I was about to try out some piracy for fun. Looked up some videos about it, and apparently I have to do this tedious game of bump the ship with my ship in order to get the cargo out. First....why is this a thing devs? As a fellow game developer, I would figure you would add something like a limpet i shoot that will force the ship to a halt? Or some kind of cord I can fire to latch myself to the ship? or just a more fun mechanic other than tediously lining my ship up over and over and bumping it. Come on guys.....something more fun and cool than that. Tractor beam maybe? only works if their thrusters are disabled or something I don't know. But just something other than what you guys have now. It would make priacy way more fun I feel, and giving it a unique limpet would feel cool to pirates.
Piracy Ability
- Thread starter Sketch1982
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- piracy
I think you might have watched some bad videos.
Use hatch breaker limpets and the ship will drop cargo, no need to ram / bump the ship, but you can use some 'skill' by shooting out thrusters to disable the target ship or the FSD to stop it jumping away.
Use hatch breaker limpets and the ship will drop cargo, no need to ram / bump the ship, but you can use some 'skill' by shooting out thrusters to disable the target ship or the FSD to stop it jumping away.
Bumping the ship and bringing to a stop (or at least slowing it down) is good for when you snipe the drives out of the target and it's spinning away uncontrollably at 200+ m/s. It makes it easier to use hatch breaker and collector limpets, as limpets have a maximum range and can be pretty slow. You can try to match the speed of the target, but slowing it down can make the whole process of snagging the cargo less of a headache. One of the main reasons people slow a runaway target down like this is because opening your cargo hatch halves your speed. Sometimes, you're moving so slow with your hatch open you can't effectively keep up with the target.
People have suggested grapple hooks or tractor beams before. Hopefully we do get something like that in the future.
EDIT: Personally I'd like to see the FSD Interdictor get a secondary effect similar to a tractor beam, that only works against a target ship who's drives have been disabled.
People have suggested grapple hooks or tractor beams before. Hopefully we do get something like that in the future.
EDIT: Personally I'd like to see the FSD Interdictor get a secondary effect similar to a tractor beam, that only works against a target ship who's drives have been disabled.
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After a bit of practise stopping the ship is doable in 2-3 minutes. I personally like this part of a piracy process. Fun moment of FA-OFF flying.
Gankers would absoloutely love that!
Perhaps, as a game developer, you might think about unintended consequences of changes you propose to a game's design?
Each to their own, but the bump stop is a welcome challenge to some, and is not always the way to do it: it's certainly a good idea if you find a T7 or T9 with a big haul which you don't want to waste, but if you have plenty of long range collectors and your victim isn't going too fast then just launch those hatch breakers and collect. It's usually feasible up to about 80m/s.
actually i build a "criminal fuel rat" ship for an evening doing that. rob them, give them fuel. very funny and weird.
Why would gankers care? If they got your drives it is already game over
I wouldn't design the game around a small minority of players who inhabit a very small part of the galaxy and can only attack when you fly in open.
Having said that, I'm still not convinced that we need this unless ship boarding happens, and that will be a whole new ball game!
Sorry guv, that's not the spec i was given. I was told to make hatch breakers bring ships to a stop. So that's what I did.
Ok, i've changed it now so it only happens when the drives are disabled.
5 mins later
Hey, boss. Apparently when someone uses scramble spectrum and it disabled drives for a few seconds, it provides a window in which a hatch breaker can connect and bring a ship to a stop.
Its easy to declare you are are game designer. I've designed games as well. I've implemented features in games according to my own designs.
What is important in game design is thinking of edge cases and unitended consequences of making changes without thinking them through.
What i've suggested before (and maybe people can critique it) is NPC comms, where you can make demands for ships to submit. I mean, even an Elite NPC should be ready to stand down after you've taken down its shields, its weapons, and damaged its internals and hull. You've shown you have the capability to destroy it.
I find the fact that anything higher than Mostly Harmless will continue to reboot after its powerplant is destroyed ridiculous.
As a game developer, i wouldn't have the limpet work on ships that arent already disabled.
This would make it so it couldn't be used as an opener on a ship. This would just be a nice thing you could do for pve mostly, or when you have already knocked out a player. I don't think that is a hard thing as far as balance do you?I always try to come at something from the angle of "is this the most fun this can be, and also is this selling the fantasy". I mean, to me, if people think bumping a ship over and over is the intended design...that's pretty funny to me. I just think that the fantasy of a pirate is to shoot out either a tether or tractor beam or something for when I am trying to stop a ship after I have disabled it, not flying around it for 3 minutes and slightly nudging my nose on it. Just firing a rope would be more fun is all, just my opinion though.
@Sketch1982 you are correct that bumping is not a great game mechanic. Yes some form of mechanical stopping would be a much better idea. Limpets would be ok, I prefer the idea of a close range Harpoon which has been suggested many times over the years.
There was a very good ideas thread at one time, I imagine it has been lost to the forums now but there were also suggestions for a better UI when beginning Piracy which would make intention clear to other Players that you were about to enjoy their generosity rather than destroy them. For PvP Piracy this would be a great help. It could also perhaps influence NpC behaviour especially if you were a well known Pirate. I am not a Games Designer though so what do I know.
There is a suggestions forum you could post up in but I dont think it is ever looked at officially.
I wouldnt be put off by the lack of tools and the poor implementation for Piracy, (it will never be anything more than an afterthought for Fd) you can still make money out of it but clearly shooting passive rocks or hauling goods will always pay more. Accept that and just enjoy your thieving ways.
There was a very good ideas thread at one time, I imagine it has been lost to the forums now but there were also suggestions for a better UI when beginning Piracy which would make intention clear to other Players that you were about to enjoy their generosity rather than destroy them. For PvP Piracy this would be a great help. It could also perhaps influence NpC behaviour especially if you were a well known Pirate. I am not a Games Designer though so what do I know.
There is a suggestions forum you could post up in but I dont think it is ever looked at officially.
I wouldnt be put off by the lack of tools and the poor implementation for Piracy, (it will never be anything more than an afterthought for Fd) you can still make money out of it but clearly shooting passive rocks or hauling goods will always pay more. Accept that and just enjoy your thieving ways.
While we suggest something like this:
That whould be GREAT, and foremost, REALISTIC.
Bumping in a ship to stop it? LOL, seems like a everspace arcade thing.
Ship restore shields: Limpets detach/ destroyed.
Ship restore drivers: limpets will TRY to stop the and keep slowing it down.
Point defence will STILL fire even if shields and drivers are destroyed/offline.
Not that hard.
That whould be GREAT, and foremost, REALISTIC.
Bumping in a ship to stop it? LOL, seems like a everspace arcade thing.
Like if is that hard to concep a limpet that will only attach to the target if 2 conditions are met: Are the drivers destroyed/disables? If YES: Are the shield also destroyed/disables? - Yes. Then Limpet works.
Ship restore shields: Limpets detach/ destroyed.
Ship restore drivers: limpets will TRY to stop the and keep slowing it down.
Point defence will STILL fire even if shields and drivers are destroyed/offline.
Not that hard.
What is this madness? Here on the forums we shoot out half-baked
Gonna be completely honest chief, if a ganker kills your drives, you are as dead as if he tractor beams you and then murders you.