The Klingons in V3

posted on January 21st, 2009, 7:28 pm

What about global combat bonuses? The more honour/bloodrage/whatevertheheckyouwanttocallit the more damage your ships do. The bonus would have to be VERY incrimental, though...I don't know...just a thought. Maybe the bonus could slowly go down if you're not fighting for a while. Like, example:

You begin, build your ships, send them out, right now you X rating is at 0. You find a convoy of ships, you start battling, and slowly as your ships pwn the other ones, your X rating increases, maybe to 5, which would give an offensive bonus of.... .5 to 1? I don't know. Several minutes later, your ships haven't been in combat, so the rating slowly starts to go down, back to 0 where there is no bonus anymore. I don't know..just an idea. Maybe more for V4...but we don't want to think of that right now, do we?

posted on January 22nd, 2009, 1:38 pm

Hmm, that could work, I guess.

For honour, another way could be to have every ship have a 'death chant' style weapon (but a really weak one), which gets a teensy bit more powerful with each experience rank... Just enough for a Lv5 ship to increase the offensive bonus by say 1, maybe 2... But then, a fleet of 16 Lv5 Vor'chas would be invincible!

posted on January 22nd, 2009, 2:09 pm

This sounds fantastic!

posted on January 22nd, 2009, 5:53 pm

I don't know if it'd fit thematically, but being able to "buy" resources at the Starbase with honor points would be an interesting mechanic.

posted on January 22nd, 2009, 7:14 pm

I think I kinda like the combat bonus more than being able to buy resources, I just think that it fits better with the race.

posted on January 22nd, 2009, 9:12 pm

interessting idea, noted down 

posted on January 23rd, 2009, 1:20 am

I think I kinda like the combat bonus more than being able to buy resources, I just think that it fits better with the race.

I certainly agree, but I expect combat bonuses to be far harder to balance.

posted on January 23rd, 2009, 1:22 am

Maybe just a small increase to rate of fire? In ship combat, the Klingons seem like the 'senseless beserker that hits anything moving' type of fighters.

posted on January 25th, 2009, 8:47 am

With the novels and the movies brought into it, the Klingons definately do research, but their research is the kind of thing that the Feds and even the Romulans shy away from. Everything, and I mean absolutely everything, for combat power, personal weaponry, ease of manufacture, and simplicity of design.

The work on everything from squeezing out another percent of energy yield from a torpedo, to cloaks that drain less power so they can fire while still cloaked.  Life support systems that when damaged continue to function (albeit poorly) until basically destroyed, drive systems that damned near have to be cut out of the hull before they'll quit propelling the ship...durability and firepower always advancing.  They even work on engine speed so that they can chase down cowards, or close to battle more quickly.

Their weak point scientifically is just that they pay only minimal concern to pure science unless they discover a potential combat application.  So their sensors are terrible for survey work, but can readily identify weak points in a target's hull.  They've put very, very, very little effort into recreational research, and nothing at all into purely benevolent technologies.  Their medical technology, for instance, is strange.  Incredibally advanced for treating injuries that aren't crippling, but startlingly vacant regarding methods of resuscitation, limb replacement, and organ replacement.  And basically no anesthesia either.  They can stop the bleeding, and have you back on your feet to fight some more in no time flat, but it's gonna hurt like hell, and don't ask them to do anything more for you.  Not only can't they, but they have no intention of fostering weakness like that either.

Rambling aside, There is one area of research that they are lacking that seems startling to me.  Troop technology.  They are the most avid hand-to-hand combatants in the Alpha quadrant, barring perhaps the Gorn.  Transporter research to let them send more troops at once, assault shuttles, 'Marines' (the Romulans and Borg have them, but not the Klingons?), and barring taking Martok, better troops.

posted on January 25th, 2009, 7:18 pm

You pinned down my exact thoughts on the Klingons in FO and I am very happy to see that the developers lent you an ear and approve some of the things you say.
However, I have one kind of "Off-Topic" question: how is it explained in canon, that the klingons use cloak since it is a "sneak up from behind" ability and that wouldn't be honorable at all. Anyone can enlighten me? Thank you!

posted on January 25th, 2009, 7:21 pm

I think Worf (or some other Klingon) once said "Nothing is more honorable than victory", or something to that effect. Cloak is used, by Klingons, for hit and run mainly.

posted on January 25th, 2009, 7:28 pm

Hm. But this "the end justifies the means"-thing that is almost explicitly mentioned in "nothing is more honorable than victory" sounds genuinely Romulan to me and could only be a satirical remark towards a Klingon. If "victory" was the own aspect to define your actions, why do the chose hand-to-hand-combat when it comes to defend their honor? I understand if you would like this thread to remain focussed on the game so I won't nag around here anymore .

posted on January 25th, 2009, 8:12 pm

It's a short answer, so I'll have a go at it.  Might give the devs an idea or something anyway.

A time-honored battlefield tactic to allow a small group of skilled warriors to defeat a large number of inferior foes is the ambush.  The sudden strike from surprise lets you break them before they can bring their numbers to bear.  Now, in the vastness of space, it's so easy to bypass an ambush it's not even funny.  Hide behind a moon?  We just cruise right on by the system.  In an asteroid belt?  Um...we're flying around that, thank you.  Don't want hit.  Not to mention that unless you're lurking inside something they aren't coming into anyway, Romulan and Federation sensors are doing to detect you pretty easily anyway, making an ambush useless.

Enter the cloaking device.  Ambush is possible again.  As is striking at supply trains when facing a superior foe to weaken them.

Realistically, the Klingons that aren't like the Duros should use the cloaking device to allow them to use tactics that normally aren't applicable in space thanks to sensor suites that scan for light years.

posted on January 25th, 2009, 10:30 pm

Um...just to point out, I remember hearing on one of the shows, and also in several books that the Klingons USED to have an alliance with the Romulans, which was secret. The Romulans then gave the Klingons the cloaking tech, which is why one, it's not very efficient, and two, only some of their ships have it (Though, that part I just threw in because A2 doesn't let all their ships cloak). I just remember reading in a book that that's where the Klingons got their tech, and they're not very happy about the alliance either.

posted on January 26th, 2009, 1:32 am

they're not very happy about the alliance either.

Wherever could that impression have come from...