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With the upcoming vehicle customization update, I've been thinking about ways to make the vehicle system more dynamic. To begin with, allow me to rate the current vehicles, in terms of three attributes. Speed, durability, and terrain negotiaion. With the current vehicles, the ranking is thus:

(Speed, Durability, Terrain)

Swoop: 3,1,1

Speederbike: 2,2,2

Landspeeder: 1,3,3

Clearly we can all see some ways to add variety to the current paradigm. First, a tracked APC like vehicle could be added. The premise of this vehicle would be maximum durability.

Tracked APC: 1,4,2

Second, a kind of "sportier" landspeeder would be interesting. Increased speed and maximized for terrain negotiation.

Sport Speedercar: 2,1,4

The point is, there should be more than three (non-living) rides in the whole galaxy. But, as we can all imagine different ways to jerk the figures around, I'll move on to the meatof my idea.Vehicle modules.

Every vehicle would havesome number (I'm thinking three) of modules that could be used tomodify its basic performance. These modules would also be useful because they would be craftable by a wide variety of professions. Bellow are some examples:

Armor Plating (Armorsmith): Adds armor rating and/or resists to vehicles. Addsthe same protection to the player while he is riding. Slows down the vehicle.

Shield Generator (Armorsmith):Similiar to the armor plating, but tradesreduced protection for not reducing the vehicle's speed.

Compartment (Artisan): Adds storage space and someHAM. Slows vehicle.

Passenger Seat (Artisan): Adds a space for another player and/or humanoid pet or NPC passenger. Slows vehicle.

Reinforced Construction (Artisan): Adds agood amount ofHAM.

Improved Engine (Artisan): Increases speed.

Nitro (Artisan): Burst run for vehicles.

Pet Compartment (Creature Handler or Bio-Engineer): Adds a space for a non-humanoid pet. Slows vehicle.

Bio-sampler (Bio-Engineer): Sample DNA while mounted. Reduces HAM (sensative equipment)

Cammokit (Ranger): Allows the use of maskscent and cammoflauge on vehicles, reduces liklihood ofcreatures aggroing.

Surveyor module(s) (Droid Engineer):Survey for resources while mounted. Reduces HAM (sensative equipment)

DroidInterface Module (Droid Engineer) Adds a space for a droid. Slowsvehicle.

Nav AI (Droid Engineer): Reduces the speed penalty for terrain negotiation.

IFF Scrambler (Smuggler): While mounted, covert sensors will not detect the player.

BattleTac Com System (Squad Leader): Allows the squad leader to use defensive skills and bestow defensivemods to mounted characters while mounted.

Such a system opens whole new door on vehicle use, and allows for a real "car" community. People can soup up their rides and race them, and race organizers can balance speed concerns by adding "alternate" track routes through rough terrain and so on. In addition, many of things that are just inconvienent right now, like having to get off to perform some menial task, could be resolved through the addition of a customized module. There could even be faction modules.

Sorry about the length.

not bad ideas but i wouldnt mind seeing some new vechilces(sp) too

-Rou Paeni

Why does it always come back to weapons on vehicles.

These are all common made vehicles, and not military issue and not from some arms factory.

When Luke was on Tatooine did he hit a button and start lighting up sandpeople?

The only one with weapons was the speeder bikes in the trilogy and that is because they were Imperial Scout speeders, if you look in any of the Star Wars Hardware blueprints and schematics from books and even magazines, personal vehicles with weapons were very rare.

All you have to do if it is in one direction is shoot forward, zoom off turn around and repeat, it still has you moving too fast for 90% of the creatures to be able to counter and get their offense together.

It also makes escapes a no brainer if you get in over your head, where as at least the other way you have a small slowdown having to mount the vehicle.

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Xyber_Hex wrote:

Why does it always come back to weapons on vehicles.

These are all common made vehicles, and not military issue and not from some arms factory.

When Luke was on Tatooine did he hit a button and start lighting up sandpeople?

The only one with weapons was the speeder bikes in the trilogy and that is because they were Imperial Scout speeders, if you look in any of the Star Wars Hardware blueprints and schematics from books and even magazines, personal vehicles with weapons were very rare.

All you have to do if it is in one direction is shoot forward, zoom off turn around and repeat, it still has you moving too fast for 90% of the creatures to be able to counter and get their offense together.

It also makes escapes a no brainer if you get in over your head, where as at least the other way you have a small slowdown having to mount the vehicle.

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Luke never went after sandpeople in the movies but he did make a referance to bombing womprats in his T-16 skyhopper. (I think that's what it was called) when planning the attack on the first Death Star.

There was an old number system for the table top starwars game, I don't have the book in front of me but I'll try to recall what I can. In it, humaniods on humanoids had the usuall + - to hit each other. If one was in a vehicle, she would have a harder time hitting the other due to terrain, speed and drivning/shooting at the same time. If they were in a starship, they had an even harder time, cause the humanoid was such a small target. When it came to vehicle/vehicle then it's a different story. They would take each other out all the time.

I think that was the gist of it and I wish I could remember how to equate it. I'll try finding it. Anyways, maybe weapons on vehicles could do really low damage, like the probots and have a hard time hitting humanoids and animals but in vehicle vs vehicle you couldhit more often.

I don't know. Ijust keep thinking of the speederbike scene in Return of the Jedi where the speederbikes are racing and shooting at each other. Come to think of it, they didn't heit much then either.

If vehicles could be armed, it would be interesting to see what kind of weaponry they would have access to. I mean, would it simply be mounted PC weapons, or something larger?

Armed vehicles would also be an interesting way to revamp faction perks. Driving an at-st would bea lot cooler than the current system.