We need escape pods! (MediCorp)

aymerix · May 2, 2017

Hi CMDRs,

We belong to Wing Atlantis, MediCorp, Search & Rescue !

Our goal is to search and rescue pilots and passengers marooned on an escape pod, after their ship is destroyed.

We think it would be fun to launch such salvage operations to rescue missed-in-action pilots with our Medicorp T6s. Besides, we could provide a presence during the events and offer free rescue service to those who would need it.

In order to achieve this kind of mission, we would appreciate if escape pods could spawn each time a player or npc ship is destroyed. The escape pod could spawn just in the same way as the materials for the engineers. It would be great if we could get such an improvement in a further update of the game. No modification in respawn method is required. The only goal would be the pleasure to be able to grab escape pods in the middle of a conflict zone. Of course, some new features related to these esacpe pods could emerge in the future.

This request concerns not only our own gameplay: many players are interested in such missions, as evidenced by another topic https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/5qfo5w/gameplay_opportunity_from_escape_pods/.

In addition to this special gameplay induced by these missions, the realism of the game would be significantly improved.We would be so happy if you could tell us your opinion about our modest proposal.

All the best, Wing Atlantis Team // MediCorp, Search & Rescue!

Website: http://medicorp.wing-atlantis.fr
NEW : Medicorp website in english: http://medicorp.wing-atlantis.fr/en/medicorp-wa/

ZygoUgo · May 2, 2017

How will it work when the pods supposedly zap to the station, NPC's could spawn pods, but then you have a disparity issue...? Rescue missions could be spawned on the mission boards with co-ordinates of the pod's beacon, assuming the pod didn't function properly...?

EDIT; Sorry, I should have said I really like your proposal, but how exactly will this work?

VR Murgle · May 2, 2017

I was just thinking about something similar as I was flying through a debris field watching rescue one, rescue two, three and four scanning because "People will want to know what happened here." It's a great idea, love to see it in game.

Robert Maynard · May 2, 2017

Why would a player ship (with only the player onboard) drop an escape pod? The player's pod would be long gone - as I doubt that Frontier would consider letting players scoop players pods....

Arkku · May 2, 2017

ZygoUgo said:
How will it work when the pods supposedly zap to the station, NPC's could spawn pods, but then you have a disparity issue...? Rescue missions could be spawned on the mission boards with co-ordinates of the pod's beacon, assuming the pod didn't function properly...?

EDIT; Sorry, I should have said I really like your proposal, but how exactly will this work?

Well, normally they take your pre-programmed clone out of the freezer at the last station you were in, so if someone also rescues your pod then there will be two of you and the other one becomes an NPC hunting you down to get "their" ships back. Maybe one day you try to fetch a stored ship only to find out your previous clone has stolen it by impersonating themselves, and is now accumulating bounties for you all over the galaxy.

Robert Maynard · May 2, 2017

Arkku said:
Well, normally they take your pre-programmed clone out of the freezer at the last station you were in, so if someone also rescues your pod then there will be two of you and the other one becomes an NPC hunting you down to get "their" ships back. Maybe one day you try to fetch a stored ship only to find out your previous clone has stolen it by impersonating themselves, and is now accumulating bounties for you all over the galaxy.

This isn't the game with clones....

ZygoUgo · May 2, 2017

As far as I can see this would only really work with malfunctioned pods, which could appear occaisionally from an NPC exploding, also in some wreckage USS's, and mission boards. That would keep it beleivable. Crash site POI's with escape pods could simply be renamed as 'Malfunctioned Escape Pod'. This would tie them together.
I also wonder why no cargo pods ever survive.

{SAS}Stalker · May 3, 2017

Robert Maynard said:
Why would a player ship (with only the player onboard) drop an escape pod? The player's pod would be long gone - as I doubt that Frontier would consider letting players scoop players pods....

Think of the possibilities....

