Flexible Specials for Feds

[Boggz]

posted on December 10th, 2009, 2:03 am

Last edited by Boggz on December 10th, 2009, 7:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

EDIT: Ok so I'm going to adjust some of the abilities to reflect ideas that have come up.

To begin with I'd like to say that these ideas are for a patch following the next.  I know that major changes to all races and factions have been and are being implemented.  But I think these suggestions I'll make will be excellent specials to have that will bring uniqueness to each and every Federation ship.

SUGGESTION:
  Alter the special abilities of the Warp-in ships to give each a more specialized and unique function - as I feel right now they tend to be used as easily-replaceable cannon fodder early on.

The ships I'd like to suggest new specials for are:

• Saber (both avatars)
  
• Excelsior I
• Nebula
• Galaxy

  I really enjoy the specials on the other vessels and look forward to seeing what is done with the Canaveral especially.  I do believe though that the Warp-ins are merely ships with damage numbers at the moment.  Let's spice them up and give each one a unique role it can fill!
REASON:
  The Romulan theme is built around stealth, quick-strikes, and refits.
  The Federation should be centered around it's defense and flexibility.
  The Federation is notorious for defense and all-around flexibility in battle situations.  I think these abilities should reflect that beyond simple damage-addition abilities.
EXAMPLE IN-GAME NOW:
  The Saber!  The lovely little Saber right now has a toggle-able ability that re-adjusts it's distribution of power based on what you need at the moment.  This is a quintessentially Federation ability.  The ability to be flexible!  When you need more speed to control an engagement or speed to the rescue you can activate hyper-impulse at the cost of offensive power.  When you really need to destroy a target quickly you turn it off and add the added power back to your phasers.



Alright so let's see what I've come up with!



[align=center]SABER[/align]
  I very much like the Saber we have right now.  HOWEVER, it is a notorious kiter and the Devs have said that kiters are going to be prevented from exploiting this.  Sabers should remain very fast vessels able to respond to emergency situations, patrol the edges of space, and dual other destroyers.
  What we have seen in First Contact though is that the Sabers are in fact outfitted with photon torpedo launchers.  I suggest that Sabers have Hyper-Impulse removed and be given instead a flat speed that is conducive to it's function for 3.0.8 and be given an extra torpedo as a toggle-ability.

Torpedo Launchers (Online)

• + 2 to Offensive Value
  (Torpedo strength is on par with the B'rel torpedo that Taq's B'rels receive)
• Torpedoes are forward-firing only
HOWEVER

• Weapon range reduced to Medium while active
OR

• Vessel speed reduced to "X" while active
OR

• - 2 to Defensive Value

  Thus the Saber is able to adjust it's tactics as needed to do a small amount of extra damage (in torpedo form of course) by sacrificing part of it's other values.  This will give the Saber the ability to engage larger targets like Cruisers while still managing to avoid the Cruiser's torpedoes and/or pulse weapons.
  I personally like the idea that it's range is reduced to medium to prevent kiting.  Also having this extra firepower forward firing only will encourage a direct assault and then a retreat as opposed to kiting.


[align=center]EXCELSIOR[/align]
  The Excelsior Warp-in is usually the most frequent warp-in and is an excellent ship in it's own right.  It's fast, it's armed well for a destroyer, and has essentially Cruiser stats with a total equal to Kvorts or S-2's.  Right now it's special ability is firing extra photon torpedoes with it's special Energy.  You may not have noticed because there's a bug that causes the extra torpedoes to all fire at once.
  The Excelsior was referred to in the movies as "a fast ship" and was outfitted with the experimental transwarp drive.  When it's hit by Chang in ST: VI it seems to be and be regarded as more fragile than the Enterprise.  As it's a very fast destroyer already, I'd like to keep within that theme.  It's the fast destroyer in the Warp-in!

Hyper-Impulse Drive:

• Speed increased by "X"
HOWEVER

• Phasers (or) Torpedoes go offline to provide extra power to the engines
OR

• Defensive Value reduced by "X" while Drive is active

  Taking over for the Saber's Hyper-Impulse, the Excelsior utilizes it's great speed to accomplish it's function: emergency warp-in support.  It can quickly run to the aid of ships or stations in need, but to maintain that extra power to the engines the phaser banks (or ) torpedo launchers donate their power.  Thus the Excelsior can fulfill it's role by putting out fires where and when they pop up, but cannot do so as effectively if the ability is used recklessly.


