Probe Ship

[TC Dark Reign 0]

Someone brought up this great idea a long time ago. Senti and I tried to get it to work but it couldn't work with the settings at the time.

 

The idea was to create a small (1 tile wide) ship that could travel much faster than any ship, with minimal weapons, little energy and the ability to cloak. The small size would allow it to penetrate thru small holes that we use now for bomblines, etc. The map obviously must be carefully constructed/modified.

 

The reason we decided it wouldn't work was because if the ship were to be able to sneak into the flagroom, it could grab all the flags and outrun any enemy ship. However, now that ships are limited to carrying only one flag, this isn't as big a problem anymore.

 

The major con I see to this idea is that poor old Hole Puncher will lose his favorite ship....and I'm sure there are other cons

 

Any thoughts?

[Raynor 0]

Seems like SWZ is doing some big changes, why not try this out? Tiny ship 6 is my fav ship in 17th

[Circle 0]

I like it. The tiny weasal is one of my favorites in TW.

 

But what would this ship's role be? Will it be a sneakier cloaker that can't kill other ships on its own? Will it be attachable? So once the ship gets by enemy, everyone attaches to it? I think making it non-attachable would be better; if attachable, then the defenders pretty much have to stay near the flag room or be spread out and being spread out gets forced to the flag room quickly.

[senti 0]

It was meant as some sort of annoying factor for anchor. And also to put some chaos into a defense since defending is so boring in swz.

 

ship had lvl 1 bullets and no bombs if im right.. Not too much energy either, etc. So it isn't too hard to kill it, but he was able to kill ! but you're a friggin noob if you get owned by it though.

 

There was also a 2nd new ship brought up back then... a tank...

That ship couldn't fire at all. Had like 2 rockets and was meant to suicide in defense or in offense for trying to break the enemy. It had some what more energy, but not too much. He's also a slow ass ship, so he was easy to gang bang up. And not to forget... he was 3x3 tiles big... i think... so easy to hit.

 

 

EDIT:

 

The attach thing was taken care off, so that wasn't a problem

[senti 0]

Would be cool if there is a nice new smaller map with the right size bases that are fairly wide so you get nice base fights, and with those 2 ships implemented. Could give a nice new dimension to the zone. but that's my opinion...

 

good thing tcdr mentioned it !!

 

If staff ignores this, then b00 to j00.

[Chicken Man 0]

I remember this being brought up a while back. I think it sounds interesting.

 

Defending has never been boring.

[Raynor 0]

Just get 5 of your squaddies to fall back behind anchor into flagroom when 10 nmes are attacking your base defended by 4+deep anchor, defending will be as much fun as you make it

[Leviticus 0]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO DONT TAKE AWAY HOLEYS SHIP! Well other cons would be flag games last 23343 hours when they actually get going as it is.

 

 

 

Levi

[Raynor 0]

probeship sounds like something cartman would have in his behind

[Pharaoh's Legacy 0]

So it can/can't be attached to?

 

I would have liked if it were purely a scout ship (moves really fast and looks around) but I don't think there's a way of keeping it from carrying flags.

 

If there's a team that has just one flag left it would be extra hard to defend the base cuz you'd need someone in the fr (at least one) and someone at home front for the main defence. Considering some ppl want to lower freq size, that makes for a big portion of the team.

 

It would be interesting if it couldn't attach to any ships either. So, basically, for it to steal a flag it would have to go all the way from nme fr to home fr without being attached to or attaching.

 

But I like it because, if it can sneak into a base and pick up a flag when one team has them all, even if it doesn't make it out, it would extend the timer and give the team more time to take the nme base.

 

Anyway, few questions:

 

*Can it be attached to?

Can it attach?

What specials does it have?

 

--e.g. brick: this is a random thought - what if we were to give it something like 3 1x1 bricks? Like, a good, sneaky person would be able to brickwarp some ppl out of home, maybe sneak in behind nme anchor and POOF! Of course, this would turn all ships' bricks into 1x1.

 

How much nrg does it have?

How maneuverable/agile is it?

Firepower?

 

 

Personally, I prefer things that doesn't require something else to be done for it to work. Notice a lot of you are talking about changing the map to make it work. Can we make this work without having to make all our maps obsolete?

 

-PL

[senti 0]

The small ship couldn't be attached to. Or else he would be too powerfull. And i don't think he could attach to any1? but im not sure. It's easily arranged in the settings.

 

It would be best if antiwarp goes back to weasel and spider with this. Since they could effectively eliminate the probe ship. Especially the weasel.

 

It would be interesting if it couldn't attach to any ships either. So, basically, for it to steal a flag it would have to go all the way from nme fr to home fr without being attached to or attaching.

 

I agree with this. It will be quite tough to get in and get out again with a flag.

 

About specials... Been a while when tcdr and i worked on those settings. It never got finished either. Making the new ships wasn't tough, but balancing it with the rest of the older ships is alot tougher.

Anyways, he probably didn't have many other then cloaking. BUT if im right, he couldn't use stealth though. A decoy probably. But i don't think we gave him rocket and rep... His size should save him from enough difficulties

 

I don't know how much energy it had, but think between 800 and 1000.

It wasn't faster then a weasel or a warbird. But he had more thrust and a bigger rotation speed which made him more agile.

I've already mentioned the firepower. He had lvl 1 bullets, not sure about double or single barrel. Maybe a lvl 1 bomb too? but that might be a bad idea.

