[Chaser]

Just to show there's no hard feelings with the uber pvpers I like to bug sometimes I came up with a new idea. We all have to pay for all our stuff and there are times when I wished I could just dump something and come back later and see if its still there. Maybe a big load of rare ore, or someone who just jumped into a sector hunting in his/her tricked out artied Ranger . Starts chasing a helpless little lev 5 flux and finds its a trap.(new AI) he gets 2 minutes screeming around the asteroids avoiding maybe 3 lev 8 fluxes to decide which 1 thing he might be able to save. Just as death becomes very obvious he ejects his best atry knowing it was going to be distroyed in a second anyway, so now theres a slight chance he can come back for it. Salvage rights apply, of course, but with big fluxes around not too many people are going to take it from them. It might even be possible for the flux to claim it if they find it. But it a chance you can take.

[Badger]

In EVE you can anchor "secure" cargo containers (which can be blown up, but not otherwise accessed) in deep space. These are persistent containers which you can go to for storage. I'd be okay with the idea, but given the highly PvP environment of Jumpgate, the "protection" fees people would extort for not blowing up the containers would be huge.

Ejected cargo in combat has the potential to lag out the game in a really bad way. In EVE they get around this by having ejected cargo disappear after a few minutes. I think that Jumpgate would have to adopt a similar approach, since dealing with loads of stray ejected cargo would just be obnoxious.

Heck, if it got really bad, the AI might start giving "Street Sweeper Missions" for people to go out and loot/blow up all the cargo containers blocking the space lanes

[Jump]

Ejected cargo should have to float off out of the flight path into deeper space and then be found like an artifact.

[QrazyKermi]

Ejected cargo should float off based on the direction of the ship that held it, and the direction of ejection from that ship. That way it would be nearly impossible for the cargo to be a shipping hazard for more than a couple minutes.

[Jump]

If they used external cargo pods like you see in a lot of movies then they could have little booster rockets to scatter them and make it hard for an enemy to find. Maybe the owner would have a locater or such.

[Badger]

Yeah, I love the idea of cargo going off on its own little flight. Maybe when you eject the cargo, it could give you an ejection location and initial vector, so that when you went to retrace your steps, you could try and hunt it down. Assuming that it collides with itty bitty space junk, there would be an element of randomness in how well it follows the initial vector (+/- 5% or something like that, so that after a while it's unrecoverable)

I still maintain my lag concerns though.

[Wild_Bill]

IF we're going to have ejectible cargo, that would be how I'd like to see it implemented.

[Jump]

I would also add that you should not be aloud to eject cargo if you have not attempted to retrieve the last load ejected. Maybe have a limit on how many times you can eject without accepting the insurance companies mission to get it. Otherwise it could become another way to splash commods.

[Jump]

Originally Posted by Badger

I still maintain my lag concerns though.

Cargo containers would be a default image set in the game. Once it's out of the control of the player it can be switched over to server control and just be another object in the sector. They are small so radar range could be limited to see them. Once out of site it doesn't need to be in your game info that is transmitted.

It might be a problem if 300 Tows eject at once though. We could call that a Big -=MACK=- Attack.

[Chaser]

Went I saw this as a new idea it was more like...if something is ejected it floats along for maybe 15 minutes then the cargo/ object begins to decay. A simple timer that starts when its ejected. If you dont find it again in 30 minutes, dont bother, its gone. It would either slowly expand and disapear, or it would be destroyed with a collision with space junk. Time enough for a player to rush back and get it, or not depending.

[Badger]

Originally Posted by Jump

Cargo containers would be a default image set in the game. Once it's out of the control of the player it can be switched over to server control and just be another object in the sector. They are small so radar range could be limited to see them. Once out of site it doesn't need to be in your game info that is transmitted.

It might be a problem if 300 Tows eject at once though. We could call that a Big -=MACK=- Attack.

lol, yeah. I guess my concern wasn't so much with actual bandwidth problems as just overwhelming the 486 in Scorch's basement. You can imagine that having 1000 extra objects, even if they're stationary, could slow down their systems. Even if they didn't have to transmit the data to us, they'd still have to be handling it on their end. I suppose it all depends on how it's implemented.

[Ambrosius]

I like the idea of CARGO EJECTION -- an idea which I have proposed on JOSSH and covered on the JGCentral Brainstorm Wiki -- but I don't believe installed equipment should be ejectable. To me, once you install it, it's at risk.