Late to the party on capital ships

Cavilier210

Master endo
Joined
Nov 12, 2019
Messages
576
#1
I'm late to the party, but I wanted to voice my opinion on these capital ships. I think they're superfluous money and resource sinks that overshadow stations to the point of being meaningless.

I understand the desire to rove around safely, but thats what the safezone is for, safezones for stations, and the vastness of space. Riskless storage vessels that can bounce around the game world make it all meaningless. Many groups are planning on skipping stations entirely so they can focus on capital ships. So instead of creating safe regions through cooperation of players, we'll get roving nomads attacking targets of opportunity.

Another gripe I have is that the things are supposedly said to be able to be made large enough to be larger than render distance. Why? If I can't clearly see anything at 1km, why would we get something that can be that large at all? Bigger is not always better.

Honestly, we should see a focus on getting ships at the large end of the current size restrictions becoming viable. I don't know why on earth capital ships are even a thing on the horizon. We don't have to go the Star Wars route of incredibly large ships for the game to be fun, and for there to be defined ship roles. Or for things to be beautiful. And so on. It's just unnecessary. Are they to be set pieces? Why? I don't understand why that would be a desirable game design in an open world sandbox MMO.

There are mechanics slated for these monstrosities that should be options for our current ship possibilities. Shields? Just... what? If you're going to add shields, then make it a fun engineering decision to make for ships. Don't make it an impenetrable, invincible, bank for people to hide in.

Warps? Make a version we can put in ships that are large now. Pair it with the plasma thrusters, large reactors, and so on. People are complaining nonstop about the distances, then why not make a medium speed propulsion option for large ships that give them meaning? Capability that large fighters won't be likely to have.

The allure of this game is that we get to build it, we get to make the story, and capital ships remove potentials and options, and really change what the game was sold as from the beginning.

While I understand people want their safe spaces, the goal should also exist to promote player interaction. It's an MMO, why is there not a push to incentivize multiplayer options like hiring security?

|'m sure I come off as ranty here, but capital ships are the worst idea and proposed system in my opinion, and I would like other options. I shouldn't have to be part of some mega company in order to fight a rival station. Stations need a reason to exist. Large ships of the current SSC build limits need a reason to exist. With capital ships, its cap ships, and fighters. Every so often a rare station, and the hard headed guy who wanted a large ship and flies it around, no matter how ineffective it is.

Another aspect I see is that they do shrink the game world a large bit. There is merit in taking the journey to a moon, or the other side of the planet, to minimize contact with others. Long hauls (which could still be long hauls with a mid speed long distance free form drive option) that create a niche for players. Now no one would be safe. All the capital ship player(s) need is a coordinate set, and they can make life hell for such people.

A potential issue as well is that these civilian capital ships effectively lock up resources. They're unobtainable. Fluidity in a market is driven by the risk of loss as much as the hope for profit. There's no reason to not sit on capital ships filled to bursting with materials. Making them viable and juicy targets does make them have a reason to not run around being personal piggy banks.

So no, i would like the focus to be on implementing what needs to be done now, with what is currently half there in the game, rather than feature creep for "coolness". Which being harassed by a capital ship owning group is not cool, won't be fun, and is honestly unavoidable.
 

CalenLoki

Master endo
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
741
#2
I almost agree. Almost, because civ caps indeed seems like breaking more then fixing... but mil caps sound like really neat siege mechanics.

Forcing attacker (so the initiating side) to put more on a stake than their target (who has no choice) will make warmonger factions think twice before throwing their forces at every outpost.
Of course as long as there's no way to withdraw mil cap from battle. I've seen that suggested somewhere, and it'd ruin the entire risk factor.
 

Aha

Veteran endo
Joined
Jun 21, 2021
Messages
109
#3
Very good argument. My suggestion to this would be complete removal of civilian capital ship from the game and the safe zone removal of the military one. Guard that thing! Issue fixed.
 

Venombrew

Master endo
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
369
#4
@Cavilier210 remember tho Cav, think towards the future because the roadmap the devs gave show them working and starting to implement planetary systems at the end of q4. i too was bummed that the civilian was a flying safe zone, but i think it may be a needed mechanic when we have to warp jump 10-24 hours worth of distance to reach out to these new systems, which could take weeks to get to even with warp jumps(remember were gonna have to build gates as we travel out from what they told us earlier this year about warp gates). i feel more comfortable doing this with a civ, since we will be days or even weeks out from Eos and not have the threat of being hit by another ship during our cooldown between warps. These style ships will be very important during our expansion with the planetary systems, and a split between 2 models of safe and free for all would be a choice between those playing normal or risking a hardcore mode. this is just my thoughts on it and this is the only real benefit i see in a Civ.
 
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