Pilot Archive
Thread: Vick Cloudwalker's Guide to Improving Multiplayer Ships!
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RogueCloudwalker
Sat Mar 26, 2005 11:11 pm
#1
Yeah, I'm being really glorified in this one. This title will get you in here real quick. I'm thinking that multiplayer ships need more of a role than a flying brick and a large bus. By all counts, these ships need more of reason to go out and fight, not just to store furniture. I want to come up with some stuff. Here goes -
1. Forward Locked Turrets
2. The YT-1300 Needs its Third Missile Slot
3. Multiplayer ship components should be able to be replaced in flight
4. Ordnance and Countermeasures should be able to be reloaded in flight.
5. Droid Commands should be given to the pilot and the copilot should have new abilities.
6. Secret Smuggler Compartments
7. Add the Interior Turret Graphics to the Ships!
8. Add the Falcon turrets please!
9. Other Smuggler Options - Fake Transponders, Jammers, Cloaks, Tractor Beams, Magnetic Claws, Cargo Space, Holonet Slicing
10. About the Falcon manueverability...
11. A better Autopilot command and /SetThrottle
12. Smugglers should be able to slice ship components
13. Astromech Droid uses on Multiplayer ships.
14. Roles in Combat, Level 11 Parts and Balance Issues
1. Forward Locked Turrets -
In X-Wing Alliance, the Millennium Falcon, YT-1300 Sabra and YT-2000 Otana have the ability to lock the turrets forward and fire endlessly. They also have the option to autolock on to any object and fire endlessly which was really cheap and an easy way to kill everything. SWG needs to make use of the forward locked turret option. The pilot should be able to fire both turrets linked to the cockpit. Han Solo states that the Falcon is capable of this in Courtship of Princess Leia. All Star Wars games confirm this. We should have this to encourage people to fly their ships more without looking for a crew.
It is a great perk for multiple players to man the turrets and fire in 360 degree arcs. However, with multiplayer ships moving like a brick and being as large as a bus, it will be difficult to fight anything beyond Tier 3. The only plus would be the ship's potential durability. Its time to add this option.
2. The YT-1300 needs its third missile slot
Why does the YT get gimped in this? Its probablya bug like the missing loot container. This should be fixed.
3. Multiplayer ship components should be able to be replaced in flight.
If the components are accessible from those panels, we should be able to switch them out. Han and Chewie have probably replaced something in flight at one point. Especially since plasma conduit leaks can ruin everything.
4. Ordnance should be able to be reloaded in flight
Everyone should be able to load countermeasures and missiles, bombs, and torpedoes in flight.
5, Droid commands should be given to the pilot and Co-pilot should have new abilities.
I really miss not being able to shunt to shields while in a fight. Its a real pain missing that. Instead, I recommend that copilots should have a different set of abilities.
Ability 1 - Shut off Plasma Conduits for 30 seconds.
This ability will shut off leaks for 30 seconds so that the copilot or another person can quickly patch the leak without danger. If you havent fixed it after 30 seconds...
Ability 2 - Ultra-Range Sensor system and Inspection system
The copilot has the ability to view other player's ship specs like the ship window detailing all the parts in space.
Ability 3,4,5,6
The copilot has the ability to boost shields, engines, capacitor or weapons by 25% for 1 minute. The copilot must maintain the bonuses every minute over and over again. Good news is that they don't damage the components.
6. Secret Smuggler Compartments
Smugglers should get these nifty little compartments. If in order to get them that they must sacrifice a lot or two, then so be it. More items can be stored in the ship plus whatever new functions can be thought up.
7. Add the interior turrets graphics to the ships!
I miss seeing the interior parts of the turrets from X-Wing Alliance and Episode IV. I wish I could actually see my character sitting in the turret seat with a flashing monitor with a TIE Fighter firing away. I really want to see my character swiveling around in the chair firing the turret ala Luke and Han in Episode IV. That was cool! Can we add this please?
