Mass Drivers and IonD

[cyborg991]

Question

Has anyone ever got hit by mass drivers or IonD's? I've been hit by PSG before but what about MassD and IonD?

This is both a X2 and X3 question

[pjknibbs]

NPC ships in either game don't carry Mass Drivers , as far as I know--too annoying to the player to have to carry out expensive repairs on their ship after being attacked by something pathetic like a Pirate Harrier, I suspect. IonDs are definitely deployed by pirates in both games, though.

[Bothersome]

Yep, It's just another part where ecosoft dropped the ball on some aspects of the game.

It should have been: A nice little "oh crap, mass driver on him, I'd better get him killed quick." kinda thing. And the repairs should have been at about only 1/4 the cost of buying at AI yards and really cheap (and quicker) like 1/16 to repair at HQ.

As it is, a ship is at half damage cost half as much to repair to full as a brand new ship. X3 was definitely a hurry up job... "Box it and book some revenue."

I don't think the developers actually play this game. If they did, they'd know what was needed the most.

[ScorpiusX]

Besides the game I have running now, i also have a Kh'aak Invader game I use for a change of pace. At the start before I made peace with the Argon their Customs/Border Patrol Busters and Novas were the bane of my existance, because they had MDs mounted and were extremely happy to give me a demonstration. By the time I was able to dock at the shipyard in AP, I had over 50% hull damage (I dont think my shields ever dropped below 50%, but I never heard the shields critical warning at any time). So yes certain NPC ships carry MDs and use them too. IDs are way too common if you ask me, I quite often have to leg it from a fight due to my shields being raped by an ID. PSGs on a fighter dont bother me much at all, cos I just power through and get behind the ship and give it some boot.

I have had a really nasty encounter with all 3 whilst playing as the Kh'aak: At the South Gate in Ehlanna's Fortune, I was happily fighting a group of pirates, a P-Nova and one P-Falcon type, I had very quickly disposed of their M5/M4 escorts. The Nova had an ID and the Falcon had a PSG (or maybe it was the other way round). I was doing quite well, and was reasonably optimistic about taking them out, when all of a sudden I heard the sound of a MD being fired. After a quick look around I saw a Customs Buster and Nova both with MDs. 2 thoughts ran through my mind at this point, the first being OH CRAP!!! (well it was a lot stronger than that, but you get the idea), the second being RUN AWAY!!!. The second thought seemed like an excellent idea so thats just what I did. Did the Pirates and the Customs ships turn on each other as I legged it? Thats right of course they turned on each other NOT!!! I tried, oh how I tried, to get to the South Gate. And I did make it and got through it, unfortunately I had more holes than a fishing net does, I had no weapons or equipment of any kind (ooh i tell a lie I had loads of missiles that I'd picked up after fights, and not one was compatable with the KM3), and all my KM5s had been destroyed in Pontifex' Realm where I had spawned at the start. Not being one to give up too easily I planned to go through pirate space and get to Atreus' Clouds where I had stored all my caps in the pirate base there. When I got there I planned on scrounging through my caps to give me a pirate nova with 75%ish hull, 2x25Mj shields 2xAHEPTS and the rest a mix of AIREs and APACs, I even had a fight mk1 + 2 and a duplex scanner in there. I was down but I would not be beaten. So I started the long, Long, LONG, LOOOOONNNNGGGGGG (no pansy luxuries like seta for me thank you I'm Kh'aak and I'm hard, and bored too) trip up through Pirate space. I had been going for about 15 mins when I was taken out by a GONER RANGER FFS!! Pacifists my arse!! It just ran me down as if I wasn't there. I can honestly say that the last thing to go through an insects mind as it hits a windshield is NOT it's backside, its "You F$@&!%G B$@£!%D".

Editted for Typo's

[Painman]

One of the mission types available at Pirate bases will pit you against some enemies packing MDs. You have to fly to a sector and retreive a lost crate, and you get ambushed by a rather large group of random Pirate ships along the way.

[pjknibbs]

As it is, a ship is at half damage cost half as much to repair to full as a brand new ship. X3 was definitely a hurry up job... "Box it and book some revenue."

The costs for repairing ships have been at their current level since hull damage was introduced in X2 some five years ago now, so it's entirely intentional that it costs that much; quite apart from anything else, if Egosoft thought there were something wrong with it there have been at least six patches for X3 (and several for X2 as well) when they could have changed it. They haven't, therefore they mean it to cost that much.

[philip_hughes]

Just so you don't capture a ship with 1% hull left, repair it and sell it at a massive profit. I spent some time during x2 seeing if repaired ships were better to sell. they werent.

[surefire_ven0m]

Just so you don't capture a ship with 1% hull left, repair it and sell it at a massive profit. I spent some time during x2 seeing if repaired ships were better to sell. they werent.

