Minotaur class

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george moromisato
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For 1.8 I'd like to create a playable light-corvette. It would be around level 7 and could be bought at a Commonwealth Fortress or at Point Juno. A few ideas:

* It's designed for various missions: station defense; escort transports; attacking enemy stations (with Centurions as escorts).
* It's the highest-level ship the player can buy (perhaps you'll need a certain rank in the Fleet to be able to buy it).
* No interior HP, but otherwise robust: good armor and shields.
* Good weapons.
* Speed should be around .16c, faster than an Aurochs, but not as fast as Centurions.
* About 50-60 meters long
* Designed by NAMI.

What do you all think? Do you have load out suggestions? Respond and let me know!

p.s.: If you can come up with a different name that would fit the Fleet, let me know.
NMS
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Devices and armor are replaceable. To compensate for having a lower speed than most playable ships, it would need something they can't get, like swivel and/or secondary weapon mounts.
Derakon
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Centurions already fill the dogfighter role for Commonwealth Fleet ships, so this ship needs a different role. Your points suggest it should be a bomber / heavy assault ship, so give it a good launcher (Raisermessier or heavy NAMI) and powerful ammo, plus a reasonably powerful primary weapon, maybe a Fusionfire howitzer. I agree with NMS that if you want players to actually buy the ship, there'll need to be an incentive beyond its base gear. Making its launcher always swivel or even omnidirectional could be interesting.

EDIT: as for names, a few ideas: Macedon, Assyrian, Consul, Principate.
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.16c while remaining stats are within current playership standards and no other special abilities would be a deal breaker. It might be fine for NPCs, but it would be underpowered as a playership.

Good launcher alone is not enough, because every ship can get one without much difficulty (or very easily if player abuses the fabricators). Making weapon and launcher omni might be something. Linked-fire weapons would be fun, but there are enough frigate-sized enemies that do not (e.g., Heliotrope, Iocrym sentinels).

If good defenses come merely from high-level armor and shields, then that is nothing special for player use because player will get such equipment easily enough from buying or looting. If it has good defenses because it has hull or other additional defense beyond items, that is something special.

Minotaur might be a good name for it, but it is hard to say without an image and stats.
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george moromisato
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For special ability I'm thinking that one device slot (for omni weapons) is designated as linked-fire. Basically, if the player installs an omni weapon, it will fire along with the primary when you fire (unless disabled). What do you all think?
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That sounds fun. Might be strong compared to what playerships in normal games get (though tame compared to Playership Drones).