8. Add the Falcon turrets please!
Oddly enough, there are no quad turrets with the Falcon turret sound effects. How this got left out of JTL is beyond me. I want some of these...
9. Other Smuggler options - Fake Transponders, Jammers, Cloaks, Tractor Beams, Magnetic Claws,Cargo Space, Holonet Slicing
Fake Transponders - Earlier in my suggestion for Imperial Blockades and no instant travel to Kashyyyk, I suggested that Smugglers could make Fake Transponders for pilots to have a 75% chance to fly through the blockade uninhibited.I wanted to make the suggestion again. The Fake Transponder would give off a fake identity unless throughly inspected.
Jamming Devices - These could either be made by a Smuggler, possibly installed by a Smuggler but run by the Copilot to give an edge in a fight. All attacking ships targeting the ship would do 50% less damage while this was on. Multiplayer ships only.
Cloaks - Made by a Smuggler,possibly installed by a Smuggler and run by the Copilot to mask the ship in a hostile area. Cool for mining asteroids and getting past a few pirates but not good enough to hide from an Imperial Blockade.
Tractor Beams - The same as the above, could be used to pull in special loot left behind in MagSeal crates floating in space. Space junkyards may have special loot just floating around but must be manually targeted and pulled in. Used by the Copilot.
Magnetic Claws - Same as the above, used to lock onto turbulent asteroids, space stations, and hide on the backbridge of a Star Destroyer. I wonder whereI got this idea from? 
Cargo Space - Multiplayer ships would have cargo space for mission items. For instance, Smuggling missions in space would put the cargo in cargo holds. This could be the same thing as in the Smuggler Secret Compartments. Anyway, during the mission the players could slice open and steal a little bit of the cargo before they dropped it off.
Holonet Slicing - Another idea with blockades. A Smuggler could slice the holonet from a seat behind the pilot and copilot seats on the YT-1300 or other Multiplayer ship equivalents to obtain special code phrases and passwords to the Blockade. Could be subject to failure but cool nevertheless.
10. About that Falcon manueverability....
Remember the beginning of the asteroid field scene in ESB where Han says "Great! I'll just have to outmanuever them!" and the Falcon does multiple barrelrolls while going into a dive...I wish we could do this. I know with the locked turret thing and all the other effects that we would be unstoppable with this...I can sure wish though.
11. A better Autopilot command and /SetThrottle
I wish the ship would continue moving in its direction instead of coming to a direct stop when I get up out of the seat. This didn't happen when Han and Chewie were working on the hyperdrive in the asteroid field in ESB. I wish I could type in /SetThrottle like a Cruise Control option. Also, autopilot commands would automatically stop the ship at the destination without me sitting there. Would be nice.
12. Slicing Ship Components
I wish Smugglers could slice ship components with a boost in abilities and loss of condition like weapons. Perhaps add in random failures like the components of the Millennium Falcon?
13. Astromech droid uses on a Multiplayer ship
I think it would be neat if astromechs could do things onboard of multiplayer ships. For instance, Artoo fixes the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon at the end of ESB. In SWG, Astromechs could plug into the ship and enhance all functions by 10%. They could plug into the correct panel and boost its abilities. For example, Artoo is plugged into the Shield panel and so Shields are boosted by 10%. Also, they could store Plasma conduit repair kits and automatically repair the conduit after a little bit. That would be cool.
14. Roles in Combat - Level 11 Parts and other balancing issues
Many of us agree that in PvP more people would rather have more fighters than people stuck in a big, lumbering multiplayer ship. The three shots and you aredead rule is not cool in these ships. Many have proposed adding Level 11 components that are too big for regular starfighters but can fit in 5 million mass freighters. I would perhaps recommend that, or allowing players to add dual shields, multiple armor layers or whatever. I would like to see a reduction to PvP damage to facilitate dogfights more than surprise one shot blasts. With the travel back to Deep Space a real pain, it would sure be nice to make the fight last a little longer and earn that kill rather than get the torpedo off first.
