[Suggestion] Allow SLFs to land - Enhancing their Physical Multi-Crew Potential

BlackMaze

BlackMaze
With Odyssey we are now able to physically board our friend's ship and take their SRV out for a spin (which wasn't possible before), on top of flying an SLF.

While driving the SRV around you can still get out and continue your journey on-foot.

I recommend to allow the same with the SLF. Essentially turning it into a drop pod. You can "deploy" the SLF, land it and continue on-foot if you want to. Expanding on the possibilities.

Note: The SLFs already have landing gear, which is visible in the livery selection screen. We just can't use it.

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FDEV let's do it! :)
 

VR Nupol

VR Nupol
Well technically all cmdr's are remote controlled Holo me's and are not real at all... We could all also be flying around space without a spacesuit...
 

JTFireblaze

J
BlackMaze said:
Same mechanics as the SRV would be perfect. Just pop back to ship upon death!
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From what I hear this is not the case in Odyssey any more...

But yes, if you die and your ship is still fine it should be a respawn point. It's much easier to die on foot/SRV/SLF than in a ship, the penalty for dying should reflect that.
 

Deleted member 115407

D
Not only this, but they also need to make it so the ship can land while the SLF is deployed.

Come one, FD. Let's finally get rid of these dumb rules and give the players some true freedom to operate.
 

fus roh potato

fus roh potato
It seems SLFs and AI crew were originally designed with their following multicrew update in mind, which was expected to present strong challenges against the possible functions of what player crew, AI crew, and SLF's could provide. I think this is what lead to glass cannon SLFs, telepresence, and some other strange rules that don't quite feel right.

Now that Odyssey has rolled in and rewritten what multicrew is, it's probably not a bad idea to consider changing SLFs and AI crew functions to live up to believable expectations.

Having player crew use your SLFs to land, explore, or infiltrate bases while also being a useful asset in combat would probably require: Increased shields, decreased DPS, the ability for a size 6 to launch 2 AI, a size 7 to launch 3 AI, less or no storage of extra SLFs (to work like SRVs), and of course the ability of the mothership to land, leave, and fly beyond 25km.

Might also be worth looking into what gameplay might be like if AI crew members were able to disembark with you... for higher difficulty missions that don't appear to really exist yet. Assuming of course Frontier intends on polishing and refining their game to gain any semblance of meaningful cosmetic/booster sales, making past design concepts consistent with new ones would help a lot.
 
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JTFireblaze

J
fus roh potato said:
It seems SLFs and AI crew were originally designed with their following multicrew update in mind, which was expected to present strong challenges against the possible functions of what player crew, AI crew, and SLF's could provide.

Now that Odyssey has rolled in and rewritten what multicrew is, it's probably not a bad idea to consider changing SLFs and AI crew functions to live up to believable expectations.

Having player crew use your SLFs to land, explore, or infiltrate bases while also being a useful asset in combat would probably require: Increased shields, decreased DPS, the ability for a size 6 to launch 2 AI, a size 7 to launch 3 AI, less or no storage of extra SLFs (to work like SRVs), and of course the ability of the mothership to land, leave, and fly beyond 25km.

Might also be worth looking into what gameplay might be like if AI crew members were able to disembark with you... for higher difficulty missions that don't appear to really exist yet. Assuming of course Frontier intends on polishing and refining their game to gain any semblance of meaningful cosmetic/booster sales.
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I think 3 fighters at once might be a bit much, but 2 is already possible. Either 2 player controlled, or 1 NPC and 1 player. I don't see (from a balance argument) why we shouldn't be able to do that, right now (other than technical issues). Making them tougher might upset the balance a little, so I think they're fine as are. Lightly armoured glass cannons.

Having motherships be dismissable like the SRV is the next logical step. I believe that a fighter should be able to deploy either:
  • "Remote" - as now, stay in range of the ship, instant respawn in mothership on destruction. Or
  • "Physical" - you're actually in the fighter, you can dismiss the mothership, when you blow up you get the rebuy screen (with the option to spawn in the mothership again like when an SRV was destroyed)

Now would it be that you could have 2 physical fighters out at once? I think you can do that with SRVs now, so why not... You and a buddy drop in to a planet in your big ship then both get into a fighter and scout around for some recon work while dismissing the mothership with your NPC pilot at the helm.

Your second point on having crew members follow you on the ground would be neat too. Maybe you could command them a bit. Say you brought a Maverick suit down, they could be ordered to "Cut panel" while you cover them. Not to mention just wandering around in a squad formation would feel pretty badass.
 

fus roh potato

fus roh potato
JTFireblaze said:
I think 3 fighters at once might be a bit much, but 2 is already possible. Either 2 player controlled, or 1 NPC and 1 player. I don't see (from a balance argument) why we shouldn't be able to do that, right now (other than technical issues). Making them tougher might upset the balance a little, so I think they're fine as are. Lightly armoured glass cannons.
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Alone, any change you make to the game can potentially upset the balance, but there are a LOT of things in this game that are very unbalanced and will remain so because the fear of such upsets have been inhibiting progress elsewhere. Most of what Elite needs to achieve balance are multilayered considerations because little can be done changing just one or two things. For example, instead of having a Corvette with 9 guns, slow turning, and 3 simultaneous SLFs in an environment with nerfed shield boosters, you have a ship that can launch 1 SLF at a time and has 7 guns, but turns unrealistically like a light fighter and an insane amount of shields and banks to make up for it's lack of firepower. Like what is it supposed to be? A more beefy medium fighter, or an offensive tactical platform with apparent strengths and weaknesses?

If you want to bring believability, immersion, and balance to a game, it takes some discipline drawing things out at every angle. Now that multicrew has been replaced with Odyssey, the SLF and AI crew systems remain a sloppy tacked on piece of content that don't fit the picture very well. Surely, in order to get them fully integrated into the new on-foot logic, Frontier would be wise to dig a little deeper into the game as a whole to make the entire landscape feel more fair and reasonable. I don't think that will be easy leaving SLFs as glass cannons because that glass cannon property doesn't bring anything to Elite's table over what's lost in multicrew when they'd send commanders to rebuy too easily and having this tacky telepresence concept remain.
 

Flippimonkey

Flippimonkey
Only if I can exit the SLF by having the canopy instantly whoosh open and my character flips out while igniting a light saber and immediately start fighting Qui Gon Gin.

I'm being serious. If you are going to do something, take it to the next level.
 
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