[align=center]NEBULA[/align]
  I have always liked the Nebula as well.  It was featured just enough in the shows to make it familiar and still remained kind of mysterious.  It always seemed to be the little brother to the Galaxy Class.  Our current Nebula is alone amongst the warp-ins by having a special ability that is not-combat based.  It feels more like a "science vessel" for that reason.

Tachyon Scan: (Some form of Cloak Detect - depending on how that works in 3.0.8

Weapon Pods:

• Toggle ability.   DPS remains the same, but ordinance type changes.
• (Active) Pulse Phasers
• (Inactive) Photon Torpedoes

Starfleet Engineers:

• Single target - friendly vessel
• Subsystems and hull repair rates of affected vessel are greatly increased.  Perhaps Subsystems become invulnerable for a short period?
HOWEVER

• Effect is not as great as Akira's Defensive patterns but enough to quickly repair a vessel that has lost it's engines (like we aaaaall know happens ...) and not as fast as the Newton's repair beam.
• NOTE:  This ability is very similar to the Vanilla Armada 1 ability the Nebula had called the same name.  It, however, also set the target's shields back to 50% of full instantly ... a little busted for flops.


  The Weapon Pods ability will be a perfect example of the kind of flexibility I mean.  While keeping the same DPS, the Nebula can adjust the weapons loaded and active in it's upper structure to best handle the situation at hand.  If it is fighting destroyers the Pulse Phasers will not miss and will do full damage.  If, on the other hand, it's fighting Battleships or stations it can reload it's Pod to fire Photon torpedoes in place of the Pulse Phasers.  The torpedoes will always hit the station or battleship.  If you're against Cruisers, you have the choice of doing 80% damage with pulse phasers but always hitting, or doing full damage but only hitting 80% of the time with torpedoes.  The same either way.


[align=center]GALAXY[/align]
Yay!  How much do we all love the Galaxy?  Many want it to be a buildable ship, many want it to remain as it is, and many just want it to feel a little more like the jack-of-all-trades exploration-turned-warship vessel that it is.

Starfleet Delegation or Starfleet Field Officers:
"Starfleet emergency Command personnel spread out to strengthen the fleet.  Thus the Galaxy's Experienced Officers can be dispersed to other ships to strengthen the fleet."

• The Galaxy transfers once of it's ranks to another vessel of inferior strength.  The receiving vessel cannot gain Rank 4 or beyond in this manner.
• NOTE:  After discussion, it would seem better that this be perhaps a Veteran ability or at least Rank 4 ability and have a timer much like the Descent's Shield Reset.  I also think that a small supply cost would be beneificial (3 or so seems appropraite)

Type 3 Torpedoes:
Same as the current torpedoes, though a staggered visual effect would be more realistic.  I know this is possible as the Mayson Torpedo Turret has just this ability only it's just standard.  I think it would make more sense to have the torpedoes comes out 1 at a time in quick succession rather than all at once.
NOTE:  Dominus pointed out several episodes of TNG that show the Enterprise firing 3 torpedoes at exactly the same time.  Thus I stand to accept this manner.  But I won't take it down

  The Galaxy was the largest vessel Starfleet had to field at the time of TNG and the beginning of DS9.  With Sovereigns fulfilling an uncertain role the Galaxies undoubtedly took their place as Command Ships and "Heavy Muscle" vessels until equally strong and more economical vessels like the Excelsior II and Sovereign became available in larger numbers.  Thus the Galaxy's that will be warping in are emergency battleships arrived to bolster the smaller buildable vessels and provide heavy torpedo damage.
  I also think the Galaxy would be a good candidate for Starfleet Field Officers as it's a Command vessel and we've seen instances where the enterprise (granted it's a "vet" vessel for game's sake) did just that - distribute it's officers to other vessels for a mission.

posted on December 10th, 2009, 4:05 am

wow i pretty much agree with everything you have said its some really good ideas.

posted on December 10th, 2009, 4:54 am

And I thought I wrote long posts.

