The main problem with pets is they wildly vary in usefulness.
For example Callistos are designed to be pure pewpew. Yet the Breen frigate pets are FAR more useful as they have tachyon beams which they don't mind using at all. Means I have a free shield strip. They actually have better AI in general too.
Scorpion fighters like spamming plasma torps, which can be useful.
Peregrines on the other hand derp around not doing much.
well ive not used the peregrines, i tend to stay away from fighters far too weak for my liking lol, but yeah defo agree with the breen pets i tested them out with a friend and they srtipped away the guys shields in no time, only issue is its a sci carrier.
They really nee to make pets universal lol
I love the callistos, when they work properly they are awesome, esp seeing the quad cannons firing x 4 and with crf constantly proccing its nice, but they lack badly they need to rework pets as ive tried using them but again with most pets just like to hang back and contemplate their life! lol
The only fighter level pet I tend to use is the delta flyer which are more a middle ground pet as they're a wing of two but more robust than standard fighters.
I do have some widow fighters from tholian rep on one character. Although thats more for the weapon damage endeavour than actually using them. With coordinated assault you can easily get it done in first wave of a japori patrol.
Yeah I agree that too many of the pets just seem so very useless, which to a point is based on the firing arc of the pet's weapons they use, it would be nice if they buffed the hanger-pet's firing arc on the cannons an dual beam banks abit as that might make more of the pets more viable a choice compared to how they are now. With how small the hanger-pets are it would make sense that they would have a much easier time in bringing their weapons to bare on a target, which increasing the firing arc would simulate as it would increase the time they have their targets in the firing arc.
Also as an example of what I was meaning as a carrier/hanger-pet mechanic, it would be something like this if using existing systems. Maybe make a inspiration like system, that uses your pets to gather info that builds a bar allowing you to spend it to use different abilities buffing either the pets or the main ship. I could even see it that instead of the abilities using all of the bar built up to use an ability, the abilities would have different amounts that you needed to have built up to use them, and so would allow you to chain/combo abilities.
Absolutely. What I mean is not the boff powers, but like the inspiration mechanic of the command spec-ships, the gather intelligence mechanic of the intel spec-ships, or the Molecular Reconstruction mechanic of the temporal spec-ships. It would be basically a mehcnic that would function have some interaction between the hanger-pets an the main-ship, though maybe such a mechanic might be better used on specifically carriers.
yeah thats interesting, having 4+ pets each scanning for weaknesses etc.... ive never really used the temporal stuff as its sci magic so dont know how they work, and as for the miracle ships if its like the tzenkethi carrier that wud be cool as they are random buffs could be interesting.
Yeah I agree that too many of the pets just seem so very useless, which to a point is based on the firing arc of the pet's weapons they use, it would be nice if they buffed the hanger-pet's firing arc on the cannons an dual beam banks abit as that might make more of the pets more viable a choice compared to how they are now. With how small the hanger-pets are it would make sense that they would have a much easier time in bringing their weapons to bare on a target, which increasing the firing arc would simulate as it would increase the time they have their targets in the firing arc.
thing is i dont think changing the firing arc is needed, what they should do, being as they are ALL escort, speedy ships, they Should be able to keep the enemies in the firing easy but they cant for some reason, its bizarre totally strange they are acting more like cruisers, slow maneuvers slow turning, totally unlike any escort ive ever flown!
Also as an example of what I was meaning as a carrier/hanger-pet mechanic, it would be something like this if using existing systems. Maybe make a inspiration like system, that uses your pets to gather info that builds a bar allowing you to spend it to use different abilities buffing either the pets or the main ship. I could even see it that instead of the abilities using all of the bar built up to use an ability, the abilities would have different amounts that you needed to have built up to use them, and so would allow you to chain/combo abilities.
