Artisan Archive
Thread: Vehicle Revamp ideas and discussion
Keep 'em coming!
Guru
Leave the chassis the way they are, but add in slots for upgrades.
The upgrades other people have already suggested sound good:
- Engines Upgrades for Speed
- Repulsor Upgrades for Terrain Negotiation
- Shields for Protection of Vehicle and Passenger(s)
- Armor for Hitpoints
- Booster
Its important that they are engine and Repulsor upgrades, so the chassis already have basic version built in and come out of the factory ready to run without requiring subcomponents.
Also, to encourage vehicle diversity, maybe some chassis only have certian slots (for example maybe a swoop doesn't have a shield slot and a X-35 doesn't have a booster slot).
DocWookie wrote:
GanymedePharuu wrote:
a more immersive inventory and finding a use for those Binary Load Lifter droids (this DOES have to do with a Vehicle Revamp because it's a key part of my revamp idea):
perhaps an alternative to reducing our inventory space, would be to flag certain items as being "heavy" items. meaning we can NOT place these items in our invetory. "heavy" items would be any resource stacks, starship and vehicle parts, and crates of large items like crafting components. this is where the Binary Load Lifter droids come into play! (finally a use for those big monsters!)
here's how i envision a "heavy" item system working:
let's say you're shopping for resources. you find a good vendor and purchase the resources. but to retrieve those "heavy" items you would bring along your Binary Load Lifter friend. simply have him follow you, and he acts like an extension of your inventory that is able to hold "heavy" items. then you go outside to your vehicle, open up the cargo hold, and place all the items from your Lifter droid into your cargo hold. then you take off for your workshop and reverse the process so the resources go back to your Lifter droid. you can also drop items from your Lifter into your house or factory.
but you CAN NOT store your Binary Load Lifter with any items in it (unless it's got a storage module)!
however, you CAN store vehicles (in a garage only) with items in the cargo hold. also you CAN transport vehicles between planets via Multi-passenger ship while the vehicle has items in its cargo hold.
and for when you're crafting, you simply have the Lifter droid out, nearby, with the neccessary resources or components loaded into the droid's inventory and it works the same as if it were in your own inventory.
basically the Binary Load Lifter becomes a crafter's best friend, and an extension of your inventory to hold crafting items.
also when a person who doesn't own a Binary Load Lifter purchases a starship component, you will be able to somehow allow them to access your Lifter droid's inventory so that they can plug the components into their ship or vehicle.
how you allow them can be as simple as a droid command you can toggle on or off, or most likely add them to an admin list. you would follow them to the starship terminal, or vehicle garage, and allow them to choose the components they'd like to load. then the components they'd like to take out would go into your droid, and they could load them back into their own vehicle.
you may ask, "why bother?". well to that i say, IMMERSION and CHALLENGE.
immersion because it makes no sense to be able to carry the world on your shoulders. 100k units of steel, gemstone, radioactive material? how does it make sense that we can carry that in our pockets or backpacks?
it doesn't.
challenge because of this:
i know the system we have right now is convenient. but i feel it's too convenient.
we're able to just go anywhere, at any time, and pick up anything, and drop it anywhere.
we don't have to THINK very much when moving through this virtual world.
having a system of limitations, and needing tools or interdependency to get things done is VITAL to a successful MMORPG. this "heavy" item system, along with my other Vehicle Revamp ideas would provide us with choices and challenges, and more interdependency.
examples of good MMORPG interdependency:
- say there's a resource vendor on Rori which has a certain type of resource you need. your workshop is on Corellia. you'd like to purchase this resource, but don't spend much time on Rori so you have no vehicle there. also you're not much of a space jockey so you have no multi-passenger ship.
you now have to make a choice.
do you hire a frieghter pilot to transport you and your cargo vehicle to and from Rori?
do you hire a frieghter to retrieve the resources from Rori and deliver them to your workshop?
do you contact the resource seller and have them deliver the resources to your workshop?
