Multiple Invincible Stations

[Lecic]

This suggestion is assuming that an inverted FP config becomes the default in the future.

This is running somewhat counter to what many people have suggested. I think people should be able to protect multiple stations with HB protection, at the cost of faction points. This is to encourage expansion beyond the current HB and making war with a faction more interesting. It will also help at reducing HB lag, since people won't store every player piloted ship they have in a single place.

I would suggest something along the lines of 3 to 5 station claims generating FP to keep a single station invulnerable. This, on top of players draining FP and other potential FP drains like recruiting crew or maintaining combat and mining fleets, makes it difficult but possible for a faction to control multiple invulnerable stations.

EDIT-

I am not suggesting that regular HBs lose their protection to be replaced with this system. Regular HBs would still have unconditional immortality.

 

[Jaaskinal]

TBH, I feel like this would help reduce lag as well, currently large faction home bases are incredibly crowded by entities, ships, turrets, and who knows what else. Allowing that to be spread out, and hopefully not all loaded at once would be great.

 

[Blaza612]

I'm in full support of this. It creates a means of multiple stations interacting with each other, for the sake of protection.

In this case, one station will require multiple others in order to stay alive, and can allow for some sort of "progression" when it comes to war, meaning that a faction will have to plan what targets to hit and how to move on from those, creating more room for strategies and tactics to be used in war, ultimately making the game more interesting. c:

 

[Jasper1991]

Great Idea but can be easily abused.

Imagine you attack a claim outpost and as soon as they start being attacked, someone pops up the homebase invincibility on the station your attacking, now you have just wasted your time and once the damages are fully repaired they turn it off again.

With exploits for this function like this, it would be paramount to have ways of avoiding this from occurring.

 

[xNxExOx]

This is 100% good idea, BUT it can make everything much worse.
1.) Activating and deactivating could take hours and generate alert for all enemy factions.
2.) Invincibility to work only when none of factions players online, else only some bonus based on points spent.
3.) Balancing this must be done very carefully, because of:

Imagine you attack a claim outpost and as soon as they start being attacked, someone pops up the homebase invincibility on the station your attacking, now you have just wasted your time and once the damages are fully repaired they turn it off again.

 

[Lecic]

Great Idea but can be easily abused.

Imagine you attack a claim outpost and as soon as they start being attacked, someone pops up the homebase invincibility on the station your attacking, now you have just wasted your time and once the damages are fully repaired they turn it off again.

With exploits for this function like this, it would be paramount to have ways of avoiding this from occurring.

The simple solution to this is to have a timer before the station becomes protected, and to prevent damaged stations from being protected (requiring a reboot first).

2.) Invincibility to work only when none of factions players online, else only some bonus based on points spent.

I think that invulnerability only while members are offline is a bad mechanic, as it encourages people to just log out when under siege, and encourages people to just play under, say, an allied alt faction instead.

 

[Jojomo]

Wouldn't a faction becoming more fragile and vulnerable as it becomes more powerful be desirable?

That way you avoid a faction becoming too powerful to challenge.

This suggestion means that the most powerful faction could increase their advantage over the next most powerful faction.

 

[Lecic]

Wouldn't a faction becoming more fragile and vulnerable as it becomes more powerful be desirable?

That way you avoid a faction becoming too powerful to challenge.

This suggestion means that the most powerful faction could increase their advantage over the next most powerful faction.

While this suggestion could alter short term tactics, in the long term, having multiple invincible bases is an additional drain on faction points that accelerate a side's demise as their generating territories are picked off by enemy fleets.

 

[alterintel]

what if you try to use weapons on an invulnerable base to attack somebody else's vulnerable base?

What stops you from building out an invulnerable base to the point where you are able to target and fire on somebody else's vulnerable assets from your invulnerable base?

Maybe there should be some limit placed on the offensive capabilities of an invulnerable base?

 

[Lecic]

what if you try to use weapons on an invulnerable base to attack somebody else's vulnerable base?

What stops you from building out an invulnerable base to the point where you are able to target and fire on somebody else's vulnerable assets from your invulnerable base?

Maybe there should be some limit placed on the offensive capabilities of an invulnerable base?

Well, for starters, you could make it so you can only make a base invulnerable in territory you control. This would prevent you from making a LRM station that bombards someone else's station, unless that station is right on the edge of a system.

