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I brought this up during beta, and some other people had similar ideas as well.

I think that players should have the ability to dock to neutral or their own faction space stations so that they can reload their missile/countermeasure launchers, as well as install any new equipment on the craft they are currently flying. This would save people from having to fly all the way to the system's official space station, landing, then walk over to the terminals, then make changes, then launch again.

An easy implementation would be that a player would approach a neutral or factional space station and request permission to dock by communicating with the station itself. Once permission is granted, players could use the /dock command to dock with the space station. When they do, a ship management window appears that replaces the HUD of their spacecraft and allows players to make changes to their ship's load out. When they click done, they are brought back to the cockpit of their ship and then they can use the /undock command to leave the station and go about their business.

To prevent people from doing this to escape damage during the middle of a factional battle or duel, any overt or tef'ed ship would be vulnerable to attack while docked to the station. However, local factional craft may or may not come to the aid of a docked ship since attacking the ship would technically be attacking the sovereignty of the space station.

Also, the devs could place limits on just what can be replaced/changed while docked at the station since the player's ship wouldn't be in a "dry dock". For example, players can change weapons, reload launchers, shield systems, and armor, but they won't be able to upgrade their reactor or engine without landing on a planet, since this would technically make the ship unflyable. You can't launch a ship without a reactor or engine placed in it.

One added bonus would be that players might actually get to use the /undock command whose description says it is for undocking with a space station.

Please post any thoughts or Ideas, and no flaming please.

Message Edited by RighteousDeath on 01-18-2005 06:51 PM

I like the idea, it only justifies the presence of space stations even more.
and it adds to the GCW.

I would like it even more if people could actually dock with the station and use their character to walk inside. (when not in combat)
to sell loot for example or to repair their components.

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Draxie wrote:
I like the idea, it only justifies the presence of space stations even more.
and it adds to the GCW.

I would like it even more if people could actually dock with the station and use their character to walk inside. (when not in combat)
to sell loot for example or to repair their components.

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Yeah, I i thought about that too. I think it would really be cool that eventually you could walk around inside the stations like a starport. But, I think it would take too much dev time to implement quickly. It would probably end up waitingfor a major patch event or expanion pack. I was trying to come up with something the devs could easily empliment into the current system without having to spend time on art and level design of the interrior of a space station. Your Idea is really cool, and I can only hope the devs eventually implement something like it.

Good idea would be helpful to MP ships since most use space bombs and they need to be reloaded often.

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RighteousDeath wrote:

I brought this up during beta, and some other people had similar ideas as well.

I think that players should have the ability to dock to neutral or their own faction space stations so that they can reload their missile/countermeasure launchers, as well as install any new equipment on the craft they are currently flying. This would save people from having to fly all the way to the system's official space station, landing, then walk over to the terminals, then make changes, then launch again.

An easy implementation would be that a player would approach a neutral or factional space station and request permission to dock by communicating with the station itself. Once permission is granted, players could use the /dock command to dock with the space station. When they do, a ship management window appears that replaces the HUD of their spacecraft and allows players to make changes to their ship's load out. When they click done, they are brought back to the cockpit of their ship and then they can use the /undock command to leave the station and go about their business.

To prevent people from doing this to escape damage during the middle of a factional battle or duel, any overt or tef'ed ship would be vulnerable to attack while docked to the station. However, local factional craft may or may not come to the aid of a docked ship since attacking the ship would technically be attacking the sovereignty of the space station.

Also, the devs could place limits on just what can be replaced/changed while docked at the station since the player's ship wouldn't be in a "dry dock". For example, players can change weapons, reload launchers, shield systems, and armor, but they won't be able to upgrade their reactor or engine without landing on a planet, since this would technically make the ship unflyable. You can't launch a ship without a reactor or engine placed in it.

One added bonus would be that players might actually get to use the /undock command whose description says it is for undocking with a space station.

Please post any thoughts or Ideas, and no flaming please.

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RighteousDeath wrote:

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Draxie wrote:
I like the idea, it only justifies the presence of space stations even more.
and it adds to the GCW.

I would like it even more if people could actually dock with the station and use their character to walk inside. (when not in combat)
to sell loot for example or to repair their components.

---

Yeah, I i thought about that too. I think it would really be cool that eventually you could walk around inside the stations like a starport. But, I think it would take too much dev time to implement quickly. It would probably end up waitingfor a major patch event or expanion pack. I was trying to come up with something the devs could easily empliment into the current system without having to spend time on art and level design of the interrior of a space station. Your Idea is really cool, and I can only hope the devs eventually implement something like it.

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Hey, look, quasi-instant GCW content:

1) Make some space stations out in the PvP zones.

2) Make them essentially large faction bases: cantina, med center, clone center, some faction NPCs, etc.

3) Make them capturable via space combat: disable shields and critical systems, perform a ground assault and fight for control of the bridge.

4) Allow X number of people to control station defense turrets, like on multi-player ships.

5) Allow players to run around make repairs (mini-missions from repair consoles sending people to track down and repair damage to the station as damage happens?).

6) Allow faction members to hop into generic non-hyperspace-capable faction ships (at a cost of faction points), based on rank (or something).*

* - I have a reason for this idea. The worst possible way to assault a station would be to have all your side's fighters try and dock to trickle in one at a time. You'd get picked off one at a time as soon as you appeared in the docking area (and you'd also be vulnerable to returning enemy combatants). The best way would be to have lots of people packed into very few multi-player ships, in order to have large groups appear in the docking area. This leaves you with a problem -- if you capture the station, you then have a ton of players hanging around with no ships, completely unable to contribute to further space battle. Give them cheap (sub-standard but competitive) ships, and they can at least try. Make the ships system-only (no hyperdrive), and if they get blown up they get towed back to the station. And if the station is captured while they're outside, if they're blown up before the station is recaptured, ship 'em all the way back to some regular starport.

This sort of thing would be fun.

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tpugmire wrote:

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RighteousDeath wrote:

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Draxie wrote:
I like the idea, it only justifies the presence of space stations even more.
and it adds to the GCW.

I would like it even more if people could actually dock with the station and use their character to walk inside. (when not in combat)
to sell loot for example or to repair their components.

---

Yeah, I i thought about that too. I think it would really be cool that eventually you could walk around inside the stations like a starport. But, I think it would take too much dev time to implement quickly. It would probably end up waitingfor a major patch event or expanion pack. I was trying to come up with something the devs could easily empliment into the current system without having to spend time on art and level design of the interrior of a space station. Your Idea is really cool, and I can only hope the devs eventually implement something like it.

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They could always just use the space station from the new player tutorial, I think it'd be big enough.

-Doc-

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Good idea, I forgot about the space station from the tutorial.