I like that idea of the buffing thing i would always send the buff to the pets, i want it to be the pets do all the work and i just sit there buffing healing them etc... so as been said many times in this thread the idea of having more hangars then weapons wud be cool....many things cryptic could do for us carrier lovers
Yeah I agree that too many of the pets just seem so very useless, which to a point is based on the firing arc of the pet's weapons they use, it would be nice if they buffed the hanger-pet's firing arc on the cannons an dual beam banks abit as that might make more of the pets more viable a choice compared to how they are now. With how small the hanger-pets are it would make sense that they would have a much easier time in bringing their weapons to bare on a target, which increasing the firing arc would simulate as it would increase the time they have their targets in the firing arc.
thing is i dont think changing the firing arc is needed, what they should do, being as they are ALL escort, speedy ships, they Should be able to keep the enemies in the firing easy but they cant for some reason, its bizarre totally strange they are acting more like cruisers, slow maneuvers slow turning, totally unlike any escort ive ever flown!
That is if you take the ships being flown by players, than yes it would be quite easy for the pets to keep the target in their firing arc. Yet I think it is mostly to do with the AI of the pets that keeps the larger firing arc pets like beam arrays, or turret using pets much more viable, as the Ai does not adjust for the narrower firing arc on non-array/turret pets an so does not make the quicker turns to bring their weapons to bare on the targets.
If we as players could issue a command to have them change their attack run style, such as from the typical circling runs, to something more like a figure-eight strafe run that might help. Though just adjusting the firing arc on the pets that use the narrower firing arc weapons would help as well.
Also as an example of what I was meaning as a carrier/hanger-pet mechanic, it would be something like this if using existing systems. Maybe make a inspiration like system, that uses your pets to gather info that builds a bar allowing you to spend it to use different abilities buffing either the pets or the main ship. I could even see it that instead of the abilities using all of the bar built up to use an ability, the abilities would have different amounts that you needed to have built up to use them, and so would allow you to chain/combo abilities.
I like that idea of the buffing thing i would always send the buff to the pets, i want it to be the pets do all the work and i just sit there buffing healing them etc... so as been said many times in this thread the idea of having more hangars then weapons wud be cool....many things cryptic could do for us carrier lovers
I can see the appeal of that, but also see the appeal of the pets being scouts too. Like they go out locating the target an reporting back when the target is immobilized, or vulnerable an the main-ship/carrier can launch a heavy bombardment/attack on the target/s. Though this could be part of that system, and could be as below;
Carrier mechanic abilities: For multi-hanger ships like the carriers I could see either that the hanger-pet type in the primary hanger/first hanger determines the abilities, or it take abilities from both hangers pet's.
Fighters: I could see these ships being well as said in their ship type fighters. An so having alot of abilities that are focused around buffing the pet's themselves, buffing their damage, healing them, what have you.
Shuttles: Now theses I could see as more scout like ships in fucntion, going out to gather intel on where a target is, and what is going on with the target. As such I could see the abilities in the system being built around more of relaying info that buff the carrier an allies,
Frigates: Now this I could see being a mixture of the two other types, combining some of the main/ally ship buffing aspects of the shuttle types, while also having other abilities that buff themselves though more on the offensive side maybe.
thing is i dont think changing the firing arc is needed, what they should do, being as they are ALL escort, speedy ships, they Should be able to keep the enemies in the firing easy but they cant for some reason, its bizarre totally strange they are acting more like cruisers, slow maneuvers slow turning, totally unlike any escort ive ever flown!
That is if you take the ships being flown by players, than yes it would be quite easy for the pets to keep the target in their firing arc. Yet I think it is mostly to do with the AI of the pets that keeps the larger firing arc pets like beam arrays, or turret using pets much more viable, as the Ai does not adjust for the narrower firing arc on non-array/turret pets an so does not make the quicker turns to bring their weapons to bare on the targets.
If we as players could issue a command to have them change their attack run style, such as from the typical circling runs, to something more like a figure-eight strafe run that might help. Though just adjusting the firing arc on the pets that use the narrower firing arc weapons would help as well.
