Destroyable Capital Ships

[ThriveInDark]

So, didn't realize fighting capital ships could be this fun
*vidya*

They should have implemented the Capitol Ship instances this way, having them act as mobile fighter spawn points for pilots so anyone can participate, you select your SLF get a set number of lives and rack up some cash and rep with no rebuy in some rental bangers. Would've basically taken CQC, skinned it with cap ships instead of stations, and dropped it in an instance inside the actual game. It could even be a sort of multi-portal, ie players jumping into it from different systems end up in the same battle instance and are given an objective or whatever so that the lobbies actually fill up, and then on completion you're back in your own ship entering SC, and for single player you get some AI bot teammates

There's so many things wrong here, I don't even know where to start. The complete lack of capital ship maneuvering, for one. Whoever is flying those fighters needs a kick in the head, too. The elite combat prowess of three sidewinders? Three sidewinders that become the deciding factor in a battle between two capital ships? Wat? And they think that destroying things inside the fighter bay is a good idea?

What capital ship in their right minds would even end up in that situation? The Fed apparently lost all weapons and engines, yet the Imp just sat there, right in front of all the guns?

All the survivors of this incident should be busted down to minimum possible rank, and put to work cleaning latrines, for gross incompetence. On both sides. Including the Sidewinders.

Fair enough on the strategic nitpicks but it still looks like more fun than a High Intensity CZ

 

[Teh Smoo]

They should have implemented the Capitol Ship instances this way, having them act as mobile fighter spawn points for pilots so anyone can participate, you select your SLF get a set number of lives and rack up some cash and rep with no rebuy in some rental bangers. Would've basically taken CQC, skinned it with cap ships instead of stations, and dropped it in an instance inside the actual game. It could even be a sort of multi-portal, ie players jumping into it from different systems end up in the same battle instance and are given an objective or whatever so that the lobbies actually fill up, and then on completion you're back in your own ship entering SC, and for single player you get some AI bot teammates



Fair enough on the strategic nitpicks but it still looks like more fun than a High Intensity CZ

Go play Descent:Freespace and Freespace 2. Maybe start off slow with a little Freelancer?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZuA9zvxs0Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=199DV_UY9Hc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBC5d5gvM6c

The problem with all of this is that without persistence, it doesn't matter. Who gets to kill the capital ships, exactly? If a player can do it, about 30 seconds (or less) after any capital ship is killable, it will be dead, and you will never see it. If it's not killable, then you can see it, but never kill it.

FS2 did it by having it all be a SP campaign, it all falls apart in multiplayer.

 

[Hooplah]

I took on a capital ship in an FAS taking out all their fighters and inflicting hits to the ship for 20 minutes. But it never dies. It only took me a few friendly missions with a local friendly system to get back in good graces. I guess until we can fly capital ships we will never take them out.

 

[Dsign]

1. They should be much more powerful... they should be feared, not kicked by one guy in a viper...
2. We should have an opportunity to fully destroy them, before they leave the area. Like a timer during which a small target could be reached (death star like, if you wish)
3. They should be able to deploy fighters, more of them during the timer maybe.
4. Reward for destruction/flee should be much higher, agreed.

 

[Spacecat]

If you destroy all its heat relays it retreats, and you get a 150,000 cr combat bond for having "helped making a capital ship retreat". No way to destroy it utterly though.

Then you wonder why you didn't just go to a RES and make a mil in the same amount of time instead.

 

[ThriveInDark]

Go play Descent:Freespace and Freespace 2. Maybe start off slow with a little Freelancer?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZuA9zvxs0Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=199DV_UY9Hc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBC5d5gvM6c

The problem with all of this is that without persistence, it doesn't matter. Who gets to kill the capital ships, exactly? If a player can do it, about 30 seconds (or less) after any capital ship is killable, it will be dead, and you will never see it. If it's not killable, then you can see it, but never kill it.

FS2 did it by having it all be a SP campaign, it all falls apart in multiplayer.

I would go with the current system where you beat it up until it is forced to retreat, and upon completion grants a big credit/superpower rank bonus to all players involved equally (they are 1 sided vs PVE obviously). If the players lose all their SLF reprints then the mission fails, no bonus credits. The persistence is you as the pilot and the pay/rep you gain from it being inside the main game instead of separate like with CQC. Maybe as you increase in superpower rank you get extra SLF loadouts to access etc as a biproduct. Track all the stats across set intervals and maybe that's part of the who expands where mechanic. Like an automated CG that moves with the hotspots and is always available.

 

[etien]

I'm gonna wet-blanket this a little, though.

Please come up with an implementation that allows players to interact with them, but still prevents them from murdering every capital ship within days/hours. Either the capital ships are destroyable, but so OP that a wing of 4 perfect death machines can't kill them, or each capital ship is killed by wings of 4 OP perfectly PVE-engineered death machines.

There's really no middle ground. If the players aren't the ones building stuff, they're the ones dedicating their time to killing it. And there's many many instances, so whose instance determines if the capital ship is dead or not?


And also, I've seen a Farragut inside the planet, near barnacles. They have some stuff to fix before making them persistent.

Agree, then you forgot the camping at res pawn point.

A way to avoid that: make life miserable to the killer: constant interdiction by a fleet of capital ship after that.

 

[Iskariot]

Enemy capital ships should be destroyable. The explosion from the ships should damage all ships within a certain radius, maybe a clear the area message can go out. Also they should give off a huge combat bond or bounty when destroyed for the risk. Also they should be far more dangerous.

Currently there is no reason to even go near them other than to look and go 'awww how cute' [haha]

I'm just hoping this happens for the thargoid battles [alien]

I'd only be fine with them being destructible if they also became much more powerful than they are now.
For the huge warships they are supposed to be they are pretty impotent.

I also feel there should be more types of npc warships, like destroyers, frigates etc and they should move in small fleets.
Just like you see with modern naval fleets.

The X-Wing and Tie-fighter games really succeeded in conveying that cool military space fleet vibe.

 

[Gabbatek]

Cap Ships need to be borderline OP and I don't think that they should be able to be destroyed by a player, or even a wing of 4 highly engineered players.

What I would like to see is missions resembling the original trailer we got, whereby you would accept randomly generated missions in a conflict zone to assist in routing the capital ship. Destroy the shield generator, etc etc. But the capital ships at the moment are far too complacent.

Sitting in cover shooting at one of the heat vents? The Cap ship deploys a wing of 12 fighters to intercept you.

Take one of those huge rail guns from the Imp ship to the face? You're dead.

First seeing a Cap ship jump in (on the opposing side of a CZ no less) was a pants-browning experience. Then, you realise that they're pretty much impotent. It's like having a 13 inch member without being able to get it up around super models.

THIS

to be fair some of these ideas have changed my point of view.

Not destructible, but definitely need a buff and to spawn loads of fighter

also cqc needs a capital ship mode