RSI Mantis Thread - Tuesday update posted - New Pics and Article inside, Page 10

[Talonsbane]

It would have been a cool "large" ship. I don't hate the design, but I can't say I'm a fan of the mechanic, I just see this as a tool for griefing. Opinions, thoughts?

All through my teenage years in school I did my best to return the "favor" of bullies by causing them to be injured severely whenever I caught them bullying others. Most of them never expected me to attack them since I was just this short & fat loner kid, but I learned how to fight larger, taller & faster opponents from those that had bullied me in earlier years. So while most might see this as a means of ambushing prey, I see this as a potential tool to ensnare predators within their own traps for their own demise. If done effectively enough, the predators will become afraid of certain prey.

 

[Vavrik]

It is the first game element added that is primarily intended for pirates to allow them to do their craft. It is also the first real threat to Haulers and will start to require them to fly with escorts. So yes in the PU its going to mostly be used for griefing and not really any threat to haulers as most will be solo pilots in a greatly underpowered ship so either just easily fly away or engage and blow them up.



I hear you but I also see if it was anything more then it would be far too powerful in the game and really enable everyone to only be pirates as hauling would be far too dangerous. Here it allows you to pull out convoys at a point of your choosing (hopefully somewhere with an easy escape path if things go sideways) and your little group of Cutlass and Catapilar pilots get to pillage and loot. I also imagine for the solo player (whos really solo when you have so many drinking buddies) would be able to hire NPCs to run protection/mantis if they really want to go down this path but I can imagine there are far more profitable options to solo players. Especially with exploring and data mining, bounty hunting and such.

I've been saying for a while that this game is not for loners. It's people that can play as members of a team that can excel here and this ship is just one more mile of pavement in that road. For TEST, if we can learn that, and expect it, we have a massive advantage just because of numbers. It won't matter if you're a trader, an escort, or a pirate. In SC, team play wins.

It goes both ways too. This ship can be an integral part of a counterstrike, say as a member of a convoy escort that is interdicted by organized piracy. It's role would be to inflict the same on them. What's good for the goose.

 

[Bambooza]

I've been saying for a while that this game is not for loners. It's people that can play as members of a team that can excel here and this ship is just one more mile of pavement in that road. For TEST, if we can learn that, and expect it, we have a massive advantage just because of numbers. It won't matter if you're a trader, an escort, or a pirate. In SC, team play wins.

It goes both ways too. This ship can be an integral part of a counterstrike, say as a member of a convoy escort that is interdicted by organized piracy. It's role would be to inflict the same on them. What's good for the goose.

Its why I am here.. Well, that and lots of drinking buddies so I never have to drink alone. Even better is that we cover all time zones so it doesn't matter when as its always drinking time somewhere.

 

[littlej0e]

I hereby rename the RSI Mantis to the RSI Griefer (temporarily of course).

 

[Blind Owl]

I hear you but I also see if it was anything more then it would be far too powerful in the game and really enable everyone to only be pirates as hauling would be far too dangerous. Here it allows you to pull out convoys at a point of your choosing (hopefully somewhere with an easy escape path if things go sideways) and your little group of Cutlass and Catapilar pilots get to pillage and loot. I also imagine for the solo player (whos really solo when you have so many drinking buddies) would be able to hire NPCs to run protection/mantis if they really want to go down this path but I can imagine there are far more profitable options to solo players. Especially with exploring and data mining, bounty hunting and such.

You are, of course, right. I'm just venting some frustrations, which in itself frustrates me, because it's a damn game, lol.