- say a person who doesn't own a Binary Load Lifter purchases a starship engine, they want to load this new engine into their ship, but they can't just carry it off on their back from your shop. so they schedule a delivery to the starport they're docked at. you, the Freighter, will be able to somehow allow them to access your Lifter droid's inventory so that they can plug the components into their ship or vehicle.
(how you allow them can be as simple as a droid command you can toggle on or off, or most likely add them to an admin list.)
you could meet them at the Shipwright shop and allow them to load the new engine onto your Lifter droid, or they could hire you to actually purchase and deliver the engine to the starport where their ship is docked and meet you there.
you would follow them to the starship terminal and allow them to load the engine into their ship. then the old engine would go into your droid, and they could load it back into their own vehicle's cargo hold. or they can sell it to you, or just have you dispose of it, or destory it on the spot.
i know it sounds complicated, but i think it would be fairly simple. and it would DEFINITELY be more immersive and promote more interdependency.
This idea would still create a lot of problems for crafters and pilots.
1. It would slow down the game playfor crafters with limited play time if they had to go through all those steps to get their resources transported.
2. Being forced to have out a binary load lifter droid just to craft wouldn't allow crafters to craft away from their shop because of only being allowed to have 1 droid out at a time. Most crafters have crafting droids that have multiple crafting station types built into their droids. There are also many crafters that only use their droids for crafting because they don't own a private crafting station outside of a droid. Ex. on my lowca toon I only craft with a droid that has 6 different crafting stations built in.
3. If the crafter or persondoesn't own any of those things to transportheavy items having to find someone who can help you will be very time consuming. Just like it's very hard to find a doc to heal your wounds, it would be hard to find someone who will do that kind of job on off peak hours. People have different play times. I don't see this as a fun idea.
4. Saying a load lifter would be "a crafters best friend" but then to say if the crafter doesn't own one to hire someone who does for transporting the goods. How would those crafters be able to craft at all if they don't have one to "hold" the resources while crafting?
It may make no sense to be able to carry the "world on your shoulders" but this is a game not real life. It's also Star Wars a fictional story. With all that being said, having to do all that for transporting "goods" would make the game more like a job. Games are supposed to be fun not work.
Just my $0.02
/Agree
Example:
Architect creates a Guild Hall. would you want it to take 3 years to make each one? 3-6months for a House. OK.. let's add in Carpenter, Electrician, Etc, becasue an Architect actually Designs Structures not builds them, we would need to add 50 new professions.. and u would have to pay each player todo there part.
You must remeber this is a GAME. Not Real Life.
Message Edited by Lifere on 06-13-2005 04:36 PM
This is a link to my complete idea for a vehicle revamp. It's not very complicated at all - works like ships, but with only 5 parts.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=artisan&message.id=53548
DocWookie wrote:
GanymedePharuu wrote:
a more immersive inventory and finding a use for those Binary Load Lifter droids (this DOES have to do with a Vehicle Revamp because it's a key part of my revamp idea):
perhaps an alternative to reducing our inventory space, would be to flag certain items as being "heavy" items. meaning we can NOT place these items in our invetory. "heavy" items would be any resource stacks, starship and vehicle parts, and crates of large items like crafting components. this is where the Binary Load Lifter droids come into play! (finally a use for those big monsters!
here's how i envision a "heavy" item system working:
let's say you're shopping for resources. you find a good vendor and purchase the resources. but to retrieve those "heavy" items you would bring along your Binary Load Lifter friend. simply have him follow you, and he acts like an extension of your inventory that is able to hold "heavy" items. then you go outside to your vehicle, open up the cargo hold, and place all the items from your Lifter droid into your cargo hold. then you take off for your workshop and reverse the process so the resources go back to your Lifter droid. you can also drop items from your Lifter into your house or factory.
but you CAN NOT store your Binary Load Lifter with any items in it (unless it's got a storage module)!
however, you CAN store vehicles (in a garage only) with items in the cargo hold. also you CAN transport vehicles between planets via Multi-passenger ship while the vehicle has items in its cargo hold.
and for when you're crafting, you simply have the Lifter droid out, nearby, with the neccessary resources or components loaded into the droid's inventory and it works the same as if it were in your own inventory.