I hope you all liked my suggestions! Please let me know about this with your feedback! Thanks!
RogueCloudwalker
Sun Mar 27, 2005 8:54 am
#2
I did this with the intention of making the multiplayer ship more of wanted and used ship. I moved the necessary things to the Pilot and the Copilot picked up optional but very useful commands. I want the multiplayer ships to be used by single players who cannot find a crew like on my low population server. We have to recognize that everyone in this game is doing their own thing and 99.9% of the people would rather go up in their single starfighter than play turret gunner and split the loot. I want people to opt to use the multiplayer ship or the starfighter. I really want to just use my multiplayer ship to do most of everything in space. The YT-1300 is my favorite ship and having to find and get three people to make it as feasible and successful as a starfighter is folly.
Aronn_Cornwell
Sun Mar 27, 2005 4:58 pm
#4
yay you!
Love your ideas. cant wait to get home from this vacation so I can master Freelance Pilot and jump into my YT1300. Ive been hunting for parts for her since I got the ship 3 months ago...
Anyway, as I am a smuggler, and a Smuggler pilot, I would like to stress theidea of fly&shoot(and even &command the droid). Han Solo got an autotracking device making his quad-guns able to shoot on autopilot. Not very precise, but hey, I would rather have the odd chance of hitting the attacker 1 or 2 times while preparing for an escape jump, than not. Also, being able to lock the guns, so you can shoot forward would be nice. Its been a few years since I was active in XWA, but didnt the YT's have a 3rd gun, operated by the pilot, mounted on the cockpit?
I will use my YT1300 all the time whenI get it flying, even with all the shortcomings and such, tho Ill be sure to have my escape vectors ready...
It would be really awesome to be able to fly it (effectively) alone. Main issue (as seen by the devs) is probably the lack of RP/MP in a solo-flying POB (what exactly does that mean?? Ive been hearing it since beta but cant remember what it stands for. Players On Board or sumtin?), but if they balance it, it should work.. Its not like I would love to have someone chase after me with a 5mill mass, 3k armor and 4k shield ship, fireing 2 lvl10 RE'd heavy-mass 4k+ damage guns at me... if it is teamwork, 4 or 5 people trying to work together, thats one thing. Having 1 guy doing it all is another, and I would guess, more damaging thing...
So.. any news about the mining ship?
Zeon_Zaku
Sun Mar 27, 2005 5:43 pm
#5
Sounds like some awsome ideas.
Locking the turrets forward and letting the pilot fire them I feel is one of the most important functions that MP ships should have. I've wanted to take my Nova Cruiser out by myself and fly around space, act like an actual Smuggler, but I don't dare to because if I get attacked, I'd be dead. I couldn't fight back, I could only try to fly as fast as I could. I want to be able to whip my ship around and take on those fighters, really show them what my ship can do!
One thing I'd like to add to your list, though. Give MP ships a third weapon slot. This weapon would be attatched to the front of the ship and would fire forward, and fired by the pilot of the craft. This would really help out in a fight with or without turret gunners. Having three blasters instead of two is always better, and would indeed make them more powerful like they should be.
The Falcon had them, after all. They did pivot, however, but these don't need to. They should only fire straight ahead.
But if I remember right, these weapons where a custom modification by Han. So... if that's the case, why not let Smugglers "slice" the ship (for lack of a better term) and add this third weapon slot that way. The Smuggler would have to board the MP ship, walk to the front of the ship and type some kind of command to slice it. After that, the owner of the ship could add a weapon to the the new third slot, and switch the weapon out whenever he/she wanted to.
One thing I'd like to add to your list, though. Give MP ships a third weapon slot. This weapon would be attatched to the front of the ship and would fire forward, and fired by the pilot of the craft. This would really help out in a fight with or without turret gunners. Having three blasters instead of two is always better, and would indeed make them more powerful like they should be.
