New High End Ship Suggestions?

[briphi]

I've noticed that several users have obtained the most expensive ship in the game with only about 10-15 hours of gameplay. I was thinking of making a few new high-end ships server side so that the top players still have something to strive for.

Since the changed would be server side, I would have to re-use images of ships already in the game, but I could tint their color or scale them up/down.

So I'm really looking for suggestions on which ship I should scale up, and what specs it should have. We want it to be an awesome ship, but not too unbalanced.

Any suggestions? I was thinking maybe a scaled up Mammon for like 5-10million credits?

[StJarvis]

You could introduce 'military' versions of the Spheren and Mamon, and a pirate version of the Burla with expanded weapons/upgrade capacity.

Possibly some Type V weapons that weight 8-10 tons and fill the gap between the type IV's and the blackstar.

You could also expand Handy J's offerings to let users futher increase the ship upgrade/weapons/engines of any ship they want.

What happens if you paint a tinted ship?

[briphi]

If you paint a tinted ship the paint color will override the tint color.

I could also make a dwarf star, a shrunken down blackstar that can only take 1 of the blackstar weapons.

I like the new weapons idea. I'd like the upper end ships to be fighters instead of shippers to prevent people from getting runaway money, the new ships and weapons would be intended to be a money sink for rich players.

We're planning on implementing contraband and military/pirate versions of ships already, so I dont' really want to go down that route yet if it's going to change in the future.

[StJarvis]

You could add weapons that you can only get by killing military ships too, but I'm sure that would have to wait till a later version.

[GothKatt]

I've seen 3 or 4 of the blackstars in game. And I'm one of them, with 14hours play time. It took a bit of work, but honestly, I think more then anything, its too cheap. I can understand it being more expensive, but honestly I think the price should be a lot higher for it, and its weapons.

If Nothing in the game changed, make the blackstar a fair bit more expensive, like ten time more. And before anyone says it, yeah I'd be willing to sell it and get a different ship if they were going to do that. The price vs firepower of this thing is nuts.

I'm not sure what I'm accomplishing for myself. had a couple "remoras" following me to take the spoils of war. lol

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And all you really need to do is sit on a planet and just fire randomly and you keep killing people. It never ends. And if your health goes down to a critical lvl you land and refresh it. You can rack up the kills fairly quick too. And yes, I was a major arse for about an hour last night after buying the BlackStar. But after that & even now, I just sit there and only attack those who attack me.

Even BlackStar on Blackstar is quick... But we both did the same thing, Attack like fark and then land before we died. I think people trying to use Mars were upset.

I'm thinking of selling my primary weapon, converting the weapon space to cargo space (if I read it right) and just relying on the Secondary weapon. It alone can take out Everything

[briphi]

Interesting point. We could raise the price and maybe nerf the black star (and it's weapons) too.

Hmm, I'm wondering if there is anyway to prevent the black stars from just planet camping and healing. Maybe make them special, so they never heal when they land? lol I don't know.

[echostatic]

There are a number of different things you can do. Implement a minimum time before you can dock at the same planet you launched from is one idea off the top of my head.

[StJarvis]

make armour repair cost money lol

[GothKatt]

hmm Armor repair Cost? Interesting... and yes, I might have had too much caffeine. Soo maybe, skip the rest of the post...

Yeah Blackstars might be a bit over powered. But I'm not a developer on any level. and not a good judge of it all. think if anything, maybe just tone done the armor value a bit. You Might also consider:

Giving it a "special" target area is only two meters wide, maybe a small thermal exhaust port, right below the main port where the shaft leads directly to the reactor system. A precise hit will start a chain reaction which should destroy the BlackStar. Now I know a few of you might be in disbelief. I say make it a precise hit that will set up a chain reaction. Make the shaft ray-shielded, so you'll have to use proton torpedoes. And it's not impossible. I used to bull's-eye womp rats in my T-sixteen back home. They're not much bigger than two meters.

((ie give em a 1% chance to randomly explode every time they're hit and maybe give the smallest, noobish shhip a 1.05% chance ))

[Baggy MacDouche]

The way the game stands now, you are going to find that many players are going to aquire the best ships very quickly and get bored and quit. I've only been playing for about 4 hours and I have a pretty decent fighter. I've kind of been pacing myself because I see the end in sight. That may not be a big concern of yours though. Not sure what motivates you to make changes to the game as I'm guessing it isn't a huge money earner.

That said, there are definitely things that could be done to provide a richer gameplay experience. Right now, transporting cargo is the only way to make money. Yes, you can pirate, but I haven't found it to be nearly as lucritive as just making cargo runs. Frankly, there need to be more money sinks. Ships, weapons, upgrades, and losing cargo to pirates is about all there is. Costs for repairs to hull/armor, weapons, and upgrades could be another. Some of the afore mentioned should take damage and if become dibilitated or disabled if left unrepaired. Another good money sink would be fuel. Add fuel tanks as part of the ship specs along with upgrades that will modify fuel capacity. This would be important for cargo haulers. This could be a bit more tricky to implement though. You would have to consider how to address fuel consumption and how to approach running out of fuel while in space.

There's another pretty big opportunity missing from this game, and perhaps you have already thought/considered it. And that is, player bounties. They could either be payed for by other players and/or generated based on certain criteria. It would be another source of income as well as a money sink.

Anyway, stuff to think about.