I know that while the Saber is getting a speed reduction, the hyper impulse engine will make it almost as fast as the monsoon, so it will still be able to fly fast.  Not a bad idea.  So long as the torpedoes were forward firing, so the ship had to face its target to use them.

If the excelsior got the hyper impulse engine, I would want something something a little more negative to happen to it.  Like it taking hull damage while active.  (Fly her apart then! )  Otherwise there's no consequence and it can outrun any non-interceptor.

I definitely like the nebula too, and would love to see its special become a mobile tachyon ping ability, like the talon will be.  No research involved, but it's randomly given and you lose out on offense, just like now.

The Galaxy idea is interesting.  One flaw I see is what if the galaxy is rank 4 (officer level), and gives away a rank to a lesser vessel (saber), then it loses its free warp in status.  If you're maxed out on warp ins, then there's a problem. Even if you cap the galaxy to only be able to give away rank if it only has silvers, the whole point of your warp ins is to get them gold bars so that you can have more free ships.  You could do something similar to what you're suggesting by adding a power like vector calculation to the Galaxy.  In fact, back in 3PR days, that's the special it had.  That way it gives a similar boost and then the ships lose it because the officers were only "temporarily assigned".  It doesn't have to be vector calc, but something similar.

What about a repair team?  If you're not sporting costly repair ships, then fixing the life support on a ship is a real pain.  It would be nice if life support and engine repair rate could be given a boost by a Galaxy special.  We've seen the Enterprise transfer power to Romulan ships and others to get them working again.  This way a saber that's lost life support can actually make it back to the yards.

I like the torpedo aesthetic.  It would be the same as what we have, but the effect would look like burst fire.

posted on December 10th, 2009, 5:05 am

for the galaxy instead of transfers once of its ranks to a vessel of inferior strength, it usees supplies to adds on the rank of a vessel of inferior strength and the galaxy keeps its rank

posted on December 10th, 2009, 5:09 am

That could work.  I was also thinking of a cap.  You don't want to be able to do that an unlimited amount of times.  It would be like the spider mines from starcraft.  In this case, you would get to upgrade only 1 or 2 ships per Galaxy, and then no more.  I would rather have it restricted to unupgraded ships or ships with only 1 silver, as they're the least experienced.  I don't think it would do well to be able to give someone instant officer ability if they're close to it.  But that is one way you could make the idea work.

posted on December 10th, 2009, 5:13 am

And I thought I wrote long posts.

I know that while the Saber is getting a speed reduction, the hyper impulse engine will make it almost as fast as the monsoon, so it will still be able to fly fast.  Not a bad idea.  So long as the torpedoes were forward firing, so the ship had to face its target to use them.

If the excelsior got the hyper impulse engine, I would want something something a little more negative to happen to it.  Like it taking hull damage while active.  (Fly her apart then! )  Otherwise there's no consequence and it can outrun any non-interceptor.

I definitely like the nebula too, and would love to see its special become a mobile tachyon ping ability, like the talon will be.  No research involved, but it's randomly given and you lose out on offense, just like now.

The Galaxy idea is interesting.  One flaw I see is what if the galaxy is rank 4 (officer level), and gives away a rank to a lesser vessel (saber), then it loses its free warp in status.  If you're maxed out on warp ins, then there's a problem. Even if you cap the galaxy to only be able to give away rank if it only has silvers, the whole point of your warp ins is to get them gold bars so that you can have more free ships.  You could do something similar to what you're suggesting by adding a power like vector calculation to the Galaxy.  In fact, back in 3PR days, that's the special it had.  That way it gives a similar boost and then the ships lose it because the officers were only "temporarily assigned".  It doesn't have to be vector calc, but something similar.

What about a repair team?  If you're not sporting costly repair ships, then fixing the life support on a ship is a real pain.  It would be nice if life support and engine repair rate could be given a boost by a Galaxy special.  We've seen the Enterprise transfer power to Romulan ships and others to get them working again.  This way a saber that's lost life support can actually make it back to the yards.

I like the torpedo aesthetic.  It would be the same as what we have, but the effect would look like burst fire.

Oh Mal you actually read my mind on the repair team idea.  One of my first thoughts for the Nebula was to have a repair system of some kind that would affect a friendly vessel.  To be honest the only reason I didn't put it in there was because I forgot (I played a game while this topic was left half-finished ).  I think the Nebula is really the little-brother to the Galaxy and that the Nebula is the more support version while the Galaxy is the front-liner.

