| Author |
interdictors |
MrSparkle
Marshal
Joined: August 13, 2001
Posts: 1912
From: mrsparkle
|  Posted: 2009-03-12 18:47
Meko you might not have lost a lot because you gained prior to losing that station. Stations have the ultimate in prestige-gaining capability.
But if you just logged on and immediately crashed (happens sometimes when Evast has a shipyard) you'd see about 400 or so prestige lost.
You are definitely right about one thing though: Prestige loss isn't big enough to worry about flying a dictor, which in my opinion is a bad thing. That's all we need - dictors that can group and make tons of prestige while suffering no potential consequences.
_________________
|
AtomicChuck
Admiral
Joined: February 02, 2003
Posts: 10
From: KS, US Central Time Zone, GMT-5
| Posted: 2009-03-12 19:13
Another interesting thread, with some good information exchange. I do like the idea of having an offensive and a defensive dictor. I'm torn between the area of effect vs. targetable aspect of the offensive dictor. In my mind, the targetable beam weapon requires decisions to be made as to how fast it should recharge. If it recharges faster than the J-Drive on a dread, does it need to be restricted to the range of a standard laser? an HCL? There seem to be a whole can of worms to open in order to balance it properly, functionality vs. survivability wise.
On the other hand, if it stays as an area of effect device, it can be scaled back to a lesser range and limit friendly as well as enemy movement. A lesser range also has the side affect of putting the dictor ship more in harms way to be effective. From all of the previous responces in this thread, I think that makes it a win-win solution. I also feel that by putting the dictor on a dessy class ship, you limit its effectiveness by virtue that the dessies have a lower power reserve than a cruiser class ship would by virtue of one less engine to provide power.
A useful plus also would be that frigates would be functional dictor hunters as well. Like Jim, I all for the elevated usefulness of smaller ships. I eagerly anticipate Interceptor and Harrier Frigate teams pursuing dictor dessies like hounds on a fox.
Now, in regards to the defensive dictor, I'm going to throw a curveball into the mix. I'm a staunch advocate of increasing planetary dictors to a range on the order of 1500-2000 gu. In essense, this would boost the effectiveness of planetary defenses by placing the invasion forces under the guns for a longer period of time, so to speak.
In terms of a space-deployed, fleet based defensive dictor, why not make it a platform based dictor with a limited lifespan. Give it a range on the order of 1000-1200 gu. and make it only deployable from Command Dreads and Stations. Once again, the area of coverage is a non-discriminatory field, friendly and enemy alike are affected. Once itis built, the resources required to build it define its lifespan. Additional resources cannot be loaded onto it to keep it functioning. It is essentially a limited duration safe zone that an invasion force can use as a rally/repair point until their first planet is captured and planetary services supplement/replace it as a rally/repair point.
At the same time, it can be utilized as an additional perimeter ring beyond the range of a planetary dictor to create a "kill zone" around a likely invasion target that wouldn't be a pseudo-permanent entity, the way that planets ringed by defensive platforms with regular supplies can become.
I know this prompts the tractor exploit, but in that instance, why not just change the code so that tractor beams will not function within an active dictor field. Exploit solved. It could be conceivable that the physics of the dictor field inhibit the functioning of tractors.
Just some more food for thought. 
_________________
|
Jim Starluck
Marshal
Templar Knights
Joined: October 22, 2001
Posts: 2232
From: Cincinnati, OH
| Posted: 2009-03-12 23:05
For the Dictor Dessie, I was indeed thing a short-range, beam-like weapon. It would need a faster cooldown than Dread jumpdrives, because otherwise you'd need one dictor dessie for every Dread you were facing. A single dictor Dessie should be able to juggle between a few enemy ships and keep them pinned; the bigger the ship, the more of them it can handle at once.
Of course, it has to keep getting into point-blank range of them to do so, which means that without support it would be quickly vaporized. Friendly dreads would be needed to keep the enemy occupied so it could work unopposed...
...which would then give the enemy a prime motivation for deploying their own frigates and dessies to intercept, which prompts more friendly Dessies to cover the dictor, etc etc.
This could add a lot to gameplay.
