Distress Signals

[Elboulevardo]

i love the idea...considering the map will already have data regarding skirmishes that are in progress, this idea could expand on that nicely.

With regards to balance/greifing/etc. With the mechanism of having a publically viewable map ping of your instanced skirmish already in place, my guess is that cryptic has already devised a way to help balance the rewards/experience and help weed out any greifing.

Giving a player the option to send a distress call should perhaps highlight their skirmish on the map of other players within range.

Since the player who is in distress is flagging for help, there should be a give/take to using that option. So if he uses the distress option, any experience/reward he would have gained will be given to the helping party, and the player will get say 10 or 15 percent.

If someone just flies into your open skirmish and you didnt flag for distress and they assist in defeat, then you will get say 85/90% and they get the rest.

something like that

now to avoid any misuse in a "power levelling" context, the distress call can be set to be on a cooldown, like 30 mins or something like that...or, there have to be certain battle conditions present before the distress button can be used

ex. (numbers are for example purpose only, concentrate on the concept)
- Ship count has to be at least 3:1 in favour of the enemy
- total ship tier level has to be at least 2:1 in favour of the enemy
- player health must be at critical (say, 20% or less for this example)

applying conditions like these to the distress trigger will be sure that it is used exclusively when the player is actually in distress...cuz if not, then im sure johnny exploit will take his tier 5 into a fight against 4 tier 1's, call for distress right away, his tier 1 buddy comes in and "rescue's" him, and gets the spoils

love the idea overall, it can add yet another way to make the game feel more trek!

[MaverickNZ]

Originally Posted by Elboulevardo

i love the idea...considering the map will already have data regarding skirmishes that are in progress, this idea could expand on that nicely.

With regards to balance/greifing/etc. With the mechanism of having a publically viewable map ping of your instanced skirmish already in place, my guess is that cryptic has already devised a way to help balance the rewards/experience and help weed out any greifing.

Giving a player the option to send a distress call should perhaps highlight their skirmish on the map of other players within range.

Since the player who is in distress is flagging for help, there should be a give/take to using that option. So if he uses the distress option, any experience/reward he would have gained will be given to the helping party, and the player will get say 10 or 15 percent.

If someone just flies into your open skirmish and you didnt flag for distress and they assist in defeat, then you will get say 85/90% and they get the rest.

something like that

now to avoid any misuse in a "power levelling" context, the distress call can be set to be on a cooldown, like 30 mins or something like that...or, there have to be certain battle conditions present before the distress button can be used

ex. (numbers are for example purpose only, concentrate on the concept)
- Ship count has to be at least 3:1 in favour of the enemy
- total ship tier level has to be at least 2:1 in favour of the enemy
- player health must be at critical (say, 20% or less for this example)

applying conditions like these to the distress trigger will be sure that it is used exclusively when the player is actually in distress...cuz if not, then im sure johnny exploit will take his tier 5 into a fight against 4 tier 1's, call for distress right away, his tier 1 buddy comes in and "rescue's" him, and gets the spoils

love the idea overall, it can add yet another way to make the game feel more trek!

Thats a terrible idea (the conditions).

If you were in a lower class vessel and getting jumped by a mob of high level enemies, the last thing you would want is to wait till your health is down to 20% before you can even call for help.
Pirates of the burning sea did it really well.
You entered the fight, went "uh oh, there are 4 of them" and immediately popped a distress flare.
You then spent the next 2 -3 minutes trying to escape and avoid getting hammered while other players "might" join in. If someone did, they usually spawned on the other side of the map and would take a few more minutes to even get to you.
The whole concept was never really open to abuse, as people wanting to "level" would team up and go seek out mobs anyway.

[The_Cold]

Originally Posted by Elboulevardo

i love the idea...considering the map will already have data regarding skirmishes that are in progress, this idea could expand on that nicely.

With regards to balance/greifing/etc. With the mechanism of having a publically viewable map ping of your instanced skirmish already in place, my guess is that cryptic has already devised a way to help balance the rewards/experience and help weed out any greifing.

Giving a player the option to send a distress call should perhaps highlight their skirmish on the map of other players within range.

Since the player who is in distress is flagging for help, there should be a give/take to using that option. So if he uses the distress option, any experience/reward he would have gained will be given to the helping party, and the player will get say 10 or 15 percent.

If someone just flies into your open skirmish and you didnt flag for distress and they assist in defeat, then you will get say 85/90% and they get the rest.

something like that

now to avoid any misuse in a "power levelling" context, the distress call can be set to be on a cooldown, like 30 mins or something like that...or, there have to be certain battle conditions present before the distress button can be used

ex. (numbers are for example purpose only, concentrate on the concept)
- Ship count has to be at least 3:1 in favour of the enemy
- total ship tier level has to be at least 2:1 in favour of the enemy
- player health must be at critical (say, 20% or less for this example)

applying conditions like these to the distress trigger will be sure that it is used exclusively when the player is actually in distress...cuz if not, then im sure johnny exploit will take his tier 5 into a fight against 4 tier 1's, call for distress right away, his tier 1 buddy comes in and "rescue's" him, and gets the spoils

love the idea overall, it can add yet another way to make the game feel more trek!

A distress call should be available at all times for whatever reason. MAYBE an interlock that says you actually have to be in the same sector as "bad guys". But you should be able to send out a cry for help whenever you see the need for it coming up fast. Theres also counter measures or communications "jamming" to think about. You might not be able to get a call out when they are right on top of you!

[Elboulevardo]

sorry gents i think my example of conditions is being a bit misinterpreted based on your response

i meant ANY of those conditions met

so if you zone in and see 4 (greater than 3:1 odds) bad guys and go uh oh...then that can qualify for using the distress call
OR if you zone in and its one or two similar strength bad guys but they out tier you 2:1...then that can qualify too
OR if its a one on one fight and you're below 20% (again, example number, focus on concept), then that qualifies too

i suggested the conditions not to be restrictive, but to combat those who would exploit a system that did not have ANY condition of use...cuz you know there are those out there who would try to exploit it, sadly.

[MaverickNZ]

I still dont think there should be any, if you want to call for help, then call for help, you will end up having to share the XP, which is enough of a downside to not call if its not needed.