The Falcon had them, after all. They did pivot, however, but these don't need to. They should only fire straight ahead.
But if I remember right, these weapons where a custom modification by Han. So... if that's the case, why not let Smugglers "slice" the ship (for lack of a better term) and add this third weapon slot that way. The Smuggler would have to board the MP ship, walk to the front of the ship and type some kind of command to slice it. After that, the owner of the ship could add a weapon to the the new third slot, and switch the weapon out whenever he/she wanted to.
Narreem0884
Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:09 pm
#6
RogueCloudwalker wrote:
1. Forward Locked Turrets
Definately need this.
2. The YT-1300 Needs its Third Missile Slot
Need this too.
3. Multiplayer ship components should be able to be replaced in flight
I can understand some components being replaceable but there are many components that can't realistically be switched mid-flight. Basically the only thing you could switch would be a flight computer and even that would be difficult.
4. Ordnance and Countermeasures should be able to be reloaded in flight.
This would make sense but you'd need people on board or you'd have to leave the pilot's chair to do so.
5. Droid Commands should be given to the pilot and the copilot should have new abilities.
I'm not so sure about these. The first ability sounds good, but the others seem a bit overpowered. If sensor modules were a part that you had to add to your ship then I could understand the second ability, but this game assumes your sensors are stock. As for the last 4 abilities, using one system boost should detract from another system by the same amount or all the systems equally.
6. Secret Smuggler Compartments
This would be a nice addition.
7. Add the Interior Turret Graphics to the Ships!
This is just one of those little details, not necessary but nice to have. I don't see any real reason to implement it.
8. Add the Falcon turrets please!
Those were military grade weapons. Normal people can't get ahold of them.
9. Other Smuggler Options - Fake Transponders, Jammers, Cloaks, Tractor Beams, Magnetic Claws, Cargo Space, Holonet Slicing
Cloaking devices and tractor beams wouldn't fit on ships of those sizes. The rest are good though.
10. About the Falcon manueverability...
It was the Falcon. There is no ship in existence as manuverable as she is. Our piddily little ships could not hope to match the brilliance that is the Falcon.
11. A better Autopilot command and /SetThrottle
This is something that MP ships should be able to do.
12. Smugglers should be able to slice ship components
In general, most smugglers are not as technologially apt as Han. Most wouldn't know how to modify the ship components to make them work better. The books mention this fact on many occasions. People who have tried to modify their ships like the Falcon generally end up fertilizing some asteroid.
13. Astromech Droid uses on Multiplayer ships.
Repair droids would be nice to have, but they better work on fighters too.
14. Roles in Combat, Level 11 Parts and Balance Issues
They just need to modify some of the part to use chassis values likeengines do. Armor placed on an MP ship should be far more effective than the same armor placed on an A-Wing.
Rogue135
Sun Mar 27, 2005 7:35 pm
#7
My thoughts in this color.
1. Forward Locked Turrets
Definately need this option, however I think there should be an accuracy penalty... that's just me though.
2. The YT-1300 Needs its Third Missile Slot
For balance, agreed.
3. Multiplayer ship components should be able to be replaced in flight
Not sure that this is a "must have" but it might be nice.
4. Ordnance and Countermeasures should be able to be reloaded in flight.
Definate must have.
5. Droid Commands should be given to the pilot and the copilot should have new abilities.
Droid Commands and the standard flight commands each proffession gets. As for the Co-Pilot commands, I'm not sure.
6. Secret Smuggler Compartments
Yes, definately a good one.
7. Add the Interior Turret Graphics to the Ships!
Another goodie.
8. Add the Falcon turrets please!
The sound effects? Yes, please.
9. Other Smuggler Options - Fake Transponders, Jammers, Cloaks, Tractor Beams, Magnetic Claws, Cargo Space, Holonet Slicing
Gonna have to go on this one piece by piece...
Fake Transponders - Yes.
