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A thought on "special" consoles

cuatelacuatela Member Posts: 296 Arc User
edited December 2013 in Controls and User Interface
One thing I've always disliked about the special consoles is that they take up so much room. I understand the concept, if you want a console, you have to sacrifice that slot for it. But what if some of these special abilities were moved from consoles to devices?

Think about it.

1. Cloaking Device:
One of the first abilities to be moved to a console was the cloaking device. The name itself implies that it should be a device. And really, if I manage to get a cloaking device, why shouldn't I be able to move it to any ship? There have been several episodes where that happened, with a cloaking device being moved from one ship to another, and still working. There's no logical reason to limit it to one of three federation ships, when it's literally something you plug in and use.

2. Utility abilities like the Grappler, or the team shield buff.
The team shield buff already has a consumable counterpart, as well as the self-buffing red-matter capacitor. And the Grappler is really just another tractor beam. These all seem more like "devices" to me.

3. Certain offensive or defensive abilities
Some of the non-set consoles like the Photonic Displacer or the Magnetometric Generator seem more like something you could install, similar to the cloaking device. Some of them are even just settings, or using the holographic generators that are already built into the ship.


I wouldn't expect set pieces to be changed over, since most ships only have so many device slots anyway. But it would be nice to see some of these turned into (permanent) devices that could be used.


And, before you guys respond, I do understand the potential problem with people swapping devices in combat (he used the cloak-hunting torpedo... now he replaced it with a cloak!), but let's be honest here. That's not really much different than someone swapping out a device on the character side, is it?

What'cha think?

Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • o0kami87o0kami87 Member Posts: 591 Arc User
    edited December 2013
    A long time back some of the consoles (ie. Galaxy separation console) where non-changable ship abilities. I think they changed it just before releasing the Odyssey.
    First, Vice Admiral, U.S.S. Wolf Pack-F, NX-101687-FFirst., Vice Admiral, A.R.W. Moon WolfWolf, I.K.S. Frost Bite
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