Combat Escort gameplay

[Commander Nicholas Jameson]

Every time there is a community goal I really wish that there was a better mechanism for signing up to be the fighter escort to players who were trading.

This would need to build on existing mechanics.

There were would need to be some way for players to advertise that they wanted a combat escort — and then wing up with the player willing to be the fighter. I imagine traders waiting outside stations for their escort ship(s) and then forming a wing.

The wing mechanics for slaving together jump destinations could be more intuitive.

At the destination it would be good if there were more of a period of danger. I do regret, really, that low wake jumps put everyone so close to the station.

And then there would need to be some mechanism for profit sharing.

 

[Abysinth]

I like this too; when interdicted the trader could high tail out of there, whilst the escorts engage the attackers.

 

[Commander Nicholas Jameson]

Yes, exactly.

 

[ethelred]

You could try advertising your services on the various Discords or player groups?

 

[Cmdr_Ajay31091]

Good point Op, I'd be interested in signing up as an escort, I was thinking this exact same thing just yesterday, might start a squadron. Anyone interested?

 

[Schmack]

Hmm.. an escort service.

 

[Cmdr_Ajay31091]

Hmm.. an escort service.

Oh Aye! Cheapest rate's for mate's lol

 

[rrobes]

Don't want to rain in your parade BUT coordinating escorts is a pain, even when you're in a squadron.

Time zones, instancing, lagging and in-game comms and RL all impact the effort.

Plus, people say "I'll be there" and never arrive or cancel for a variety of reasons.

Even in a squadron with regular membership, it is difficult to arrange static events due to attendance, much less a more fluid occurrence like someone needing an escort as they just filled up with cargo or coming in with exploration data from a long trip in the Black.

The most successful type of service provider in-game are the Fuel Rats, and they are outstanding in response. These guys are ORGANIZED and dedicated.

Good luck in trying, hope you succeed.

 

[BlackSpaceCowboy]

How about having wing missions where you needed a mix of transport and combat ships to succeed?

But this can't work well because you don't really have specialized ships. In a real world, a mining ship wouldn't be able to do much combat. But in ED you can stock up an Anaconda, mine and defend yourself.

Generally, creating scenarios where players need to cooperate to get things done should be the goal.

 

[dxm55]

Every time there is a community goal I really wish that there was a better mechanism for signing up to be the fighter escort to players who were trading.

This would need to build on existing mechanics.

LOL. Every feature introduced in between major updates has been about building on existing mechanics.

Your CGs are built upon normal cargo missions.
Honestly, FD could simply introduce NPC wingmen and mercenary escorts, all built upon existing mechanics (NPC AI, your SLF pilots and given orders)

 

[Cmdr_Ajay31091]

I'm seriously thinking about doing this, Im kinda thinking it could be a worthwhile way of spending my time, Really need to start recruiting, and get "Gud" lol

It's a good way of making my mark in this game,

I'm going to be around for a couple of years, and can think of no better way too immerse myself.

o7 Cmdrs

 

[insanephoton]

Don't want to rain in your parade BUT coordinating escorts is a pain, even when you're in a squadron.

Time zones, instancing, lagging and in-game comms and RL all impact the effort.

Plus, people say "I'll be there" and never arrive or cancel for a variety of reasons.

Even in a squadron with regular membership, it is difficult to arrange static events due to attendance, much less a more fluid occurrence like someone needing an escort as they just filled up with cargo or coming in with exploration data from a long trip in the Black.

The most successful type of service provider in-game are the Fuel Rats, and they are outstanding in response. These guys are ORGANIZED and dedicated.

Good luck in trying, hope you succeed.

The thing is that the Fuel Rats and the hapless Fuelee can effectively stop the clock to get everything in place. The biggest problem for an escort is trying to instance with their customer in a timely manner. The other issue is that in a pvp context their is a good chance that the 3 combat escorts are facing 4 equally effective 'commerce raiders'

 

[Ian Doncaster]

The thing is that the Fuel Rats and the hapless Fuelee can effectively stop the clock to get everything in place. The biggest problem for an escort is trying to instance with their customer in a timely manner. The other issue is that in a pvp context their is a good chance that the 3 combat escorts are facing 4 equally effective 'commerce raiders'

This. I've done a lot of exploration escorts, which is fine because it's not a problem for an explorer to coordinate a couple of days in advance. And Fuel Rat clients are ... a captive market.

Trading, if you end up waiting an hour for your escort to arrive - and you'd need a lot of escort pilots signed up to get the wait time that low - you might as well just have stuck a bigger shield on, or switched to a multirole hull (e.g. Anaconda/Cutter rather than T-9) and escorted yourself in. Similarly, if the escort is demanding pay, you can probably do it cheaper yourself.

For CG defence, patrols can work - tie up hostiles in battles against stuff which can at least tank them for five minutes, even if you're not actually killing them, and more traders will get through - but of course, no pay there either, and you're only statistically helping.

