Jump To Lightspeed Archive
Thread: The Next Generation Idea for the future of SWG Space
-
Navigator - Pilots the ship, handles speed, boosts to speed, manuvering, hyperspace, and charting courses -
Capital Ship Tech Specialist - handles repairs, and modifications to cap ships -
Command - commands the crew, Controls special commands, issues orders to the crew, gets several views in which to command -
Fighter Commander - command NPC flight crew, and can issue orders to PC flight crew (which are positions in crews) -
Capital Ship Weapons Specialist - handles weapon firing, the higher their level, the better the accuracy and damage output
How it works
Existing space zones will be expanded, and many things are to be added to fill the space. As well, several Deep Space zones will be added.
Rebel and Imperial capital ships have moved into some of the sectors, and will be controlable by player Crews However, to achieve this position will not be easy, its no walk in the park.
However, while normal crews can improve POB efficiency, to be able to control Cap Ships (besides the Small cap ships) they will need Capital Ship Certifications.
Crews
Capital ships of the size of a mon cal and Victory Class SD and up will need Crews to be controled. Crews act as a space version of a guild, but a bit differently.
Every crew has positions that need to be filled, such as the Command, Navigation, and Engineering, other positions will be optional to help improve your crew. To fill a position, one must be atleast an initiate in each positions required profession. Crew's are formed by a Captain in the command profession.
When forming a crew, the crew will be a certain faction depending upon the Captain's Space Faction. You do not need to be a member of the Ground Forces of either side, it merely depends upon your Space Faction.
Crews have levels, and can attain certifications (Which only apply to the Crew, upon leaving the crew you no longer have the certification the crew did). There are several phases of Capital Ship certifications. To attain Certifications, you will need to pass tests and quests given my Naval Officers of your particular faction. Tests WILL include instanced area's in space, and the tests will in no way be easy, but well worth it.
Crew levels are determined by the overall status of the crew in their professions, should all members have mastered their Capital Ship professions, the crew will be eligible for the max Crew Level.
There are several crew levels:
-
Level 1 - Basic Crew level, not allowed to test for any Certifications -
Level 2 - Advanced Crew level, Gains access to Phase I Certification -
Level 3 - Expert Crew level, may test for Phase II Certification -
Level 4 - Ace Crew, May test for Phase III certification
Crew Capital Ship Certifications
-
Phase I Certification - This certification allows the boosted efficiency of POB ships by allowing Hull Repairs, extra mass, and added 10% damage to all weapons aboard the ship, and 5-15% added to defenses -
Phase II Certification - This Certification allows a crew to sign up to Command Medium sized Capital Ships. However to recieve this certification crews Must pass all of the tests given out by a Naval Commander of your faction. -
Phase III Certification - This certification allows a crew to sign up to Command Large sized Capital Ships. The tests for this certification are very, very hard. They will take time, require a very skilled and dedicated crew, and will be VERY hard to attain. However, it will be well worth it.
Certification Tests
The Certification tests are given by Naval Commanders of your faction, if you qualify to begin taking the tests, you must have your crew present and near the commander. The tests each take place in Instanced area's. The tests get harder as you progress. There are several tests per certification, however the Phase I Cert. has no tests.
Phase II Certification Tests - Once you qualify, go to the commander with your crew, and tell him you are ready to attempt the first test for the Phase II Certification. The test will involve a test of skill of commanding. You will be put into fairly difficult situations while commanding medium sized capital ships, which this cert allows you to Command.
Phase III Certification Tests - These tests are the most difficult, testing your prowess commanding a Large Capital Ship. In the end, you will be given the hardest test of all, and will be forced to fight against overwhelming odds.
Capital Ships
There are several types of Capital ships. Large, Medium, and Small.
To gain command of a Medium and Large Capital ship, one must have the certification to fly it, and must sign up for command of the ship. Crew's may only sign up for 1 ship at a time. Capital Ships are using short Tour of Duties. Crews who get command of a ship, get a 1 week tour of duty aboard that ship, and then the next crew gets command. A Que will be formed when multiple crews sign up for a Ship. Dont like waiting? Tough. A crew MUST have the appropriate Certifications for that ship if they wish to sign up.
Small - These act as POB ships, being the size of corvette's and the like. Small cap ships do not need crew's, but will run much more efficiently with them. As well, POB ships will also run much more efficiently with an established crew. Small cap ships are also craftable from Master Shipwrights, however need many rare resources. Expect these to Cost a lot.
Medium - These ships along with Large capital ships, cannot be built by Shipwrights. These ships are placed in several sectors automatically, there will only ever be a certain maxamount of medium/large cap ships in the galaxy. Medium ships include Victory class, interdictorand small Mon Cal ships. Require Phase II Certification
Large - These ships cannot be built by shiprights. These ships include Star Destroyers and Mon Cal's. Phase III Certification required.