  I think in my A1 mod I had essentially made the nebula into a fighting vessel designed to back up front-line warships.  I like the idea of it being a more than capable fighter of a large size but being geared towards fleet actions.

  I had considered what would happen if the vessel dispensing ranks got ranked up itself and how that might really be a negative thing that people wouldn't want to do.  Who wants to drop from 2 gold to 1 or from 1 gold to 2 silver?  Nobody.  However, I thought the idea of dispensing ranks slowly (hence the idea of "giving" ranks away) would keep it from loading up vessels with valuable ranks.  I think that, as an Officer or MAYBE even a Vet ability it could simply grant a rank without losing one of it's own.  The downside would most likely need to be something like a supply cost and a timer like the Descent's Shield Reset.  That way the granting of ranks would not be something you could use to turn your Akira's into the veteran monsters they are or your Allie's Sang's into the flak-wielding bastards they are.

  Anyway, the Excelsior wouldn't need to receive damage (think about how pissed off you'd be if you forgot and it just died?) because I proposed that it's weapons be essentially halved of it's power.  I would really say turn the phasers off and let it only fire torpedoes seeing as in the early game they are likely to miss most opponents vessels and therefore be a major tradeoff for the speed increase.

 Oh, and yeah I would request that the secondary torpedoes for the Saber be forward-firing only  :thumbsup:

posted on December 10th, 2009, 5:50 am

the galaxy would have limites on what ships it can use the special on an exmaple a single gold rank up silver but not up to a single gold, the double gold would rank up anything up to a single gold, the vet would rank up anything but the double gold to a vet

posted on December 10th, 2009, 6:02 am

the galaxy would have limites on what ships it can use the special on an exmaple a single gold rank up silver but not up to a single gold, the double gold would rank up anything up to a single gold, the vet would rank up anything but the double gold to a vet

Erm to be honest I think it's best not to allow anything to be ranked up to lvl 4 or higher (one gold bar).  Like I said in the original post rank 4 is where ships get the beginnings of their new abilities and become distinctly more powerful than they were with silver only.

  Also- the logic behind the ability is that one of these ships gives an officer with experience to that smaller vessel.  If the ship already has a decent officer (rank 3 or 4) there would be no need to "give" an officer to them.  They would be fully capable of doing it themself.  That's a way to keep the ability realistic as well as gameplay-friendly.

posted on December 10th, 2009, 6:05 am

oh ok that make sense i just missed read something some how 

posted on December 10th, 2009, 6:33 am

What if it could give away one of its ranks? This method would have no caps but instead would allow you to give one rank to a lesser ranked ship in exchange for one of its own.

posted on December 10th, 2009, 6:56 am

What if it could give away one of its ranks? This method would have no caps but instead would allow you to give one rank to a lesser ranked ship in exchange for one of its own.

  Lol nobody is reading the actual posts are they? 

hahah the original idea I had was to do exactly that: have the Nebula or Galaxy "give" away one of it's ranks.  That would keep the idea from becoming broken by ranking up ships endlessly.  However there's really no sense behind a powerful ship making itself weaker to make a weak ship a little stronger.  The Vet Galaxy is much more useful than a number of small vessels.

  Seems as though we've decided that a better idea would be to have this ability as a Ranked special for the Nebula or Galaxy (I'm liking it for the Galaxy the most) and have it cost supplies along with having a timer.  This way it is still very useful but requires an investment and has a time delay like the Descent's shield reset.

I don't like caps 

posted on December 10th, 2009, 4:52 pm

I'll stay in the shadows like a good Romulan, but I quite like the ideas so far posted 

posted on December 10th, 2009, 6:41 pm

I'll stay in the shadows like a good Romulan, but I quite like the ideas so far posted 

Ride forth like a Klingon with your opinions and engage in glorious creative thinking, Dominus!  To Create-O-Kor!

posted on December 10th, 2009, 8:22 pm

Ah, the oft-neglected Klingon Scientist Caste.

posted on December 10th, 2009, 8:23 pm

Not neglected, the Klingons just won't admit they exist...