Jump Drive Ideas

[Lone_Puppy]

Slave Effect Computers
Looking at this idea Jump Drive Overcharge, it inspired me to think "how cool would it be to patch in another computer to the jump drive to create some crazy effect the same way we slave weapons with each other and also effect computers.

Slave effect computers to the Jump Drive.
- Overdrive for extended jump with longer cooldown or slower recharge after jump only
- Explosive effect for instant charge and severely long recharge afterwards, due to burn out.
- Or perhaps have the drive experience actual damage like being shot with a missile and have the drive disabled to simulate a massive shunt of power, thus shorting it out.
- EMP - maybe creats an EMP burst behind the ship to disable pursuers

I don't have any ideas for what the following effect computers could do, but I'm sure the community could think of something.
- Push/pull effect
- Ion -
- Piercing
- Punch through
- Stop

Jump Drive Operation Mod
An additional Jump Drive operation I would like is the ability to jump whether fully charged or not. The jump distance would be dependant on the charge. It should be easy to work out on a percentage basis, where if the jump drive is only 50% charged, it would only jump half the maximum distance. This would allow for a quick escape for craft that don't have defensive or attack capability.

 

[Calhoun]

EMP could maybe make it immune to Jump inhibitors with the trade off of a shorter jump?

 

[ltmauve]

- Overdrive for extended jump with longer cooldown or slower recharge after jump only

Or just increase the power cost while charging in the first place?

- Explosive effect for instant charge and severely long recharge afterwards, due to burn out.

This is immune to a jump inhibitor, which I don't think is balanced.
If you want to move the charging afterwords, perhaps force it to charge - and therefore draw power - immediately after the jump, with no way to stop it. I also think it might need to charge more and/or have a shorter jump to make it balanced.

But since jump drives can be precharged and just kept that way indefinitely, I'm not sure what the benefit would be besides it being immune to inhibitors. Which would be unbalanced, as now there's nothing to stop players from jumping out from a fight.

Other effects:
Stop: will charge slowly from excess power generated. Cannot be manually charged and will not charge unless power is full.

 

[SpaceIsPrettyNeat]

- EMP - maybe creats an EMP burst behind the ship to disable pursuers

EMP could maybe make it immune to Jump inhibitors with the trade off of a shorter jump?

Perhaps EMP creates a burst of Jump Inhibitor power which is left behind at the cost of a longer recharge time, while Calhoun's suggestion applies to Ion (or vice versa)?

I do think JI immunity seems overpowered. What if Ion provides JI resistance - up to about 50-75% maximum at 1:1 ratio?

As for the Push/Pull effects, these could give you momentum boosts upon jumping. For example, jumping from a standstill with 1:1 Push effect will cause your ship to exit the jump with 50% maximum momentum going forward, while Pull will act as a post-jump brake (freeing up the Stop effect to do something else; who would want to go backwards upon jump completion anyway?). Would probably require more power, but I can see a decrease in thruster effectiveness working too.

A Piercing effect Jump Drive could detect if the destination is a danger zone such as a star's immediate vicinity or an enemy faction's territory (which are occasionally intersected by long routes) and automatically extend the jump out of the danger zone at the cost of a HUGE power penalty. As a downside, such a Jump Drive would require more time/power to fully charge.

I have but one idea for Punch Through, but I'm not sure if it's good/balancable. A Jump Drive with a PT slave would cease to be a mode of transportation, but a weapon. Left clicking on a ship with a full Drive would mark it as the target and give it a special designation on the HUD. Right clicking then warps the ship inside the target ship, telefragging it and causing a massive explosion whose size depends on the jumping ship's mass (so no ridiculous 100 5-block drone bombardments). Downsides would include the inability to be used as transportation or if the target ship is > 1 sector away. It would also take MUCH longer to charge and, if this is insufficient, also lose functionality if the jumping ship has < 100% power and 50% shields. (so a ship can't put up a great big fight and then self-sacrifice. Dedicated telefraggers only.) Even with all the precautions, this seems ripe for abuse. I still like the idea, though.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Perhaps EMP creates a burst of Jump Inhibitor power which is left behind at the cost of a longer recharge time, while Calhoun's suggestion applies to Ion (or vice versa)?

I do think JI immunity seems overpowered. What if Ion provides JI resistance - up to about 50-75% maximum at 1:1 ratio?

As for the Push/Pull effects, these could give you momentum boosts upon jumping. For example, jumping from a standstill with 1:1 Push effect will cause your ship to exit the jump with 50% maximum momentum going forward, while Pull will act as a post-jump brake (freeing up the Stop effect to do something else; who would want to go backwards upon jump completion anyway?). Would probably require more power, but I can see a decrease in thruster effectiveness working too.