 

Personally, I prefer things that doesn't require something else to be done for it to work. Notice a lot of you are talking about changing the map to make it work. Can we make this work without having to make all our maps obsolete?

 

I mentioned a new map, because swz should have one in general. And at the time we made this ships, i've modified that current map back then to make the probe ship and tank ship possible.

 

I should still have the settings of those 2 ships. Just requires some1 competent to improve the ships and to balance them out.

[Pharaoh's Legacy 0]

I just had another thought. What if we were to give it about 400-500 energy (enough so it can take a random hit or two without dying) and give it a really strong bomb (level 3, very fast) that it can only fire when it has full energy (that would mean greening/buying energy until its full)?

 

The bomb would push it back about a kilometre after firing, and of course it would be a very easy target after firing.

 

-PL

[senti 0]

QUOTE (Pharaoh's Legacy @ Aug 13 2005, 07:53 PM)

I just had another thought. What if we were to give it about 400-500 energy (enough so it can take a random hit or two without dying) and give it a really strong bomb (level 3, very fast) that it can only fire when it has full energy (that would mean greening/buying energy until its full)? The bomb would push it back about a kilometre after firing, and of course it would be a very easy target after firing. -PL

Don't think it could work that way.

 

400-500 energy is ded in 2 or 3 terr/weasel bullets. Maybe a little short, especially considering terr shoots so many behind eachother.

 

The bombing thing isn't so great either. They can penetrate into a base. And with those bombs you give them the opportunity to make lame shots into a defense or whatever, and retreat to get full energy again. meh, not the way it should be i think...

[Pharaoh's Legacy 0]

It would be funny, tho

 

The bomb is just one lvl 3 bomb (like a regular bomber, but faster) and it can only fire one IF it has enough energy and IF it gets into a position to shoot it. Even if it has both of those, it still has to aim it properly to be able to do anything significant, and the shots would be very far between because it would have to recharge fully to get another shot off. So considering it's presence/position would be given away, it would take a very skilled player to get a second shot off.

 

Why give these ships more than 500 energy? The way I see it, one ship should be able to stand up to many of them. What if they were to swarm into an nme fr through a bomb hole? I think that one ship that spots them should have a decent chance at killing them all.

 

-PL

[Chicken Man 0]

That would be entertaining to see.... Like a swarm of bees.

[Pharaoh's Legacy 0]

haha that's true! And the ship would also be like a bee cuz after it stings you once, it'll (probably) die. We could nick name it the Bee!

 

There's something about a teeny tiny ship firing a big strong bomb (and being shot backwards in the process) that I find very amusing.

 

-PL

[Chicken Man 0]

Farting Bee?

 

We could name it the Wasp... Oh, wait....

[Quickshot* 0]

ok well i liek the idea personally.

 

the settings i believe should be as follows :

 

NRg : like 1000

Weapons : (not sure if all this is able to do) but a burst with much fewer bullets in it than the bursts the bombers have, maybe 5 bullets. red guns double barrel with more delay between shots than the multi of a bomber, maybe a red bomb with one bounce, maybe. a rep, a rocket, a portal.

Abilities : can't attach or be attached to. high speed, just barely faster than the weasal, making it able to run away more efficiently. rather agile just as senti was saying. Cloak, no stealth, xradar.

 

Lastly i think that that is should be a standard ship, say ship 7 or something, then ONLY open this ship up (just as we do with the caps) to one person per freq, only when the freq size reaches 4 or 5 people. this is cause if you think about it, if there is a small game oging on that is needed to build up to a big game, this ship could rock 2 or 3 people, just flying right in, as long as the pilot is skilled anough to make it through the 1x1 holes with no prob. so i say have 2 locked ships now. at 4 or 5 ppl allow the scout ship (ship 7) then at 8 (or whatever it is) allow the cap ship (ship 8). this will make people want to get bigger games going to allow for the locked ships to be able to be used and also for the fact that now, there will be 2 people on the freq that needs to "earn" the level to be able to play these ships.

 

Quick*

[Chicken Man 0]

Well, I could see how no one would want a small game going with a team full of bees, but if caps were on, say 8v8+ game, it'd be cool to have a few of those things.

 

Oh, to add to the weapons, etc., it needs decoys, and alot of rockets. Needs some kind of distraction when it's running away.

[Pharaoh's Legacy 0]

I think they need to be very highly specialized. They're scouts/spies, for speed and stealth - for sneaky, individual operations. And, basically, if they get caught they should die. So 1000 energy is too much, I think.

 

Also, limiting it would be unnecessary because it would be disadvantageous to have more than one ship on the freq that is so weak and can't be attached to. If it is a small game like a 3v3 then having 1 of these ships would leave only 2 real attackers/defenders, with one very easy to kill ship.

 

Not to mention, if we made it so it was required to be limited, we'd have to wait for a bot to be developed that could control it, so it would never happen.

 

-PL

[Chicken Man 0]

So don't limit it. Usually the people that play in 4v4-and-below games are people like me, Skippy, Arc, Zone, Fox, etc. And I don't think any of those people would be in this probe ship all the time if they were seriously trying to win a flag game. People are smart, even noobs would figure out that using that ship and losing the game for their team, and getting yelled at, isn't fun.

 

I think we should at least test it and try it in main for a few days. It'd be something unique or different to attract people to SWZ.