_________________
If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger space battleship and try again.
|
Meko
Grand Admiral
Joined: March 03, 2004
Posts: 1956
From: Vancouver
| Posted: 2009-03-12 23:59
Quote:
|
On 2009-03-12 23:05, Jim Starluck wrote:
For the Dictor Dessie, I was indeed thing a short-range, beam-like weapon. It would need a faster cooldown than Dread jumpdrives, because otherwise you'd need one dictor dessie for every Dread you were facing.
and
...which would then give the enemy a prime motivation for deploying their own frigates and dessies to intercept, which prompts more friendly Dessies to cover the dictor, etc etc.
This could add a lot to gameplay.
|
|
Yarr, 1st bold: Id say 3/4ths the speed of a human cruisers jumpdrive (that would enable it to *just* make it intime for a luth JD correct?)
2nd bold: Exactly. This has the potential to drastically cut down on dreadspace =)
~~~~~~~
@ Sparkle, ive taken the loss n stuff into account along with the stuff i did prior to the loss on the most recent 3 losses (sector/line/CD) and yeah... my pres hasnt really moved much.
_________________
|
Shigernafy
Admiral
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 5726
From: The Land of Taxation without Representation
| Posted: 2009-03-13 01:38
So just to check my understanding, you (Jim, Meko... sparkle too?) want:
A destroyer with a Dictor Beam which will force a jumpdrive to discharge. The Beam will have a recharge roughly equal to somewhere between a cruiser and a dread's JD recharge rate.
A cruiser with a Dictor Field which ... affects all ships?
I'm not sure where we got with the defensive version. Is it still in anyone's plans?
Also: Energy cost on DBeam? Have it be able to fire unlimitedly, thrice when the dessie isn't moving, .. what do you think is reasonable?
_________________
* [S.W]AdmBito @55321 Sent \"I dunno; the French had a few missteps. But they're on the right track, one headbutt at a time.\"
|
Sens [R33]
Admiral
Joined: September 27, 2008
Posts: 1020
From: Edge of th...
| Posted: 2009-03-13 10:19
The way I see it, a Dictor beam would have more applications with regards to offense than defense; it is simply not worth it to to track one target when there are multiple threats to a planet. Furthermore, the range would have to be roughy 200gu to be reasonable(especially for ICC) because no dread(or even cruiser) has the capability of killing a destroyer 300gu+ away if the enemy can dodge even moderately well. I say we just keep dictors as they are, there worked perfectly fine before; I dont see why they should be changed now. A single destroyer easily outguns a dictor and can catch up in a reasonable ammount of time. So really, if anything, the dictor is currently underpowered; but then again it is a support ship. And with that in mind; it should'nt be much different from say, a Supply Ship in terms of combat worthiness. If anything; scrap the cruiser all together and stick the dico's in command class dreads/stations or keep the cruiser as it is.
[ This Message was edited by: -Sensitivity- on 2009-03-13 10:24 ]
_________________
Proud member of the Order of the Gaifen
Founder and former Club chair of the Shigernafy Fan Club
Co-founder of the Doran Judication Comittee
|
Daedalus Bum
Marshal
Joined: March 26, 2004
Posts: 86
From: Finland
| Posted: 2009-03-13 11:53
Offensive
For offensive Dictor i would say give a Destroyer Class ship:
- The "JD Beam Distruptor" reach of 150gu.
- Energy drain should be medium rate, considering of the ship size that it might not survive for to long at that range. (Depending what its up against)
And for the Cruiser class:
- Give it both beam and a "JD distruptor wave".
- The beam with 200gu range and Medium drain of energy.
- The "JD distruptor wave" High energy Drain as its could be deadly last solution and affects friendly and enemy ships. (Range circle are 600-800Gu)
Defensive
For Defensive Dictors i think was an good ide that instead of a round area of effect it would have it simply forward with an 90 or 180 Degree angle or more.
- Not sure what class this should be, Mabye a Dread cause its Defensive.
- And it should be mostly fitted with Missiles as for range dictoring.
- And if it possible make it more like this that the Dictor field drains alot of energy if Ship is moving at full speed, but drains much less if not moving at all or moving slowly forward. This way forced to stay close to Friendly ship or planet that the dictor is protecting.