A Piercing effect Jump Drive could detect if the destination is a danger zone such as a star's immediate vicinity or an enemy faction's territory (which are occasionally intersected by long routes) and automatically extend the jump out of the danger zone at the cost of a HUGE power penalty. As a downside, such a Jump Drive would require more time/power to fully charge.

I have but one idea for Punch Through, but I'm not sure if it's good/balancable. A Jump Drive with a PT slave would cease to be a mode of transportation, but a weapon. Left clicking on a ship with a full Drive would mark it as the target and give it a special designation on the HUD. Right clicking then warps the ship inside the target ship, telefragging it and causing a massive explosion whose size depends on the jumping ship's mass (so no ridiculous 100 5-block drone bombardments). Downsides would include the inability to be used as transportation or if the target ship is > 1 sector away. It would also take MUCH longer to charge and, if this is insufficient, also lose functionality if the jumping ship has < 100% power and 50% shields. (so a ship can't put up a great big fight and then self-sacrifice. Dedicated telefraggers only.) Even with all the precautions, this seems ripe for abuse. I still like the idea, though.

I like these a lot!

Pull effect could be usefull for putting you in reverse if you are pursued to your destination. Kind of like the Vipers do when tailed by Cylons in Battlestar Galactica.

Piercing effect could drop the jump a sector short as a safety, leaving you with a small residual charge to give you a shorter recharge time to get out of there ASAP.

Punch through is a mystery one for me. I think of punching through to a parallel universe or dimension, but without being able to jump to another server this is just not likely. Although, I did suggest server jumping a long time ago. And that mechanic would allow for it. Giving you endless possibilities for server owners having you jump to a pocket universe for goodies or baddies depending on the universe.

 

[SpaceIsPrettyNeat]

I like these a lot!

Pull effect could be usefull for putting you in reverse if you are pursued to your destination. Kind of like the Vipers do when tailed by Cylons in Battlestar Galactica.

Piercing effect could drop the jump a sector short as a safety, leaving you with a small residual charge to give you a shorter recharge time to get out of there ASAP.

Thanks! :D

I'm not familiar with Battlestar Galactica. I do see what you mean, though - a Pull Effect jump followed by the quick activation of a Radar Jammer could give a fleeing ship reasonable escape opportunity without being OP.

I kind of like your Piercing effect better than mine. Maybe it should be more extreme, though; at 1:1 ratio, cut the jump length in half and leave 40% charge - lower charge efficiency in exchange for a not insignificant amount of charge to start with. Of course, it could also decrease the charging time for the same effect.

I thought a bit and I came up with two more Punch-Through effects. Since the Punch-Through effect apparently has decreased damage to Armor HP as a defensive effect, a Punch-Though jump could provide extra shield charge upon a successful jump, at the exchange of extra power cost. Alternatively, it could provide a large boost to either charge speed or jump distance. In exchange, if any planets, asteroids, stations, etc. of any sort intersects the hyperspace path, the jumping ship is annihilated and an explosion generated. This explosion will not cause damage to planets or any player-owned ships/stations, while anything else will sustain massive damage. This would make it an effective, if risky, last-ditch fleeing effort. It may also prove its worth in intergalactic space, where there are (to my knowledge) no stars or planets (but still plenty of NPC stations to be careful of)

 

[Lone_Puppy]

the jumping ship is annihilated and an explosion generated

lol, that would be a risky venture!

Perhaps Punch-Through could be some kind of wildcard chaos drive, that does all you mentioned. Where you are jumped to a random location in any direction either at the standard jump distance or some random distance lesser or greater than standard.

I like the damage though. It would be a good last ditch trade off. You could probably do that with the overdrive to, where you have damage to the ship on exiting the jump.

Or a reboot is initiate, forcing you to be disabled temporarily while you nibble away your fingernails waiting for the enemy to track you down.
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This is immune to a jump inhibitor, which I don't think is balanced.

I think this is a great idea! I would happily suffer minor ship damage with this option.

 

[Lecic]

No JDI immunity or resistance please, dealing with some people's cowardtier drives is more obnoxious than anything else in this game. Please don't make it even worse.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

No JDI immunity or resistance please, dealing with some people's cowardtier drives is more obnoxious than anything else in this game. Please don't make it even worse.

Perhaps a switch in server config for these things. That way for learner or beginner servers it could be available, but series PVP battle servers it could be turned off.