[Wild_Bill]

Radi, I'm going to have to disagree. I mean, we already "lose" our ship currently once we take the pod path, so it doesn't much matter who does what with it afterwards. I'm not going to be any MORE unhappy that someone is now flying around my old ship with whatever artys survived the take over than I am if it was simply blown up and I lost all those artys. If it was a case of "you couldn't get another ship" THEN it would become a big deal. As long as we have insurance and can get another ship, what happens with the old one just really doesn't matter that much to me.

[Radi]

Hmm...some good points there. Would have be tested.

However, I want a self-destruct function if this gets implemented.

[Chaser]

Something we should consider, if we have AI ships that we can capture then they become our property, and there fore flyable, the AI ships would have to be the same design we have in all the factions to make the huds etc available. It would be good to be able to capture a diferent factions ship and then fly it, its the only way you could do it. I also think Pirates should have special ships of their own, not super powerful immposible to defeat ships, but maybe falmboyant colors or custom paintjobs, after all thats what I think of when I think pirates, loud, bright colors and outlandish designs. Maybe too much for this game but an idea.

[rotate1x]

if capturin ships are possible, then it should take a lot of effort to do it and if successful, the victim will be forced to eject out of the ship, and the ship will be magically compressed into a cargo hold, somethin like that.

[project3wc]

yea i think everyone would agree that it has to take a lot of effort and it should be something that just anyone can do. i like the eject idea though if it somehow would make it cheaper than getting destroyed completely.

[Chaser]

Radi, if we have the ability to get free ships for a good fight, even a miner could get one from time to time. Either from AI,(can we fly a Manta) or from other players. Yes, it means the pirate comunity will be even more active, but with a destruct device a pirate whos not well enough equiped doesnt get your ship anyways, he takes the risk he might. With or without this idea the pirates will pod you and destroy your ship for fun, so why not have a slight chance that YOU can get a ship from someone else. It might even start a whole new kind of pirating, just for ships either for a collection for their own use(trying to own every ship in game) or for resale. If we're asking to give us a chance to gain something we have to be able to lose something too, like its going to make a big difference here anyway...lol Also, there cant be any Magic in game, high tech will make that up of course, but with a chance to have a captureds ship autopilot home , then you have the job of defending it till it gets there, more realistic. I dont think compressing a whole fighter into a cargo bay of a smaller ship is possible. If we eject like a lot seem to like theres a question...do you stay there till rescued(no one will like being harassed by the pirate who took your ship forever) or do we "beam" back to the nearest station..it might not even be your faction,(dont carry any fresh babys with you,lol) but then you'd habe the chance to buy a new ship, however small, maybe with a noob ship for free if your broke at the time. Just a few more ideas.

[Ratneck]

I think the idea of capturing ships is intriguing, but I think it'll have to be put in with care if it's added.

This game doesn't have a very large player base ATM. To expand the player base, like it or not, the game will HAVE to have carebear elements to it. There's no other way to draw in the crowds of merchants and miners that will add their $15 a month to the coffers.

I don't think ANYONE should be safe, and as long as the penalties for attacking Civ-flagged players in any faction space are severe and long-term that should work out ok. You need to protect the new players from the experienced Jumpgate Classic players in some way though, or one "pirate" who gets his jollies ripping new players who have no chance could severely hurt the subscription base.

If ships are capturable I'd like to see it implemented in the following way:

1) Target ship's shields must be down

2) Target ship's armor must be really low (below 15%) OR "Hull" would have to be added. This is because some ships are designed with low shields but high armor....armor would be useless if it could just be bypassed.

3) Pirate would have to "disable" thie ship using an ion style of gun. I'd like to see this have a stat of "systems" like the armor and shield %. The ion gun must be used untill the target's system % is at 0. Modx could be added to the game that would increase a ship's resistance to ion shots.

4) If the disable is successful, the target is put out of his ship in a pod and reappears at his last faction station, like a kill.

5) The pirate or his wing has to tow the ship to a station/POS for repairs using a Modx towing device. Perhaps the number of modx required could be related to the mass of the ship you are towing. If the ship was repairable and flyable in space then I would assume the owner, who is more familiar with the ship, would just repair it himself and thus render the attack useless...so keeping it disabled till it reaches a dock seems the only way to do that.

6) The target ship should have a self destruct capability, however it should be based on the ships system state. If a ship has 100% systems then the self destruct has a 100% chance of working....if it has 75% systems it has a 75% chance of working....perhaps setting a minimum chance of like 25% or something. The self destruct should be a modx to make the decision tougher on the target...."do I put another FF on my ship, or a self destruct?". If a pilot chooses to self destruct, they are automatically put in a pod back to the station like a kill...no matter if the destruct is successful or not. Weather or not the player knows if his ship was successfully destroyed would be up for debate, I can see both sides of that....wanting to know vs. not ejecting early enough to be sure.

7) Towing the ship back to dock should account for the mass of the ship doing the towing as well as full mass of the towed ship, cargo et al. So if you pirate a full tow of uranium you would need an empty tow with beefy engines to get it to dock in a reasonable time. Anyone towing a "captured" ship should have a temporary bounty put on them while they tow.....anyone who jumps or docks with a captured vessel in tow would get a perm. bounty from the "real owner's" faction. I agree that there should be a timer on the disabled ship....15 minutes or so. If it's under tow it's assumed that there's minimal power/etc being transferred to the ship to keep the systems alive/not frozen to 0 Kelvin....those 15 minutes would be refreshed in a 1:1 ratio with tow time...

So if you tow a ship and have to drop it to fight off someone coming for the bounty, the fight takes 10 minutes, the ship has 5 minutes of "life" left. If you tow it for 5 minutes before you get attacked and drop it again, it now has 10 minutes of "life" because you refreshed 5 minutes by having it under tow for that long. This way people won't be able to just "bump" the ship to keep it alive for hours till someone comes along who can tow it.

8) Anyone flying a ship not of their faction is automatically given a bounty for the faction who owns the ship design. So a Quant who flies an Oct ship would show a bounty to all Oct pilots.

Just spitballing some ideas here of how Pirating could work. Feel free to tear it apart, it will make me feel more loved!

[netburnr]

Ratneck, love the feedback, great ideas in there.

[Wild_Bill]

I like 'em too Rat, but the word's is now out that ND_Stryker hasn't even heard of the idea and it won't be implemented any time soon. Seems a shame that, but there ya go.

[Chaser]

They still need people to pay the subscriptions...if we all keep trying and tye some things important to us to that they just might listen, after all it IS about money, and nothing else.

[Golgath]

nah, if you attach to a ship you should be attached untill you dock, that would put the kybosh on the cushy pirate life. Many pirates would think twice about hooking up a full tow and dragging it thru 3 ectors knowing he couldn't unhook to save his own ass.