- The range should be 1000gu or more even, considering that it can be jumped from sides easily.
But these are just some fast ide i thought about after reading other ppls idees, so these ide can be made much beter with other ppls opinions
[ This Message was edited by: Daedalus Bum on 2009-03-13 11:56 ]
_________________
|
Bryghtblade
Vice Admiral
Joined: January 29, 2007
Posts: 22
| Posted: 2009-03-13 12:40
Quote:
|
On 2009-02-23 11:33, ViceAdmiralThrawn wrote:
i was thinking the other night about how people hate it when some one brings out the interdictor i came up with two ideas
1. the interdictor would project a Cone in front of its self instead of the current 1000 gu circle therefore a interdicted ship could charge toward the interdictor and attack them in order to be able to escape
2. make the interdictors effective range smaller atleast to whenre ships that are being interdicted can fire upon the interdictor
|
|
Nope leave the interdictor alone! It dosn't have much firepower and needs to be protected by its fleetmates and making it easier to kill would more or less make it redundant.A well handleded "dictor" can make or break a fleet in battle,as the wise man said......if it aint broke......dont fix it!
_________________
|
MrSparkle
Marshal
Joined: August 13, 2001
Posts: 1912
From: mrsparkle
| Posted: 2009-03-13 15:19
Quote:
|
On 2009-03-13 01:38, Shigernafy wrote:
So just to check my understanding, you (Jim, Meko... sparkle too?) want:
A destroyer with a Dictor Beam which will force a jumpdrive to discharge. The Beam will have a recharge roughly equal to somewhere between a cruiser and a dread's JD recharge rate.
A cruiser with a Dictor Field which ... affects all ships?
I'm not sure where we got with the defensive version. Is it still in anyone's plans?
Also: Energy cost on DBeam? Have it be able to fire unlimitedly, thrice when the dessie isn't moving, .. what do you think is reasonable?
|
|
I don't want a destroyer with dictor beam. I prefer a cruiser with the classic interdictor device which would hopefully be changed to affect all ships. If the device won't be changed, I'd prefer it on a dread.
The whole beam thing is too offensive for my tastes. I want dictors to be primarly a defensive device.
_________________
|
Meko
Grand Admiral
Joined: March 03, 2004
Posts: 1956
From: Vancouver
| Posted: 2009-03-13 21:53
Quote:
|
On 2009-03-13 01:38, Shigernafy wrote:
So just to check my understanding, you (Jim, Meko... sparkle too?) want:
A destroyer with a Dictor Beam which will force a jumpdrive to discharge. The Beam will have a recharge roughly equal to somewhere between a cruiser and a dread's JD recharge rate.
A cruiser with a Dictor Field which ... affects all ships?
I'm not sure where we got with the defensive version. Is it still in anyone's plans?
Also: Energy cost on DBeam? Have it be able to fire unlimitedly, thrice when the dessie isn't moving, .. what do you think is reasonable?
|
|
Check on the dessy with a discharge beam, but recharge time on that beam being less than a cruisers jd
a cruiser with the dictor field would be the defensive one (stops ships from jumping INTO field but not out of field)
as for the NRG cost to the beam, the power to nerf this beam would not be in its energy, but rather in the time it takes for the beam to recharge. so for the energy id put it as 'average drain'.
Quote:
|
MrSparkle Wrote:
I don't want a destroyer with dictor beam. I prefer a cruiser with the classic interdictor device which would hopefully be changed to affect all ships. If the device won't be changed, I'd prefer it on a dread.
The whole beam thing is too offensive for my tastes. I want dictors to be primarly a defensive device.
|
|
well a dictor field thats AOE on a cruiser would be far more effective for offense than a dessy with a beam man. i dont mind cuttin back ont he effectiveness of a dictor for offense, which is why after Jim came up with the discharge beam i said throw it on a dessy. that can be killed easier and its single target.
~~~~
i dunno though, id be happy with AOE or beam tbh, just as long as it has the capability to stop someone from leaving the field in some way.
