Interdictors
#1
Posted 28 June 2011 - 11:55 AM
I have never liked the way FoC handles interdiction. I dislike how one interdictor can lock a massive fleet in realspace by itself, no matter where it is. Any semi-competent commander in this game can just sit his interdictor at the very back of his fleet and completely prevent escape of a smaller fleet, when it is clearly shown in several books that interdictors have a limited enough range that even diversionary attacks can disrupt the field long enough for a sizable fleet to escape. Garm Bel Iblis' maneuver at Qat Chrystac with Orthavan and Iron Fist's escape from Stellar Web at Vahaba come to mind. What I would regard as optimal is doubling the radius of each interdictor's gravity well, the one that disallows ships dropping out of hyperspace, and somehow only preventing retreat for enemies in that radius. Very likely impossible with the engine, but I thought I might as well give it a try. Maybe there are alternative solutions that we can think up.
#3
Posted 28 June 2011 - 07:16 PM
I feel like the distances represented in PR are well under the interdictor range.I have never liked the way FoC handles interdiction. I dislike how one interdictor can lock a massive fleet in realspace by itself, no matter where it is. Any semi-competent commander in this game can just sit his interdictor at the very back of his fleet and completely prevent escape of a smaller fleet, when it is clearly shown in several books that interdictors have a limited enough range that even diversionary attacks can disrupt the field long enough for a sizable fleet to escape.
I mean, preventing escape, reinforcement, and regular travel are what having an interdictor is all about. If you see the enemy has an interdictor, you can always send an assault bomber squad after it. Even if you force it to disable its interdiction and make a run for cover, that's a window to retreat.
#4
Posted 28 June 2011 - 09:08 PM
I feel like the distances represented in PR are well under the interdictor range.I have never liked the way FoC handles interdiction. I dislike how one interdictor can lock a massive fleet in realspace by itself, no matter where it is. Any semi-competent commander in this game can just sit his interdictor at the very back of his fleet and completely prevent escape of a smaller fleet, when it is clearly shown in several books that interdictors have a limited enough range that even diversionary attacks can disrupt the field long enough for a sizable fleet to escape.
I mean, preventing escape, reinforcement, and regular travel are what having an interdictor is all about. If you see the enemy has an interdictor, you can always send an assault bomber squad after it. Even if you force it to disable its interdiction and make a run for cover, that's a window to retreat.
That's not quite true. When one orders a retreat, the 20 sec. period allows the controller of the interdictor to have 20 free seconds to shoot you before he reactivates the grav well generators 1 sec before you hyperspace out. During those 20 secs, he either reinforces his interdictor with fighters or retreats to to a more safe place to reactivate it, defeating your bomber strike.
#5
Posted 28 June 2011 - 09:26 PM
That's still the purpose of having an interdictor. He is using up supply to have it there, after all. That means your fleet is immediately more powerful at equal supply.That's not quite true. When one orders a retreat, the 20 sec. period allows the controller of the interdictor to have 20 free seconds to shoot you before he reactivates the grav well generators 1 sec before you hyperspace out. During those 20 secs, he either reinforces his interdictor with fighters or retreats to to a more safe place to reactivate it, defeating your bomber strike.
#6
Posted 28 June 2011 - 09:35 PM
I feel like the distances represented in PR are well under the interdictor range.
We have to take some liberties with range in PR. We have Mon Calamari cruisers with maximum ranges about 4-5 times the length of the ship, when turbolasers are known to be able to fire from low orbit onto the surface through an atmosphere. Perhaps I'm being picky, but I would prefer it if interdiction were not quite so powerful and far-reaching.
#7
Posted 28 June 2011 - 11:27 PM
You could possibly do something with projectiles or projectile-based abilities to disable engines, causing affected ships to be lost upon retreat. The problem with that is you would be treating hyperdrive the same as sublight, when it's clearly not. The hardpoint or ability would have to affect enemy ships throughout the course of battle - if only because there's no way for it to do otherwise (short of perhaps a scripting workaround) - while not changing sublight performance. Even if you did something like an ion stun with a 0.01% speed reduction (it may or may not work with 0%), I'm not sure that ion stun wouldn't have other side effects to it not associated with interdiction.
I never liked the fact that multiple GWPs had no benefit. You could likely add a cooldown to the ability to make the CC-7700 worse than the Im418, but I'm not sure how well that would work. It's probably the best the way it is - for now.
#8
Posted 29 June 2011 - 12:10 AM
This is true.We have to take some liberties with range in PR. We have Mon Calamari cruisers with maximum ranges about 4-5 times the length of the ship, when turbolasers are known to be able to fire from low orbit onto the surface through an atmosphere.I feel like the distances represented in PR are well under the interdictor range.
Perhaps that would be the way to fix the retreat cooldown/interdiction activation issue. Make the cooldowns for the interdiction abilities 20 seconds, or just slightly above that, meaning that if the ability is forced off to save the interdictor, it can't reactivate until the retreat timer is over. Then, it would be beneficial to have more than one interdictor present in addition to preventing the "wait until 1 second is left on the timer and activate, rinse and repeat" nonsense.You could likely add a cooldown to the ability to make the CC-7700 worse than the Im418, but I'm not sure how well that would work. It's probably the best the way it is - for now.
#9
Posted 29 June 2011 - 01:30 AM
You could likely add a cooldown to the ability
I really like this. If it were around 30-60 sec, a sacrificial attack on the interdictor could disable it (or make it flinch, as I believe Zsinj phrased it) enough for the fleet to make lightspeed. Of course, this becomes useless against several spaced-out interdictors, but if your opponent has invested that much in trapping you here, you probably deserve to be trapped.
Edited by Stormhawk, 29 June 2011 - 01:32 AM.
- Antonio Motti likes this
#10
Posted 29 June 2011 - 03:35 AM
"You are fooling yourself, Captain. Nothing here is what it seems. You are not the plucky hero, the Alliance is not an evil empire, and this is not the grand arena."
"And that's not incense." - The Operative and Inara Serra
"What you will see, if you leave the Mirror free to work, I cannot tell. For it shows things that were, and things that are, and things that yet maybe. But which it is that he sees, even the wisest cannot always tell. Do you wish to look?" - Galadriel
Clone Marshal Commander Zeta 1127 of the 89th Legion
Admiral Zebulon Wilhelm of Task Force Mystic/Fleet Junkie
#12
Posted 26 July 2011 - 12:05 AM
#13
Posted 26 July 2011 - 05:42 AM
#14
Posted 26 July 2011 - 02:33 PM
"You are fooling yourself, Captain. Nothing here is what it seems. You are not the plucky hero, the Alliance is not an evil empire, and this is not the grand arena."
"And that's not incense." - The Operative and Inara Serra
"What you will see, if you leave the Mirror free to work, I cannot tell. For it shows things that were, and things that are, and things that yet maybe. But which it is that he sees, even the wisest cannot always tell. Do you wish to look?" - Galadriel
Clone Marshal Commander Zeta 1127 of the 89th Legion
Admiral Zebulon Wilhelm of Task Force Mystic/Fleet Junkie
#15
Posted 26 July 2011 - 03:13 PM
#17
Posted 26 July 2011 - 09:00 PM
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