Planetside Idea Lab

[Dharkbayne]

Hayoo, where do you get the time to think all of this up, really?


ARE YOU A TIME TRAVELLER/ROBOT/ROBOT TIME TRAVELLER?!

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by 7ruth

I have an Idea for Gal supply drops.

I was looking at your emplacement pictures for the hundredth time, and I saw the 'towed suppy'. So that got me thinking about its function, then Blamo! These would we perfect for Galaxy cargo drops.

So the Towed Supply becomes the supply crate. Interesting.

If the devs could make it possible to automatically unhook and load a towed piece of equipment, then we could have that work for everyhing: the towed radar, comm tower, 155 artillery, AA gun, etc. That would be pretty cool. The only problem is that in my concept, you'd have to have Field Assault to acquire towed equipment. That translates as less gal drops.

Perhaps have it both ways then? Gals can load towed equipment or load the personal supply crates as described below:

• Player goes to an equipment terminal and gets a Supply Crate . These are kinda big, probably a 6x6 box or larger.
• Player drops crate on the floor and opens it with the G key like he would a trunk.
• Player starts filling the crate with powercells, ammo, medkits, nano juice, ACEs, guns, etc. from his inventory.
• The supply crate can hold as much as a Deliverer. Supply Crates cannot be placed inside other supply crates.
• Player places crate back in his inventory and runs outside.
• Player drops box on the ground and selects permissions to "Empire" so that other can access the contents and pick it up in a gal.
• Galaxy drops in and hovers near. A message appears to click "G" to pick up Supply Crate.
• Galaxy pilot accepts, loading the box into the Vehicle Bay, and flies off to destination.
• Once over the target, the Gal pilot accesses his Vehicle window, selects the Vehicle Bay slot, and ejects the box from the aircraft. OR he can simply click the 'eject Vehicle Bay' icon that appeared in his hotbar when he picked up the box.
• Supply Crate falls with inertial dampners and lands.
• Besieged players rush to the box and can grab it's contents since it's permissions were still set to "Empire".
• Should the owner of the box (only one crate allowed per player) decide he doesn't want that pilot carrying his stuff, he can switch the permissions to Group or None and the crate will immediately eject from it's Vehicle Bay to the ground.

Originally Posted by doppler

Ewwww AMS's shouldnt require resupply. Just EWwwwww.

They only need supply when in enemy controlled territory after the Zerg has drained them dry. Once an AMS's capacitor is drained, players can still spawn there, but they just can't acquire Rexo, HA, SA, AV, MAX ammo, etc.

This prevents someone just parking one at the backdoor and letting Heavy troops pour in magically. In my concept, a player can still park at the BD, but because they are deep in enemy territory it only makes sense that it doesn't have a magically sustained supply of the heaviest equipment.

With a little extra planning, all an AMS driver has to do is drive an ANT to a warpgate, fill it up, remove some of the powercells, hope in an AMS, drive to the base, deploy, then refill as needed so that troops can still suit up in Rexo, HA, SA, whatever. Even better, he can get a friend to follow him in an ANT and park it in the warpbubble, deploying it every so often to refill the AMS.

Originally Posted by hDrakbynea

Hayoo, where do you get the time to think all of this up, really?


ARE YOU A TIME TRAVELLER/ROBOT/ROBOT TIME TRAVELLER?!

LOL It only looks like I've spent a lot of time. If you go back through Idealab's news archive you'll see that updates are few and far between, a product of having to work for a living and raising a son. Idealab is about 6 months old now, but the concepts date to Sept 2003.

[7ruth]

Well you could make field assualt a 1 point cert, I have that 1 cert left over and I'm BR 20.

Would this be a viable system?
1.)You access a Certification Terminal and invest 1 cert into 'Field Assualt', under support.
2.)You automaticly get the 'Towed Supply Crate', similiar to how ANT is in every cert.
3.)You are presented with a sub-menu below Field Assualt that includes:
*Towed radar
*Com Tower
*155 mm artillery
*AA gun
Ect...
4.)Since you invested 1 cert into field assualt you are given 1 Equipment point
5.)You use this equipment point to gain access to towed 155 mm Artillery

maybe it wouldn't be so great... at least its some what constructive.

How about along with wep/veh/sup certs we could have Field Assualt certs?
Under field certs would be towed deployables and um... other things. Damn TV...

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by 7ruth

Well you could make field assualt a 1 point cert, I have that 1 cert left over and I'm BR 20.

I was just thinking about that this morning, actually. The problem is that with the system I have now, towed equipment can only be acquired if you have a heavy buggy or Deliverer...and maybe a Sunderer. Otherwise if people didn't have a transport, they'd grab the towed supply from a veh terminal, repair silo, or special termial (haven't decided) but then it would just sit there until a vehicle came along to pull it away. The potential for a traffic jam is just huge. There would have to be a new voice marcro for "We need a tow!" for all the equipment just sitting around.

So the logical conclusion is that one of those transports should be a pre-req for getting Field Assault. It would either be purchasable at the pad and you drive off with it at vehicle creation, or you drive the transport up to whatever and it magically attaches to your vehicle and you drive off with it.