I understand it may be too powerful otherwise. I really do. And I understand the group mechanics of this entire enterprise.
I think I'm just looking at this through a negative lense right now. I know how limited my geeking out time is. I know how little I can commit to group play. I know how much of a damn effort it can be to try and arrange group play time. And I'm frustrated that there are aspects of this game that I, as a solo player on nights when I have time but no one else does, won't be able to partake of because it's completely unviable alone. Oh, you have 2 hours to play. No one's around. Well you can do a bounty mission, risk a cargo run, or maybe go mining. Cool man. Thanks. Can't lay mines. Takes a group. Can't go pirate a ship with interdiction. Takes a group. They keep making these damn niche ships that would be so cool if there was even a single iota of solo playability to them. Awesome fucking mechanics that look like they'd be hella fun. And boys and girls, we are going to have fun. Those times we so play, they will be stellar. But I'm starting to feel like being able to hop into this game for an hour by myself is simply not going to be something that can be done. I want to be able to play the game. Enjoy it. Immerse myself, if even for an hour.
Ugh, I'm ranting. I think I miss y'all, haha.

Tl;dr. - Owl is tired and ranting. Wants to play, but needs to work and sleep. Love y'all, g'night.

 

[LoicFarris]

You are, of course, right. I'm just venting some frustrations, which in itself frustrates me, because it's a damn game, lol.

I understand it may be too powerful otherwise. I really do. And I understand the group mechanics of this entire enterprise.
I think I'm just looking at this through a negative lense right now. I know how limited my geeking out time is. I know how little I can commit to group play. I know how much of a damn effort it can be to try and arrange group play time. And I'm frustrated that there are aspects of this game that I, as a solo player on nights when I have time but no one else does, won't be able to partake of because it's completely unviable alone. Oh, you have 2 hours to play. No one's around. Well you can do a bounty mission, risk a cargo run, or maybe go mining. Cool man. Thanks. Can't lay mines. Takes a group. Can't go pirate a ship with interdiction. Takes a group. They keep making these damn niche ships that would be so cool if there was even a single iota of solo playability to them. Awesome fucking mechanics that look like they'd be hella fun. And boys and girls, we are going to have fun. Those times we so play, they will be stellar. But I'm starting to feel like being able to hop into this game for an hour by myself is simply not going to be something that can be done. I want to be able to play the game. Enjoy it. Immerse myself, if even for an hour.
Ugh, I'm ranting. I think I miss y'all, haha.

Tl;dr. - Owl is tired and ranting. Wants to play, but needs to work and sleep. Love y'all, g'night.

It sounds like you need a shot or 3. You can have a bunk on my Carrak and run the night shift while we're all asleep. There will be plenty of beer, scotch, and mixers but no food, we will survive only on alcohol!

 

[Richard Bong]

I can see the idea of keeping people from jumping away from a planet, or base, that mechanic makes sense. The idea of being able to pull someone out of quantum with sensors that are, at best,light speed sensors, with Space being as vast as it is seems a bit much.

 

[Bambooza]

You are, of course, right. I'm just venting some frustrations, which in itself frustrates me, because it's a damn game, lol.

I understand it may be too powerful otherwise. I really do. And I understand the group mechanics of this entire enterprise.
I think I'm just looking at this through a negative lense right now. I know how limited my geeking out time is. I know how little I can commit to group play. I know how much of a damn effort it can be to try and arrange group play time. And I'm frustrated that there are aspects of this game that I, as a solo player on nights when I have time but no one else does, won't be able to partake of because it's completely unviable alone. Oh, you have 2 hours to play. No one's around. Well you can do a bounty mission, risk a cargo run, or maybe go mining. Cool man. Thanks. Can't lay mines. Takes a group. Can't go pirate a ship with interdiction. Takes a group. They keep making these damn niche ships that would be so cool if there was even a single iota of solo playability to them. Awesome fucking mechanics that look like they'd be hella fun. And boys and girls, we are going to have fun. Those times we so play, they will be stellar. But I'm starting to feel like being able to hop into this game for an hour by myself is simply not going to be something that can be done. I want to be able to play the game. Enjoy it. Immerse myself, if even for an hour.
Ugh, I'm ranting. I think I miss y'all, haha.

Tl;dr. - Owl is tired and ranting. Wants to play, but needs to work and sleep. Love y'all, g'night.

I hear ya and I find myself in a similar boat with random opportunities to steal a few hours of game time. The good news is
A. You are never alone there are plenty in this org who I imagine when it's game time will be playing around the clock.
B. NPC are going to be a thing so even if you are far from the action you can still hire or be hired to participate in some of these adventures while not as much fun as joining the drinking crew for some shenanigans will still allow you to Haul or Mine or even live the life of a pirate with your own NPC crew. And the best part is if nothing else you'll just be free to explore and find new points of interest that you can sell from some credit to fund further drinking.