[/quote]
what they could do here is simple give us new boff abilites, like new attack patterns that instruct what our pets do, like a attack pattern that wud make the pets do attack runs like figure of 8 or thing styles! so they give use new boff abilites that work only for pets!
what they could do here is simple give us new boff abilites, like new attack patterns that instruct what our pets do, like a attack pattern that wud make the pets do attack runs like figure of 8 or thing styles! so they give use new boff abilites that work only for pets!
I could see that if they gave us a spec-tree that largely worked, buffed, and functioned around hanger/separation pets. Though it would be better to not bloat the existing boff careers (tactical, science,engineering) with abilities that are used for specifically such a small group of ships, but just add such hanger/separation-pet attack patterns as functions of the carriers/hanger/separation-pet using ships. Could be done like the hanger-pet command we have now (like fallow, escort, dock, attack)
what they could do here is simple give us new boff abilites, like new attack patterns that instruct what our pets do, like a attack pattern that wud make the pets do attack runs like figure of 8 or thing styles! so they give use new boff abilites that work only for pets!
I could see that if they gave us a spec-tree that largely worked, buffed, and functioned around hanger/separation pets. Though it would be better to not bloat the existing boff careers (tactical, science,engineering) with abilities that are used for specifically such a small group of ships, but just add such hanger/separation-pet attack patterns as functions of the carriers/hanger/separation-pet using ships. Could be done like the hanger-pet command we have now (like fallow, escort, dock, attack)
thing is i think we cud do with having boff powers that worked for carriers, not everyone has to use them, and there are now a huge selection of carriers available and more to come in the future... so yeah i think carrier boff abilities wud be nice, i dont think having a carrier spec tree boff powers wud be truly fair as all the other carriers wud not benefit from the specialized carrier boff powers as wud only be on certain carriers, it would be like, here have this nice new ability...but u cant actually use it.
what they could do here is simple give us new boff abilites, like new attack patterns that instruct what our pets do, like a attack pattern that wud make the pets do attack runs like figure of 8 or thing styles! so they give use new boff abilites that work only for pets!
I could see that if they gave us a spec-tree that largely worked, buffed, and functioned around hanger/separation pets. Though it would be better to not bloat the existing boff careers (tactical, science,engineering) with abilities that are used for specifically such a small group of ships, but just add such hanger/separation-pet attack patterns as functions of the carriers/hanger/separation-pet using ships. Could be done like the hanger-pet command we have now (like fallow, escort, dock, attack)
thing is i think we cud do with having boff powers that worked for carriers, not everyone has to use them, and there are now a huge selection of carriers available and more to come in the future... so yeah i think carrier boff abilities wud be nice, i dont think having a carrier spec tree boff powers wud be truly fair as all the other carriers wud not benefit from the specialized carrier boff powers as wud only be on certain carriers, it would be like, here have this nice new ability...but u cant actually use it.
Yeah that is why I mentioned that it might be better to create the attack patterns, but than link them specifically to the carriers in the same way as the carrier commands are. That way they are available to all hanger-using ships, but would not bloat the careers an need to be used in place of other boff choices like weapon buffs for instance. Something so major for pets to function, like using the correct attack pattern to keep targets in their weapon arcs, just sounds like something that should be built into the ship.
what they could do here is simple give us new boff abilites, like new attack patterns that instruct what our pets do, like a attack pattern that wud make the pets do attack runs like figure of 8 or thing styles! so they give use new boff abilites that work only for pets!
I could see that if they gave us a spec-tree that largely worked, buffed, and functioned around hanger/separation pets. Though it would be better to not bloat the existing boff careers (tactical, science,engineering) with abilities that are used for specifically such a small group of ships, but just add such hanger/separation-pet attack patterns as functions of the carriers/hanger/separation-pet using ships. Could be done like the hanger-pet command we have now (like fallow, escort, dock, attack)
thing is i think we cud do with having boff powers that worked for carriers, not everyone has to use them, and there are now a huge selection of carriers available and more to come in the future... so yeah i think carrier boff abilities wud be nice, i dont think having a carrier spec tree boff powers wud be truly fair as all the other carriers wud not benefit from the specialized carrier boff powers as wud only be on certain carriers, it would be like, here have this nice new ability...but u cant actually use it.
