Another idea on colony defense

Amante

First off, thanks for the distress calls, they friggin rule.

We all know flak cannons do decent damage, and also do minor energy damage.  This makes it slightly more difficult for people to "escape pod" (As Xira put it) and fly through your turrets directly into your biodome.  However, the cannons sometimes have difficulty hitting someone at full speed, and unless your base is absolutely surrounded, it can be tricky to get in.  So, the idea!

A placeable weapon that does no shield damage, but does heavy energy damage.  Now, you can't make this fire like the flak cannons, or they will still be easy to avoid.  So what you do, is use the Graviton Beam style weapon.. Except these turrets can fire from any direction, and they never run out of energy.

So here's a hypothetical situation for our new and improved colony.. Our invading player, unaware of these new turrets (our invading player is an idiot because a change this drastic would be in the news), tries to rush a biodome.  As usual, the flak cannons provide no real problem, but this new turret type is completely surrounding the biodome.  All of the turrets suddenly fire on him, and while his shields are not moving, his energy drops to 0 very quickly and does not regenerate.

I think EVERYONE agrees that colonies need better defenses.  I think with this one change, we can effectively destroy flying between turrets to steal a fully defended colony.  This actually forces the player(s) to attack and destroy the turrets before invading.

One thing you'd have to make sure to do is either have the turrets hit multiple targets (probably not a good idea, sort of unbalancing), or have them automatically divide their fire between multiple targets.  This way, you could not use two invaders.. One to draw fire, one to sneak inside.  I don't code, but it couldn't be that difficult, could it?

 

The only problem left is finding a way around vultures and other ships launching constant missiles from outside the cannon range.  But hey, one thing at a time!

Tempunaut

Hello Amante, how ya doin?

I see where you're coming from with this "Grav turret" idea, I once thought of something similar a while back, but i do think that the Flak Cannon do their job quite well... I guess you may be a little bitter perhaps that we managed to take your colony in Milky Way, but it definitely was not easy. And one of our corp members died trice, and that cost him 100k experience, so in a way, you succeeded in your defence.

People who say they 'escape pod' a colony (even tho it isn't possible to land on a colony anymore in one) totally puzzle me. Cannons do indeed inflict energy damage and if there are turrets around the biodome, there is no way you can capture it. Yes I know you can run past turrets along the walls in any ship, and if you are just gonna place turrets at the entrance of a colony and leave the biodome defenceless then you are asking to be escape podded, but this is something that people learn thru playing the game, not a game flaw.

You say that EVERYONE agrees that colonies need better defences. I don't. I think that defended properly, which you accomplised very well, a colonys defences serves as an effective deterrant to most would be invaders. Also, some planet surface shapes to allow for a near 100% defence, and turrets near entrances can act a lethal surprise to anyone will less than maximum shields in one of the top ships. Well defended colonies, like yours was, make other players feel challenged, but not think that it would be impossible. As for the Vulture, I think its missiles are its only saving grace.. I mean it's not good for much else, and a player flying one runs the risk of being attacked in space or a solar cannon, which would obliterate in seconds.

The ability to make any colony invunerable would, in my opinion, be rubbish. It would be like playing a doom deathmatch with all players on god mode! Sure I want to keep my colonies that I have put alot of work into, but if there's no risk involved, it's a bit boring. That's why I don't play the Pax servers, but I understand why some people play them for those reasons.

Yes, it would be nice to see some new turret types, but I think careful consideration should be made about the effect they would have on any invaders.

Amante

Azulu and I knew the colony would fall eventually, it was only a matter of time.  There is no bitterness there, the idea came from many invasions.  I myself died in my IG ship last night to a well defended colony.  Turrets definately CAN do their job, they sure did their job to me.

The biggest reason for this suggestion wasn't to make colonies invincible, it was to force people to assault colonies.  I've invaded colonies by blasting a hole in the turrets and flying through up to three layers and still being able to get into the Biodome.. And that was solo.  With some clever whale use, two people could probably invade by blasting only a very small hole in the defenses to the biodome.  These are the invasions I am trying to prevent with my suggestion.. These energy-sapping turrets would not make a colony invincible, it would simply force more of a battle.  It would make it a lot more difficult to solo-invade a colony if the person defended well, but I don't think a corporation would have much extra difficulty.

Basically, it doesn't affect those people who use the "attack from a distance" tactic.. It only affects a player's ability to rush through turrets and gank a fully defended biodome.  I agree that there should be risk in owning a colony, but when most defenses are bypassed, the defense isn't doing its job.

Congrats on taking our colony, though.  We spent a lot of money restocking on the turrets and mines you guys kept detonating near the entrance.  Eventually we just gave up and moved to another colony to log out on, as we knew you'd group up and take it out one day

Xira

Not trying to be offensive here but.....Any player who dies takeing a colony sucks:) It's absoutly impossible to die takeing a colony if you know what you are doing.

At the very minimum you can land, launch a few damage shots, then take off...Usually before takeing ANY damage and always without dieing. Go buy new shields and repeat until the entrance is clear.

After that it's just a matter of wearing down the rest of the defenses by bounceing shots, useing vulture missles intelligently, launching photons from outside range, or simply flying past the defenses.

Tempunaut

Ah, I see what you mean... Yea, 'drilling' a hole in the defences and then flying in when there are still loads of turrets active is a tactic used by many, and organising turrets to prevent this is difficult cos you don't know which direction they will 'drill' from. In that perspective, your idea makes alot of sense, without making it impossible or anything for a succesful invasion.

Xira, no offence taken. I personally have never died trying to invade a colony. I suppose I play fairly conservatively, rather than someone who would play aggressive and go in guns blazing. However, I understand that over a period of a long invasion, perhaps an hour or so, where you are entering and exiting periodically for shields, you may want to reduce this amount of time by waiting until you are down to say 3 or 4000, then start to make your exit, and if at all you do make a wrong move whilst at low shields in a high defended situation, it could be curtains. I don't think that someone 'sucks' if they die, perhaps a little careless yes, but even an expert can be this sometimes!!