Jammers - Maybe...
Cloaks - No, everyone may hate my guts for this, but cloaking devices in this timeline are huge and take tons of power... as said in ESB "No ship that small has a cloaking device!
Tractor Beam - Maybe...
Magnetic Claws - A good one.
Cargo Space - Good one.
HolonetSlicing - I personally think this would be better reserved for the ground game myself, but it should be implemented.
10. About the Falcon manueverability...
Nearly every ships maneuverability for that matter... but yes, the POB ships in particular.
11. A better Autopilot command and /SetThrottle
Yes, 100% agreed.
12. Smugglers should be able to slice ship components
I think this should be a choice, slice or reverse engineer. Can't do both, but a slice would make the part a little more prone to failure (ranging from massive system failure to a fluke where a good fist to the dash would fix it.)
13. Astromech Droid uses on Multiplayer ships.
Astromechs, LE Repair Droids and... well, all droids should have their place, repairing or giving some more juice so to speak...
14. Roles in Combat, Level 11 Parts and Balance Issues
Personally I prefer the idea of secondary shield generator, capacitor for each turret, secondary layer of armor and the like. I don't see the need to add a full set of Level 11 parts.
Loki_Ashaman
Sun Mar 27, 2005 7:49 pm
#8
RogueCloudwalker wrote:
1. Forward Locked Turrets -
No comment with this, doesn't appeal to me. Only comment is with this statement:
However, with multiplayer ships moving like a brick and being as large as a bus, it will be difficult to fight anything beyond Tier 3. Not sure I understand this statement, are you saying they are not effective beyond Tier 3 oppenents? If so, this is untrue, I know of a few crews that are very effective in Deep Space.
2. The YT-1300 needs its third missile slot
Definately agree.
3. Multiplayer ship components should be able to be replaced in flight.
Interesting idea, but I don't think this is feasible. I truely doubt Han replaced anything mid-flight, repaired yes. This is the type of work done at shipyards. If it was a serious consideration, I'd recommend adding timers, down-sides, and chance of failures. And not short timers, minutes long timers. For Example:
Replacing the Reactor would kill all power to the ship for 3 minutes, if you fail to install you have to wait for the 3 minute timer to run-out before trying again. Engine would result no thrust, weapons would be that particular weapon offline, etc.
4. Ordnance should be able to be reloaded in flight
Definately, need to add an Ordnance panel somewhere, from there the missiles & countermeasures can be repaired or reloaded.
5, Droid commands should be given to the pilot and Co-pilot should have new abilities.
Get a better Operations Officer, your's seems to be slacking. I have an excellent co-pilot, he runs through the pre-flight cycle, fires off shunt-to-shields when needed, repeatedly types /who to find determine if enemy players have entered the sector (and warns the gunners when they do). This leaves me free to make sure the ship is in the optimal position for the gunners, and the gunners free to kill everything that moves. As for other abilites:
Ability 1 - Shut off Plasma Conduits for 30 seconds.
Plasma conduits transfer the power from the reactor to the components, shutting down allthe conduits should thus shut down the entire ship.
Ability 2 - Ultra-Range Sensor system and Inspection system
Cool idea, although I'd settle for the operations to be able to pull up a huge radar screen with the ability to get info from using mouse-over similiar to the new ground ability.
Ability 3,4,5,6
E-shields, E-thrust, and e-weapons already exist in the game. If Operations-specific versions were implemented, they would probably function similar to the already existing versions, in other words they would not stack with droid commands. No thank you.
6. Secret Smuggler Compartments
Interesting.
7. Add the interior turrets graphics to the ships!
Yeah, some sort of interior would be nice, even just a pair of seats with handles.
8. Add the Falcon turrets please!
Agree
9. Other Smuggler options - Fake Transponders, Jammers, Cloaks, Tractor Beams, Magnetic Claws,Cargo Space, Holonet Slicing
Eh. I'd be more intrigued by this if I could inspect / arrest smugglers.