For trade escorts to be practical, there'd need to be a trade ship specifically designed to be escorted.
- really large cargo hold (ten thousand tonnes, if not more)
- extremely tough hull and core subsystems, lots of hardpoints suited to turrets but not fixed, fairly weak shields
- lots of points for hatchbreakers to attach (more like a megaship in that respect)
- SLF bays
- really slow, no agility, extended drive cooldown if interdicted (even if it submits) so there's actually some fight to have

So it's tough enough not to be fragged to death in 20 seconds by a wing, got enough turret firepower and SLFs not to be completely useless in a fight, but needs protecting for several minutes to actually escape, especially with its cargo intact.

Might actually be practical and economical to escort one of those - though I'm not sure how fun flying the actual trade ship would be: things like that are conventionally for the NPCs.

 

[Cmdr_Ajay31091]

This. I've done a lot of exploration escorts, which is fine because it's not a problem for an explorer to coordinate a couple of days in advance. And Fuel Rat clients are ... a captive market.

Trading, if you end up waiting an hour for your escort to arrive - and you'd need a lot of escort pilots signed up to get the wait time that low - you might as well just have stuck a bigger shield on, or switched to a multirole hull (e.g. Anaconda/Cutter rather than T-9) and escorted yourself in. Similarly, if the escort is demanding pay, you can probably do it cheaper yourself.

For CG defence, patrols can work - tie up hostiles in battles against stuff which can at least tank them for five minutes, even if you're not actually killing them, and more traders will get through - but of course, no pay there either, and you're only statistically helping.

For trade escorts to be practical, there'd need to be a trade ship specifically designed to be escorted.
- really large cargo hold (ten thousand tonnes, if not more)
- extremely tough hull and core subsystems, lots of hardpoints suited to turrets but not fixed, fairly weak shields
- lots of points for hatchbreakers to attach (more like a megaship in that respect)
- SLF bays
- really slow, no agility, extended drive cooldown if interdicted (even if it submits) so there's actually some fight to have

So it's tough enough not to be fragged to death in 20 seconds by a wing, got enough turret firepower and SLFs not to be completely useless in a fight, but needs protecting for several minutes to actually escape, especially with its cargo intact.

Might actually be practical and economical to escort one of those - though I'm not sure how fun flying the actual trade ship would be: things like that are conventionally for the NPCs.

All valid points, thanks for the input Cmdr, o7

 

[cmdr Ramius007]

Escort can't do much if you die in 10 seconds, and from what i noticed c7 SG with 4 boosters on t9 in open look like a luxury rather than a standard as it should be, and even this have too small optimal mass for t9.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

The problem is, the trader needs to have fairly decent PvP level defences, otherwise the aggressor(s) will just focus the trader, kill it, and jump out, mission accomplished.

 

[Phongsalt]

[QUOTE="Ian Doncaster, post: 7898739, member: 18996"
For trade escorts to be practical, there'd need to be a trade ship specifically designed to be escorted.
- really large cargo hold (ten thousand tonnes, if not more)
[/QUOTE]
Can i stop you there for a moment to ask what effective range ?

 

[Bigmaec]

...yeah, you have to be able to land a few shots anyway you look at it. Maybe I'm biased. Maybe running is enough.

For a trader it should be. If you're a hard enough target to survive a wing gank together with escorts, you should be a hard enough target to run away without escorts too.

 

[IceFire122]

Some of us tried providing such a service two years ago or so. The requests were very few and very far apart.

In order to be effective, it needs to be pre-arranged before the trader enters a dangerous area. Unfortunately, most players do not think that far in advance and only look for help, once they are in a precarious situation.
This works quite well for the Fuelrats and Hullseals, as the service-receiver has usually sufficient time to wait for a rescue (in emergency, they can wait in the main menu).
For a combat service, you need to be in place right at the correct time. Hence, it needs to be pre-arranged, or patrol based. As pre-arranging happens rarely (except for Hutton Orbital Trucker convoys), only system patrols remain. However, you have to interdict the bad guys before they find their prey, otherwise it is too late.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

For trade escorts to be practical, there'd need to be a trade ship specifically designed to be escorted.
- really large cargo hold (ten thousand tonnes, if not more)

Can i stop you there for a moment to ask what effective range ?

It'd probably need to be relatively slow, or it'd be too good unescorted if you could take down the typical NPCs with just its turrets and SLFs.

Something in the 10-12 range when loaded would let it get around the bubble (it'd have to be incompatible with Guardian boosters and FSD Injection, I guess) while making the routes fairly indirect and therefore prone to the sort of bottlenecks which make for interesting escort gameplay in the first place. Fuel hungry enough that you either had to spend a lot of time scooping even with an 8A, or just dock it for refuelling, too, to give chance for interdictions.

I really don't know if it would work or not as a concept, even then.