My Ideas...

posted on April 19th, 2009, 7:38 pm

I have come up with a rather sizable list of ideas, an i thought i would share it with you guys. I'll post the, a race at a time so we have an opportunity to discuss my ideas in more depth than if i had posted them all at once. here's the federation stuff:
* Everyone right now is like "uh, i just ignore the sovvie because i can build better ships cheaper and it seems to be on the fence without enough offensive value to consider it an attacking battleship or enough defense to consider it to be a damage sink", so why not shift it more towards a defensive perspective? the feds have enough of an attacking edge (especially with using specials), so this seems like a good idea.
* Here are my thoughts on the platforms:
  * In my opinion, the stats could use some changing so that its like this:
    * Phaser platform - Artillery range, low damage and cheap
* Pulse platform - somewhere between long and medium range, medium damage
* Torpedo Platform - Short range, hard hitting, and expensive
* About the warp-in:
  * The general warp in vessels feel too... blah. Here's what i suggest:
    * Steamrunner: Remove the tricobalt torpedo and install an artillery range burst fire photon torpedo. Perhaps add High Resolution Targeting Systems? I know this is a controversial topic, but i see person after person complaining that they have no use for the steamrunner and that they just decom/blow up any that they get.
* Nebula: Add the Pulse Cannon Accelerator passive ability, which will momentarily repel a ship and disable its engines when a pulse cannon blast hits. Maybe drop the offensive value a few points? Either that, or turn it into a support vessel!
* Excelsior: Bump the defensive value 5 or so points, and cut the offensive value some. After all, the excelsior is seen as a durable (if somewhat outdated) cruiser, isn't it?
* Galaxy: This vessel is actually well built (all around good battlecruiser) so i dont think it needs change.
  * The descent's special really doesn't work that well, because you'll rarely see engagements in which more than one or two vessels are attacked at a time. I reccomend that it be replaced with a more passive shield enhancing ability, like one that increases shield regeneration of ships nearby
  * Also, i think that the whole setup of starfleet command should be reconfigured somewhat to allow you to either:
    request vessel (lets you get a single vessel of your choice, takes longer to get it, lets you choose between all availabe warpins)
send distress call (lets you get 3 vessels, they arrive at the same speed as they do now, there is only a 10 percent chance of getting an experimental warpin)

posted on April 19th, 2009, 7:46 pm

I have to agree with the suggestion for the Descent class. Most battles always involve only one ship being picked off at a time, so having a passive shield recharge boost to nearby units would probably work better, or even just a passive offense and shield recharge rate boost could work too. Although, it's special weapon is great, especially when it's shields are low.

posted on April 19th, 2009, 8:00 pm

I view the Sovereign as more of a support vessel than a mass-produced one. It's special is quite nice to mop up battles and hurt  those pesky Klingon and Romulan pulse ships, so it fits nicely as a 1 out of 20 battleship.

If the torp platform was changed to short range, nobody would build it (everything eats short range pretty much). The Pulse and Phaser clearly need work though (phaser being useless at the moment).

I don't find the Steamrunner at all useless: it is perfect for dealing heavy damage quickly, and is still nice support after its own special energy is gone (regular blasts).

Nebula needs work indeed as its special is lackluster.

The Descent's special works wonders early on. You can get that ship out in a few minutes and harass mining before anyone has more the 4 destroyers. Later on in fleet action it can save your rear many times over... but only as a loner really (because of the ganging up on a particular ship as mentioned by I Call 9MM).

Not going to comment on starfleet because I want to here other people's opinions. I still like the randomnesss and how it is implemented in general  ^-^

posted on April 19th, 2009, 8:13 pm

I definitely enjoy the randomness involved with the warp-in. It was a great idea in order to provide federation fans with lots of their favorite vessels without cluttering up the main ship yards, though I do wish you could warp-in more ships. Might be nice to separate Experimental warp-in credits from standard warp-in credits. That way, you could, say, warp in up to 2 experimental class ships, but it wouldn't affect you standard warp-in allotment. But, the timer would still affect both, so you can only do one at a time.

Would be neat to have a few more ship classes with the warp-in, but that just takes time with modeling, the mod is far from finished. The Ambassador is coming soon, which is nice. And there is talk about maybe a Centaur as well. Even the Cheyenne might make a decent warp-in, so would a Constellation.

Might be neat in the future to add in second type of experimental ship class along side the Descent class (which I like). I don't know what exactly, something equally large but equipped differently. That way, you can't really predict what sort of ship you will get. Warp-Ins are free, but you shouldn't be able to always count on getting what you want.

You know what would be funny though, how about a dud warp-in, rare and random but still possible. So, if your expecting to get a couple of Galaxies to save your ass early on, you instead get like 4 Oberth Classes. That would be funny.

posted on April 19th, 2009, 8:18 pm

I view the Sovereign as more of a support vessel than a mass-produced one. It's special is quite nice to mop up battles and hurt  those pesky Klingon and Romulan pulse ships, so it fits nicely as a 1 out of 20 battleship.

Hmm... Never really thought of using it that way. Still, a defensive increase and offensive decrease would be nice so that it is more of a support vessel, or it can be used as a better damage sink.

If the torp platform was changed to short range, nobody would build it (everything eats short range pretty much). The Pulse and Phaser clearly need work though (phaser being useless at the moment).

That's why you would install pulse and phaser platforms to harass the enemy if they try and attack from longer range, then when they go in for a close fight, you get the extra punch of a torpedo platform. Besides; it seems like all anybody does right now is build torpedo platforms and this would encourage you to build varieties of platform types.