basically the Binary Load Lifter becomes a crafter's best friend, and an extension of your inventory to hold crafting items.
also when a person who doesn't own a Binary Load Lifter purchases a starship component, you will be able to somehow allow them to access your Lifter droid's inventory so that they can plug the components into their ship or vehicle.
how you allow them can be as simple as a droid command you can toggle on or off, or most likely add them to an admin list. you would follow them to the starship terminal, or vehicle garage, and allow them to choose the components they'd like to load. then the components they'd like to take out would go into your droid, and they could load them back into their own vehicle.
you may ask, "why bother?". well to that i say, IMMERSION and CHALLENGE.
immersion because it makes no sense to be able to carry the world on your shoulders. 100k units of steel, gemstone, radioactive material? how does it make sense that we can carry that in our pockets or backpacks?
it doesn't.
challenge because of this:
i know the system we have right now is convenient. but i feel it's too convenient.
we're able to just go anywhere, at any time, and pick up anything, and drop it anywhere.
we don't have to THINK very much when moving through this virtual world.
having a system of limitations, and needing tools or interdependency to get things done is VITAL to a successful MMORPG. this "heavy" item system, along with my other Vehicle Revamp ideas would provide us with choices and challenges, and more interdependency.
examples of good MMORPG interdependency:
- say there's a resource vendor on Rori which has a certain type of resource you need. your workshop is on Corellia. you'd like to purchase this resource, but don't spend much time on Rori so you have no vehicle there. also you're not much of a space jockey so you have no multi-passenger ship.
you now have to make a choice.
do you hire a frieghter pilot to transport you and your cargo vehicle to and from Rori?
do you hire a frieghter to retrieve the resources from Rori and deliver them to your workshop?
do you contact the resource seller and have them deliver the resources to your workshop?
- say a person who doesn't own a Binary Load Lifter purchases a starship engine, they want to load this new engine into their ship, but they can't just carry it off on their back from your shop. so they schedule a delivery to the starport they're docked at. you, the Freighter, will be able to somehow allow them to access your Lifter droid's inventory so that they can plug the components into their ship or vehicle.
(how you allow them can be as simple as a droid command you can toggle on or off, or most likely add them to an admin list.)
you could meet them at the Shipwright shop and allow them to load the new engine onto your Lifter droid, or they could hire you to actually purchase and deliver the engine to the starport where their ship is docked and meet you there.
you would follow them to the starship terminal and allow them to load the engine into their ship. then the old engine would go into your droid, and they could load it back into their own vehicle's cargo hold. or they can sell it to you, or just have you dispose of it, or destory it on the spot.
i know it sounds complicated, but i think it would be fairly simple. and it would DEFINITELY be more immersive and promote more interdependency.
This idea would still create a lot of problems for crafters and pilots.
1. It would slow down the game playfor crafters with limited play time if they had to go through all those steps to get their resources transported.
if they were good with organizational skills, ordering resources, coordinating deliveries, ect. it wouldn't really add to the crafting time very much.
2. Being forced to have out a binary load lifter droid just to craft wouldn't allow crafters to craft away from their shop because of only being allowed to have 1 droid out at a time. Most crafters have crafting droids that have multiple crafting station types built into their droids. There are also many crafters that only use their droids for crafting because they don't own a private crafting station outside of a droid. Ex. on my lowca toon I only craft with a droid that has 6 different crafting stations built in.
the binary load lifters would inherently feature the resource storage, so any binary load lifter droid could be built with the crafting stations in it. they would be able to have every type of station crafted into it. so basically it becomes amulti-functional droid.
3. If the crafter or persondoesn't own any of those things to transportheavy items having to find someone who can help you will be very time consuming. Just like it's very hard to find a doc to heal your wounds, it would be hard to find someone who will do that kind of job on off peak hours. People have different play times. I don't see this as a fun idea.
if they don't own the neccessary equipment to be a crafter, and they can't find someone who does, they can buy the equipment.
