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Thread: Some minor improvements to make JTL majorly better.
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PikechickLei
Thu Jan 20, 2005 3:13 pm
#1
I've given myself a few months to play around in JTL before making a post like this, but I think I'm ready now (having mastered Freelance Pilot finally) to offer up my input. Most of these are just little things which would go a long way towards making the experience more fun and immersive.
- Armor Repairs - For all ship components, you lose 1 point of maximum armor/hit points for every 10 points of damage you get repaired. This seems pretty good and balanced for the majority of components,but notarmor. Armor takes a serious beating on a regular basis, and unlike other components, that maximum armor it loses each time it's repaired is all it's there for. An engine doesn't lose maximum speed - it stays as good as it ever was until it's just broken - but armor components become effectively worse over time, making them need to be replaced frequently. At the same time, from an in-game perspective, armor isn't complex. It's thick pieces of metal welded onto the hull. I'd make a push to either change the armor loss to 1 point per 100 repaired, or to revamp the way ship armor works so that the armor/hit points stats are independent of its protective value.
- Pilot Turret Control - It would be nice if pilots in two passenger craft could use the turret weapon as a fixed-forward gun when there's no gunner. Sometimes you just can't find someone who wants to ride shotgun, and constantly swapping the weapon around between slots is frustrating and annoying.
- Turret Auto-Stabilization - This isn't WWII and we're not flying in B-17 bombers. Just because the pilot makes a turn doesn't mean the gunner's shot should be ruined. I'd love to see a feature added, maybe even as another ship component, that keeps the turrets pointing where they're pointing, no matter which way the ship is rolling. Obviously, if the turret's orientation drops below the turret's range of motion it stops pointing there, but otherwise the turrets should keep their bearings even when the pilot is doing crazy loops. This technology already exists in modern tanks, it's silly that an advanced spacefaring culture wouldn't have it too.
- Stop Removing My Flight Computer - I don't know if this is a bug or something else, but the silent and random unloading of flight computers and droids needs to be squashed. I can't think of anything in the game that makes me want to scream more than getting into the middle of a heavy dogfight and discovering only when I try to shunt shields that my flight computer magically unplugged itself.
- Autopilot in Multipassenger Ships - Even when no one's sitting at the pilot's chair. The Millennium Falcon didn't come to an abrupt halt when Han and Luke dashed off to man the turrets. It's nice that you can program a hyperspace jump then stand up and walk around, but it would be great if you could keep the ship moving in a straight line and do it too.
- Eliminate the 'You cannot pilot a ship while running' Nonsense - You took it out for shuttleports, why did it stay in for spaceships?
- Don't Punish Decorated Multipassenger Ships With Shrunken Loot Boxes - No one should have to choose between having a ship with furniture and being able to not miss loot. Give the ships a 75 item limit and make the loot boxes remove-only (i.e. you can't put stuff back in) with an independent 75 item limit. If server storage limits are really that big of a concern, force the crew to empty the loot box before they're allowed to land. It sure beats having to stop and empty it out every 20 minutes because the couch is getting in the way.
And there's one other one that is for the ground game, but I'll toss it in here anyway:
- Double Clicking Vehicles Should Enter/Exit, Not Examine - Enough said. Does it really take the game 10 seconds to figure out if the speeder I'm clicking on belongs to me or not?
Thanks for reading.
Message Edited by PikechickLei on 01-20-2005 02:17 PM
Sidelips
Thu Jan 20, 2005 3:52 pm
#2
Ok, some good stuf here, and some not good :-), and I wil ad one myself.
The best Idea is the turret stabilisators, yes!
I havent been in a multipayer ship (xsept the y-wing, but thats diferent) yet, but I asumed you could walk around while autopiloting. So if the case is not, then absolutly, make it posible. Even make it so an alarm sounds if ennemy crafts get near (seen the first Star Wars movie Devs?)
The worst idea: (as im a aspiering Shipwright, and buisnis is not good) The armor thingy.
Imagine a sheet of steel (or carbone fiber or whatewer) geting punctured by multiple laser beams. To fix that, you need to weld. Theese welds would weaken the armors ability to whithstand new blasts in those spots, and also damage the overal strength of the armor. I think its quite plasible the way this works now. One solution though, could be to make high quality repair tools make the loss in armor rating smaler, or ewen make it so a shipwright could do a bether repairjob on shipparts than, lets say, a musissian.
So, my idea: take avay the ability to use the "travel" option on the ship select screen. Why would you climb into the ship, plot your course, wait for hyperspace count, hyperspace, navigate to station, dock, when you just could pres "travel"?
This game is killing itself by making too many "easy solutions" for the players, and I want to se some oter players in space, as I never have (exept once, when I launched whith two guildies).
ShineKnuckle
Thu Jan 20, 2005 4:01 pm
#3
Excellent ideas all around -- five stars for a well-composed post filled with useful proposals.
Menyor
Thu Jan 20, 2005 4:24 pm
#4
YES! i was flying around in my friend's decimator and i always thought stabilizing the turrets should be a must. it's hard to have the pilot doing maneuvers while you're trying to shoot, but maybe that's the way it's supposed to be. it IS possible, but the way the systems are set up in the game, two people in their own ships is much more effective than five in a mp ship. that shouldn't happen, imo.
about the auto-pilot...this is something that i'm not sure about yet. on one side, it would be nice to cruise around in my yacht while it moving, but on the other hand, it seems like on other mp ships that it could be used to auto-follow on an escort mission and use the turret to do your mission. and i think mp ships should be exactly that...multi-player ships. either way, it wouldn't hurt my feelings.
about taking away the travel option...yes, "traveling" does take away from immersion, but i know that without it i would still be using the shuttles. i have to wait long enough on load times and the such anyway that just getting to a different planet would be torture...the whole hurry up and wait thing.
about the decorated ships/loot thing, it would be extremely nice, but i wouldn't expect that ANYTIME in the near future. SWG already has enough database problems, and i think that would just add to that. but i definitely wouldn't mind seeing it.
