What's the point in ejecting?

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VGSailor
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What's the point in ejecting?

Post by VGSailor »

I was just wondering if there is any real value at all in ejecting from your damaged ship.

Recently, I started a new game. I was out doing some exploring in my unimproved, default Llama when I inadvertently jumped into an Aeran system. Before I even had time to react, the auto eject feature jettisoned me from my disintegrating ship and left me floating in space, about 1000 meters from the jump gate where I jumped in.

What was I supposed to do then? I was surrounded by hostile Aerans, apparently safe because they were no longer shooting at me, but I was also about 80,000 km from the nearest planet, and there were no friendly or even neutral capital ships nearby. I tried to fly to the planet, but that would have taken about an hour at 23 m/s. So, I went back and hung around the jump gate to see if a friendly ship might jump into the system. None did. So, I pressed Esc, Q, relaunched the game and loaded my last save game.

So, again, I must ask, what's the point of ejecting? I was safe, but stranded. And even if I had gotten picked up, what would have happened then? I had only the one ship, which had just gotten destroyed, and I didn't have enough credits to buy even a Milspec Hyena. So, if I was able to dock with a friendly ship, what would have happened?

Thanks!
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Re: What's the point in ejecting?

Post by TBeholder »

It's not always in hostile space. And there are going to be PC-created missions - including "rescue me!" of course.
Though yeah, SPEC/energy stats of the eject pod need tweaking with a sledgehammer long ago.
But in truth, auto-eject works for player ship simply because it works for everyone at all, with set probability, as long as a ship is destroyed without too much of overkill.
There's obviously room for improvement on evacuation systems beyond this, too, but it's unlikely to happen before bigger ships will be made walkable (just like bases) and support of multiple habitable parts for damage/control purpose.
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Re: What's the point in ejecting?

Post by klauss »

What the escape pod should have, is a special "missile" that launches an "distress beacon".

The missile would look for a friendly or a jump point, and transmit the SOS, spawning a rescue ship (to either jump in, or fly to you).

The moment the rescue ship gets near you, you should be teleported to the nearby friendly station. Nearby might mean a different system btw.
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Re: What's the point in ejecting?

Post by KillerB »

The first thing I fixed, and what spawned the whole Killer Mod http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic ... 10&t=15160 (shameless self promotion) was the gimpy escape pod stats. Our version is a little over twice the mass of the original, but with enough delta V and fuel to actually escape somewhere (in minutes rather than hours).

*If you're looking for the latest 5.1r1 compatible version, I'm afraid you'll have to flip through the pages...somewhere around page 4 or 5 maybe? I've really gotta go through and update that topic....maybe see if an Admin can split it for me....

@Klauss: what is really needed is an AI mod...."rescue me please": it would need a Comms hotkey (and message) and a new AI subroutine....while we're at it we could maybe make it bring friendlies over to help out, hopefully before you need to 'punch out' 8)

I had some success editing the AI files summer of '11 while laid off after the fire....as I recall I tweaked the Shuttle AI so Koalas don't kamikaze.....I really thought it was futile for those unarmed and rather fragile little transports to swarm on a big bad pirate.
Had a really good run of modding while I was on unemployment; new capitol scale & faction specific reactors & overdrives, new and improved weapons & missiles, lots of goodies.
RL & scads of overtime are really eating into my geek time lately :P With any 'luck' we'll be laid off after New Year's...seems Welspun is having trouble getting enough coils for the next run after the one we're on now.
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Re: What's the point in ejecting?

Post by klauss »

KillerB wrote:The first thing I fixed, and what spawned the whole Killer Mod http://forums.vega-strike.org/viewtopic ... 10&t=15160 (shameless self promotion) was the gimpy escape pod stats. Our version is a little over twice the mass of the original, but with enough delta V and fuel to actually escape somewhere (in minutes rather than hours).
I hope you added some SPEC caps, with limited SPEC energy for maybe a few light minutes' worth of SPEC and removed the SPEC capacitor itself (so it doesn't recharge). That would be a worthy escape pod. And of course remove the useless hand gun.

I'd certainly want that in HEAD.
KillerB wrote:@Klauss: what is really needed is an AI mod...."rescue me please": it would need a Comms hotkey (and message) and a new AI subroutine....while we're at it we could maybe make it bring friendlies over to help out, hopefully before you need to 'punch out' 8)
Yeah, but it's not a hotkey. I'd make it a mission that's always on (ie: part of the privateer campaign script), that will look for friendlies and put them on rescue duty.

I'm not 100% sure we can code that with our current scripting functionality, but maybe. Someone should try.
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Re: What's the point in ejecting?

Post by KillerB »

klauss wrote:Yeah, but it's not a hotkey. I'd make it a mission that's always on (ie: part of the privateer campaign script), that will look for friendlies and put them on rescue duty.

I'm not 100% sure we can code that with our current scripting functionality, but maybe. Someone should try.
Yeah atm the only real advantage to being friendly with a faction is they aren't out to get you....if you're in trouble you're still on your lonesome. A 'Friendly' AI subroutine would be a nice addition.

A good idea for an additional comm hotkey would be 'RTB' for cargo wingmen. The only option for recovering them atm is tractoring them in....which is considered a hostile act. I had a good sized collection of cargo wingman fighters at one time and found myself at odds with the Privateer faction....finally figured out they hated me for 'enslaving' them by tractoring them back in at the end of a mission....even if they were out of gas and stranded :P

I think someone was working on that a couple years ago (Travits?) but it never went anywhere.
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Re: What's the point in ejecting?

Post by KillerB »

klauss wrote:I hope you added some SPEC caps, with limited SPEC energy for maybe a few light minutes' worth of SPEC and removed the SPEC capacitor itself (so it doesn't recharge). That would be a worthy escape pod. And of course remove the useless hand gun.

I'd certainly want that in HEAD.
I don't recall what I did SPEC wise but I'll look into it over Xmas break...haven't got around to doing away with the silly hand laser.
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Re: What's the point in ejecting?

Post by klauss »

KillerB wrote:
klauss wrote:I hope you added some SPEC caps, with limited SPEC energy for maybe a few light minutes' worth of SPEC and removed the SPEC capacitor itself (so it doesn't recharge). That would be a worthy escape pod. And of course remove the useless hand gun.

I'd certainly want that in HEAD.
I don't recall what I did SPEC wise but I'll look into it over Xmas break...haven't got around to doing away with the silly hand laser.
Hey. Just got back from vacations (actually, got back a while ago, but had sooo much work I had to catch up).

Anyway, gentle reminder, now that I'm back to pay attention ;)
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