Which makes perfect sense!!....clearly Egosoft thought all this through before releasing the game and it's updates.

So why complain?

[Lancefighter]

Just so you don't capture a ship with 1% hull left, repair it and sell it at a massive profit. I spent some time during x2 seeing if repaired ships were better to sell. they werent.

Thats nothing...
Ive captured ships with 1 hull left before.
That is rather annoying to babysit through a few pirate sectors, let me tell you...

[Freeza-CII]

Is there a way to get pirates with mass drivers? That would be a nice little change. I know there PSG and Ion Ds really tick me off. I need more aggervation.

[Bothersome]

ScorpiusX, that was a kick a$s read !!

To reply to the thread...

It would not been so much of a problem for the game balance if it had been cheap to repair and sell for max profit. So what? Let the player make some money. I don't see an exploit with cheap repairs.

[Lancefighter]

Lets say for a moment you are sitting here with the bare hull of a airbus jet, riddled with holes and burn marks.
Are you telling me, that you could repair the jet, FULLY to its previous glory, and sell it for the same as a completely new one straight out of the plant?
I think not.

[Bothersome]

Well.... Let's think about that for second...

Since... The craft we fly in the game are still flyable with life support still working and basic stuff still somewhat functional, I'd say they aren't full of holes so much as to make it not flyable.

So.... with the Airbus Jet, in the same shape, just barely flyable with life support and basic functions still working.... Do YOU think you could buy a new one for cheaper than repairing the holes?

[Nanook]

....
It would not been so much of a problem for the game balance if it had been cheap to repair and sell for max profit. So what? Let the player make some money. I don't see an exploit with cheap repairs.

Paying anything less than a percentage of the price of a new hull for the same amount of damage on a ship would be an exploit. Does the player really need yet another easy-money scheme? Aren't the UT and Nividium mining schemes, just to name a couple, enough for you?

Personally, I think the player should be penalized for allowing his ship to get hull damage, just for being such a poor pilot. In fact, I think hull repair costs should exceed what a new hull would cost, forcing the player to make a hard choice between repairing and buying new (assuming said player has the rep or it). And it would make the repair function in the player HQ more valuable. So there.

[Lancefighter]

Well.... Let's think about that for second...

Since... The craft we fly in the game are still flyable with life support still working and basic stuff still somewhat functional, I'd say they aren't full of holes so much as to make it not flyable.

So.... with the Airbus Jet, in the same shape, just barely flyable with life support and basic functions still working.... Do YOU think you could buy a new one for cheaper than repairing the holes?

I dunno, never asked a repair shop how much it would be to repair a airbus jet full of holes.
I try not to riddle my airbus jets with holes, mind you...
And i agree with nanook. tbh the only reason to have a ship with hull damage is a ship you just captured.

[Bothersome]

Paying anything less than a percentage of the price of a new hull for the same amount of damage on a ship would be an exploit. Does the player really need yet another easy-money scheme? Aren't the UT and Nividium mining schemes, just to name a couple, enough for you?

How is it an exploit?

And because there are other easier and faster ways at making money than repairing capped ships, it kinda make the point mute. Let the player make the profit from the effort of capping.

The penalty for letting your ship get banged up in the first place it the nuisance of having to have it repaired and the possibility of losing life while in the fight. You know they do go slow with damage, so that alone is enough to make me bitchy.

Personally, I don't care either way. But I hate to see just one more thing in this universe that don't match the real universe. It's usually cheaper to repair a car than to buy a new one. And if you do the work yourself (repair at HQ) even cheaper still. So why not reflect reality at least SOME in X3?

[Nanook]

It's usually cheaper to repair a car than to buy a new one

This is utter nonsense! A vehicle with 50% total damage would be totalled by the insurance company, and you'd be forced to buy a new one. The reason being the repair costs wouldn't be worth it. And for vehicles with even minor body damage, the cost to repair can exceed the current retail price of the vehicle. THAT'S how the real world works. In X3, you're much better off. You get to choose whether to repair the ship or not. And you don't have depreciation with age, either. Meaning, your ship value doesn't decrease and repair cost/percent hull value doesn't increase with time. As it definitely does in the real world. So I guess you're right in a way. The X-Universe doesn't work the same as the real world. Just be glad it doesn't.

[cyborg991]

thanks for all the replys guys.

[Bothersome]

No it's not total nonsense because the car must still be drivable at 1% remaining hull damage because that is what our ships still do. The ship can get you from point A to point B with only 1% hull remaining. So your car must be able to do the same job. Then fix the car (one still in production) to like new and it will be cheaper.

[patient zero]

I assume we're talking about a car that's been shot up by a mass driver after the shields were knocked out with an IonD.

In the real world, if you buy all the parts in a car and put it together yourself, it costs three times as much as buying a new car already assembled.