Minor Ascetic Question

posted on April 22nd, 2010, 5:17 pm

Are any more "shuttle traffic" models planned. I think it would be cool to see a workerbee flying about firing its repair beam at the station at random. Perhaps a few civilian ships could dock at the starbase and then warp out and a freighter hauling ore between the storage docks and the starbase. Anyway these are not esential to gameplay but it would be cool to see.

One other thing are escape pods planned as visual effect???

posted on April 22nd, 2010, 5:22 pm

Well, I would like escape pods to be an actual feature, blow up a ship, and the escape pods go for the nearest friendly base. This of course would occasionally recover supplies.

posted on April 22nd, 2010, 5:27 pm

why would they recover supplies?? they dont really have time to grab anything if the ships blowing up? i would prefer it to just happen sometimes.

posted on April 22nd, 2010, 5:30 pm

I would prefer the shuttle traffic to include actual Shuttles.

posted on April 22nd, 2010, 7:14 pm

what about runabouts

they could defend your base

posted on April 22nd, 2010, 7:36 pm

i could see ships randomly (but not constantly) have a chance to leave behind debris and/or escape pods that could be salvageable by a construction or salvage ship.  If they are successfully recovered, you are given a bonus of some kind.

posted on April 22nd, 2010, 7:47 pm

A bonus like a % chance of recovering that ships rank and adding it to the ship which recovers the pod (as a result, only military ships would really be able to recover a pod). For the Borg, they could gain a tiny replacement of crew (lets say 5 - pretty pointless but it's realistic).

posted on April 24th, 2010, 3:59 pm

Actually, that's not a bad idea about the shuttle traffic defending your base. Using the same principles as the Federation Carrier (the one with the Peregrine Fighters, I forgot the name) you could assign several small vessels to a station and have them defend.

posted on April 24th, 2010, 4:08 pm

That was already suggested, and I don't think the big names were too fond of the idea. Shuttles are normally unarmed and used for transport, anyway.

posted on April 25th, 2010, 6:22 pm

Not long ago I had put up an idea to have automated Runabouts (much like the Carrier Fighter mechanic) as a weapons upgrade for a Federation Starbase or similar station.


  I felt that would add a fun and unique way to put Runabouts in the game in a way that would be Fed-like and unique compared to the other races .

posted on April 25th, 2010, 6:31 pm

maybe we could replace the starbases second weapon upgrade with the runabouts. so the base itself doesnt get too strong, but gets 5 runabouts to help it.

posted on April 25th, 2010, 7:16 pm

Well, I would like escape pods to be an actual feature, blow up a ship, and the escape pods go for the nearest friendly base. This of course would occasionally recover supplies.

There's a problem with this.

On very large and asymmetric maps like Blue Amber, your opponent may have no clue where you just came from, and still be looking for you in order to mount a counter-raid.  Those pods flying to your base will give you away.  That matters on maps where more matters than purely how much firepower you can bring to bear.