_________________
|
Reek Havoc *XO*
Chief Marshal
Interstellar Cultural Confederation United
Joined: June 23, 2005
Posts: 327
From: Philadelphia
| Posted: 2009-03-13 23:19
Reeks opinion on dictors:
A dictor effects ALL faction jumpdrives equally. This way a dictor is forced to be used tactically and turned on and off to allow ships to escape in distress. I think this would put a very intersting twist to the game and induce some strategy rather than rampant mashing of the spacebar as it has been in 1509x. Just my 2 cents. All flames wil be farted on.
-RH
_________________
DarkSpace: ICCU (Fleet tag: =ICC=) is always recruiting ICC pilots! (/clan join =ICC=)
|
MrSparkle
Marshal
Joined: August 13, 2001
Posts: 1912
From: mrsparkle
| Posted: 2009-03-14 00:30
Quote:
|
On 2009-03-13 21:53, Meko wrote:
well a dictor field thats AOE on a cruiser would be far more effective for offense than a dessy with a beam man. i dont mind cuttin back ont he effectiveness of a dictor for offense, which is why after Jim came up with the discharge beam i said throw it on a dessy. that can be killed easier and its single target.
|
|
AOE on a cruiser might be more effective for offense than a beam dessy, but the beam dessy is 100% useless for defense which is my main problem with it. It's not going to stop you or or fleet from being point jumped.
If the AOE affected everyone, not only would it remain a good defensive device, but the offensive role would be cut significantly without being eliminated. It would just require coordination between the dictor and the rest of the fleet.
_________________
|
Meko
Grand Admiral
Joined: March 03, 2004
Posts: 1956
From: Vancouver
| Posted: 2009-03-14 02:14
Quote:
| If the AOE affected everyone, not only would it remain a good defensive device, but the offensive role would be cut significantly without being eliminated. It would just require coordination between the dictor and the rest of the fleet. |
|
if the cruiser dictor stopped jump outs + jump ins from friendly and hostiles.... im down for that.
the whole beam on dessy bit was just a way to make the offensive capabilities of dictors harder to wield.
but if your willing to give us the cruiser, well hell i wont argue.
Shig, put er througH!~
_________________
|
MrSparkle
Marshal
Joined: August 13, 2001
Posts: 1912
From: mrsparkle
| Posted: 2009-03-14 02:36
I'm not "willing" to do anything It's not like it's up to me what happens with dictors. The devs and admins can and will do whatever the hell they want. This game is going through too many changes as it is, and with upcoming spaceship MMOs I'm starting to not care what happens here. Too many unnecessary changes for me to care anymore. I'm going to accept whatever they want to do, and if it's too drastic (like wiping garage and storage but leaving enhancements in game) it will just hasten the player exodus.
_________________
|
Jim Starluck
Marshal
Templar Knights
Joined: October 22, 2001
Posts: 2232
From: Cincinnati, OH
| Posted: 2009-03-15 16:37
One last note for the dictor dessie, in response to Shig...
It *would* have a moderately high energy use, such that the Destroyer would have to fly slower than a regular Dessie firing its weapons. That makes the dictor dessie especially vulnerable to other Dessies, though it could still put on a burst of speed to get into and out of range of a Dread (I was thinking 150 gu, same as regular laser range).
And yes, Sparkle, it is a very offensive weapon. I did not intend it to replace the defensive dictor, which would still be on a Cruiser platform. Putting this on a Dessie and ensuring it can't snare everything in range the moment it activates weakens it significantly.
You seem to be of the opinion that there shouldn't be any kind of offensive dictor at all, and I can't agree to that. It is incredibly difficult to kill anything when it can jump away. I don't care that I can get prestige just from damaging it; prestige has never really mattered to me. It's far more satisfying to blow something up.
With an offensive dictor dessie, you CAN pin a Dread in place, but it's far more difficult. If you do it wrong or the Dread pilot is clever, he can take you out or cripple you when you move into range. A Cruiser could fight you on a much more even basis, and a Destroyer would be able to run you down and kill you easily. All of this encourages greater skill, planning and a more diverse fleet makeup on both sides.
_________________
If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger space battleship and try again.
|
English
Deutsch
Nederlands
)
