This is part 1 of 2 of suggestions to make captaining less frustrating. As it is, many games start with players basically figuring out who is the captain (because nobody wants to do it). This seems odd, lets make captain more fun!
One issue we have is when the enemy battlecruiser comes near, it's very hard to adequately 'mobilize' someone to take nav or weapons or whatever needs addressing in the small window of time that a captain has to put the 'defenses' online. Part of the issue is players have to travel back from whatever they are doing, dock, go upstairs, and potentially have to clear debris out of the way as they do it. This is a lot of work, when a enemy BC can pop out of nowhere and kill the standard 50 point shield without any effort.
An idea I have for a solution to this is a purchasable item which 'teleports' the player to the starting position on the bridge. When used from inside the ship, the effect would be the person on power (captain) could practically 'blink' to the controls for weapons or nav. For example, lets say the captain is on power and everyone else is too busy or slow to get on nav, and the captain needs to point the ship in a direction to run asap. He could run to power, set engines up to 150, blink to bridge, set nav direction, and go. It would still be a little clunky but it gives the captain an edge over other players in managing the ship.
If the item was loaded onto a small ship, the player could use the item in flight to return to the bridge, giving control of the craft to AI which would set the ship on a course to dock with the BC immediately (which is a duplicate of the 'when player gets kicked have the unoccupied ship return to BC idea presented a few weeks ago'). In this scenario, when a captain calls for someone to take nav, a pre-designated player carrying this item can beam straight to the bridge to provide the extra manpower to run important positions (reassign drones, nav, whatever).
"Teleport to bridge" item
Re: "Teleport to bridge" item
And, on a related note, if the 'empty ship flys back on its own' mechanic ever gets added, then AI controlled chompers that are docking should empty their entire inventory on dock. So, this item has the added effect of making chomping different, people could chomp a field, then ditch the chomper so it can fly itself back.
This item would also help the unfortunate situation where a player in a chomper can't catch up to the BC while it is running away from being attacked by the opposing BC. In this situation, I find trying to kill myself in the chomper a more effective solution than trying to fly back to dock.
This item would also help the unfortunate situation where a player in a chomper can't catch up to the BC while it is running away from being attacked by the opposing BC. In this situation, I find trying to kill myself in the chomper a more effective solution than trying to fly back to dock.
Re: "Teleport to bridge" item
The "AI to return ships" was in the very specific scenario of a player leaving with a ship out - what you are proposing is a new AI but without the player leaving - something that creates a new AI out of nowhere
and it's not yet implemented, so we don't know what sorts of bugs there will be with it
also, there is already a boost in the utility tier to marine movement speed, as well as the sprint mechanic - I don't think a "teleport" would be a good idea, as it would mostly render those useless (also cause more issues with infiltration..)
and it's not yet implemented, so we don't know what sorts of bugs there will be with it
also, there is already a boost in the utility tier to marine movement speed, as well as the sprint mechanic - I don't think a "teleport" would be a good idea, as it would mostly render those useless (also cause more issues with infiltration..)