Yeah that is why I mentioned that it might be better to create the attack patterns, but than link them specifically to the carriers in the same way as the carrier commands are. That way they are available to all hanger-using ships, but would not bloat the careers an need to be used in place of other boff choices like weapon buffs for instance. Something so major for pets to function, like using the correct attack pattern to keep targets in their weapon arcs, just sounds like something that should be built into the ship.
yeah u are right, there is so much they could do with the carrier system, just dont know if they would, what they could do is simply 1 little change its so minor it wudnt change the way they work, is make ALL boff powers that have the word TEAM in them actually apply to pets, cause they are my Team, meaning when i hit sci team & eng team, would heal the pets makes it easier. and others.
what they could do here is simple give us new boff abilites, like new attack patterns that instruct what our pets do, like a attack pattern that wud make the pets do attack runs like figure of 8 or thing styles! so they give use new boff abilites that work only for pets!
I could see that if they gave us a spec-tree that largely worked, buffed, and functioned around hanger/separation pets. Though it would be better to not bloat the existing boff careers (tactical, science,engineering) with abilities that are used for specifically such a small group of ships, but just add such hanger/separation-pet attack patterns as functions of the carriers/hanger/separation-pet using ships. Could be done like the hanger-pet command we have now (like fallow, escort, dock, attack)
thing is i think we cud do with having boff powers that worked for carriers, not everyone has to use them, and there are now a huge selection of carriers available and more to come in the future... so yeah i think carrier boff abilities wud be nice, i dont think having a carrier spec tree boff powers wud be truly fair as all the other carriers wud not benefit from the specialized carrier boff powers as wud only be on certain carriers, it would be like, here have this nice new ability...but u cant actually use it.
Yeah that is why I mentioned that it might be better to create the attack patterns, but than link them specifically to the carriers in the same way as the carrier commands are. That way they are available to all hanger-using ships, but would not bloat the careers an need to be used in place of other boff choices like weapon buffs for instance. Something so major for pets to function, like using the correct attack pattern to keep targets in their weapon arcs, just sounds like something that should be built into the ship.
yeah u are right, there is so much they could do with the carrier system, just dont know if they would, what they could do is simply 1 little change its so minor it wudnt change the way they work, is make ALL boff powers that have the word TEAM in them actually apply to pets, cause they are my Team, meaning when i hit sci team & eng team, would heal the pets makes it easier. and others.
Well that could be turned into a trait that might be gotten from a carrier, which causes your hanger/separation-pets to gain any buffs/heals that normally would affect allies, and would make sense as a carrier based trait as well. That is the issue though to make it worth revamping/reworking the carrier/hanger-pet system it would make the most sense to do it when they have something to use to push purchases, like when they did the Jupiter design contest it would have been a perfect time to do a rework/revamp.
Another thing is that maybe the pet-based attack patterns might actually be used in the carrier mechanic idea I put forth. that each pet type has a specific attack pattern set in the mechanic. The idea behind it is that the pet's (shuttles, fighters. frigates) are relaying info back to the main-ship as said, and then waiting for the main-ship to green-light a good moment to begin their attack run, while waiting they are attempting to stay alive an out of danger. Depending on how high up in the meter you might need to be to call in a attack run, this could be trigger quite regularly an even nearly constant, while the other patterns/runs might be higher an give more of a buff to compensate for the less frequent usage.
Well that could be turned into a trait that might be gotten from a carrier, which causes your hanger/separation-pets to gain any buffs/heals that normally would affect allies, and would make sense as a carrier based trait as well. That is the issue though to make it worth revamping/reworking the carrier/hanger-pet system it would make the most sense to do it when they have something to use to push purchases, like when they did the Jupiter design contest it would have been a perfect time to do a rework/revamp.
