Decoys

Mon May 09, 2011 10:25 pm

As from skimming the Virtual ships thread - It would be cool if we had the ability to deploy Decoy ships. They could be virtual, and if I read correctly it would be able to just be detected as another ship so the enemies go after it. It would not have to even get hit or handle the hits just go away after a certain distance.

Amariithynar · Tue May 10, 2011 12:16 am

I would prefer a series of super-cheap autons that are available to buy in unlimited quantities (sorta like refueling) that you can fire off from the ship as an alt fire without a launcher (basically just opening the docking bay and letting them out) with three levels of armor (and the last or a rare fourth also having shields?) available through three stages of the game- probably able to break it up between Starton, St. K's, and a reasonable end-game area (Ceti?). All they do is attract enemy attention as if they were the biggest threat, flying -away- from the player ship (and friendly ships/stations) so that the player can retreat. They should still cost a reasonable amount for the level of the craft.

Resident-Pyromaniac · Tue May 10, 2011 2:16 am

No, no no. I have a better Idea.

The XVT172-Kamikaze! the most advanced auton in advanced military strategy, the XVT172 simply flies towards the nearest enemy station, and goes explodes in a massive, devestating explosion garanteed to decimate any enemy you may come in contact with; (Does not apply to Xenophobes) and sends out trillions of little itty bitty shards to boot.
don't wait! our operators are standing by! order YOUR Kamikaze auton today! (available at your nearest corporate trading post)

* this message approved by oort autons and the corporate heirarchy, some restrictions apply.

Drako Slyith · Tue May 10, 2011 4:26 am

I think add this line to the disclaimer:

We are in no way responsible for a kamikaze auton gaining suicidal urges due to its destiny being to die, and self destructing, destroying your ship in the process.

But how about an item for the drone deployment: press then [d] and it uses a box with amounts of drones depending on the cost. The drones have ultra light titanium (so it only takes one hit to kill them) but they fly about randomly, self destructing if they come within a short distance of an enemy ship.

Amariithynar · Tue May 10, 2011 6:17 am

The problem with having them only have ultra light titanium is that they'd die faster than a swarm of hornets. They'd not even really be annoyances, just bonus kills. >.< Thus why I suggested the tiered system of drones, so that they'd stay relevant throughout.

Drako Slyith · Tue May 10, 2011 8:37 pm

Decoys work because there are many of them. I'd rather have 10 drones with ultra light titanium than 1 with shields and heavy armor. Autons fight. The purpose of a drone is to fly around and distract the gunners of the enemy.

RPC · Wed May 11, 2011 1:51 am

The purpose of a drone is to fly around and distract the gunners of the enemy.

I think this has already been done in a mod.... Starburn Autons.
If that's not what you want, please explain exactly what is the difference between a Solar Drone and a Decoy Drone. I'll be happy to sharpen my modding skills.

Drako Slyith · Wed May 11, 2011 1:55 am

I mean you use a box type item, then it spawns several dozen very easy to destroy drones which just fly randomly around.

RPC · Wed May 11, 2011 1:55 am

That's pretty much what the drones are.

Drako Slyith · Wed May 11, 2011 1:57 am

alright

shanejfilomena · Wed May 11, 2011 9:13 am

I made the mistake of loading a game : forgetting I had saved a .xml I was working on with a ship: it was set for the cargo hold of my cruiser......I deployed an invisible ship.....I had not got back to finishing the details.....but I did, it will be in my first publication which i am testing and writing right now......you know I spent an hour trying to blow myself up ?.....finally got to code to kill the player, but leave the ship intact: so I just changed the name of the weapon

Bobby · Wed May 11, 2011 2:21 pm

Do we have a point of view function yet? You could produce one drone, make it the player ship, then put the player back in control of the original ship. Anything attacking the playership will go for the drone.

shanejfilomena · Wed May 11, 2011 5:15 pm

Bobby wrote:Do we have a point of view function yet? You could produce one drone, make it the player ship, then put the player back in control of the original ship. Anything attacking the playership will go for the drone.

AS in " point of View" target lock of the Hostiles:
However, this does not take into account that Playership is within detection range and Hostiles will take it on as collateral damage.
If you want to deploy a drone to take over your position, ( activate the RCScout ideal first ) you can try the switch code that is used on shields and apply it to cloaking your ship by installing cloak armor in the field......
However, that is not something you can execute when you have Hostiles sniffing you out with Missiles ( unless cloak armor can break their lock on your position?...)..If it is a coded event encounter, you will not shake the hostiles, they are "tracking you from within"to hit you on an Intercept : AND some events do not lock the playership : they are responses : <onFire> : the attacking ship is after the Weapon that fired a shot, not the ship it came from.