Fate of Capital Ships
Capital ships CAN be destroyed. If a capital ship is destroyed, it takes up to a week before a new one is sent in to take its place. The que for that ship spot will remain, and the next Crew in line will command the new Ship.
Destroying a capital ship has severe penalties for that faction, and severe bonuses for the faction that destroys it. Morale is boosted and all NPC's perform better, faction items are cheaper on the ground, overall that faction begin's performing better.
Capital Ship Sectors
There will be several "Capital Ship Sectors" where capital ships are places, generall protecting some Valuable asset, such as a faction space station (capable of being docked with, allowing you to enter the interior. Items inside these stations are an extra 10% cheaper) or a Trade Route, determines if one can use a ships hyperspace, or will have to take a shuttle and go through the blockade (applying only to faction members)
Capital ships can pass between Capital Ship sectors, if, and only if, there are no other ships of its class in that Sector. However there are no limits for fighter support and Small Capital Ships.
Each Capital Ship Sector will have an alignment, either Imperial, or Rebel. These Ship Sectors will not be completely Empty, as there will be assets such as Space Stations, with great benefits, and you may land on said spacestations.
Just some thoughts off the top of my head. Any comments welcome.
Captital ships would be a very welcome addition to the game. But, alot of the things here couldn't be implemented.
Players crews would be very good in the manner of having a more realistic game expierence. Unfortunatley, that would make any doing many things quite impossible. Everytime you went up, you would have to bring up alot of players. The chances of finding a large group of people to go up with you is hard, but to find people certified would be even harder, unless your guild is a Pilot guild. Then of course, the people you bring up need to stay the entire mission, which be prove difficult because even though we try to plan periods on undisturbed play, some things happen (i.e. have to leave, bad Internet connection, power outage, etc.). Having NPC crews commanded by a single person would have have to put put into the system, but adding bonuses if other players ordered those crews (i.e. the group leader could use a "Fighter Scramble" command, but if an extra player in the same group was in charge of the fighters and used the "Fighter Scramble" command, it would be executed faster than normal if the group leader did it).
Next, ships. Having ships that can't be built by Shipwrights makes the game unbalanced. This can be seen by a great number of players using the Bell-22 and the JSF instead of SW crafted ships. Having them craft parts of the ship and then putting all the parts together to build the ships could work.
Having the ships in space already would also be unfair because if someone wanted to go up and there aren't any ships availible, they couldn't play. And limiting the number per sector wouldn't be fair either.
And repairing ships over the course of a week would be too long for a game. If fighters can repair all of their components by simply going to a space station and asking, so should capital ships. Maybe having to ask for each part to be repaired one at a time could be an answer or a timer of at most 10 minutes.
On to professions. I like the idea of having seperate "abilities" that require the ship to function. But, wrap all those things uo into one profession. Have those things be the 4 skill trees you need to train in to become a Master Fleet Commander. Before you could start, you would first have to be a Master Pilot. Capital ships would be the Elite profession of in space. Training in each of the trees either give you more capital ship command choices, more repairing abailities, more ships to command at a time, more droid commands and different orders to give (scramble fighters, target enemy component, retreat, etc.). This would allow a single person to do everything. But, if extra players were brought onboard and commanded their own section, certain bonuses would be applied and more XP gained.
For a break down of the skill tree, look at this thread.
Sectors. Having new space sectors added in which a capital ship would always be (like Deep Space) is a good idea. Having at least four sectors added would allow more options for ships.
A Rebel controlled area in which the majority of the ships were Rebel and the Empire only occupied a small area in the corner.
An Imperial controlled sector in which the Empire held most of the space there with a small portion under Rebel control.
A Privateer sector in which Freelance pilots could go without either the Empire or Rebellion. Note: If a Freelance pilot is either faction on the ground, they would be allowed to go to both the the Privateer sector and their ground affiliation's sector. All of these would be as the normal sectors are now.
But, the forth sector would be for all. It would be a PvP zone designed to cater to a large number of ships on both sides. Players could come here only after getting the rank of Master Fleet Commander, much like only Master Pilots can go into Deep Space. So, if a player has become a Master Fleet Commander, they could enter the zone in a fighter.
I think I covered everything here. Let me know if I missed a section.
Calequendi wrote:
capital ships needing actual player crews? that would be so cool
My thoughts exactly.
As to the one who posted the link - this isnt about just the addition of small cap ships thats coming up, this is about adding medium-large sized cap ships in a reasonable way.
To a previous poster - Only Medium-Large sized ships cannot be build by shipwrights, that is handled by the specific faction its controled by, thus why it takes up to a week for one to take the place of a destroyed one.