4. Saying a load lifter would be "a crafters best friend" but then to say if the crafter doesn't own one to hire someone who does for transporting the goods. How would those crafters be able to craft at all if they don't have one to "hold" the resources while crafting?
i don't think i ever said the crafter wouldn't owna Binary Load Lifterto transport goods. with this system, any crafter worth a grain of salt would own a Lifter droid.
perhaps crafters would be able to holdsmall stacks of resources. but once the amount of resources in the stack exceeds a certain amount, say 10k, they would no longer be able to carry it in their own inventory.
that would allow new crafters who are just starting out to get into the game and get their hands dirty without having to fork over the credits right away for some serious equipment like a Lifter droid.
It may make no sense to be able to carry the "world on your shoulders" but this is a game not real life. It's also Star Wars a fictional story. With all that being said, having to do all that for transporting "goods" would make the game more like a job. Games are supposed to be fun not work.
i realize this is a game and not real life. but it is supposed to simulate a reality... i realize that it's supposed to be fun and not feel like a job. but crafting and all things associated already do have the air of being a job. sure they can be fun in trying to make that pistol slightly better than the last time, ect., but essentially you are working in the game.
i would just like to see more interdepenency among players. with the Combat Upgrade they increased the amount of interdependency among combatants. so i would like to see it increased among crafters as well.
additional professions like Freighter, and especially Miner/Farmer would be a great addition to the already amazing crafting system, and player driven economy that SWG has.
it might take a little more time and effort, but i think the game would be better for it.
Just my $0.02
Lifere wrote:
DocWookie wrote:
GanymedePharuu wrote:
a more immersive inventory and finding a use for those Binary Load Lifter droids (this DOES have to do with a Vehicle Revamp because it's a key part of my revamp idea):
perhaps an alternative to reducing our inventory space, would be to flag certain items as being "heavy" items. meaning we can NOT place these items in our invetory. "heavy" items would be any resource stacks, starship and vehicle parts, and crates of large items like crafting components. this is where the Binary Load Lifter droids come into play! (finally a use for those big monsters!
here's how i envision a "heavy" item system working:
let's say you're shopping for resources. you find a good vendor and purchase the resources. but to retrieve those "heavy" items you would bring along your Binary Load Lifter friend. simply have him follow you, and he acts like an extension of your inventory that is able to hold "heavy" items. then you go outside to your vehicle, open up the cargo hold, and place all the items from your Lifter droid into your cargo hold. then you take off for your workshop and reverse the process so the resources go back to your Lifter droid. you can also drop items from your Lifter into your house or factory.
but you CAN NOT store your Binary Load Lifter with any items in it (unless it's got a storage module)!
however, you CAN store vehicles (in a garage only) with items in the cargo hold. also you CAN transport vehicles between planets via Multi-passenger ship while the vehicle has items in its cargo hold.
and for when you're crafting, you simply have the Lifter droid out, nearby, with the neccessary resources or components loaded into the droid's inventory and it works the same as if it were in your own inventory.
basically the Binary Load Lifter becomes a crafter's best friend, and an extension of your inventory to hold crafting items.
also when a person who doesn't own a Binary Load Lifter purchases a starship component, you will be able to somehow allow them to access your Lifter droid's inventory so that they can plug the components into their ship or vehicle.
how you allow them can be as simple as a droid command you can toggle on or off, or most likely add them to an admin list. you would follow them to the starship terminal, or vehicle garage, and allow them to choose the components they'd like to load. then the components they'd like to take out would go into your droid, and they could load them back into their own vehicle.
you may ask, "why bother?". well to that i say, IMMERSION and CHALLENGE.
immersion because it makes no sense to be able to carry the world on your shoulders. 100k units of steel, gemstone, radioactive material? how does it make sense that we can carry that in our pockets or backpacks?
it doesn't.
challenge because of this:
i know the system we have right now is convenient. but i feel it's too convenient.
we're able to just go anywhere, at any time, and pick up anything, and drop it anywhere.
we don't have to THINK very much when moving through this virtual world.
having a system of limitations, and needing tools or interdependency to get things done is VITAL to a successful MMORPG. this "heavy" item system, along with my other Vehicle Revamp ideas would provide us with choices and challenges, and more interdependency.
examples of good MMORPG interdependency:
- say there's a resource vendor on Rori which has a certain type of resource you need. your workshop is on Corellia. you'd like to purchase this resource, but don't spend much time on Rori so you have no vehicle there. also you're not much of a space jockey so you have no multi-passenger ship.
you now have to make a choice.
do you hire a frieghter pilot to transport you and your cargo vehicle to and from Rori?
do you hire a frieghter to retrieve the resources from Rori and deliver them to your workshop?
do you contact the resource seller and have them deliver the resources to your workshop?