IMO, the FIRST thing we need in JTL is some content, though. there are the missions to get up to your master level, but after that, what? drop it all and go up another tree? or just gain prestige? it'd be nice to have some sort of connection to the ground.
PikechickLei
Thu Jan 20, 2005 5:06 pm
#5
Menyor wrote:
about the auto-pilot...this is something that i'm not sure about yet. on one side, it would be nice to cruise around in my yacht while it moving, but on the other hand, it seems like on other mp ships that it could be used to auto-follow on an escort mission and use the turret to do your mission. and i think mp ships should be exactly that...multi-player ships. either way, it wouldn't hurt my feelings.
That's something I hadn't considered. There's a big difference between flying in a straight line and following another ship around, though. The easy fix would be to only have the existing 'Autopilot to...' command continue to work while no one was steering, and anything else (like following) shut off when the pilot leaves the chair.
wasj2004
Fri Jan 21, 2005 6:52 am
#6
You got my vote, especially on the armor thing. Good armor is hard to find. Ive rarely found a piece of loot armor worth a crap, and player made armor is even harder to find on my galaxy with all the empty shipwright vendors now. There used to be vendors that stayed stocked with mark4 16k mass, 1700 hitpoint armor. Well that stuff is all gone now. I dident mind the terible decay when you can acctually get ahold of more.
DarthScin
Fri Jan 21, 2005 7:21 am
#7
Armor Repairs - I think it's fine as it is. Heck, with a good shield, you don't even need armor (unless your tactics vs gunboats are particularly bad).
Pilot Turret Control - No comment.
Turret Auto-Stabilizer - Actually, the space battles in the Star Wars movies (especially the ones in ANH) were based on old WWII air combat movies. Some of the scenes are near-identical to scenes in these old movies. As such, the argument can be made that this IS in fact WWII and we ARE flying in bombers. Sure, it's a little hard to get used to, but there are worse things in life.
Stop Removing my Flight Computer - Yes please. This has gotten to be annoying.
Autopilot in MP Ships - Yes please.
Eliminate the "You cannot pilot a ship while running" Nonsense - Yes please.
Don't Punish Decorated MP Ships - Not sure what you're suggesting here.
Vehicle Entry/Exit - Eh, I guess so.
Pilot Turret Control - No comment.
Turret Auto-Stabilizer - Actually, the space battles in the Star Wars movies (especially the ones in ANH) were based on old WWII air combat movies. Some of the scenes are near-identical to scenes in these old movies. As such, the argument can be made that this IS in fact WWII and we ARE flying in bombers. Sure, it's a little hard to get used to, but there are worse things in life.
Stop Removing my Flight Computer - Yes please. This has gotten to be annoying.
Autopilot in MP Ships - Yes please.
Eliminate the "You cannot pilot a ship while running" Nonsense - Yes please.
Don't Punish Decorated MP Ships - Not sure what you're suggesting here.
Vehicle Entry/Exit - Eh, I guess so.
ShineKnuckle
Fri Jan 21, 2005 8:39 am
#8
DarthScin wrote:
Turret Auto-Stabilizer - Actually, the space battles in the Star Wars movies (especially the ones in ANH) were based on old WWII air combat movies. Some of the scenes are near-identical to scenes in these old movies. As such, the argument can be made that this IS in fact WWII and we ARE flying in bombers. Sure, it's a little hard to get used to, but there are worse things in life.
Interesting point of view, considering that the turret gunners in the Millennium Falcon were immobile relative to the surrounding space, even while the pilot was using evasive maneuvers.
In the end, the dynamics of turrets in this game aren't fun, and the original poster did a great job of showing why.
Menyor
Fri Jan 21, 2005 12:09 pm
#9
on the turrets stabilizing note, i just wanna say that yes, it is possible for the turrets to be effective on the mp ships, but it really isn't easy and frankly, a little annoying. unless you have a pilot that just pretty much flies in a straight line, you aren't very effective. and about the WWII reference, yes, the battles were based off of WWII in the movies, but this is a game...and i'm trying to figure out what else is canon in this game anymore...
Menyor
Fri Jan 21, 2005 2:14 pm
#10
if we're going on a realism note, though, there still needs to be some changes imo. in WWII bombers, the rate of fire on the turrets was very high. if we can't be as accurate, we need to at least have a higher rate of fire. regardless, something needs to be done with mp ships to make them the force they deserve to be. whether it be better armor, stabilized turrets, higher rate of fire on turrets...because right now they just aren't what they should be right now.
Narreem0884
Fri Jan 21, 2005 2:22 pm
#11
How about having shields that can actually block the weapons we loot? I know that no shield in existance has a storage capacity of 4000. It really makes PvP pointless when having shields and armor is like wrapping your ship in paper and then trying to block a firehose.
Menyor
Fri Jan 21, 2005 2:43 pm
#12
pvp...i don't even want to go there. damage reduction needs to happen in pvp. it happens on the ground, why not in space? eh...i won't start.
DarthScin
Fri Jan 21, 2005 2:52 pm
#13
You know what I think? I think that you just have to use different tactics when flying a ship with turrets. Fighter tactics don't work so well with something like that.
Just load up on armor, grab the best shields you can find, and use them as mobile gun platforms.
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