[netburnr]

Originally Posted by dailatron

Im sorry but unless you have some of the best PvPers guarding you and the haulers are also aware of PvP tactics this is useless. Especially if you have some of the best PvPers actually doing the attacking. It might help against 1 or 2 attackers but not 5 or more as the hauler would be dead in 1 or 2 passes anyway.

That is not true. A good escort pilot can keep a good PvPer busy enough to let the hauler get free.

I know for a fact that is true, as I've been on both sides of the coin. Both as an escort pilot and as a pirate attempting to take someone down.

If you are too busy trying to take down a heavily shielded hauler, then the escort will get on your ass and blow you up. If you take too much time trying to take down the escort the hauler gets away. If you try to balance between the two you might get one or the other, but you will most likely die trying.

The only time that does not apply is a single escort versus two attackers. In which case you would naturally say 2 escorts are needed. Hell one time me and DrK went to go kill a Sol Tow and they had a couple escorts on it. DrK got one escort and I was bouncing between the 2nd escort and the tow...out of nowhere I got killed and DrK started laughing on comms, "you nub, you let the tow kill you" I look up at the chat adn sure enough, the second escort had distracted me while the tow flipped over, MS spammed me and killed me.

[SingleShot]

Originally Posted by netburnrol

The only time that does not apply

Imagining a 1v1 + hauler scenario is one of the few rosy cases for the defender. As numbers increase it gets worse and worse for the defenders. The combined forces of (say) 10 attackers could take down any single target pretty fast, especially slow ones that can't evade on their own. When you're looking at that many attackers the number of defenders starts to matter less and less. (Although sufficient imbalances can presumably overcome anything).

[netburnr]

Ok, how about this

One day I was matt farming as Civ.

I accidentally set off a missile at someone and got a temp, while full of MCs!

I was deep in sol space, with OSP tags, and the fighters were having a field day. I actually made it to station and landed because of the "defenders" and the other tows creating a "wall" around me kept me safe for 4 sectors.

IT can be done, dont say it can't

Now on the other hand as Gotcha in EoR I was trying to protect one of our farmers with maybe 1 or 2 more guys when an entire squad jumped in, in that case yes we did loose our Matt tow, but we were also pretty outnumbered, had we had more people the tow would have probably been fine.

[Jump]

Politics is a much more reliable form of defense for Tows.

[Wild_Bill]

I'm going to surprise everyone and say..."Let's try what Tritian suggested" and see where we end up. Try it in Beta and see if there are available escorts for untagged "we are all targets" haulers/miners. If it won't work in Beta then it probably won't work in retail. But let's give it a chance. Heck, if ND has programmers to spare, let's give GG's darned turrets a shot too and see if they can defend themselves from a cold, much less a determined pirate!

Ultimately, it will be whatever ND wants it to be and we will play and stay, or play and go elsewhere. I love to brainstorm and "what if" but I refuse to get too much emotional attachment to a game that hasn't even made it to Beta yet. Heck, ND won't even tell us what they intend to include or exclude at start up, or give us a really good read on WHAT THEY WANT TO DO other than the boilerplate pablum of "we want everyone to love this game, have oodles and oodles of players and have a short learning curve" etc. If we put all their "for sures" together and stuffed it into.. well nevermind, let's just say we still have very few certainties give out by the ND staff as to what Jumpgate Evolution actually WILL be.

[Jonboy]

Originally Posted by netburnrol

Please please please tell me this is a joke....and a really bad one at that.

Nope.

[Odiche]

Absolutely no carebear protection beyond what they can provide for themselves. Hire an escort if necessary.

[Jump]

I think GrimGriz intended this to be a "What do you think they will actually implement" and not a "what do you think they should implement" thread.

[Sephiroth]

What Tritian said!

[dailatron]

Originally Posted by netburnrol

That is not true.

It is true and for the exact scenario you quoted. A group of non PvPers CAN NOT defend against good PvPers effectively.

Also Im assuming there will STILL be a bounty system but with beefed up droids (safezone loose). However when you say accommodate non combat pilots, it should really be accommodate combat pilots as its not the non combat pilots that are the problem.

[Ambrosius]

LOL, interesting way to construct a poll . . . basically we have the opportunity to vote for ideas you like with the alternative being pie?a) Just say "NO" to safe zones.b) Enough with Turrets already.c) Seems to me that the new AI could be a much bigger threat to the "Econ" RP than any number of pirates or civ rippers.