Would this be a viable system?
1.)You access a Certification Terminal and invest 1 cert into 'Field Assualt', under support.
2.)You automaticly get the 'Towed Supply Crate', similiar to how ANT is in every cert.
3.)You are presented with a sub-menu below Field Assualt that includes:
*Towed radar
*Com Tower
*155 mm artillery
*AA gun
Ect...
4.)Since you invested 1 cert into field assualt you are given 1 Equipment point
5.)You use this equipment point to gain access to towed 155 mm Artillery

maybe it wouldn't be so great... at least its some what constructive.

How about along with wep/veh/sup certs we could have Field Assualt certs?
Under field certs would be towed deployables and um... other things. Damn TV...

Making Field Assault cheaper still won't allow for more gal drops. That's why I'd go for having both kinds available to put in a Gal for drop: a Supply Crate small enough to fit in a player's inventory, kinda like a dufflebag on steroids; and the Towed Supply, which is towed by a transport but should be storable in a Galaxy.

Best of both worlds, you see. Supply drops will be available to everyone and heavier supply drops (via dropping a towed supply) would be available for a few certs (transport cert-2, field assault cert-1, friend's gal cert-3)

Putting in Equipment points is a whole 'nother can of worms all together.

At the very least, I can give the Towed Supply to transports as a free addon (this will promote more convenient carrying of NTU powercells into battle). To get the other towed weapon and such, they'd have to cert in Field Assault.

[Hayoo]

New image:




Work in progress: working on better ways to illustrate supply lines and urban outpost concepts.

[JetRaiden]

me Hayoo

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by JetRaiden

me Hayoo

Thx JetRaiden

[EarlyDawn]

Little white things are emplacement markers?

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by EarlyDawn

Little white things are emplacement markers?

Yeah, for right now I have the box-shaped ones are support/non-combat emplacements like med station, command post, service platform, etc. And the one with the little stick coming out is a weapon emplacement (AA gun, 100m howitzer, SAM missile, etc.). I'm debating whether the actual types of these should show on the map.

The service platform is a combination landing tarmac and capacitor recharging node and having this shown on the map would certainly be beneficial. But if I show that one, I can't logically explain why I can't show the others as well. And yet if I do that, spies will be able to target command posts. We don't have this problem so much with friendly AMSs because they're hidden on the map.

I definately want enemy emplacements to be revealed through the Comtech's intel abilities, which can intercept communications as well as an enemy's waypoints and emplacements in a certain area or time limit. The info revealed by the Comtechs can then be used by the unit commanders to punch a hole through defenses or target vital systems such as recharge points, command posts, communiations towers, etc.

I'm open to any ideas though as for showing friendly emplacements on a map. Should their types show for friendlies or no? If yes, should it be only in a certain radius or cont-wide like deployables? If no, how do friendlies find recharge points or med stations?

[EarlyDawn]

I've always thought that the devs should find some way to stop trying to fight spying-If someone wants to two box, they will- and build it into the game as a gameplay mechanic that's controllable and fun for everybody.

Don't know how you'd go about that.

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by EarlyDawn

I've always thought that the devs should find some way to stop trying to fight spying-If someone wants to two box, they will- and build it into the game as a gameplay mechanic that's controllable and fun for everybody.

Don't know how you'd go about that.

Well, I do have the Comtech cert for intel gathering/spying. I suppose I could just give players the benefit of the doubt and go ahead with displaying little icons on each of the emplacement markers to tell people whether it's a howitzer, med station, or command post. *shrug* Why not, I mean a spy can spawn at an AMS and then broadcast it's location anyway.

[EarlyDawn]

Where art thou, Hayoo? Can we expect any interesting publishes soon?

[Hayoo]

Workin on it.

In creating map-diagrams to better explain the NTU changes, I realized the same maps could be used to describe Urban Outposts, supply lines, and numerous other things. So I'm taking the time to get those done too.

Plus I've been out of town since Tuesday night and don't get back till later today.

[Hayoo]

currently working on updating territory maps with colored fields and new zone lines.

I'll be using these kinds of maps to illustrate concepts of NTU changes, supply line, urban outposts, and use of deployable emplacements.

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by EarlyDawn

Where art thou, Hayoo? Can we expect any interesting publishes soon?

Well, in the Idealab WIP forum I posted concept graphics for storing vehicles in a 'garage'. As I was preparing maps to describe the concepts mentioned above, I realized the garage would need to be explained since it was described as an Outfit upgrade.

So here is what I posted in the WIP board:

Requests for storing vehicles has been around for quite a while. My version has been added as an upgrade for Outfit Barracks and/or Headquarters, and has relations to the Urban Outpost, supply line, and rank salary concepts. An individual without an outfit or whose outfit has not purchased the vehicle storage upgrade, may still store a vehicle, but it will be something that has to be purchased with their 'salary.'

To store something in your garage, a player drives their vehicle up to a service silo and hits "G" as normal. They must select "Garage" and then may choose "Store Current Vehicle" or select and Delete a currently stored vehicle. Storing a vehicle will save it's current loadout as well. Players will be able to store a minimum of 2 vehicles at a time.



Also, to store a vehicle, the territory they are in must be connected to the 'supply line' in some way and if at a base or outpost it must have power. Towers lose storing capability if their NTU level drops to 0% (since they do not have a generator).




To retrieve a vehicle, a player goes to any vehicle terminal at a facility or outpost, hits the G key as normal, then selects Garage. The player can then select a stored vehicle and hit 'Acquire' to spawn the vehicle as normal. No tech plant will be required to retrieve stored vehicles, only a supply line to a Capitol or to a linked warpgate.



*note=the deliverer is suppose to be an Aurora.