Read by Council (Idea) Jump Catapult

[AnthonyAnderson]

This idea in general would actually limit diversity in gameplay and strategy. Pirating would be significantly harder and Smuggling would be significantly easier with any of the "Catapult" ideas implemented. The only way to resolve that would be another type of "Jump Inhibitor" which (to me) would be unnecessarily redundant.

I would love some launch rails though!

Would actually think it to be the opposite, in terms of smuggling and piracy (which, I wasn't aware there was a "smuggling" aspect to the game, given there's no contraband or way to scan cargo of other ships). I imagine that if you've tracked down a freighter that traveling from a to b and you've got your pirate fleet on standby, you can warp inhibit it, give the sector coords, and your entire fleet could be loaded in in a matter of seconds.

If smuggling does become an actual thing (and anti smuggling enforcement becomes possible), the smuggler would be idle for a while before the catapult aligns and eventually sends the ship down the rails to launch. In the meantime, any observing vessel can do a quick scan down of your vessel, see what you're hauling, and interrupt the process (destroying the catapult, destroying you, using a jump inhibitor, etc) to bring your villainous life to an end.

Besides, as mentioned, the catapult has free-range of destinations, but has to calculate in stellar objects. Even if the smuggler could get free, he'd likely not get far enough without having either jumping or using another catapult.

 

[Gunseng]

Would actually think it to be the opposite, in terms of smuggling and piracy (which, I wasn't aware there was a "smuggling" aspect to the game, given there's no contraband or way to scan cargo of other ships). I imagine that if you've tracked down a freighter that traveling from a to b and you've got your pirate fleet on standby, you can warp inhibit it, give the sector coords, and your entire fleet could be loaded in in a matter of seconds.

If smuggling does become an actual thing (and anti smuggling enforcement becomes possible), the smuggler would be idle for a while before the catapult aligns and eventually sends the ship down the rails to launch. In the meantime, any observing vessel can do a quick scan down of your vessel, see what you're hauling, and interrupt the process (destroying the catapult, destroying you, using a jump inhibitor, etc) to bring your villainous life to an end.

Besides, as mentioned, the catapult has free-range of destinations, but has to calculate in stellar objects. Even if the smuggler could get free, he'd likely not get far enough without having either jumping or using another catapult.

Starmade definitely has the potential for these aspects (Pirating/Smuggling), but we'll have to wait and see when the economy update is released in the future to see its application and scope.

Ok so basically I'd have to build jump inhibitors all over my territory to prevent this from happening since a ship could be launched anywhere into and out of my territories. If the system is meant to be expensive then it wouldn't be used for smuggling as long as only stations could use it. However this is where another problem arises. If you don't have enough inhibitors someone could easily spam your territory with ships without any consequence to the person sending them. This would turn faction PvP into a person sitting in a station or multiple stations continuously just sending ships in.

MAYBE if the system completely turned off ALL systems on the ship being launched and all the systems remained offline after the destination being reached for a long period of time (at least 10-20 minutes) to give the defenders a chance then it could be balanced out and you'd be forced to send ships to the outskirts of territories.

 

[timtee]

Perhaps, but why rework an existing system that works well when adding a new system would increase diversity in gameplay and strategy.

timtee I did have to ask about that server you mentioned in chat, and whilst I agree it wouldn't be usable there, it definitely would be elsewhere.

Especially imagine a mining outpost for a faction and being able to catapult mining ships out to mine and they'd just have to get their way back.

True, But eh, Still idea seams pretty odd and useless cause the current system works most better