Standalone: What makes CC fun?

[Red-Rocket]

well we just made the game more friendly to new players taking wraiths as pretty much all the miners are taken up by our new 3 ai at the begining of the game so they can take the brand new 3 lovely wraiths in the Dock and nobody having a problem with them losing 1

[Siretu]

... are we even on the same page anymore? You're throwing out random ideas without even looking at the issue -- navigation is plenty interesting. Weapons already has it's own worth and contributes significantly to combat. Power is essential and key already. Making them more complex for no other reason than the sake of making them more complex is silly. Maybe weapons could stand a bit of spicing up, but at the same time I've heard it from Siretu's mouth that he liked the fact that weapons console was in fact so simple and easy to pick up. It's a station noobs can use while feeling like they're contributing to the fight.

Actually, I agree with Red-rocket on that point. I would like more weapons and I dont think it is a random idea. I would like to give navigation some more stuff (although the command card is getting pretty full). Maybe some kind of team-oriented captain abilties or something.

I like power where it is but I would like to make the weapons console more engaging. I agree that I like the weapons console because you can just pick it up and easily figure out that you just have to right-click to fire, I dont want that to change. However, I feel like adding the possibility for more depth than right-click spam is a good idea.

Zakhennahr is right though, we should get back on the topic of fun. What are some scenarios in game where you've felt "this is really fun!"?

Here are some from my personal experience:
* Having epic power battles chasing a bit back and forth and the battle turning several time until finally one team wins. Core is almost depleted, all energy is gone and everyone has been panicking for 5-10 minutes.
* Going around with a friend on skype flying wraith + mine layer killing off 2 miners, 2 wraiths, 1 chomper and 1 corvette with some epic flying.
* Boarding with Corinthian while on TS for the first time ever. It was such a nice infiltration feel while trying to blend in with the photo-adaptive disguise.

[Red-Rocket]

I didnt mean to make power more complicated, sheilds power would still work the same way, except every 5 will increase front by the standard 100, the sides 75, and back 50. Although we could reduce all those numbers because that sounds like a ton of sheilds, that or just try and flank the CC FTW

[Red-Rocket]

oh and the new patch is overall fun, with much more action with wraiths and the sort

[WhyteDragon]

Actually, I agree with Red-rocket on that point. I would like more weapons and I dont think it is a random idea. I would like to give navigation some more stuff (although the command card is getting pretty full). Maybe some kind of team-oriented captain abilties or something.

My mistake then. I got a little heated up -- my apologizes Rocket.

I'm not quite sure what you're aiming for when you say team-oriented captain abilities, but the first thing that came to mind was 'something that helps you relay orders.' Recently I try to avoid running navigation, power, or weapons as captain in order to better relay orders, but if there was some way to facilitate that through the consoles then I think it would be of great worth.

I like power where it is but I would like to make the weapons console more engaging. I agree that I like the weapons console because you can just pick it up and easily figure out that you just have to right-click to fire, I dont want that to change. However, I feel like adding the possibility for more depth than right-click spam is a good idea.

Fair enough. There's not much to really say against this overall.

Zakhennahr is right though, we should get back on the topic of fun. What are some scenarios in game where you've felt "this is really fun!"?

Here are some from my personal experience:
* Having epic power battles chasing a bit back and forth and the battle turning several time until finally one team wins. Core is almost depleted, all energy is gone and everyone has been panicking for 5-10 minutes.
* Going around with a friend on skype flying wraith + mine layer killing off 2 miners, 2 wraiths, 1 chomper and 1 corvette with some epic flying.
* Boarding with Corinthian while on TS for the first time ever. It was such a nice infiltration feel while trying to blend in with the photo-adaptive disguise.

Personally, what I find to usually be most amusing is successful infiltration. I think a lot of people look at infiltration with huge expectations, but the required resources and difficulty might be off putting. Maybe I'm wrong about it, but I have not seen anyone other than myself attempt any form of infiltration ever since the patch where it gave infiltration a three second launching time. I'm not saying it's a necessary nerf, but at the same time between the resources required and the success rate most people have begun to avoid it as captains -- especially since players unfamiliar with infiltration usually die before they even reach the BC.

Successfully wraithing is definitely great, I will concede you that. I would also say large wraith battles are also pretty damn awesome when they occur. When used correctly, I've also seen the corvette rip through a squadron of incoming wraiths with ease. Small ship battles can be extremely engaging in their own way simply by merit of success.

And I will also cede having awesome power battles with multiple turns would also be really awesome. Recently I haven't seen many, but they are quite amazing when they occur.

From here on beyond I will talk about issues on this. If you feel like this is going off topic, I will remove it.

Now here is the reoccurring issue that concerns me; these are all things that require a skill cap to perform.

We come right back to that barrier aspect. Flying around with epic moves on the hunt as a wraith fighting off combat ships usually requires you to be a pretty decent pilot at the least. I'm aware that a gap in skill or upgrades can also allow it, but most of the time such a thing won't occur so easily. Power battles with the BC will likely involve Navigation, Power, and Weapons primarily as the main contenders. These slots will likely be taken mostly by the more experienced players while the less experienced players will be doing other things such as repairing, launching a small ships if the ship happens to stop, or loading missiles. Infiltration is often difficult to perform successfully even for experienced players, so you can imagine that it's probably much more difficult for inexperienced players.

Cruiser Command is an awesome game. There are some really amazing aspects to that you can get into which allow for awesome gameplay. However, because there is a skill gap in a lot of roles they will often be delegated to the most experienced players on the team, leaving new players with less desirable roles. They don't get to participate as much in the 'fun things' since doing the 'fun things' requires at least some sense of the game. So with that in mind, I think a larger part of the issue is making it fun for people who don't manage to get to take part in those 'fun' things such as pro wraithing, pro BC fighting, and pro infiltration.

I have felt guilty on so many occasions when I have had a noob on my team that didn't get to do anything after losing his wraith simply because there weren't enough resources or time to allow him to mess around. You can either opt to allow new players to try whatever they like or you can opt to show a new player the actual game play, but in either way you either don't show them how CC is actually played or you don't let them do anything interesting. That in itself is a pretty frustrating situation, and it's the main reason I brought up what could be improved in the first place.

Make no mistake -- I don't think there are scenarios where a noob can do nothing. But it's kind of frustrating having a noob buy 3 new wraiths and lose all 3 of them, so often times the opportunity cost for a noob's fun is your team's well being. And that just causes all sorts of issues.

[Red-Rocket]

although i would like the most simple gun that you start with in the game to be spawned with you when you die infiltrating, because its a hassle to get a new one and/or get through debris.

A command console? hmm or just an addition to helm?