10. About that Falcon manueverability....
Get a better engine, cut speed when you start rapid turns. I've seengood RE'ed level 10 engines with speed in the 90s with YPR in the high 80s.
11. A better Autopilot command and /SetThrottle
Agree, /slaps droid.
12. Slicing Ship Components
Bad Idea [TM]. SW have RE, allowing smugglers to slice components could break the game. How? Easy, here's an example: Weapon A gets max-damage sliced, Weapon B gets min-damage sliced, Weapons C and D get vs shields and Armor sliced respectively, and Weapon E getsrefire rate sliced. A SW now RE's this weapon set, but uses Weapon F (which has not been sliced) as the first object placed in the RE tool - the final component now counts as if it has not been sliced, yet has had slices to 6 of its stats already.
13. Astromech droid uses on a Multiplayer ship
More droid uses, yes. 2 possible droid modules have been discussed since beta: a fire-extinquisher, and a ship repair module (this one has been discussed as possible requiring the repair kits to be loaded into the droid).
14. Roles in Combat - Level 11 Parts and other balancing issues
Heavier equipment and dual-armor/shields are both good ideas which our friendly correspondants hopefully have been trying to pound into the devs for awhile now.
I hope you all liked my suggestions! Please let me know about this with your feedback! Thanks!
BeigeKnight
Sun Mar 27, 2005 8:52 pm
#9
Rouge135:
12. Smugglers should be able to slice ship components
I think this should be a choice, slice or reverse engineer. Can't do both, but a slice would make the part a little more prone to failure (ranging from massive system failure to a fluke where a good fist to the dash would fix it.)
This is an exellent idea. Especially since as of now slicing is random. You could get a definate increase with RE'ing, or you could gamble with a slice. With the changes to slicing coming up this may be a bit unbalanced, but the whole "chance of part failure" thing could make sure that it won't cut into the Shipwright's own thing.
RogueCloudwalker
Mon Mar 28, 2005 4:35 pm
#10
Thanks for the suggestions! A few things I want to clear up...
Cloaks - I had Dash Rendar's Outrider in mind. His ship comes with a sensor-cloaking device that makes him invisible to sensors. I should have been more clear. But if wanted to, I could call upon the Phantom V-28 TIE Fighter which does have a cloaking device to be invisible. Good ol' Darth Vader did oversee the development of that. My Cloak is to be invisible to sensors but not the naked eye.
About the Tier 3 thing....
I'm assuming that anything Tier 4 and 5 will be too hard to catch half the time unless you joust in the multiplayer ship. The turning at high speeds is impossible. Jousting can take a while...
A good suggestion on the third cockpit gun from X-Wing Alliance! I forgot all about those! I usually diverted all laser power to shields and did not use that gun. Yes, I concur we need those! Thanks!
Loki_Ashaman
Mon Mar 28, 2005 5:15 pm
#11
RogueCloudwalker wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions! A few things I want to clear up...
About the Tier 3 thing....
I'm assuming that anything Tier 4 and 5 will be too hard to catch half the time unless you joust in the multiplayer ship. The turning at high speeds is impossible. Jousting can take a while...
I've read 2 ways to deal with fighters while piloting the POB ships, both involve your standard straight and level flight.
1. Fly slow, most guides recommend 250 spd, and let the fighters joust you - don't spin and turn trying to catch them or follow them, your gunners can handle them as they approach. This option seems to take less damage and spreads it out both over time and between front/back.
2. Full speed ahead. With a high speed engine, most enemies will slow down enough to keep you in their sights, thus they are relatively sitting targets for your gunners. Advantages: easier for gunners to hit targets, high kill speed. Disadvantage: Multiple enemies directly behind you, firing into your engines - who ever is running shunt-to-shields better be quick and the cap better be fast.
I'm still playing with both, not sure which I perfer. 2 is real nice, be can get scary.
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