In light of the current shuttle events: Small craft deserve a makeover

angrytarg · November 2015

For a very simple reason: Originally, we actually had a thing going: "-S" equipment only feasible for small craft, not useable on regular craft which makes sense. The small craft beams were unique in the sense that they were the original omni beams and we even have two or so unique engines exclusively for small craft. But we never expanded on that - instead we simply can cram our capital ship sized warp cores and deflector arrays into small craft, rendering any feel of unique required strategy or equipment entirely obsolete. No mentioning of the pipe dream to have a small craft you can equip, foster and use as a support craft in combat that never came around, but I really think that part of the game would deserve more attention than just being a gimmicky event every year.

I would love to be able to salvage "-S" loot from mobs (micro torpedoes isntead of regular ones, shuttle weapons, shield arrays etc.) and maybe even have sets or uniques only obtainable as loot (you know, as hack & slay games used to have - I personally would rather hunt for items via loot instead of window shopping everything, but that's a different topic).

What do you think?

captz1pp · November 2015

I've made more than one post about new shuttles to replace the old TNG & DS9 small crafts that Feds and Roms are still using, the Yellowstone*, Caitian Stalker, and Tiercel* have been good for a start, but i feel more can be considered.

*Which need their own interiors and(for Yellowstone)upgraded LCARS displays, even if cutscene only.

gradii · November 2015

No thanks. I'm happy with being able to decently gear my shuttles with my rep sets.

angrytarg · November 2015

ruinthefun wrote: »

-S loot is actually exactly the same, statwise, as non-S loot, except that -S loot tends to be autoscaling, and of types that were not meant for unlimited use on real ships (360-beams). Of course, now that we have real 360-beams, they are certainly less noteworthy, but 360-beams are equip-one, whereas -S beams have no limitation.

As you said, what was unique for small craft is now available for everyone (adding more backdoors to slot more omni beams in the future). The "-S" equipment is completely obsolete since you can slot a VR mk IV or whatever and you are essentially better off than "-S" at lvl 60.

I feel we miss a whole "game" on shuttles and their equipment.

ufpterrell · November 2015

Shuttles and fighters in general are rather lame as they stand. For one, the camera system isn't able to work with them right. You're either zoomed so far in you can count the rivets on the hull or zoomed so far out you can't see what's going on (especially true for the smaller shuttles).

I think it would be cool if instead of having omni beams etc we have a more "dogfight" style gameplay for shuttles. In the shows you always saw them trying hard to get in behind a target and blast them that way. Instead we have ship combat meant for much larger ships being copy pasted onto the shuttles and frankly it doesn't work very well. Why can't we "lock" onto our targets within a certain arc and fire on them then it would make the gameplay much more enjoyable. I've got some nice small craft including the Yellowstone and the Tholian Widow fighter but they never get used because the mechanics suck and the gameplay for them is utterly dull.

fovrel · November 2015

The shuttle game should have a sphere of its own. So we have space, ground and shuttle or small craft or atmospheric combat. The Pilot tree does not belong in space but would be excelent in dogfighting, The small craft combat should resemble combat flight simulation, dogfighting, ground attack, bombing runs. The space game should stick more to a kind of naval combat.

Small craft should have indeed their own equipment. It should however be cheap and easy to get. It could be a fantastic sub game for PvP.

Thinking of it, ground and small craft combat could be combined. One team flies straffing runs on an object, the ground team has to shoot them down. Team A scores when they hit an object and destroy it, the defending team scores when they shoot someone down.

kayajay · November 2015

You should be able to make a shuttle as devastating as a big ship, when it's just shuttles vs shuttles.

dsaris · November 2015

Shuttles do indeed need an upgrade. They've been completely abandoned and are, for the most part, utterly useless. Need more console slots and more BoFF abilities.

mustrumridcully0 · November 2015

ruinthefun wrote: »

I think that they should add pilot moves to all shuttles to make flying them more interesting, seeing as there's pretty much nothing you can do except point it at the enemy and wait for something to die.

Pilot Maneuvers would be cool. But maybe actually different shuttles could have different specialities. Pilot maneuver would feel great on a Delta Flyer or a fighter, but something like a Runabout - I could totally see that also as having the Inspiration abilities, or the Gather Intel abilities.

I guess the problem with Shuttles is that they have extremely low relevance in the overall game. They are a novelty/gimmick thing. Cryptic probably cannot even sell them really. So monetization could only be very indirect, like having shuttle events with special rewards (like Mirror Invasion) - but they coud just as well make them regular space ship events.

shadowwraith77 · November 2015

Shuttles are pretty good as they are, till they are used in an event against capital class vessels, that are way overly matched against them. [looking at you spire assault]

flumf · November 2015

There needs to be more small craft specific content that people will play to justify them getting whole load-outs worth of small craft only equipment (weapons, deflectors, engines, cores, shields, and consoles.) Otherwise theres no real point in adding anything for small craft.

architect13 · November 2015

There are shuttles in the game?!?

kerygan · November 2015

i would add a Mir fighter to herald lockbox , as a drop instead of lobi ... like the dreadnought , to make Vonph even more painfull to get XD

mikearoo · November 2015

I still like one idea brought up before, that Tier 1 (maybe Tier 2) could be used for shuttle type events. Would give us a reason for holding on to the things.

In light of the current shuttle events: Small craft deserve a makeover

Comments