I don't find the Steamrunner at all useless: it is perfect for dealing heavy damage quickly, and is still nice support after its own special energy is gone (regular blasts).

My problems with it are that it often misses ships, is only really useful against stations (and even then only in groups), and that i never really liked tricobalt torpedoes.

The Descent's special works wonders early on. You can get that ship out in a few minutes and harass mining before anyone has more the 4 destroyers. Later on in fleet action it can save your rear many times over... but only as a loner really (because of the ganging up on a particular ship as mentioned by I Call 9MM).

I know it works well early, but my problem is with it in large fleet engagements where ships are being picked off one at a time.

[Dircome]

posted on April 19th, 2009, 8:50 pm

Last edited by Dircome on April 19th, 2009, 8:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

* Excelsior: Bump the defensive value 5 or so points, and cut the offensive value some. After all, the excelsior is seen as a durable (if somewhat outdated) cruiser, isn't it?

This is an interesting idea I mean the ship has been around for quite a few years it obviously it must be pretty durable.

I think that when you use the distress call that you should get between 1 to 5 ships. I also think that there should be a small chance of getting a hero ship like The Big E or the Defiant.

Also I think there are other ships planed for the experimental warpin I would also like to see that.

Off topic: Its nice to see some new faces posting around here. RCIX, I Call 9MM, and anyone else I might have missed welcome to the forums.

posted on April 19th, 2009, 8:55 pm

@ RCIX: Yup, I agree with the Descent thing really 

posted on April 19th, 2009, 9:00 pm

@Dircome: I'm not sure about the hero ship idea (didnt doca cola or optec say they weren't gonna do that, and besides thats what veteran ships are for), but i do like that random ship number idea! Thanks for the welcome too.
So whaddya think should i post my thoughts on the klingons?

posted on April 19th, 2009, 9:04 pm

Im not sure if they did or not however i would still like to see them ingame. For the klingons fire away.

posted on April 19th, 2009, 9:06 pm

Here we go:
* an idea i had was to add Anti-Fighter Pulse Cannons (which deal good damage to fighters and scouts but nearly no damage to everything else) to the non mixed tech vorchas
* I don't understand why the field yard has to be pre-built for the AI... The central station acts like a research station from what i can tell (and thus the AI should be able to use it like that)

yeah i know the list is pitiful but i don't play them all that much.

posted on April 19th, 2009, 9:14 pm

Ok ill go down the Ideas And give ,my opinions.

1, I think the reason the Torpedo platform should be expencive is cus it has long rang.  That should not be changed cus its maysons second best advantage.

2. I actually like the steam runner, I gust think it should not be able to fire at ships when they are too close and it should be able to take massive damage

3. I like the Nubula Idea.  Sence the nebula is really suposed to be a science ship anyway.  And for ray we should put a refitted version with the pods.

4. Agreed.

5. I think is should be a little stronger, cus this should be after the venture refit.

6. i agree that it is useless on the descent, cus having one ship last long in a battle doesn't do much.  It would be good on a smaller ship that can be spammed.

7. I disagree, I like it how it is.  I just think it needs more of a  variety of ships

8.  That would be only an advantage against risner and that would be unfair.

9.  It is a bug with the AI,

Any way all this is just IMO.  Great post dude.

[RCIX]

posted on April 19th, 2009, 9:22 pm

Last edited by RCIX on April 19th, 2009, 9:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

1. That is one of the big problems with the torpedo platform; it has long range and good power so there is not reason to build anything else. Maybe it shouldn't be as expensive, but still...
2. It's a regular cruiser (the replacement for the miranda) so i would like to see more of a conventional armament on it, and high health doesn't really fit.
3. I just don't see the usefulness of the pods; most of the time you would expect a battle vessel to be nearby, not some science ship doing scans of a nebula or something right? also, i never really liked the look of the other pods.
5. Well maybe, but not much; it's perfect where it is.
6. The only problem with it being spammable is because it is pretty effective right now (it can basically make your ships invulnerable for like 5 seconds), so it would have to lose some power.
7. The idea is to offer players a chance to get a custom-selected fleet, but they have to do it one at a time. Or if they don't care what they get, they can use the distress call (which reminds me, why not have that only work a certain number of times before you dont get anymore ships that way)
8. Now thats not true; the dominion have fighters too! you have point though seriously, so maybe make it deal medium damage to destroyers, high damage to fighters/scouts, and low damage to everything else? it could also go on only one avatar's ships.

posted on April 19th, 2009, 9:32 pm

2. Yah I think If it keeps the Torpe it should be a lead lined Artillery bucket.

6.  Lol, it would definitively wave to be dumbed down, I can see it now the entire fleet gets complete prepared shields lol!

7 IMO

8, Sry by bad.  I don't play dominion much. still sems like a race pacific weapon.  How about an anti pulse phaser weapon?

posted on April 19th, 2009, 9:35 pm

anti pulse phaser? what do you mean?

I just had a brilliant idea: make SF command buildable earlier and cheaper in the scheme above, but with the following restrictions:
need to research the ship tiers for starfleet to "deem you ready to command better ship classes" (in other words, you can only warp in the cheapo ships first)
you can request a ship once every minute to a minute and a half
distress call will not work until you have researched L2 chassis

that way you can call for cheapo excelsior patrol ships or steamrunners early on to help defend against things like brel spam or rhienne raids.

posted on April 19th, 2009, 9:42 pm

Kinda like rank. I like it.

I mean like the Point defense laser on the old Nebula, only for pulse phasers