- say a person who doesn't own a Binary Load Lifter purchases a starship engine, they want to load this new engine into their ship, but they can't just carry it off on their back from your shop. so they schedule a delivery to the starport they're docked at. you, the Freighter, will be able to somehow allow them to access your Lifter droid's inventory so that they can plug the components into their ship or vehicle.
(how you allow them can be as simple as a droid command you can toggle on or off, or most likely add them to an admin list.)
you could meet them at the Shipwright shop and allow them to load the new engine onto your Lifter droid, or they could hire you to actually purchase and deliver the engine to the starport where their ship is docked and meet you there.
you would follow them to the starship terminal and allow them to load the engine into their ship. then the old engine would go into your droid, and they could load it back into their own vehicle's cargo hold. or they can sell it to you, or just have you dispose of it, or destory it on the spot.
i know it sounds complicated, but i think it would be fairly simple. and it would DEFINITELY be more immersive and promote more interdependency.
This idea would still create a lot of problems for crafters and pilots.
1. It would slow down the game playfor crafters with limited play time if they had to go through all those steps to get their resources transported.
2. Being forced to have out a binary load lifter droid just to craft wouldn't allow crafters to craft away from their shop because of only being allowed to have 1 droid out at a time. Most crafters have crafting droids that have multiple crafting station types built into their droids. There are also many crafters that only use their droids for crafting because they don't own a private crafting station outside of a droid. Ex. on my lowca toon I only craft with a droid that has 6 different crafting stations built in.
3. If the crafter or persondoesn't own any of those things to transportheavy items having to find someone who can help you will be very time consuming. Just like it's very hard to find a doc to heal your wounds, it would be hard to find someone who will do that kind of job on off peak hours. People have different play times. I don't see this as a fun idea.
4. Saying a load lifter would be "a crafters best friend" but then to say if the crafter doesn't own one to hire someone who does for transporting the goods. How would those crafters be able to craft at all if they don't have one to "hold" the resources while crafting?
It may make no sense to be able to carry the "world on your shoulders" but this is a game not real life. It's also Star Wars a fictional story. With all that being said, having to do all that for transporting "goods" would make the game more like a job. Games are supposed to be fun not work.
Just my $0.02
/Agree
Example:
Architect creates a Guild Hall. would you want it to take 3 years to make each one? 3-6months for a House. OK.. let's add in Carpenter, Electrician, Etc, becasue an Architect actually Designs Structures not builds them, we would need to add 50 new professions.. and u would have to pay each player todo there part.
You must remeber this is a GAME. Not Real Life.
Message Edited by Lifere on 06-13-2005 04:36 PM
GanymedePharuu wrote:
a more immersive inventory and finding a use for those Binary Load Lifter droids (this DOES have to do with a Vehicle Revamp because it's a key part of my revamp idea):
perhaps an alternative to reducing our inventory space, would be to flag certain items as being "heavy" items. meaning we can NOT place these items in our invetory. "heavy" items would be any resource stacks, starship and vehicle parts, and crates of large items like crafting components. this is where the Binary Load Lifter droids come into play! (finally a use for those big monsters!
here's how i envision a "heavy" item system working:
let's say you're shopping for resources. you find a good vendor and purchase the resources. but to retrieve those "heavy" items you would bring along your Binary Load Lifter friend. simply have him follow you, and he acts like an extension of your inventory that is able to hold "heavy" items. then you go outside to your vehicle, open up the cargo hold, and place all the items from your Lifter droid into your cargo hold. then you take off for your workshop and reverse the process so the resources go back to your Lifter droid. you can also drop items from your Lifter into your house or factory.
