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Thread: Repost on Meaningful Spaceflight from Beta Forums
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Kade_Deveron
Tue Oct 26, 2004 5:50 am
#1
JTLS holds the promise of adding greater depth and dimension to Star Wars Galaxies. I think its realistic at this point NOT to expect much more from the expansion than what we have now. The developers are likely scrambling to get things in order to the ever-looming launch of the game. New features just arent going to happen.
BUT at some point some features need to be added to give space more meaning. Right now, JTLS is so far detached from the ground game, that they literally could be two separate games. How do we make space a fun filled and meaningful part of the ground game?
Not a small task, but here are my thoughts.
1. Categorize a subset of the items within the game as "bulk" items. These bulk items could include natural resources, crates of weapons, crates of vehicles, house deeds, droid deeds,etc....(items IN the datapad would be exempt)
2. Categorize another subset of items within the game as illegal/banned items. This should include all spices, holocrons, and a wide range of other valuable items.
3. Invoke stiff spaceport penalties on bulk items. These fees should be in line with the quality of the items being carried, the amount, etc... For example, if Bob was 500k of high quality ore he wants to move from one world to another, it will cost him x amount, where Sue may pay only a fraction of that for 100k of low grade cheap ore. Players without JTLS can move seamlessly between worlds using the current transport system, but they will pay extra, sometimes a LOT extra, to move items with them.
4. Illegal items can be moved between worlds using the transport system. While there is no fee, there is a % chance that the Empire will detect what you are trying to do, and confiscate the items. This chance can go down for smugglers, but never goes below 20% detection, ever.
5. Eliminate the ability to use the shuttle system to fly to high end systems such as endor, dathomir, and yavin IV.
6. Allow ALL players to be passengers in multipassenger ships, even if they never buy JTLS. However, they cant pilot, cant train pilot, cant run turrets, cant own ships, etc...
With this framework in place, we have some mechanics that can make the game truly interesting.....
Shuttle Services
With access to high end planets cut off (BTW, players should be able to shuttle OUT of high end planets for a large fee; we dont want anyone getting stranded ), multipassenger ships now have a purpose. Resourceful captains out there can charge fees to fly players out to remove locations!
Transport Services
Players can also offer transport services, hauling players and their high end goods from one world to another. The mechanic would be simple. The same system that evaluates the cost of using public shuttles should be available to captains of multiplayer ships, who can then scale down their fees. For example, if they set their transport fee at .8, they charge 80% the cost of an NPC shuttle for transporting. So if Captain Bob is going to fly Sue (who has goods with a 50k npc shuttle fee value) to Lok, Bob and Sue group, and Bob launches his ship. Sue gets a message showing how much it will cost to fly with Bob. If she accepts, she's a passenger.
Smuggling
Smuggler pilots who are a member of the smuggling or rebel space faction can smuggle illegal goods from world to world. Works the same as transporting except that ships with illegal items on board have a % chance of being detected by Overt Imperial Player ships in the area. If detected, the smuggler ship goes "overt" and can be attacked. If it is destroyed, a portion of the illegal items on board are lost (based on the ability of the smuggler) and the players destroying the smuggler ship get a % of the value of the lost cargo in credits.
Pirates
Pirates would be a new space faction. Pirates, based on the scanning equipment on board their ships, have the ability to detect goods (bulk items or illegal goods) on board transports and smuggler ships. If they detect goods, they can attack the detected ship and destroy it, getting credits just as imperial patrols can. However, pirates are ALWAYS overt. A ship can only be destroyed by pirates once per day to avoid griefing.
NOW we have a reason for space, outside of course of the GCW
BUT at some point some features need to be added to give space more meaning. Right now, JTLS is so far detached from the ground game, that they literally could be two separate games. How do we make space a fun filled and meaningful part of the ground game?
Not a small task, but here are my thoughts.
1. Categorize a subset of the items within the game as "bulk" items. These bulk items could include natural resources, crates of weapons, crates of vehicles, house deeds, droid deeds,etc....(items IN the datapad would be exempt)
2. Categorize another subset of items within the game as illegal/banned items. This should include all spices, holocrons, and a wide range of other valuable items.
3. Invoke stiff spaceport penalties on bulk items. These fees should be in line with the quality of the items being carried, the amount, etc... For example, if Bob was 500k of high quality ore he wants to move from one world to another, it will cost him x amount, where Sue may pay only a fraction of that for 100k of low grade cheap ore. Players without JTLS can move seamlessly between worlds using the current transport system, but they will pay extra, sometimes a LOT extra, to move items with them.
4. Illegal items can be moved between worlds using the transport system. While there is no fee, there is a % chance that the Empire will detect what you are trying to do, and confiscate the items. This chance can go down for smugglers, but never goes below 20% detection, ever.
5. Eliminate the ability to use the shuttle system to fly to high end systems such as endor, dathomir, and yavin IV.
6. Allow ALL players to be passengers in multipassenger ships, even if they never buy JTLS. However, they cant pilot, cant train pilot, cant run turrets, cant own ships, etc...
With this framework in place, we have some mechanics that can make the game truly interesting.....
Shuttle Services
With access to high end planets cut off (BTW, players should be able to shuttle OUT of high end planets for a large fee; we dont want anyone getting stranded ), multipassenger ships now have a purpose. Resourceful captains out there can charge fees to fly players out to remove locations!
Transport Services
Players can also offer transport services, hauling players and their high end goods from one world to another. The mechanic would be simple. The same system that evaluates the cost of using public shuttles should be available to captains of multiplayer ships, who can then scale down their fees. For example, if they set their transport fee at .8, they charge 80% the cost of an NPC shuttle for transporting. So if Captain Bob is going to fly Sue (who has goods with a 50k npc shuttle fee value) to Lok, Bob and Sue group, and Bob launches his ship. Sue gets a message showing how much it will cost to fly with Bob. If she accepts, she's a passenger.
Smuggling
Smuggler pilots who are a member of the smuggling or rebel space faction can smuggle illegal goods from world to world. Works the same as transporting except that ships with illegal items on board have a % chance of being detected by Overt Imperial Player ships in the area. If detected, the smuggler ship goes "overt" and can be attacked. If it is destroyed, a portion of the illegal items on board are lost (based on the ability of the smuggler) and the players destroying the smuggler ship get a % of the value of the lost cargo in credits.
Pirates
Pirates would be a new space faction. Pirates, based on the scanning equipment on board their ships, have the ability to detect goods (bulk items or illegal goods) on board transports and smuggler ships. If they detect goods, they can attack the detected ship and destroy it, getting credits just as imperial patrols can. However, pirates are ALWAYS overt. A ship can only be destroyed by pirates once per day to avoid griefing.
NOW we have a reason for space, outside of course of the GCW
Zarc
Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:02 am
#2
While I applaud your efforts here - I am going to disagree about shuttling services and transport services.
Shuttle services will never take off in a game like this asanyone with JTLwillbe able to fly. Frankly I see JTL as thedeath ofstarship ports as it is faster to hop between the basic planets using your own ship / travel feature. As for flying to dath, you can be sure i'm going to take my own ship and hyper there rather than pay credits.
I think that penalizing only people that haven't bought the expansion is just a low tactic.
I like the idea of pirates. Frankly the ability to take your multiplayer ship, disable another players multiplayer ship, dock, and storm aboard for a pvp brawl in which the winners take both the ship and the loot in the ship sounds like a blast.
But then wouldn't it be fun if droid engineers could fabricate powerful defensive droids to man inside the ships, ship traps, etc.
Lot of things could be done.
-- Sylph
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