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  #1  
Old March 29th, 2015, 11:02 PM

OrionM42 OrionM42 is offline
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Default Re: Favourite Ship Type

Quote:
Originally Posted by DamienPS View Post

Is the Negotiater ship from the Unifiers? I haven't gotten it yet.
Apparently yes. That is, I was given an opportunity to purchase a Negotiator class ship (for the first time ever) when I was about half or 3/4 of the way through the series of quests that the Unifiers imposed upon me. My recollection is that I essentially unlocked it, by completing one of the specific quests. Sorry to be slightly vague about this, but things were happening fast at that point, and I can't recall if it was a specific reward tied to a particular quest (i.e. a promised reward), or if it just popped up at one point. Actually I wish I could have gotten it earlier ...

Thanks for starting this Discussion thread, BTW -- Good Stuff!
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Old May 5th, 2015, 09:34 PM

ibol ibol is offline
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Default Re: Favourite Ship Type

so, who wants a "crafting" ship ?

OR:

can anyone think of a good "theme" for a playable ship, that does not already exist?
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  #3  
Old May 6th, 2015, 12:17 AM
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Lightbulb Re: Favourite Ship Type

Hmm, I think everyone would want a good crafting ship, as crafting seems to be the easiest path to great component performance, variety of devices available, AND money (since you can sell the stuff you craft for heaps more than the cost of components, once you get good). Seems like you'd almost need/want to add limits to crafting without something everyone could do. Having crafting components take cargo space which is enhanced by the an ability the special cargo ship has might do, except that would be a nerf to the way crafting can currently be used by everyone, so not everyone might approve. Just seems like crafting may already the uber ability that's available to everyone eventually.

I have only unlocked a few ships so far so I don't know what may already exist.

Just brainstorming:

A starliner with lots of crew and cargo, good for cleaning out caves and shipwrecks, but quite slow and very negative evasion, so vulnerable to other ships?

An express courier ship that's very fast but has very little other ability?

A ship with a bonus to secondary ship systems that can be powered?

Occasional unique ships based on existing ships, but customized by the previous owner so that some ability or strength is cut, but some random other ability or strength is added? They'd be tempting since you'd almost never get to get that ship combo again.

A heavier exploration ship with a scanner bonus?

A ground assault ship with bonuses to away team firepower and/or armor?

A Firax ship which has a special teleporter unit that can extract an away team from anywhere (or maybe up to a certain cave depth limit), though it also aborts the away team mission to do so, and leaves behind any cargo carried by the team not yet on the shuttle.

A mine warfare ship?

A smuggler ship with a fake ID device and ? maybe a bypass to Banker base docking fees.

A deep explorer ship with a high oxygen supply booster.

...
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Old May 6th, 2015, 05:54 PM

OrionM42 OrionM42 is offline
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Default Re: Favourite Ship Type

Interesting Questions ... and somewhat Tricky Ones, too; since many of us don't really know much about many of the ships that are already available (un-lockable) in the game. Still, it's too tempting not to lobby on behalf of some favorites.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ibol View Post
So, who wants a "crafting" ship ?
I expect most of us would appreciate a Crafting-themed ship. The longer I've played, the more I have come to enjoy the crafting element in this game; and the more I've come to realize just how important crafting can be to a successful strategy. In fact, it recently dawned on me that Crafting is to Approaching Infinity, about the same as Research is to most 4X games. If each case, if you concentrate on that one aspect, and are good at it, you can mostly stay ahead of the curve, traced by the competing races/empires. As PvK suggested, it may the most important single strategic element in the game. So, we would all want it in a special ship; but it will need to be fine-tuned (handicapped), so as not to be over-powering.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ibol View Post
Can anyone think of a good "theme" for a playable ship, that does not already exist?
I've indicated previously how much I value speed in a ship. I would really like to see a true frigate (or battlecruiser) type ship in this game -- a ship concepted on the idea that it can outrun anything it can't outfight . In the age of sail, frigates were relatively powerful ships that could easily dispatch Brigs, sloops, etc. They could not stand up to the largest ships (Ships of the Line, or Men of War), but those they could outrun. In the 20th century BCs were supposed to be analogous. They had pretensions to being capital ships (think: HMS Hood), but could not really stand up to battleships, because they were seriously lacking in armor, which was sacrificed to give them the speed advantage. In Approaching Infinity, you could limit their armor to only what was included in the starting ship (the basic hull strength) with no ability (or very little) to add any armor. They would still have shields, but if they lost them in a battle, they would pretty much be dead ducks. Again, they would be fast ships (call them Swift-frigates, or the like) that could outrun anything they could not outfight.

One last thought: should there be a Dreadnaught ship class in AI? ... or is the Cruiser perhaps a close analogy? Such a ship would need to be very difficult to get -- maybe only late in the game. For balance, you could create a few really powerful opponents, say the kind that show up in some combat quests (so-and-so ship is terrorizing Sector 50 -- go and neutralize (eliminate) it), so not everyone would be forced to face such behemoths.

Sure like the fact that you keep exploring ideas for new content in this game!

Last edited by OrionM42; May 6th, 2015 at 06:06 PM..
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Old May 7th, 2015, 12:59 AM
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Lightbulb Re: Favourite Ship Type

One way to not overpower a crafting ship would be to give it an ability or two that is crafting-related, but not as good as an expert crewman with the same ability, and not stacking with it. So it would help if you hadn't fully specialized and trained up a set of crafting officers, but it wouldn't make you even better than you can now possibly get with crafting.
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Old May 6th, 2015, 05:10 AM

Chris Steadman Chris Steadman is offline
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Default Re: Favourite Ship Type

A Firfax ship that ensures smooth, even performance of any artifacts that it is carrying.

A Tardis ship that can have many more devices installed - perhaps to run it a special artifact is needed to boost the performance of your reactor
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