If there's something like a 15 minute (server configurable) timer for a base becoming invulnerable, any station that wouldn't be a complete pushover ANYWAY should be able to take it out with its own LRM turrets before it becomes unkillable. Preventing a base that's in combat or has taken damage from becoming unbreakable would help too.

Finally, there could also be a mechanic where stations can only be invulnerable if connected to friendly (either own or allied) territory.

 

[NeonSturm]

1 station per player?

 

[splatthecat]

Cool ideas! I'd like to support some and add my own.

1. ALL bases are invulnerable if no faction members online.

2. Undocked ships with active AI will act as "defend sector". They will engage any enemy but will not leave the sector.

3. Undocked ships without active AI will be potential targets.

4. If a faction member is online, the homebase protection will be like a shield. Not invulnerable and movable to other stations in the faction. FP and time cost to move this "shield" and can be done via the station faction block. The designated faction home base can control remotely this shield to any station in the system.

5. Faction "shield" cannot be moved to stations NOT in faction controlled space.

6. A "lock pick" tool added to astronaut inventory to open faction locked doors, etc. This will enable some personal assaults on stations or ships. This tool would cost money to buy and time and FP to use. The wielder of this tool can open doors, storage, etc They can also damage systems but not destroy them. Items can be removed from storage and placed in the personal inventory. Tool cannot be passed to other faction members to use and only one per faction.

7. Add an "intruder alarm" function to a Bobby AI and enable defence systems to be activated. FP could be expended in order to send a message to all faction members of the alarm.

 

[starhaiden]

I don't like invincible stations.
My suggestion is:
Increase the power of systems on stations. (remove soft cap, etc)
Add a new type of jammer for stations that prevents large ships from detecting small stations. Possible way this could be implanted is ships double the mass of the station can't detect the station also small ships within a certain distance of the large ship can't detect the station as well.
Add station based weapons e.g.

• Shield recharge disruptor
• shield recharge amplifier
• Large EMP blast that effects everything

 

[Madman198237]

I like the idea of having the ability of protecting additional stations. One caveat: HB'd stations cannot generate FP. That way, you have a vulnerable infrastructure----the basis of conventional warfare. If you have sites you must protect, then you will fight a conventional war. If you do not, then suddenly warfare goes asymmetric and everything gets crazy, fast.

One hour timer on making a station invulnerable. This makes abuse really difficult. Unless you're spying on your enemies, in which case, good for you.
Stations receiving damage could convert a portion of that damage into an FP cost. A small portion. As in, a lengthy siege will put additional drain on your FP, not "15 minutes of shooting and your faction has ceased to exist".
This FP requirement forces large factions that want protected shipyards, havens (Ship storage, basically), fighting platforms, whatever, to have a large and vulnerable infrastructure.

FP requirement based on mass of station + docked. If you want to protect 100 million mass of docked ships at your 5-mass stick-station, you better be ready to pay for it.

 

[Malacodor]

While this suggestion could alter short term tactics, in the long term, having multiple invincible bases is an additional drain on faction points that accelerate a side's demise as their generating territories are picked off by enemy fleets.

Why would anybody dock their ships to stations that can lose their invulnerability over night?

 

[Sachys]

Under an inverse FP system, this would work best if there were a minimum systems gap between such stations (and obviously not in territory claimed by others)- thereby causing a bigger FP drain due to distance from HB (and making using them even more of a strategy and blocking abuse of camping other stations in range).

Example: HB - - - - Protected Base - - - - Protected Base

Hopefully I've had enough coffee to make sense there.

 

[Pacific_Jim]

I could get behind this with some more limitations. Maybe introduce a "home system" and every invulnerable base has to be in that area?

 

[MrFURB]

This seems like a fantastic idea. Find a way to limit the quick-HB issue and I'd love to see it tried out.

 

[Lukwan]

Initially I thought this idea was too ripe for abuse. Given enough balance-elements I think the risk is worth the reward. The mechanic would make the RTS element of Faction-wars more interesting and strategic.

If 'invulnerable' proves to be too overpowered we could always re-brand it as 'Hardened' and grant such bases a 50% damage reduction and or a small buff to shield-regen.

 

[Madman198237]

No need for that, Pacific. Just tie FP reserves to systems for this purpose---you'll need multiple stations per system to get an invulnerable one.

Lukwan---that should be default for stations anyway, since they're so vulnerable now. *The buffs thing.