If that gets implemented, I would be more interested how it is done so I can update Playership Drones with it!
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Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
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JohnBWatson
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* It's designed for various missions: station defense; escort transports; attacking enemy stations (with Centurions as escorts).
That's a solid role. A heavy hitter that does WMD damage definitely has a niche in the Fleet.
What do you all think? Do you have load out suggestions? Respond and let me know!
The NAMI Heavy is often proposed, but its ammo is expensive and rare as loot, and its damage is underwhelming compared to upgraded non - ammo howitzers. While that's more due to the latter than the former, it's something that should be considered. Right now, if I were outfitting a capital ship around level 7, I'd give it an omni - TeV9, a Mk. V howitzer, and a patcher arm, plus Advanced Cerraloy. Tritium cannon is a bit weaker, but might be more interesting than Mk. V.
* No interior HP, but otherwise robust: good armor and shields.
There's a severe lack of particularly worthwhile 'heavy' armor - even the Sapphire has access to almost every armor worth equipping, and I haven't ever encountered an armor type that I wanted that wouldn't fit the Wolfen. This makes armor for playable capital ships an issue, especially given that armor is already somewhat overpowered. Indeed, NPC capital ships almost exclusively fit armor that goes just as well on a Sapphire.If good defenses are going to be a selling point for capital ships, reducing the armor limits for the initial 3 playerships would probably be a good idea. It'd also help give the EI500 a reason to exist. While raw number of armor segments mattered in the past, larger capital ship sizes have made this much less important - it's much easier to target individual segments, and much harder to evenly distribute damage.
* Speed should be around .16c, faster than an Aurochs, but not as fast as Centurions.
Right now, speed is the stat to end all stats, owing largely to the fact that there are almost no threatening enemy ships capable of keeping up with a base Wolfen or upgraded Sapphire(only the Corsair II in the base game, which stops appearing around midgame). A ship that can't outrun a Chasm, Tundra, or Phobos when the two stock ships can isn't going to have a use outside of novelty value. I don't think this should be the case, of course. Allowing a fair choice between a fast but light gunship and a slow but tough frigate is ideal for replayability. Speeding up some enemy gunships would allow such a decision to be meaningful while making it more of a challenge to just skip through two thirds of the game by running away.
p.s.: If you can come up with a different name that would fit the Fleet, let me know.
Minotaur works, and continues the Roman naming theme for iconic Fleet ships(Centurion, Aquila). Crusader might work as well - centering ship names around fallen empires (Centurion, Aquila, Ronin, Britannia).
For special ability I'm thinking that one device slot (for omni weapons) is designated as linked-fire. Basically, if the player installs an omni weapon, it will fire along with the primary when you fire (unless disabled). What do you all think?
I really like it. Ideally, it shouldn't fire when there aren't any enemies in range(like how capital ships' secondary guns work when you use plyChangeShip on them).
giantcabbage
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george moromisato wrote:
Fri Feb 09, 2018 5:48 pm
For special ability I'm thinking that one device slot (for omni weapons) is designated as linked-fire. Basically, if the player installs an omni weapon, it will fire along with the primary when you fire (unless disabled). What do you all think?
The linked-fire feature would be very useful to have (even if just to get the UI for installing / selecting such weapons).

The ship could have a general omni mount - but with a mass limit so the player could have an omni star cannon, but not an omni howitzer (would probably need to review the weapon masses).

Or the ability to install two launchers (although this might make it too similar to the sigyn)
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giantcabbage wrote:
Fri Feb 09, 2018 6:59 pm
Or the ability to install two launchers (although this might make it too similar to the sigyn)
I like to see if it is possible for the playership to use more than one launcher. Currently, it seems impossible, because installing a new launcher replaces the old launcher (if it is not virtual).
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
Derakon
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You might also consider giving it six armor plates like the Manticore. In my experience this makes a surprisingly large impact on the ship's survivability; it might help differentiate it from the other ships.

...come to think, has anyone ever considered downgrading the Wolfen to only 2 or 3 armor plates?
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Derakon wrote:
Sat Feb 10, 2018 5:15 am
You might also consider giving it six armor plates like the Manticore. In my experience this makes a surprisingly large impact on the ship's survivability; it might help differentiate it from the other ships.

...come to think, has anyone ever considered downgrading the Wolfen to only 2 or 3 armor plates?
Not for the Wolfen. However, that would probably be an advantage, at least for those that rely on shields instead of armor for protection, because that is less mass the Wolfen needs to haul around.

How big is Monitor compared to other ships? If bigger than EI200, maybe eight segments could do.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
george moromisato
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FYI: Here is a shot of the Minotaur class:

http://multiverse.kronosaur.com/news.hexm?id=1933

There are two variants: the blue one (traditional NAMI colors) is the civilian version, while the gray one--with upgraded armor and weapons--is used by the Fleet.

It's a NAMI design, though somewhat conventional, but I think it works for the role.
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A space wedge that sort of reminds me of the Lindworm mod playership or a downsized Aquila. Looks more sleek than brutish. Seems to be about as big as the EI200. Looks like something I want to test drive.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
JohnBWatson
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It looks cool, but fairly small for what it is, due to the perspective. Can we get a comparison with a Britannia?
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1. Rename to "Legionary-class corvette"
2. Replace omni-weapon linked-fire mount with a linked-fire omni-mount for most energy weapons.
3. Install five segments of armor (in the configuration shown in the image below)
Legionary Armor Segments.png
Legionary Armor Segments.png (2.98 KiB) Viewed 11584 times
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