Miner ideas

posted on May 16th, 2010, 8:23 pm

ok here's a couple thoughts i had when i should have been revising/sleeping/fearing chuck norris

1) we all know and love that the topmey can shrug off its cargo pods and fight. how about the other races can do something similar. of course they still wouldn't have weapons, but they could throw off the cargo pods and become slightly faster so they can run and hide better maybe defence will increase because the shields have a smaller area to protect. and if they make it to a yard they can repair to get their pods back.

if a cost needs to be assigned to this, which is reasonable it could be done as thus:

you click the button and a replaceweapon removes the miner's pods and disables the weapons subsystem. this new miner that was just created has really slow subsystem repair so the weapon subsystem can't repair. when it gets to a yard and repairs obviously it's subsystems are restored. allowing it to use a replaceweapon that was tied to the weapon subsystem, this replaceweapon is only for the miner without pods. this replaceweapon when clicked will replace the miner with an original configuration miner, but for a small supply cost, to cover the new pods.

2) give miners a defence/speed boost when an allied combat ship is nearby.

when a miner is attacked the captain may give up and accept his doom. but if a friendly escort is nearby the captain would be less likely to give up and might transfer power to the engines/shields or think of a clever way to help survive.

this could be restricted to certain classes of ship, the defiant class escort for the feds is an example.

posted on May 17th, 2010, 5:40 am

Hrm.  #2 just gave me an idea.

The iconic ships for each race (even Borg) could project a small AoE boost to the rest of their fleet.  And I do mean small, and non-stacking.

Feds - Galaxy/Sovereign - A small boost to torpedo accuracy, as the tactical crews are inspired by the presence of such vessels.

Romulans - D'deridex - A small boost to special weapons energy recharge rate, as the symbol of Romulan power drives the crew to give everything they have.

Klingons - Vor'cha/Negh'var - A small boost to subsystem repair, as the crews refuse to show weakness before such glorious warriors.

Dominion - V-13/Breen Battleship - A small boost to rate of fire, as the presence of such vessels emphasizes to the crews the importance the Founders place upon this battle.

Borg - Cube - Resource allocation high.  Collective priority recognized.  Tactical Drones authorized.  (A small increase to boarding strength.)

By small, I'm thinking in the neighborhood of 1 or 2 percent.  Perhaps enough to turn the table of a close fight, in a way that emphasizes something of the race in question, and encourages the use of certain ships (even though most of those ships get used all the time anyway).

posted on May 17th, 2010, 7:11 am

Ahem ...

@ the Original Idea:

  I think the idea of coming up with new ways for the other race's miners to be unique is a cool idea.  I did, however, feel that each race has it's own method of compensating:

Klingons - Freighters become weak fighting vessels.

Romulans - Freighters build incredibly quick and are the fastest movers (if I'm not mistaken).  Can all be cloaked by the Cloaking Generator.

Federation - Can always be protected by the "fastest to put up given it's strength" turrets in the game.  1 phaser turret can effectively deter raids, thus the ships have no special abilties.

Borg - Miners are extremely sturdy to the point that minor raids are almost pointless.

Dominion - Freighters are extremely versatile and can be replaced by other builders that are nearby. 


  So I don't know for sure if this is what you were getting at, but that's how I see the Klingon freighters.  Their ability to jump into combat and fight is part of a race-unique way of handling their economy.  Each race just does it differently .

[Dominus_Noctis]

posted on May 17th, 2010, 12:41 pm

Last edited by Dominus_Noctis on May 17th, 2010, 12:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Don't forget (slight) differences due to size (which effects pulse damage etc).

Hm, I think the freighters are pretty distinct from each other at the moment, but some other ways of making them more unique wouldn't be unwelcome... though I'm not incredibly fond of any of those ideas, even if I don't think I can come up with any better ones   

Maybe Federation Freighters can get a "lockdown" mode? All power to the shields, all hatches closed, all mining drills retract! Defensive value boosted by 5, movement speed becomes zero - lasts for ... I don't know... 20 seconds? Just enough time for your troops to get there or something (hey, the Mandril crew lost their sensors too, so they don't want to stay locked down forever).

I think Romulan, Dominion, Klingon, and Borg miners are already unique enough in my opinion - maybe Borg miners could become a bit more "cool", but not sure on that. 

EDIT: Romulan freighters have the same movement speed as all the other ones - Borg ones move the fastest. Federation construction vessels move the fastest too.

posted on May 17th, 2010, 1:09 pm

some interessting idea, i will note them down and think about them 

posted on May 20th, 2010, 12:01 am

I have an Idea for mining but not for the miners themselves but for the mining stations.

I think it would be nice if mining stations came equiped or could be upgraded with probes and or scout vessels that were not under player control. The benfit of this is that you could have an extended sensor range to ur mining station which can be handy for when u dont have your turrent up yet. Basicly like a early warning system. and maybe make the drones/probes/scouts targetable so that without proper micromanaging enemy ships will fire on the probes/scouts/drones first before the miners or mining station...

Another Idea I had was to have a researchable technology that could enhance mining rates and offloading times and then incorperate that into a upgrade possibly for the station or miners.

posted on May 20th, 2010, 12:11 am

hmm what about an ability for feds where the mining station could extend its sheilds for a time over the freighters, could be anywhere from 5-15 seconds, but the defense of the mining station wouldnt be so good....

or maybe feds could get a point defense special, to shoot down some torps....

posted on May 20th, 2010, 2:44 am

Bascially federation miners are unique in the fact that they are ordinary.

hmm what about an ability for feds where the mining station could extend its sheilds for a time over the freighters, could be anywhere from 5-15 seconds, but the defense of the mining station wouldnt be so good....

Thats a good idea IMO, they could either have a togglable special that triples the range of the shields (3 is just what i was thinking would be about right) and havles the shield strength of the station. or it could cost special weapon energy.

posted on May 20th, 2010, 2:51 am

I like the extended shields idea. Since that's a seemingly standard feature of ships, stations with much more power available should easily be able to handle it.

Instead of costing energy, it should weaken the shield a bit. I'm sure extending shields reduces their efficiency, either because of the increased power requirement or because the generators are putting them out in a way they weren't originally intended.

posted on May 20th, 2010, 4:01 am

What if the Romulans or the Federation could research a special similar to the phase plates allowing them to take less damage from a certain type of weapon for a small amount of time?

posted on May 20th, 2010, 6:10 am

i was just thinking, for any freighter it would be useless to have any temp boost in ability when a blue assimilation beam or green beam hits each ship, especially if these ships already got engine damage, they would become floating wreckage for a short time until whatever is left of the crew repairs the system, the polaron field is also just as good, i also doubt the arguement with the phaser turret as well, a phaser turret can only be placed in such a position and only has so much attack strength and shields. if one of those raiders turns out to be a heavy cruiser with arty range, it wont give that turret an advantage as the phaser turret only fires at long range.