Thing is tac/eng/sci team work but as with using on the team u still have to select the pet/object u want the ability to go too i just think they should rework them without us having to have a trait slotted to make it work for pets, as its a waste of a trait slot, now if that trait slot actually meant ALL boff abilities would apply to all your pets then id spend real money to get that trait thats for sure!
Another thing is that maybe the pet-based attack patterns might actually be used in the carrier mechanic idea I put forth. that each pet type has a specific attack pattern set in the mechanic. The idea behind it is that the pet's (shuttles, fighters. frigates) are relaying info back to the main-ship as said, and then waiting for the main-ship to green-light a good moment to begin their attack run, while waiting they are attempting to stay alive an out of danger. Depending on how high up in the meter you might need to be to call in a attack run, this could be trigger quite regularly an even nearly constant, while the other patterns/runs might be higher an give more of a buff to compensate for the less frequent usage.
Thing with that is it cud get too complicated and having pets sitting there doing no dmg waiting for a counter to clock up dont seem that good, they'd be easy pickings....maybe if we cud try it out might be worth it but i dont know.
What they could do is, like they do with your away team on the ground, the boffs, each have 4 abilities they can use, and you can manually click each one, they should copy this with space pets, also they could give use a space away team, and can have a similar idea so each boff has a hangar bay, so max currently is 2 boffs as only 2 hangars, but we cud equip them with abilities to use and wud benefit the pets greatly.....
Another thing is that maybe the pet-based attack patterns might actually be used in the carrier mechanic idea I put forth. that each pet type has a specific attack pattern set in the mechanic. The idea behind it is that the pet's (shuttles, fighters. frigates) are relaying info back to the main-ship as said, and then waiting for the main-ship to green-light a good moment to begin their attack run, while waiting they are attempting to stay alive an out of danger. Depending on how high up in the meter you might need to be to call in a attack run, this could be trigger quite regularly an even nearly constant, while the other patterns/runs might be higher an give more of a buff to compensate for the less frequent usage.
Thing with that is it cud get too complicated and having pets sitting there doing no dmg waiting for a counter to clock up dont seem that good, they'd be easy pickings....maybe if we cud try it out might be worth it but i dont know.
Not saying they would not attack, but would just stay in more of a attack pattern/run like we have now still attacking as normal, but than when you activate the ability/mechanic it would switch them to a different attack run/pattern. Outside of maybe for shuttles not sure the lead up to using the pattern change would affect them much at all, but a attack run ability that forced your fighter/frigate pets to shift into a figure-eight attack run for a period of time would benefit them nicely, while in that same spot the shuttles might use something different as they don't have as much issues with their firing arc.
What they could do is, like they do with your away team on the ground, the boffs, each have 4 abilities they can use, and you can manually click each one, they should copy this with space pets, also they could give use a space away team, and can have a similar idea so each boff has a hangar bay, so max currently is 2 boffs as only 2 hangars, but we cud equip them with abilities to use and wud benefit the pets greatly.....
I actually quite liked the idea of taking the away team boff Ui that allows you to control your boffs on ground more manually, and moving it over to the hanger/separation pets in space, as it would actually give you alot of playstyle aspects an control of your pet's ability usage. In truth I think putting in some pilot doffs that might have different affects for the pets would be interesting.
here's a interesting carrier, a Voth citadel!! we already have a HUGE ship, and the citadel is migger than the J so it should have at least 4 hangars lol
It would be nice if we could get even a general idea of how possible, or how difficult any of the ideas brought up would be to implement by the dev. even if it were just the ideas brought up to them, or if they read thru the thread, and then maybe implement the easiest ones on the test sever to see how they work.
I would love to see more of the Vaadwaur ships rolled out, even though a carrier might not be in the cards, I could see them using a dreadnought (maybe dreadnought carrier) that might use the Vaadwaur Juggernaut design, that I would agree should use the manasa escort as a frigate. I also really liked the cruiser design, but still hate that they don't really have a science ship it seems.
