Navigation \'rumours\' - my 2p

BadJelly · Post by **BadJelly** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 5:00 pm

Further to the comments in the last post about running off into space in a random direction in the hope of finding terra firma....

this is akin to the 'dead reckoning' technique in use before maritime longitude could be accurately worked out (and it's called 'dead' for a very good reason!) ie set off in a given direction and hope you find land before you run out of food or all die of scurvy or typhoid or dissentry (the list goes on).

on a more relevant slant - it might be nice to have 'rumours' of a more specific nature in the news console. ie that someone saw what looked like a system on heading xxx from location yyy. Could be inaccurate enough to still need some luck / skill but a better bet than blind guesswork.

Another option, could hints like this be offered during a trade request from AI? Some low level random chance that they'll offer info rather than goods? The price reflecting the accuracy, or the implicit value of the destination perhaps? Once you buy the item, the contents appear in the text part of the screen and get added to your nav log etc?

Would make it more beneficial to go to as many starports as possible and to not ignore trade requests?
Getting rumours from other mercs etc would not break the storyline / realism, but whether something like this could be implemented remains to be seen.

BJ

49rTbird · Post by **49rTbird** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 6:00 pm

BadJelly has a Cool idea.

Tempered · Post by **Tempered** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 9:59 pm

Originally posted by BadJelly
Further to the comments in the last post about running off into space in a random direction in the hope of finding terra firma....

this is akin to the 'dead reckoning' technique in use before maritime longitude could be accurately worked out (and it's called 'dead' for a very good reason!) ie set off in a given direction and hope you find land before you run out of food or all die of scurvy or typhoid or dissentry (the list goes on).

on a more relevant slant - it might be nice to have 'rumours' of a more specific nature in the news console. ie that someone saw what looked like a system on heading xxx from location yyy. Could be inaccurate enough to still need some luck / skill but a better bet than blind guesswork.

Another option, could hints like this be offered during a trade request from AI? Some low level random chance that they'll offer info rather than goods? The price reflecting the accuracy, or the implicit value of the destination perhaps? Once you buy the item, the contents appear in the text part of the screen and get added to your nav log etc?

Would make it more beneficial to go to as many starports as possible and to not ignore trade requests?
Getting rumours from other mercs etc would not break the storyline / realism, but whether something like this could be implemented remains to be seen.

BJ

Now that's a good idea!

Tempered · Post by **Tempered** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 10:21 pm

Originally posted by Nigel_Strange
I dislike #1. I got 99 chaff and 8 missiles. Why mess with something that works?

The idea was to make tougher choices when outfitting a ship.
Oh yeah, the countless other players out there who want to add more "challenge" to the game by ruining currently functional ship specs.

Sorry if I sound like a broken record on these issues, but I don't want to make the game harder just for the sake of making it harder, more frustrating, more annoying, or more irrational.

More choices in loadout doesn't equate to more "challenge" in the game unless you make extremely poor load out choices. I don't see how this ruins ship specs, only adds more variety. Currentlty you have a bunch of missle frigates running around and thats about it.
Also, just to clarify, I didn't mean to suggest getting rid of the current load out of countermeasures, but rather adding the option to carry more or less. For it to be beneficial to carry less, they would have to be hardpoint mounted, thus freeing up a hardpoint for another missle, or fuel, or any other hardpoint using item. ideally you would add an additional "centerline" hardpoint if taking this approach to ship customization.

MMaggio · Post by **MMaggio** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 10:45 pm

I got to go along with you Tempered. I could imagine a ship with little or no sheilds, no guns or missiles, a few CM's, biggest engine the frame would allow, and "packed to the gills" with all the fuel it could possibly carry, just so it could make a fast run with some small preciuos cargo to some distant, far away system that's just barely accessible. Something taken from Sapphire to "god only knows where", might be very valuable if you go out far enough. It would be fun to see how far you could get.