Jon Falkenberg
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Posted - 2007.10.27 13:30:00 -
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When rigs were introduced, they were supposed to allow players to truly customize their ships. In fact, rigs, as they currently stand, don't do anything that a char couldn't do before with skill improvements or normal modules. They're actually worse because of the "trade-offs" gain more armor, but lose speed...or whatever.
REAL jury rigging, at least as it occurred during times of war meant making vehicles do things they were never intended to do - introducing flexibility and tactical surprise. Some great examples of jury rigging:
- Pilots on Vietnam were upset that F4 Phantoms were pure missile planes, the designers didn't include a gun, so the "jury rigged" a 20mm cannon onto one of the missile hard points to give the ship a gun.
- An extreme example would be ww1/ww2 Q-Ships - Transports with extra turret or torpedo "slots" for surprising commerce raiders.
- In the movie Serenity, they used an old anti-aircraft cannon and welded it onto their ship - essentially adding a turret hard point.
I can name hundreds. My point though is that Rigs give the Devs a way to allow players to make permanent modifications that introduce surprise and flexibility into the game...not just a slight better shield regen rate or slightly faster missiles, but REAL jury rigs.
I Propose Jury Rigging be extended with rigs like these:
- Convert a high slot into a turret or missile hard point.
- Give up a slot on one level in exchange for one of another level (i.e. give up a low but gain a middle)
- Adding an extra slot entirely, but giving up something else to "make room for it"...(i.e. gain a low slot, but lose maneuverability because the ship is more ungainly.
Changes like these would allow for truly interesting ship changes that would keep players (especially old dogs) on their toes...wouldn't it ruin someone's day if a Retribution showed up and started webbing and scramming? Or if a lone pirate jumped an industrial and the prey opened up with multiple turrets.
I have no idea what would be needed on the coding end, but the ships appear to have been designed to be very flexible. This would just add for more customization.
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