X-Terminator · May 3, 2017

Just so you know I added the Rescue Idea in my list: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...as-regular-updates-or-be-our-next-release-2-4

krylite · May 3, 2017

This is a great idea. I'm all for it. One way it could be done is have the spawned escape pod id to the player whose ship blew up. Then the player later on notified when their escape pod was rescued which isn't all that involved but could set up a framework for future expansion. With spacelegs in the future a scenario could be played out where the player could choose to have an instant rebuy which would assume an an automatic rescue by someone possibly an npc run rescue mission, or choose to wait for a player response to hear the remlock sos. Perhaps the sos could even reach out across multiple systems like a 30ly bubble range. And a reward for waiting could be less insurance cost for rebuy. Or I recall someone mentioning, resucing an npc pod could gain a npc crew member.

drzdeano · May 3, 2017

Id love to see a trade/bounty cg, get some cmdrs around

Then have the station explode, killing several commanders but spewing forth waves of escape pods

For the updated cg of course

Sonof Hibachi · May 3, 2017

Hibachi thinks the OP is righteous, and will put his spare coppers in the Medicorp charity pot on the pub bar. However, can't see it happening any time soon.

Robert Maynard · May 3, 2017

{SAS}Stalker said:
Think of the possibilities....

Yup. Stuck in the hold of a ship and the player is heading for Beagle Point....

Zeeman · May 3, 2017

I'd actually like to see escape pods, and it being (like the original) essential to eject in time to get to the re-buy screen. Much salt, yes... But, Far more interesting.

Z...

matdalltac · May 3, 2017

Robert Maynard said:
Yup. Stuck in the hold of a ship and the player is heading for Beagle Point....

If you read well :

No modification in respawn method is required

So, for the destroyed player. Boom, destruction screen and restart at the last visited station (like now)
for the rescuers, pods for each ship destroyed.

But we can imagine many possibilities with the pods recuperations :
- if a player pods is saved a percentage of its bounty and exploration data, which it had during its destruction, returns to his owner. the other part in the rescuer.
- In a station, criminal's pod would be exchange for its bounty (more a bonus because it is alive)
A normal pod, a reward for the rescue
And in a black market, resell pods as slave (Yes, I also think of the pirates)

Yes and there are some more other possibilities (war, tip off mission, ...)

FoxTwo · May 3, 2017

I used to scoop escape pods back in the old 1984 Elite, and sell 'em all off as slaves

Of course I only did that to pirates.

Arkku · May 3, 2017

Robert Maynard said:
This isn't the game with clones....

What, Paranoia RPG? …I honestly don't know what game you are talking about (although I would guess EVE, which I haven't played). =)

But yeah, admittedly the clone-in-freezer thing doesn't make any sense either, since you would have to transport that clone with you when you go to dock at a different station. So its more likely that the insurance company's nanobot army builds both the commander and the ship on demand, for it to be ~instantly available at the previously docked station no matter how far from it they died. Still, if it turns out the original survived, the on-demand clone could still cause issues.

aymerix · May 3, 2017

The first stape for me is (not necessary easy to create for the dev'): 1 player ship destuction = 1 POD

matdalltac said:
If you read well :

So, for the destroyed player. Boom, destruction screen and restart at the last visited station (like now)
for the rescuers, pods for each ship destroyed.

Exacly, that's the first step. No new feature right now (in mission or CG), only a new gameplay opportunity for the "Medics CMDR". Actually when a ship is destroyed, you have no POD, no corpse, etc... I found it very strange.

Step 2: news features, missions, GS etc. (and a big big thread on the forum

)

X-Terminator said:
Just so you know I added the Rescue Idea in my list: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...as-regular-updates-or-be-our-next-release-2-4

A very big thank you for that!

dukrous · May 4, 2017

aymerix said:
Exacly, that's the first step. No new feature right now (in mission or CG), only a new gameplay opportunity for the "Medics CMDR". Actually when a ship is destroyed, you have no POD, no corpse, etc... I found it very strange.

You do have a new feature here, and it's a doozy. If they're the only player in that instance, the instance is destroyed upon respawn. So now you would need to hold instances in memory with the possibility that someone else comes along and needs an item in that instance. The server side requirements are now vastly increased and you would be holding on to a lot of instances (even if they went into a pause mode, you would need to save the location data for every entity) with a lot of data that might never be used. I shudder to think how much server load this would create, especially when trying to sync up to the right instance where there is no player considering how much of an issue we have for instancing now with active players.

Technically, I just don't think this is something to be considered for such a narrow gameplay feature.

aymerix · May 4, 2017

I understands. However it already materials which appear when a PNJ ship is destroyed. Well, how is it diffrent?