but you CAN NOT store your Binary Load Lifter with any items in it (unless it's got a storage module)!
however, you CAN store vehicles (in a garage only) with items in the cargo hold. also you CAN transport vehicles between planets via Multi-passenger ship while the vehicle has items in its cargo hold.
and for when you're crafting, you simply have the Lifter droid out, nearby, with the neccessary resources or components loaded into the droid's inventory and it works the same as if it were in your own inventory.
basically the Binary Load Lifter becomes a crafter's best friend, and an extension of your inventory to hold crafting items.
also when a person who doesn't own a Binary Load Lifter purchases a starship component, you will be able to somehow allow them to access your Lifter droid's inventory so that they can plug the components into their ship or vehicle.
how you allow them can be as simple as a droid command you can toggle on or off, or most likely add them to an admin list. you would follow them to the starship terminal, or vehicle garage, and allow them to choose the components they'd like to load. then the components they'd like to take out would go into your droid, and they could load them back into their own vehicle.
you may ask, "why bother?". well to that i say, IMMERSION and CHALLENGE.
immersion because it makes no sense to be able to carry the world on your shoulders. 100k units of steel, gemstone, radioactive material? how does it make sense that we can carry that in our pockets or backpacks?
it doesn't.
challenge because of this:
i know the system we have right now is convenient. but i feel it's too convenient.
we're able to just go anywhere, at any time, and pick up anything, and drop it anywhere.
we don't have to THINK very much when moving through this virtual world.
having a system of limitations, and needing tools or interdependency to get things done is VITAL to a successful MMORPG. this "heavy" item system, along with my other Vehicle Revamp ideas would provide us with choices and challenges, and more interdependency.
examples of good MMORPG interdependency:
- say there's a resource vendor on Rori which has a certain type of resource you need. your workshop is on Corellia. you'd like to purchase this resource, but don't spend much time on Rori so you have no vehicle there. also you're not much of a space jockey so you have no multi-passenger ship.
you now have to make a choice.
do you hire a frieghter pilot to transport you and your cargo vehicle to and from Rori?
do you hire a frieghter to retrieve the resources from Rori and deliver them to your workshop?
do you contact the resource seller and have them deliver the resources to your workshop?
- say a person who doesn't own a Binary Load Lifter purchases a starship engine, they want to load this new engine into their ship, but they can't just carry it off on their back from your shop. so they schedule a delivery to the starport they're docked at. you, the Freighter, will be able to somehow allow them to access your Lifter droid's inventory so that they can plug the components into their ship or vehicle.
(how you allow them can be as simple as a droid command you can toggle on or off, or most likely add them to an admin list.)
you could meet them at the Shipwright shop and allow them to load the new engine onto your Lifter droid, or they could hire you to actually purchase and deliver the engine to the starport where their ship is docked and meet you there.
you would follow them to the starship terminal and allow them to load the engine into their ship. then the old engine would go into your droid, and they could load it back into their own vehicle's cargo hold. or they can sell it to you, or just have you dispose of it, or destory it on the spot.
i know it sounds complicated, but i think it would be fairly simple. and it would DEFINITELY be more immersive and promote more interdependency.
This idea would still create a lot of problems for crafters and pilots.
1. It would slow down the game playfor crafters with limited play time if they had to go through all those steps to get their resources transported.
2. Being forced to have out a binary load lifter droid just to craft wouldn't allow crafters to craft away from their shop because of only being allowed to have 1 droid out at a time. Most crafters have crafting droids that have multiple crafting station types built into their droids. There are also many crafters that only use their droids for crafting because they don't own a private crafting station outside of a droid. Ex. on my lowca toon I only craft with a droid that has 6 different crafting stations built in.
3. If the crafter or persondoesn't own any of those things to transportheavy items having to find someone who can help you will be very time consuming. Just like it's very hard to find a doc to heal your wounds, it would be hard to find someone who will do that kind of job on off peak hours. People have different play times. I don't see this as a fun idea.