It would be nice if we could get even a general idea of how possible, or how difficult any of the ideas brought up would be to implement by the dev. even if it were just the ideas brought up to them, or if they read thru the thread, and then maybe implement the easiest ones on the test sever to see how they work.
I would love to see more of the Vaadwaur ships rolled out, even though a carrier might not be in the cards, I could see them using a dreadnought (maybe dreadnought carrier) that might use the Vaadwaur Juggernaut design, that I would agree should use the manasa escort as a frigate. I also really liked the cruiser design, but still hate that they don't really have a science ship it seems.
Honestly it would be nice to see some more hanger-pets added to the game, like using the new Dewan escort as a design for a fighter or frigate pet for the romulan as they have the fewest of all factions for hanger pets atleast for faction specific (plasma weapon using pets). The more I use the Dewan escort the more it is growing on me, and even would not mind seeing them expand that into both larger (cruiser, science ships, but also small craft.).
yeah that is one thing i fount weird about the sci carriers, the lose a weapon but dont really gain benefits of a normal sci ship. strange, thats why i avoid them i dont see the point
It depends on the sci-carrier. Like the Breen carrier gets I think sub-system targeting which is normally tied to science ships. I would agree that giving them the secondary deflector might serve them better. Although I have found at times the sub-system targeting can help the best as you use it to drain power or knock-offline a important sub-system like shields or weapons.
After checking it. All the 3/3 science heavy carriers get built-in sub-system targeting, which i think is what they get from the science side. I think it might be nice to have a change that when you use sub-system targeting it actually procs off both the main ship, as well as the hanger-pets to improve the usefulness of it, or maybe a trait that when you use sub-system targeting it gives your pets some kind of buff based on the system targeted might be interesting (like weapons might reduce the damage output, shields might give them bonus shield pen, and such).
i think all carriers have subsystems targeting, the jem dread carrier defo has it
Not all as ones like the Kar'Fi Battle Carrier, Sphere Builder Denuos Dreadnought Carrier don't, which are outliers. Either being a tactical heavy carrier, or a spec ship. Yeah it is hard to deal with how they did the sub-system power for npcs, making it basically worthless to an extent unless you invest quite abit, though if they gave a trait that gave your active pets a buff based on what sub-system were being targeted it might help that.
Comments
well ive not used the peregrines, i tend to stay away from fighters far too weak for my liking lol, but yeah defo agree with the breen pets i tested them out with a friend and they srtipped away the guys shields in no time, only issue is its a sci carrier.
They really nee to make pets universal lol
I love the callistos, when they work properly they are awesome, esp seeing the quad cannons firing x 4 and with crf constantly proccing its nice, but they lack badly they need to rework pets as ive tried using them but again with most pets just like to hang back and contemplate their life! lol
I do have some widow fighters from tholian rep on one character. Although thats more for the weapon damage endeavour than actually using them. With coordinated assault you can easily get it done in first wave of a japori patrol.
Also as an example of what I was meaning as a carrier/hanger-pet mechanic, it would be something like this if using existing systems. Maybe make a inspiration like system, that uses your pets to gather info that builds a bar allowing you to spend it to use different abilities buffing either the pets or the main ship. I could even see it that instead of the abilities using all of the bar built up to use an ability, the abilities would have different amounts that you needed to have built up to use them, and so would allow you to chain/combo abilities.
yeah thats interesting, having 4+ pets each scanning for weaknesses etc.... ive never really used the temporal stuff as its sci magic so dont know how they work, and as for the miracle ships if its like the tzenkethi carrier that wud be cool as they are random buffs could be interesting.
thing is i dont think changing the firing arc is needed, what they should do, being as they are ALL escort, speedy ships, they Should be able to keep the enemies in the firing easy but they cant for some reason, its bizarre totally strange they are acting more like cruisers, slow maneuvers slow turning, totally unlike any escort ive ever flown!