Unfair that not everyone can pilot one? Indeed, life isnt fair. It takes extreme dedication and a good crew to pilot a large capital ship, but if you pull it off its well worth it.
And if you read, as i said, If all ships are already under command, you can still sign up and you'll be put into a line, after the crew's tour of duty is over, if your crew is next in line, you get command (NPC's take command during off hours of crews)
Taking a week to repair a ship is way to long. Having a day to repair a ship is to long. Although it makes sense that a capital ship would take a long time to repair, it wouldn't work in a video game. I don't want to wait weeks to pilot a Star Destroyer because of someone who keeps doing up and wrecking the ship. If I were to be in charge of a ship, I would have my own ship. I would have a Star Destroyer to call my own. I couldn't land it in Theed, but I could fly my fighter to a space station of some sort and request for my ship to be brought in, dock and then board it.
And allowing Shipwrights to have no part in capital ships wouldn't be fair. The RotW ships have already made alot of the ships they can make inferior. If Shipwrights could build parts of the capital ship and then put all of those parts together could be an answer. Like, a Imperial Shipwright could build the engines, capacitors (they has to be more than on a Star Destroyer), shields, armor, booster, weapons, turbolasers, droid interface, reactors(?), missiles, countermeasures, and other things like a tractor beam or maybe a cloaking device. Then, the could take all of those parts and build the Star Destroyer. And Rebel Shipwrights could build their versions. But, Neutrel, Imperial and Rebel Shipwrights could build the parts for a Freelance capital It would require alot of resources so most likely only a few would be made at first. And even fewer would be qualified to fly it.
I would love to take up my guild into a Star Destroyer and go around blasting a bunch of ships, but it couldn't work in a video game like this. Requiring to take a full crew of players to space each time would be very hard for someone who didn't know a bunch of pilots or wasn't in a very large guild. Allow capital ships to be piloted by everyone would have to be a game requirement. One person could easily take charge and fly a Star Destroyer. Simply have all the commands in the UI toolbar at the top and know what you want to do. It would be just like flying a small fighter, except that you are in a large capital ship with at least x10 more firepower, many squadrons of fighters, and the ability to board and capture enemy vessels (see Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope for referance).
You say life isn't fair. It isn't, but in this game, it doesn't have to be fair, only balanced and having to take a full crew of players, remove Shipwrights from the process, and wait weeks, possibly months, to fly a ship isn't balanced. And so far, the game is tilting and adding capital ships in this manner would tip the scales.
Message Edited by oneofmanyJedi on 08-07-2005 07:08 PM
Jedi is a whole different game compared to space. Being able to a Star Destroyer shouldn't, no, will not be set alongside Jedi. If you want to go with realistic gameplay, you shouldn't even become a Jedi unless you train for years from birth. And if you were to compare it with being able to fly a Star Destroyer, then piloting it would take LESS time than being a Jedi.
Your ideas, quite frankly, are really bad for the game and if they were to be implemented I don't know what I'd do. Seriously, would you want to wait a week because of someone who destroyed the ship/signed up to fly it before you? Then there is the added fact that that one person may have also signed everyone of the guild members to fly it also. That would be weeks upon weeks of waiting.
And making space bigger and placing a Star Destroyer in it would creat ALOT of lag for other people in space. Take for example Deep Space. There and only the Star Destroyer, Rebel Space Station and alot of ships. No nublea or asteriods or planets. And when something makes the Star Destoyer mad, it drop the FPS down to 1-4 creating extreme lag. And that's in Deep Space. Think of the chaos if a Rebel pilot decided they wanted to try and take out a player controlled Star Destroyer. Popular space sectors like Kashyyk, Naboo, and Corellia would be a very lagging place.
And player crews. The Star Destroyer has 100 turrets. If you are saying it should be like a POB ship, then I would need 100 serperate players to come up and man my Star Destroyer. Then, I would need dozens engineers to fix the ship, full squadrons of TIE pilots, and at least a dozen operations experts to control the ship functions. How do you propose me getting that many people to come up with me? How many people in one galaxy would even be cerified to come with me? I like the idea of having a player crew but put simply: IT WILL NOT WORK.
And as it has been said, ground and space are to different games. There wil be no mixing of the two. So, the lower prices of faction items on the ground wouldn't work. How would you propose making a system which allows "overall that faction begin's performing better."
And the different factions in space. I'm a Freelance pilot. What do I get? Since you say there are only two factions with capital ships in space, I'm not included? You think it is fair to leave me without any capital ships? That would be throwing the game entirely of balance. Giving two factions "super-ships" and leaving the other without anything is wrong.
Rethink your system and come back to us with things that could work.