional points of interest. The spark can build and deploy homing beacons(2) detectable from the planet surface and from ships in orbit.
Expected in game use:
- Player ship repair (self)
- Player ship repair (Other)
- Rescue Missions (repair crashed ship, etc..)
The "BAT":
The BAT is a light weight, quick recon/scout vehicle. Almost every heavy component has been stripped out or replaced with lightweight versions and its power distributor has been heavily tuned in favor of engine output at the expense of weapons and shields. Thus the BAT is not equipped with wheels but instead hovers slightly above the ground - which grants it fantastic straight line speed, but struggles with more rugged terrain. Its stripped down nature means it can be damaged more easily and it can only mount a light weapon - not that you'd ever want to use this in combat.
It is equipped with a long range scanner and has a low radar profile, making it ideal for scouting or infiltration missions.
Expected in game use:
- Exploration
- Scouting planetary surfaces
- Infiltration missions
- Racing
The "BRONCO":
The BRONCO is a heavy transport vehicle, used for transporting large quantities of materials. Though quite slow it has thick armor and can carry 15 tonnes of cargo and as such is ideal for salvage or heavy transport missions.
Expected In game use:
- New planetary transport missions (from point a to b across a planet surface)
- Salvage Missions
(1) - Planetary Pulse Wave Scanner - works in much the same way as its ship based counterpart and highlights areas on the surface of a planet that may harbor minable resources. These new resource spots are single use - i.e. they deplete and never re-spawn once mined - forcing people to push out into space to find more and more of these resources. Rich mining spots may be protected by NPC mining operations (or player organised mining operations)
(2) - beacons. Small devices that when deployed will emit a signal detectable on a ship/vehicle contact panel. Beacons can be deployed and their name customized for easy identification. Beacons can be bought from a station or made via synthesis.
[BASIC] - A beacon which remains active for six hours before self-destructing.
[NORMAL] - A beacon that remains active for 7 days before self-destructing.
[ADVANCED] - A beacon that is permanent (takes lots of rare resources).
Beacons can be targeted and destroyed. Beacons can be set to public or private. Public beacons show to everyone, private ones only show for you and wing. There is a limit to the number of beacons you can deploy on a planet at any one time. There is a way to filter out beacons in your contact panel.
Ramblings over.
Phew - hope that at least some of that made sense!
Fly Safe CMDR's
As I was trundling around on a random planet in the middle of nowhere I got to thinking - how useful having different types of SRV's would be and their associated new game play options they would bring. So without futher ado, here is a brain dump of several ideas I had whilst bouncing down the side of a mountain...
New SRV vehicles for the most discerning of CMDR's
The "CHUNK":
This beast of a vehicle is slow and heavy but packs a mean punch due to its ability to mount two small ship-sized weapons. A heavy shield generator compensates for its lack of mobility by allowing it to soak up heavy damage. Primarily used for settlement defense the model has now found its way into the hands of commanders after recent upgrades to ship based vehicle hangers allowed them to cater for a more diverse array of vehicles.
Expected in game use:
- Base assault missions
- Player Arena combat
The "MOLE":
The mole is a mining rig that comes equipped with a mining laser and a specially modified pulse wave scanner for planetary use (1). The MOLE is able to detect and mine resources from the ground directly into the its extended cargo bay. It is however unarmed and only lightly shielded. The MOLE is equipped with caterpillar tracks allowing it to traverse even the most rugged of terrain.
Expected in game use:
- Exploration and mining
The "SPARK":
The spark is a engineering SRV that is capable of repairing ship hull and module damage. After deploying on a planet surface the SPARK can use its powerful thrusters to scoot around the ship to repair any damage. This SRV can also extract more detailed data from data-points allowing it to triangulate positions of additional points of interest. The spark can build and deploy homing beacons(2) detectable from the planet surface and from ships in orbit.
Expected in game use:
- Player ship repair (self)
- Player ship repair (Other)
- Rescue Missions (repair crashed ship, etc..)
The "BAT":
The BAT is a light weight, quick recon/scout vehicle. Almost every heavy component has been stripped out or replaced with lightweight versions and its power distributor has been heavily tuned in favor of engine output at the expense of weapons and shields. Thus the BAT is not equipped with wheels but instead hovers slightly above the ground - which grants it fantastic straight line speed, but struggles with more rugged terrain. Its stripped down nature means it can be damaged more easily and it can only mount a light weapon - not that you'd ever want to use this in combat.
It is equipped with a long range scanner and has a low radar profile, making it ideal for scouting or infiltration missions.
Expected in game use:
- Exploration
- Scouting planetary surfaces
- Infiltration missions
- Racing
The "BRONCO":
The BRONCO is a heavy transport vehicle, used for transporting large quantities of materials. Though quite slow it has thick armor and can carry 15 tonnes of cargo and as such is ideal for salvage or heavy transport missions.
Expected In game use:
- New planetary transport missions (from point a to b across a planet surface)
- Salvage Missions
(1) - Planetary Pulse Wave Scanner - works in much the same way as its ship based counterpart and highlights areas on the surface of a planet that may harbor minable resources. These new resource spots are single use - i.e. they deplete and never re-spawn once mined - forcing people to push out into space to find more and more of these resources. Rich mining spots may be protected by NPC mining operations (or player organised mining operations)
(2) - beacons. Small devices that when deployed will emit a signal detectable on a ship/vehicle contact panel. Beacons can be deployed and their name customized for easy identification. Beacons can be bought from a station or made via synthesis.
[BASIC] - A beacon which remains active for six hours before self-destructing.
[NORMAL] - A beacon that remains active for 7 days before self-destructing.
[ADVANCED] - A beacon that is permanent (takes lots of rare resources).
Beacons can be targeted and destroyed. Beacons can be set to public or private. Public beacons show to everyone, private ones only show for you and wing. There is a limit to the number of beacons you can deploy on a planet at any one time. There is a way to filter out beacons in your contact panel.
Ramblings over.
Phew - hope that at least some of that made sense!
Fly Safe CMDR's
