[Story Mode]
"Excellent sir. If you'll give me just a moment, I'll download your current vessel registry from Inter Astra. All set. It looks like you have quite a fleet at your disposal. I will forward the schematics along to the dispatch vessel. Will you be needing transport or will you be taking your own?"
The grizzled looking commander shook his head in silence and made his way towards the docking platform elevators.
Curious, Murphy stood from his bench and made his way over to the Frontline Solutions desk.
"Curious, does a pilot need to bring his own ship to fight? I'd say I'm a pretty decent pilot, but I don't have anything in my inventory that's worth it's weight for combat, as I mostly mine and run cargo."
"It's not required at all, commander," the FS Agent said. "Frontlines Solution is more than able to provide combat ready vessels with standard outfitting to anyone looking to join the fight."
Murphy paused and considered for a moment, then accepted the combat enlistment contract. He watched as the agent signed the appropriate paperwork, then after a few additional formalities, the agent hailed a transport. The ride down to the hangar felt familiar, but he had goosebumps nonetheless. After a few minutes, he was onboard a Frontline Solutions dropship. They departed the starport and jumped to supercruise. It was quiet. After a short ride that felt like an eternity, the Vulture dropped from supercruise and approached the outright warzone. Murphy could see the laser weapons cutting through the black of space in all directions. There were fragments of large vessels torn to shreds all over the place out there. It was absolute chaos.
The Vulture approached megaship adorning the usual "Frontline Solutions" branding. This megaship had been leased by Neguti Cooperative as part of their war efforts against their rivals, The Sirelli Syndicate. Murphy didn't really care about the factions or their feud, he just needed the credits. The dropship docked and Murphy made his way to the main terminal. It was pretty sparse, definitely not designed for comfort. He followed the signs leading to the launch bays and took the elevator down to the one assigned to him. The elevator doors slid open revealing a freshly fabricated Federal Assault Ship. He didn't own one, but it's what he used to fly when he was working system security, so it was comfortable for him.
Murphy climbed onboard the ship and took his seat. After a few deep breaths, he put his hands on the controls.
"Let's see if I've still got it..." he muttered softly as he engaged the auto launch process.
[Simple Explanation]
Right now a user has to fly to a CZ, then pick a side, and fight until you win the entire combat, flee for your life, or die trying. The problem is, pilots are probably going to rely on one or two ships exclusively for these fights, and it's likely never going to be something small and fragile, because they will most certainly lose the encounter.
This idea involves taking some mechanics from CQC and On-Foot CZs and implementing them into the ship space as well. Primarily, I'm talking about the idea of respawning. Now sure, you could just flat-out respawn like you do in CQC, but that's pretty lame from a gameplay perspective. Instead, it would be better to treat this more like on-foot CZs and leverage respawns from megaships that are positioned on either side of the conflict zone. These megaships are capable of "assembling" combat ready vessels to be deployed into the space, with each representing one of the opposing factions.
[Mechanics]
"Excellent sir. If you'll give me just a moment, I'll download your current vessel registry from Inter Astra. All set. It looks like you have quite a fleet at your disposal. I will forward the schematics along to the dispatch vessel. Will you be needing transport or will you be taking your own?"
The grizzled looking commander shook his head in silence and made his way towards the docking platform elevators.
Curious, Murphy stood from his bench and made his way over to the Frontline Solutions desk.
"Curious, does a pilot need to bring his own ship to fight? I'd say I'm a pretty decent pilot, but I don't have anything in my inventory that's worth it's weight for combat, as I mostly mine and run cargo."
"It's not required at all, commander," the FS Agent said. "Frontlines Solution is more than able to provide combat ready vessels with standard outfitting to anyone looking to join the fight."
Murphy paused and considered for a moment, then accepted the combat enlistment contract. He watched as the agent signed the appropriate paperwork, then after a few additional formalities, the agent hailed a transport. The ride down to the hangar felt familiar, but he had goosebumps nonetheless. After a few minutes, he was onboard a Frontline Solutions dropship. They departed the starport and jumped to supercruise. It was quiet. After a short ride that felt like an eternity, the Vulture dropped from supercruise and approached the outright warzone. Murphy could see the laser weapons cutting through the black of space in all directions. There were fragments of large vessels torn to shreds all over the place out there. It was absolute chaos.
The Vulture approached megaship adorning the usual "Frontline Solutions" branding. This megaship had been leased by Neguti Cooperative as part of their war efforts against their rivals, The Sirelli Syndicate. Murphy didn't really care about the factions or their feud, he just needed the credits. The dropship docked and Murphy made his way to the main terminal. It was pretty sparse, definitely not designed for comfort. He followed the signs leading to the launch bays and took the elevator down to the one assigned to him. The elevator doors slid open revealing a freshly fabricated Federal Assault Ship. He didn't own one, but it's what he used to fly when he was working system security, so it was comfortable for him.
Murphy climbed onboard the ship and took his seat. After a few deep breaths, he put his hands on the controls.
"Let's see if I've still got it..." he muttered softly as he engaged the auto launch process.
[Simple Explanation]
Right now a user has to fly to a CZ, then pick a side, and fight until you win the entire combat, flee for your life, or die trying. The problem is, pilots are probably going to rely on one or two ships exclusively for these fights, and it's likely never going to be something small and fragile, because they will most certainly lose the encounter.
This idea involves taking some mechanics from CQC and On-Foot CZs and implementing them into the ship space as well. Primarily, I'm talking about the idea of respawning. Now sure, you could just flat-out respawn like you do in CQC, but that's pretty lame from a gameplay perspective. Instead, it would be better to treat this more like on-foot CZs and leverage respawns from megaships that are positioned on either side of the conflict zone. These megaships are capable of "assembling" combat ready vessels to be deployed into the space, with each representing one of the opposing factions.
[Mechanics]
- Accessing the combat zone can be done the original way by flying in and selecting a side or opening fire immediately, by docking on the megaship of the side you wish to fight for, or by talking to FS in a concourse, enlisting, and taking a shuttle to the corresponding megaship.
- The moment the individual is registered as engaged in this CZ, the concept of single life and rebuy is gone, and the mechanic of CZ respawn is started, just as it is in OFCZs
- CMDRs will have the option of selecting the ship that will be "respawned" or can fly back to the megaship to swap for another an/or to resupply
- Ship spawn options should include standard default vehicles (maybe tied to a pilots combat/mercenary rank) as well as temporary clones of any of the CMDR's own ships
- For balance purposes, the "threat level" of a ship should factor into the amount in which a respawn decrements the faction's tickets
- Logically it takes more resources to fabricate a Federal Corvette than it does an Eagle
- Similarly, a fully engineered combat ship is going to require more resources than a "stock mil-spec" variant of the same vessel would
- At the end of combat, the vessel should enter into "auto-dock" mode and return to the correct megaship. The pilot would then be transported back to their own "original" ship in a docking bay or the main hub of the megaship. From here, the CMDR can choose to leave, hail an Apex shuttle, take on another FS engagement via vulture transport, OR wait for another fight to start here, which essentially triggers a fade to black and re-initializes the combat zone instance.
- For extra flair, there should be randomly generated debris created in the combat area. This could include small asteroids and rocks depending on the area, but should also include remnants of destroyed vessels
- This would provide extra navigational challenge for larger ships, but could also act as cover for smaller ships that could be utilized to "strike from the shadows"