I like that idea of the buffing thing i would always send the buff to the pets, i want it to be the pets do all the work and i just sit there buffing healing them etc... so as been said many times in this thread the idea of having more hangars then weapons wud be cool....many things cryptic could do for us carrier lovers
That is if you take the ships being flown by players, than yes it would be quite easy for the pets to keep the target in their firing arc. Yet I think it is mostly to do with the AI of the pets that keeps the larger firing arc pets like beam arrays, or turret using pets much more viable, as the Ai does not adjust for the narrower firing arc on non-array/turret pets an so does not make the quicker turns to bring their weapons to bare on the targets.
If we as players could issue a command to have them change their attack run style, such as from the typical circling runs, to something more like a figure-eight strafe run that might help. Though just adjusting the firing arc on the pets that use the narrower firing arc weapons would help as well.
I can see the appeal of that, but also see the appeal of the pets being scouts too. Like they go out locating the target an reporting back when the target is immobilized, or vulnerable an the main-ship/carrier can launch a heavy bombardment/attack on the target/s. Though this could be part of that system, and could be as below;
Carrier mechanic abilities: For multi-hanger ships like the carriers I could see either that the hanger-pet type in the primary hanger/first hanger determines the abilities, or it take abilities from both hangers pet's.- Fighters: I could see these ships being well as said in their ship type fighters. An so having alot of abilities that are focused around buffing the pet's themselves, buffing their damage, healing them, what have you.
- Shuttles: Now theses I could see as more scout like ships in fucntion, going out to gather intel on where a target is, and what is going on with the target. As such I could see the abilities in the system being built around more of relaying info that buff the carrier an allies,
- Frigates: Now this I could see being a mixture of the two other types, combining some of the main/ally ship buffing aspects of the shuttle types, while also having other abilities that buff themselves though more on the offensive side maybe.
That is if you take the ships being flown by players, than yes it would be quite easy for the pets to keep the target in their firing arc. Yet I think it is mostly to do with the AI of the pets that keeps the larger firing arc pets like beam arrays, or turret using pets much more viable, as the Ai does not adjust for the narrower firing arc on non-array/turret pets an so does not make the quicker turns to bring their weapons to bare on the targets.
If we as players could issue a command to have them change their attack run style, such as from the typical circling runs, to something more like a figure-eight strafe run that might help. Though just adjusting the firing arc on the pets that use the narrower firing arc weapons would help as well.
[/quote]
what they could do here is simple give us new boff abilites, like new attack patterns that instruct what our pets do, like a attack pattern that wud make the pets do attack runs like figure of 8 or thing styles! so they give use new boff abilites that work only for pets!
I could see that if they gave us a spec-tree that largely worked, buffed, and functioned around hanger/separation pets. Though it would be better to not bloat the existing boff careers (tactical, science,engineering) with abilities that are used for specifically such a small group of ships, but just add such hanger/separation-pet attack patterns as functions of the carriers/hanger/separation-pet using ships. Could be done like the hanger-pet command we have now (like fallow, escort, dock, attack)
thing is i think we cud do with having boff powers that worked for carriers, not everyone has to use them, and there are now a huge selection of carriers available and more to come in the future... so yeah i think carrier boff abilities wud be nice, i dont think having a carrier spec tree boff powers wud be truly fair as all the other carriers wud not benefit from the specialized carrier boff powers as wud only be on certain carriers, it would be like, here have this nice new ability...but u cant actually use it.
Yeah that is why I mentioned that it might be better to create the attack patterns, but than link them specifically to the carriers in the same way as the carrier commands are. That way they are available to all hanger-using ships, but would not bloat the careers an need to be used in place of other boff choices like weapon buffs for instance. Something so major for pets to function, like using the correct attack pattern to keep targets in their weapon arcs, just sounds like something that should be built into the ship.
yeah u are right, there is so much they could do with the carrier system, just dont know if they would, what they could do is simply 1 little change its so minor it wudnt change the way they work, is make ALL boff powers that have the word TEAM in them actually apply to pets, cause they are my Team, meaning when i hit sci team & eng team, would heal the pets makes it easier. and others.
