Can/Should re-crew be added to troop ships?

posted on October 19th, 2009, 4:25 am

Tyler's idea of keeping the shields up during transport for troop ships like the B-8 War Frigate and the Vupta is awesome, and I would love to see it added.  I have another idea I wanted to put out there.  Should troop ships be able to re-crew like a station, or like the Tavara?

One of the big changes that happened in 3.6 was most vessels saw a sizable cost increase.  This happened to the B-8 for sure (it's long ranged torpedo is 360 degrees), and I think it happened to the vupta as well.  Since there aren't as many ships to play with now as there was then, there never seems to be enough funds to justify building enough troop ships to actually take over anything.  It seems more effective just to take the large fleet I have and beam hundreds over in a few seconds, rather than wait on 1 or 2 troop ships to take something over, and possibly running out of crew to do it.

Right now, I never see troop transports being used, and I think it's a great gameplay feature I would like to see more of.

So let me know if you like it, and please share your other ideas on how to make troopships something we see more of!

posted on October 19th, 2009, 4:50 am

I think this is a good idea for SOME ships.  Maybe just special ships of all races?  idk.  I like the ability on all Borg ships....but obviously I am a Borg player (for the most part).  The one thing I will suggest is adding the recrew ability to all Borg assimilated ships.  But I think some troop ships or heavy destroyers should have a recrew type ability.  I know the Tavara does but idk about any other vessels.

posted on October 19th, 2009, 6:25 am

I completely agree. Right now there is no reason to use troop ships for their purpose. Lowering shields in combat is not an option so you will never use their tactic the way its meant to be used. "Transport Assault" should be a research option that allows you to transport without lowering your own shields (the other ship still would need their shields down). I don't see re crew as a possibility...maybe as another research option but not by default, a different approach would be to increase the crew capacity on transport ships even more.

Bottom line, troops transports need to be changed or they will never be used the way they were meant to be used.

posted on October 19th, 2009, 6:55 am

Actually..to make it balanced.  I would suggest a special power for it.  Something like, modulate transporters to shield frequency.  That way it doesn't over power.  So it can still go through the shields.

posted on October 19th, 2009, 8:23 am

Just to clarify, These are two seperate ideas.  I should have provided a link to Tyler's thread, so here it is.

//www.fleetops.net/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,3/topic,6020.0/

He's created a troopship for the Klingons that has keeps its shields up.  Optec has already responded to this, and I would bet good money that it goes into a future patch, because it's a great idea.  Troopships are already balanced as attempting to spam them is cost prohibitive.  They cost considerably more than a vessel with similar stats, so you won't be making a fleet of them anytime soon.

I'm suggesting adding the recrew, because I think it would help troopships even more.  I really like the idea of being able to take over ships and stations, instead of feeling like I have to blow them up all the time because of inadequate crew.  But I also want to hear other people's ideas!

posted on October 19th, 2009, 12:34 pm

To add a recrew ability to the Troop vessels can have its problems, first and foremost... it causes an imbalance issue. The imbalance is that if they were low on crew, they can easily have the vessel slip away from the frontlines, recrew, and then come back in. This would easily be a problem because as long as the ship has a good amount of crew... it can repair faster. Also I think that recrew should be solely for Borg, and for vessels with extremely large crews, and stations of course.

posted on October 19th, 2009, 1:10 pm

I advocate for Combat transporters in troop ships to deliver more crew than normal transporters, but you still need to deplete the shields before doing so. The only canon transporter that ignores shields is the Borg Holding Beam.

So, if the standard transporters in FO deliver 3 people at once, combat ones should drop 10-15. But both ships need to have shields down beforehand.

I understand the logic behind Tavara's recrewing like an station, but it's the only one that does so, outside the Borg. Not even the Dreadought recrews like a station, and it has more crew than the Tavara, 1100 versus 800, IIRC.

[Anonymous]

posted on October 19th, 2009, 1:41 pm

Last edited by Anonymous on October 19th, 2009, 4:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

To add a recrew ability to the Troop vessels can have its problems, first and foremost... it causes an imbalance issue. The imbalance is that if they were low on crew, they can easily have the vessel slip away from the frontlines, recrew, and then come back in. This would easily be a problem because as long as the ship has a good amount of crew... it can repair faster. Also I think that recrew should be solely for Borg, and for vessels with extremely large crews, and stations of course.

Gamer, I don't want to be rude, but i don't think you understand what balance is in this case. Troopships are underused at the moment because they are not worth it. Adding a recrew ability is not suddenly going to make them all-powerful, because while they are out of combat recrewing, they aren't fighting, which is just as advantage to your enemy as it is to you.
The difference in repair rates is irrelevant and negligible. I barely see my troopships get to even yellow crew, so it wouldn't be a massive "imbalance" as you call it.

I actually agree that recrewing troopships is a good idea, but I don't even think that will be enough to make them useful enough. If boarding party strength was increased a little, along with this and beaming through your own shields, it would be great (IMO)

posted on October 19th, 2009, 2:26 pm

Troopship with the ability to build crew out of nothing? I'd only put it on the Dominion one, their Transporters are advanced enough to make the recrew believable.

posted on October 19th, 2009, 3:16 pm

Well, I'm only talking about keeping the troopship's shields up, so it doesn't die.  You'd still have to take out the other person's shields.

posted on October 19th, 2009, 4:05 pm

Well, I'm only talking about keeping the troopship's shields up, so it doesn't die.  You'd still have to take out the other person's shields.

That is what I meant, I agree my post was misleading.

posted on October 19th, 2009, 5:13 pm

I'm not for or against the whole "recrew" idea, as that could be problematic: I think the shields up and more crew being transported would be a nicer way of making troop ships useful... or perhaps a combination of recrew and more crew being transported. More crew transported and constant recrew might be a little too powerful... but I don't really know  . I'd at least like to see more crew transported for second... otherwise troop ships really aren't troopships in my opinion... just vessels with abnormally large crew complements, which can't beam out fast enough  .

posted on October 19th, 2009, 5:34 pm

Yeah, changing the amount that can beam over might be better.  That's probably the biggest complaint, is that it takes forever for a troopship to take anything over.  So maybe Tyler's idea and faster beam in rate?  Like 3-4 times the normal rate?  A troopship would probably have more transporters.

[Tyler]

posted on October 19th, 2009, 5:43 pm

Last edited by Tyler on October 19th, 2009, 5:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Is it even possible to increase class-specific transporter size without a Boarding special weapon (which suits the Dominon better than the Romulans, by the way)?

I tried cpying the transporter size entry from 'RTS_CFG' into a ship and increasing the number and it was overruled by the global parameter.

posted on October 19th, 2009, 5:44 pm

I"m not sure... if that's not possible, maybe altering the speed of the transport for those units, or the strength of transport for that unit (that would be an artificial way of making it seem like there are more units being transported of course)?