4. Saying a load lifter would be "a crafters best friend" but then to say if the crafter doesn't own one to hire someone who does for transporting the goods. How would those crafters be able to craft at all if they don't have one to "hold" the resources while crafting?
It may make no sense to be able to carry the "world on your shoulders" but this is a game not real life. It's also Star Wars a fictional story. With all that being said, having to do all that for transporting "goods" would make the game more like a job. Games are supposed to be fun not work.
Just my $0.02
Hope it's not too late to chime in here. I haven't read all of the thread here, so I apologize if this is redundant or something somebody else has already come up with.
I liked what little I saw about vehicles having storage. I'd also like to see it revamped so that vehicles can be taken into combat with a qualifiying profession for vehicle combat. I'd like to see the introduction of combat specific vehicles, such as tanks, at-st's and such. Rather than spending tons of time crafting swoops by the crate, I'd like to see craftable parts and chassis done, so that a vehicle can be outfitted and modifyied by the owner into something more suitable for their own needs. I don't feel that loot parts and items for re'ing is necessary here, but might maybe be fun. It would certainly give more meat to the artisan profession.
I have other ideas about revamping the artisan profession, but I think that's best kept for another thread.
Changes I would like to see made to speeders:
(Behavior) On entering a speeder, any called droids or pets are automatically stored on datapad. On exist, those same droids / pets are immediately recalled from datapad ( more or less simulating entry/exit from vehicle ). Perhaps some size limitations might be appropriate.
Speeders would decay on repair, like many things in SWG.
Speeders would be "balanced" at stock values by various levels of speed, terrain negotiation for the speeder, run-time damage accumulation ( how quickly the current "health bar" declines onvehicles ), and overal decay rate ( how much the vehicle decays on repair ). For example, assume every vehicle gets 10 points total, with a max of 5 in acategory (higher is better). Made-up speeder examples:
- Swoop : Speed (5), Terrain (1), Damage(2), Decay (2) -- fast, not great on rough terrain, needs regular repair/replacement.
- Speeder: Speed(4), Terrain(2), Damage(2), Decay (2) -- a little slower than swoop, but faster on rough terrain.
- X34: Speed(1), Terrain(1), Damage(4), Decay(4) -- poor speed everywhere, but very durable.
- AB-1: Speed(3), Terrain(5), Damage(1), Decay(1) -- Great for rough terrain, decent speed, but needs frequent repair/replacement.
The basic idea is to give value to different models based on your environment ( and your current cash situation ). Newbies have an X34, which isn't that fast, but at least it needs minimal repairs and replacement ( good for cash-strapped customers ). Swoops would be the best for open plains, Speeders a little better on mixed ground, and the AB-1 would be the vehicle of choice for Dathomir ( severe terrain, visitors usually aren't that concerned about cash flow ).
Customization could be attempted to modify a vehicle within certain parameters. For example, an artisan could create his own "speed demon" swoop, by experimenting on a Swoop to get Speed(5), Terrain(3), Damage(1), and Decay(1).
In addition to providing variety by not having a "swoops iz best" mentality, it also creates a demand for speeders, creating a money sink and also additional demand for the galaxy.
(Plus, it works in with some concepts I'd like to see for Droid Engineers, but that's a different topic ).
I like this. I like it a lot.
A minor point: I think vehicles already have most of the characteristics suggested. Each type has its own top speed andterrain negotiation modifier, and the damage/decay amount is indirectly defined by the vehicle type and bythe maximum number of condition pointsa particularvehicle is experimented on to have.
What we don't have is a way to experiment on these various characteristics individually. If they were broken out into the three or four experimentation lines suggested, being a 12- or 14-point Artisan would finally be useful for more than just powerups, and people would start buying more than just crates of swoops.
/support
--Flatfingers
Wow some great ideas here. Just a thought, if there were lines where you could experiment on terrain negotiation, speed, armor, etc. maybe allow slots in the crafting process for enhancers (similar to weapons and armor) with components created by other professions (AS, Shipwright, etc). Similar to how DE's and Architects are dependant on us for components.
Just a thought, keep the ideas coming.