Well that could be turned into a trait that might be gotten from a carrier, which causes your hanger/separation-pets to gain any buffs/heals that normally would affect allies, and would make sense as a carrier based trait as well. That is the issue though to make it worth revamping/reworking the carrier/hanger-pet system it would make the most sense to do it when they have something to use to push purchases, like when they did the Jupiter design contest it would have been a perfect time to do a rework/revamp.
Another thing is that maybe the pet-based attack patterns might actually be used in the carrier mechanic idea I put forth. that each pet type has a specific attack pattern set in the mechanic. The idea behind it is that the pet's (shuttles, fighters. frigates) are relaying info back to the main-ship as said, and then waiting for the main-ship to green-light a good moment to begin their attack run, while waiting they are attempting to stay alive an out of danger. Depending on how high up in the meter you might need to be to call in a attack run, this could be trigger quite regularly an even nearly constant, while the other patterns/runs might be higher an give more of a buff to compensate for the less frequent usage.
Thing is tac/eng/sci team work but as with using on the team u still have to select the pet/object u want the ability to go too i just think they should rework them without us having to have a trait slotted to make it work for pets, as its a waste of a trait slot, now if that trait slot actually meant ALL boff abilities would apply to all your pets then id spend real money to get that trait thats for sure!
Thing with that is it cud get too complicated and having pets sitting there doing no dmg waiting for a counter to clock up dont seem that good, they'd be easy pickings....maybe if we cud try it out might be worth it but i dont know.
Not saying they would not attack, but would just stay in more of a attack pattern/run like we have now still attacking as normal, but than when you activate the ability/mechanic it would switch them to a different attack run/pattern. Outside of maybe for shuttles not sure the lead up to using the pattern change would affect them much at all, but a attack run ability that forced your fighter/frigate pets to shift into a figure-eight attack run for a period of time would benefit them nicely, while in that same spot the shuttles might use something different as they don't have as much issues with their firing arc.
I actually quite liked the idea of taking the away team boff Ui that allows you to control your boffs on ground more manually, and moving it over to the hanger/separation pets in space, as it would actually give you alot of playstyle aspects an control of your pet's ability usage. In truth I think putting in some pilot doffs that might have different affects for the pets would be interesting.
I would love to see more of the Vaadwaur ships rolled out, even though a carrier might not be in the cards, I could see them using a dreadnought (maybe dreadnought carrier) that might use the Vaadwaur Juggernaut design, that I would agree should use the manasa escort as a frigate. I also really liked the cruiser design, but still hate that they don't really have a science ship it seems.
I have no knowledge of coding at all, so it may well not be possible to have more sophisticated AI routines.
If they can't adjust the AI to make better use of cannons they should just retrofit pets without beams with beams.
In any case I'd be grateful if a dev could comment either way.
lol science ship i wudnt miss lol
After checking it. All the 3/3 science heavy carriers get built-in sub-system targeting, which i think is what they get from the science side. I think it might be nice to have a change that when you use sub-system targeting it actually procs off both the main ship, as well as the hanger-pets to improve the usefulness of it, or maybe a trait that when you use sub-system targeting it gives your pets some kind of buff based on the system targeted might be interesting (like weapons might reduce the damage output, shields might give them bonus shield pen, and such).
Not all as ones like the Kar'Fi Battle Carrier, Sphere Builder Denuos Dreadnought Carrier don't, which are outliers. Either being a tactical heavy carrier, or a spec ship. Yeah it is hard to deal with how they did the sub-system power for npcs, making it basically worthless to an extent unless you invest quite abit, though if they gave a trait that gave your active pets a buff based on what sub-system were being targeted it might help that.