Pilot Archive

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SheenaBrelya wrote:

The most obvious solution to me is to handle Decay on the Damage side and make all repairs Decay free. Using 10% would mean that the 1st point of Damage causes Decay and the next 9 do not. It would remove the limp-to-DS-to-repair trips as well as the 1/4-1/4-1/2-Full repairs at Stations. That also seems like the only point the system will be able to differentiate between Damage types.

Due to the lack of work arounds, I'd imagine an outcry over a change like that, but I think that it would more closely associate the use of a component to that component's eventually Decay into uselessness.

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Hm. I could almost see this taken a step further--Your ship gets 'wounds' that can only be 'healed' by a shipwright?

I'm not sure I like that idea. But I might. Mostly because I don't like not liking my own ideas. Someone: convince me I didn't have a bad idea.

I think that the risk should equal the reward. What do you get for winning in Space PvP? That should equal and opposite to what you get if you lose in Space PvP. At least on the ground, you get some stinking faction points.

As for overpriced Shipwrights... Do you guys even realize that it takes nearly 5 MILLION UNITS OF RESOURCES to master this profession? Lemme tell you, no one buys anything from a newbie 4-point Shipwright. Most shipwrights' prices are well under the cost per unit of resources that other professions can dish out.

Armorsmiths typically get 40-50 cpu on the LOW END of their price scales. If Shipwrights used that pricing scheme, a single B-Wing would cost (hold on to your seats) 6.4 million credits.

Actually i don't know what you all have with your decay-phobia, in space it's not half as bad as in the ground game.

Seriously, your items never become unuseable when having low durability, your airframe still is spaceworthy with low durability, the only difference is that the ship blows up a tiny bit faster when shields and armour are gone. But honestly, how long do you expect to still keep going with shield and armour removed? As soon as components take damage, you're out of the battle, anyways.

I fly my ship, badly worn down, and only replace my armour on a regular basis. As long as i keep the armour in good shape, the status of all the rest matters little and the price for replacing armours once a while is not that bad...

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Sylow wrote:

Actually i don't know what you all have with your decay-phobia, in space it's not half as bad as in the ground game.

Seriously, your items never become unuseable when having low durability, your airframe still is spaceworthy with low durability, the only difference is that the ship blows up a tiny bit faster when shields and armour are gone. But honestly, how long do you expect to still keep going with shield and armour removed? As soon as components take damage, you're out of the battle, anyways.

I fly my ship, badly worn down, and only replace my armour on a regular basis. As long as i keep the armour in good shape, the status of all the rest matters little and the price for replacing armours once a while is not that bad...

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that's exactly my point, although if you are using overcharge 4 you will have "useless" components at low durability. decay isn't a factor, it's some sort of subliminal deterrant. it doesn't drive anyone to buy new things, it doesn't really deter anyone from doing anything in PVE either, the only thing it really does is make pilots nervous and keep them out of PVP in normal zones. it doesn't balance out equipment either. as a mechanic, it makes 0 sense. people who say the game needs it as a deterrant need to ask themselves what the mechanic is really doing!

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quadpers0n wrote:

try this, just ask yourself:

"is that idea fun?"

if the answer is no to pretty much anything, then it's a bad idea.

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To me, this is the heart of the issue. Decay just isn't fun. PVP is the only real endgame of space, and to discourage people from getting involved hurts everyone in space. It only hampers the development of a truly kickass PVP scene.

When you start looking at numbers, 10% decay does take a few dozen deaths to knock the HP on a component down to a really low fraction of where it started, but it only takes 3 deaths to reduce a component or chassis' HP to 75% of where it started out.

The quick decay of multiple components and chassis results in a rapid decrease in your PVP survivability, as any damage past your armor will swiftly disable systems and leave you helpless or dead. A pilot named Eaca wrote some great posts back in February or so on how the decay penalty negatively affects PVP in ways that aren't immediately obvious. I highly recommend digging them up.

I am sympathetic to maintaining business for shipwrights and ensuring they keep a healthy place in this game. I think there are better ways to do this than through decay, though. The PVP decay focus thread from about four months ago had some particularly great suggestions in it (not to mention an excellent discussion of the issue, from multiple points of view). I'd find links to this and Eaca's posts, but I've got to go complain to the devs some more about the lack of a space zone in the new expansion now.

Message Edited by TomoRainer on 08-26-2005 08:49 AM

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TomoRainer wrote:

I'd find links to this and Eaca's posts, but I've got to go complain to the devs some more about the lack of a space zone in the new expansion now.

Message Edited by TomoRainer on 08-26-200508:49 AM

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seriously though, slap an empty zone with a mustafar cut and paste job as one of the walls and make it a FFA zone and i'm happy.

(but my money is on the devs wanting a mustarfarr space zone and being shot down by lucasarts.)

but yeah, imo decay should just be flat out nixed and someone over there should be chided for implementing it. there are a billion and one ways to make shipwrights happy in terms of revenue that don't make pilots

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quadpers0n wrote:

seriously though, slap an empty zone with a mustafar cut and paste job as one of the walls and make it a FFA zone and i'm happy.

(but my money is on the devs wanting a mustarfarr space zone and being shot down by lucasarts.)

but yeah, imo decay should just be flat out nixed and someone over there should be chided for implementing it. there are a billion and one ways to make shipwrights happy in terms of revenue that don't make pilots

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I would say get rid of decay yes, if, and only, BF and wounds were reintroduced in space, it is suppossed to be the most unforgiving of environments.

For those that want to see Decay as a system tool removed, how would you prefer to see the system try to remove older legacy components that are no longer balanced in the combat system?

While some exploited components can be taken care of the same way that zero mass ones were, the ones I'm more concerned about are the many components that were looted prior to loot table changes, reward components whose values were lowered, and bugs/exploits that created unbalanced components early in JtL history. Since "fixing" them into more balanced values may be considered impossible or unfair in a lot of cases, how should the system remove them?

Another question I have is do you feel that a starship component of any kind should eventually wear out due to use? I expect my Hard Drive to eventually wear out from use, I expect my Transmission to eventually wear out from use, the game system has my Armor and Weapons wear out from use - why should starship components be different? Because it isn't fun otherwise? I simply can't accept that argument as the sole reason to remove the only sink that handles starship component usage.

Shona

Oh and just to get more flames I think there should be friendly fire (its foolish to cut in frount of your wingman when they are fireing on an enemy)....and and.....collision damage. I see pilots jousting with an enemy and just flying right thru said enemy....silly just plane silly.