- Joined
- Dec 3, 2013
- Messages
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- 25
A second post from me in one day. Maybe this one won't be something I missed in an update! I think I'm in the clear this time.
I was reminiscing about my time playing Freelancer, ducking through debris fields and hunting wrecks for loot, and the details of this idea came to me.
Shipwrecks. They would, in many ways, work like existing abandoned stations as far as the "purchase" system goes (see note 1). However, there would be some changes.
Shipwrecks would be generated from the ship catalog, in the same way existing ships can be used by pirates or the Trade Guild. An additional option would be added to the Admin tab, allowing you to enable or disable shipwreckery on a ship-by-ship basis.
There's one core difference between shipwrecks and abandoned stations, however. Shipwrecks could spawn with random damage. Damage should, as a general rule, follow existing weapon types, though a few oddball things could be thrown in, representing internal damage or accidental collisions. Larger ships (determined by block count, presumably) have higher chances of more damaged bits and larger damage areas. Occasionally you'll be lucky enough to find an undamaged abandoned ship - maybe the pilot died for other reasons, maybe his power grid just went bad and he got rescued, whatever.
New shipwrecks will periodically spawn in any sector, with a spawn roll happening at some predetermined interval. They can potentially spawn anywhere except for a sector with a planet.
An accompanying feature is the Ship Graveyard. This is like an Asteroid sector, it just spawns shipwrecks instead of space rocks. In addition to rarely showing up naturally in some Abandoned Station sectors, sectors that have had a large number of ships or a non-Abandoned station blow up can become Ship Graveyards. This does not apply to any sector with a planet ("oh god it's raining ships!") or still-inhabited station, but a station can be built in a Ship Graveyard without destroying said graveyard.
Individual shipwrecks, but not those that spawn in a Graveyard, can potentially have cargo aboard. The cargo can be looted without needing to go through the salvage routine, just board and grab it. This along with the sporadic respawning offers a reward for both exploring and patrolling claimed space, which is why Graveyard sectors don't get the cargo spawn - also because that would be way too farmable. Ship Graveyards also generate more damage on the wrecks than individual shipwrecks usually do.
Server config options:
Shipwreck Spawn Probability: adjust the rate of shipwreck spawns, like the current shop spawn config. Can be disabled with 0.
Ship Graveyard Spawn Probability: Works like the shop spawn. Determines the possibility of an abandoned station sector being accompanied by a ship graveyard. 0 to disable.
Ship Graveyard Conversion Type: Disabled, Block Count and Ship Count, Station Required.
Ship Graveyard Conversion Block Requirement: Number of total blocks destroyed to cause the creation of a Ship Graveyard.
Ship Graveyard Conversion Ship Requirement: Number of ship cores destroyed to cause the creation of a Ship Graveyard. The ratio between these two requirements will influence the balance of what ship kills are needed to create a Graveyard.
Ship Graveyard Conversion Station Probability: If Ship Graveyard conversion requires only an inhabited station's destruction, this variable determines the odds of a graveyard's creation.
(note 1: I'd love to see a better "repair" option for salvaging old ships and stations, the problem is that I have no idea what it could actually be.)
I was reminiscing about my time playing Freelancer, ducking through debris fields and hunting wrecks for loot, and the details of this idea came to me.
Shipwrecks. They would, in many ways, work like existing abandoned stations as far as the "purchase" system goes (see note 1). However, there would be some changes.
Shipwrecks would be generated from the ship catalog, in the same way existing ships can be used by pirates or the Trade Guild. An additional option would be added to the Admin tab, allowing you to enable or disable shipwreckery on a ship-by-ship basis.
There's one core difference between shipwrecks and abandoned stations, however. Shipwrecks could spawn with random damage. Damage should, as a general rule, follow existing weapon types, though a few oddball things could be thrown in, representing internal damage or accidental collisions. Larger ships (determined by block count, presumably) have higher chances of more damaged bits and larger damage areas. Occasionally you'll be lucky enough to find an undamaged abandoned ship - maybe the pilot died for other reasons, maybe his power grid just went bad and he got rescued, whatever.
New shipwrecks will periodically spawn in any sector, with a spawn roll happening at some predetermined interval. They can potentially spawn anywhere except for a sector with a planet.
An accompanying feature is the Ship Graveyard. This is like an Asteroid sector, it just spawns shipwrecks instead of space rocks. In addition to rarely showing up naturally in some Abandoned Station sectors, sectors that have had a large number of ships or a non-Abandoned station blow up can become Ship Graveyards. This does not apply to any sector with a planet ("oh god it's raining ships!") or still-inhabited station, but a station can be built in a Ship Graveyard without destroying said graveyard.
Individual shipwrecks, but not those that spawn in a Graveyard, can potentially have cargo aboard. The cargo can be looted without needing to go through the salvage routine, just board and grab it. This along with the sporadic respawning offers a reward for both exploring and patrolling claimed space, which is why Graveyard sectors don't get the cargo spawn - also because that would be way too farmable. Ship Graveyards also generate more damage on the wrecks than individual shipwrecks usually do.
Server config options:
Shipwreck Spawn Probability: adjust the rate of shipwreck spawns, like the current shop spawn config. Can be disabled with 0.
Ship Graveyard Spawn Probability: Works like the shop spawn. Determines the possibility of an abandoned station sector being accompanied by a ship graveyard. 0 to disable.
Ship Graveyard Conversion Type: Disabled, Block Count and Ship Count, Station Required.
Ship Graveyard Conversion Block Requirement: Number of total blocks destroyed to cause the creation of a Ship Graveyard.
Ship Graveyard Conversion Ship Requirement: Number of ship cores destroyed to cause the creation of a Ship Graveyard. The ratio between these two requirements will influence the balance of what ship kills are needed to create a Graveyard.
Ship Graveyard Conversion Station Probability: If Ship Graveyard conversion requires only an inhabited station's destruction, this variable determines the odds of a graveyard's creation.
(note 1: I'd love to see a better "repair" option for salvaging old ships and stations, the problem is that I have no idea what it could actually be.)
