More module types

[Xaintly]

Some additional variety in module types would be useful, this could allow wingmates to take on support roles.

• Cloaking device - reduces the sensor signature of the ship (probably better to restrict this to specific ships with a module slot that allows it)
• Sensor scrambler - Reduces the sensor range of all nearby non-wingmates. The ship with the scrambler can be highlighted as an attacker.
• Wingmate Mass Manager - Increase optimal mass for nearby wingmates FSD
• Shield Optimizer - Increases nearby wingmates shields by a percentage
• Corbomite - A revenge module that causes your ship to detonate when destroyed, reducing loot dropped and damaging nearby ships. Won't activate near stations.
• Weapon: capacitor drain - either a beam weapon or an EMP-type device that drains the capacitor of other ships. Capacitor recharges normally, perhaps after a short delay.

 

[varonica]

Some additional variety in module types would be useful, this could allow wingmates to take on support roles.

• Cloaking device - reduces the sensor signature of the ship (probably better to restrict this to specific ships with a module slot that allows it)
• Sensor scrambler - Reduces the sensor range of all nearby non-wingmates. The ship with the scrambler can be highlighted as an attacker.
• Wingmate Mass Manager - Increase optimal mass for nearby wingmates FSD
• Shield Optimizer - Increases nearby wingmates shields by a percentage
• Corbomite - A revenge module that causes your ship to detonate when destroyed, reducing loot dropped and damaging nearby ships. Won't activate near stations.
• Weapon: capacitor drain - either a beam weapon or an EMP-type device that drains the capacitor of other ships. Capacitor recharges normally, perhaps after a short delay.

I can see a lot of these ideas borrowed from other game types and shows.

The Corbomite manoeuvre, really?

The ability for things on your ship to buff ships around you? I can easily understand that other ships can repair you and supply fuel etc, that's all pretty easy stuff and well within the physical constraints of our imagined universe which is, in the end, based on our own universe, but devices on your ship that somehow affect other ships around you? This is pure magical MMO territory, LOTRO or WOW grouping magical buffing, there's nothing even remotely indicating such magical behaviour in our own universe. How can a device on your ship affect how the hardware works on another ship without magic?

Cloaking device....maybe, Corbomite? You realise even in the Star Trek universe Corbomite and the Corbomite Manoeuvre was a fictional invention by Kirk in a desperate move to save his ship, so bringing it in here for real, sorry no thanks. I am up or anything that fits the Elite universe and lore, lets not start dragging stuff in from other idioms and TV shows. We've already had suggestion of planetary Stargates activated by runes, now we have Star Trek and WoW/Lotro stuff, this is not Star Trek/Stargate or WoW/Lotro.

 

[Xaintly]

I can see a lot of these ideas borrowed from other game types and shows.

The Corbomite manoeuvre, really?

The ability for things on your ship to buff ships around you? I can easily understand that other ships can repair you and supply fuel etc, that's all pretty easy stuff and well within the physical constraints of our imagined universe which is, in the end, based on our own universe, but devices on your ship that somehow affect other ships around you? This is pure magical MMO territory, LOTRO or WOW grouping magical buffing, there's nothing even remotely indicating such magical behaviour in our own universe. How can a device on your ship affect how the hardware works on another ship without magic?

Cloaking device....maybe, Corbomite? You realise even in the Star Trek universe Corbomite and the Corbomite Manoeuvre was a fictional invention by Kirk in a desperate move to save his ship, so bringing it in here for real, sorry no thanks. I am up or anything that fits the Elite universe and lore, lets not start dragging stuff in from other idioms and TV shows. We've already had suggestion of planetary Stargates activated by runes, now we have Star Trek and WoW/Lotro stuff, this is not Star Trek/Stargate or WoW/Lotro.

Yes, most of these ideas come from other games. It started with a reddit thread called "what ideas would you steal from other games" and then I posted the ideas that I liked that came from that.

Corbomite is basically just explosives strapped to your own ship. At the close ranges of Elite dogfighting, it wouldn't need a large blast radius.

Modern ECM pods on fighters are used to scramble / reduce effectiveness of enemy radar, targeting and communications. Sensor scrambler = space version of that.
Modern AWACS planes have large radar systems and they broadcast sensor data to friendly aircraft, so planes like stealth fighters don't need active radar.
A sensor booster would be the same deal, perhaps letting all wingmates benefit from the sensors of the logistics ship.

One of the engineer mods for FSD is called 'Mass Manager', the description states that a computer optimizes the jump calculation a bit more, allowing the ship to jump further.
Extending this out, a full-sized 'FSD mass manager computer' module could do the same work for your wingmates and transmit the calculations on to them.
Stretching that even more, some sort of shield logistics module could 'help your wingmates manage their shields'

We can assume that computers suck in the Elite universe, since a docking computer takes up a module slot that could fit a 2-ton cargo hold.
I'm imagining logistics modules as large, specialized computers from the 1950s. They could perform enough analysis to maybe help a wingmate's shield focus more energy on certain spots or something.
The wing system has some sort of secure communications network built in, so it's not implausible that you could transmit other stuff over it.

Slight extensions of modern technology could account for these modules without having to hand-wave "guardian tech" at it.
If we wanted to go completely implausible, we could do things like full-invulnerability buffs that last 10 seconds, hull-repair beams, stuff like that.

 

[varonica]

Corbomite is basically just explosives strapped to your own ship. At the close ranges of Elite dogfighting, it wouldn't need a large blast radius.

1) No it's not, it's a "fictional" explosive invented by Captain James T Kirk in the Star Trek episode "The Corbomite Manoeuvre". You know when they say, "what would you steal from other shows" they don't really mean we should do it, for a start you've immediately hit copyright problems, you would need to licence the name from the IP owners, and you could say, "well we'll just change he name", to late because you've already revealed the idea source.

2) We already have self destruct, the ship explodes, if you want something like that just increase the blast radius of self destruct and make it instant, no more countdown.

I am against stealing things from other shows/games unless it's a common sci-fi theme, wormholes, things like that. There's enough breadth in the ED lore and universe to supply a lot of entertainment, why blatantly steal other peoples ideas?

 

[Lucifera Danzig]

[*]Cloaking device - reduces the sensor signature of the ship (probably better to restrict this to specific ships with a module slot that allows it)

We have this already. It's called "silent running," along with engineering blueprints to reduce our heat signature further. I have a DBS that runs so cold silent running can't make it less visible.


[*]Sensor scrambler - Reduces the sensor range of all nearby non-wingmates. The ship with the scrambler can be highlighted as an attacker.

See: Chaff and ECM modules


[*]Shield Optimizer - Increases nearby wingmates shields by a percentage

See: Regeneration Sequence on beam weapons.


[*]Corbomite - A revenge module that causes your ship to detonate when destroyed, reducing loot dropped and damaging nearby ships. Won't activate near stations.

Griefer tool extraordinaire, and last I knew there is no loot when a player ship explodes. (Unless this changed recently?)


[*]Weapon: capacitor drain - either a beam weapon or an EMP-type device that drains the capacitor of other ships. Capacitor recharges normally, perhaps after a short delay.

Thargoids have this currently.

If there's an idea for a module that fills a void currently not covered, I'm all for it, but I don't think these are it.