- Joined
- Dec 19, 2015
- Messages
- 48
- Reaction score
- 21
As it is, looting the clouds of random stuff that drop from pirates is tedious, and salvaging overheating ships produces nothing of particular value. At this point the 'salvage' beam is mostly used as a 'mining beam' as a result. So here comes an idea to make this aspect of play a little more engaging.
1; Cargo and Debris Clouds
When a pirate ship drops loot, instead of a cloud of items floating in space as if a player had dropped them, we'd instead get 'loot fields.' Essentially, the cargo is dropped as a static entity with no physical presence aside from a particle effect. It contains the loot, appears on navigation, appears on scan reports, and persists for a long time, if not indefinitely. Salvage beams or hull contact are used to collect the components from it, after which it despawns.
Similarly, overheating ships who run their timer down explode into 'debris fields' that behave in exactly the same way. The remaining blocks of the ship, or some percentage of them, seeing as it just exploded, remain in a debris cloud that can be salvaged via salvage array.
Clouds of both types are sized proportional to the number of items within them.
2; Navigational Hazard
Unharvested Debris clouds could, potentially, cause damage to ships passing through them. Moreso, while 'cloud nodes' that are nav entities and contain salvageable loot as described above may do so, their combined presence becomes outright dangerous. If enough are close together, additional particle zones are spawned around and connecting them. These do less damage than running into nodes, and may be proportional to the mass and speed of the vessel traversing them. (Smalls hips moving carefully take no damage)
In this way, combat taking place along the new trade routes may result in those routes becoming 'clogged' with dangerous debris, and difficult to traverse quickly and safely. This both deposits a source of salvage for players pursuing that playstyle, and potentially a mission type for later implementation. (NPC faction offers pay to clear their trade route, etc)
As a side note; in addition to debris and cargo cloud nodes, perhaps asteroids could create natural debris fields around them on occasion? Making approaching certain ones with large ships a questionable idea, and making them an additional navigational hazard.
3; Piracy 2.0
So now that ships drop loot, we can adjust the possibilities for piracy by adding the option for them to do it on purpose. NPC trade ships for example, may drop their cargo and run when attacked and damaged, instead of exploding. NPC pirates may at this point cease attacking them and pick it up. As a result generating a source of the loot the pirates are carrying, instead of plucking it from an RNG table. Pirates may even be convinced to stop attacking the player by the jettisoning of the players inventory.
In such a model, pirate bases would be somewhat less common, and have their own contingent of ships, seeking to add to them as current NPC factions do. Though they only acquire resources via looting other vessels and trade routes. Their faction inventory is actually stored aboard the pirate station, making its destruction or capture a lucrative endeavor, and possibly even allowing parties who's shipments have been stolen to retrieve them, if they attack the base before it turns their stolen goods into more pirate ships.
4; Conclusions
In this way, both debris clouds and pirates can become larger annoyances, if not outright threats, as the game progresses. Just one more way to make the universe feel lived in and dynamic. As well as opening up new ways to acquire resources and avenues for interaction.
1; Cargo and Debris Clouds
When a pirate ship drops loot, instead of a cloud of items floating in space as if a player had dropped them, we'd instead get 'loot fields.' Essentially, the cargo is dropped as a static entity with no physical presence aside from a particle effect. It contains the loot, appears on navigation, appears on scan reports, and persists for a long time, if not indefinitely. Salvage beams or hull contact are used to collect the components from it, after which it despawns.
Similarly, overheating ships who run their timer down explode into 'debris fields' that behave in exactly the same way. The remaining blocks of the ship, or some percentage of them, seeing as it just exploded, remain in a debris cloud that can be salvaged via salvage array.
Clouds of both types are sized proportional to the number of items within them.
2; Navigational Hazard
Unharvested Debris clouds could, potentially, cause damage to ships passing through them. Moreso, while 'cloud nodes' that are nav entities and contain salvageable loot as described above may do so, their combined presence becomes outright dangerous. If enough are close together, additional particle zones are spawned around and connecting them. These do less damage than running into nodes, and may be proportional to the mass and speed of the vessel traversing them. (Smalls hips moving carefully take no damage)
In this way, combat taking place along the new trade routes may result in those routes becoming 'clogged' with dangerous debris, and difficult to traverse quickly and safely. This both deposits a source of salvage for players pursuing that playstyle, and potentially a mission type for later implementation. (NPC faction offers pay to clear their trade route, etc)
As a side note; in addition to debris and cargo cloud nodes, perhaps asteroids could create natural debris fields around them on occasion? Making approaching certain ones with large ships a questionable idea, and making them an additional navigational hazard.
3; Piracy 2.0
So now that ships drop loot, we can adjust the possibilities for piracy by adding the option for them to do it on purpose. NPC trade ships for example, may drop their cargo and run when attacked and damaged, instead of exploding. NPC pirates may at this point cease attacking them and pick it up. As a result generating a source of the loot the pirates are carrying, instead of plucking it from an RNG table. Pirates may even be convinced to stop attacking the player by the jettisoning of the players inventory.
In such a model, pirate bases would be somewhat less common, and have their own contingent of ships, seeking to add to them as current NPC factions do. Though they only acquire resources via looting other vessels and trade routes. Their faction inventory is actually stored aboard the pirate station, making its destruction or capture a lucrative endeavor, and possibly even allowing parties who's shipments have been stolen to retrieve them, if they attack the base before it turns their stolen goods into more pirate ships.
4; Conclusions
In this way, both debris clouds and pirates can become larger annoyances, if not outright threats, as the game progresses. Just one more way to make the universe feel lived in and dynamic. As well as opening up new ways to acquire resources and avenues for interaction.