So what you really need to do is make sure you get a gaming laptop when the game gets into beta so that the next time you go one of these trips and have lots of free time to game you can take advantage of it.

 

[GarikDuvall]

Lets interdict vessels into our minefields :D

 

[littlej0e]

Lets interdict vessels into our minefields :D

That is far too genius and diabolical. Are you Lex Luthor?!? Be honest.

 

[Black Sunder]

That is far too genius and diabolical. Are you Lex Luthor?!? Be honest.

Its free real estate.

 

[SoloFlyer]

You are, of course, right. I'm just venting some frustrations, which in itself frustrates me, because it's a damn game, lol.

I understand it may be too powerful otherwise. I really do. And I understand the group mechanics of this entire enterprise.
I think I'm just looking at this through a negative lense right now. I know how limited my geeking out time is. I know how little I can commit to group play. I know how much of a damn effort it can be to try and arrange group play time. And I'm frustrated that there are aspects of this game that I, as a solo player on nights when I have time but no one else does, won't be able to partake of because it's completely unviable alone. Oh, you have 2 hours to play. No one's around. Well you can do a bounty mission, risk a cargo run, or maybe go mining. Cool man. Thanks. Can't lay mines. Takes a group. Can't go pirate a ship with interdiction. Takes a group. They keep making these damn niche ships that would be so cool if there was even a single iota of solo playability to them. Awesome fucking mechanics that look like they'd be hella fun. And boys and girls, we are going to have fun. Those times we so play, they will be stellar. But I'm starting to feel like being able to hop into this game for an hour by myself is simply not going to be something that can be done. I want to be able to play the game. Enjoy it. Immerse myself, if even for an hour.
Ugh, I'm ranting. I think I miss y'all, haha.

Tl;dr. - Owl is tired and ranting. Wants to play, but needs to work and sleep. Love y'all, g'night.

I hear you, I'm in the same boat, probably having a consecutive 2 hours throughout the course of the week is going to be the best I can hope for at release, and I'm probably not going to be able to plan ahead of time when those 2 hours will be. I don't mind doing group stuff, I look forward to it actually, but even though the org is so big I have a feeling that I'm still going to end up doing a lot of solo play.

For people in our situation, that two hours includes the time it takes to find people who are on, find out what they're doing and hope it's something you want to do too(I think group mining sounds like a cool thing to do but I can imagine it would bore the hell out of others), hope the ship you need for the task is stored nearby (best case scenario, let's assume that it is), factor in the fact that space is going to be huge and travel times will not be insignificant...how much time does that leave to actually play by the time you've all gotten together? I haven't made it to any of the pre-organized events so far but they usually have a set time, location and instructions on what to bring. Out of curiosity how long does it usually end up from the pre-arranged time to when you actually start doing the activity on average? I dunno, I hope things like exploring and data mining will still be viable as soloable activities as they introduce more mechanics as an option for people who just don't have the time. Or add crafting. In an org this big I would craft the hell out of some shit if people fed me the raw materials and we worked out some sort of way to split the profits.

 

[Vavrik]

I hear you, I'm in the same boat, probably having a consecutive 2 hours throughout the course of the week is going to be the best I can hope for at release, and I'm probably not going to be able to plan ahead of time when those 2 hours will be. I don't mind doing group stuff, I look forward to it actually, but even though the org is so big I have a feeling that I'm still going to end up doing a lot of solo play.

For people in our situation, that two hours includes the time it takes to find people who are on, find out what they're doing and hope it's something you want to do too(I think group mining sounds like a cool thing to do but I can imagine it would bore the hell out of others), hope the ship you need for the task is stored nearby (best case scenario, let's assume that it is), factor in the fact that space is going to be huge and travel times will not be insignificant...how much time does that leave to actually play by the time you've all gotten together? I haven't made it to any of the pre-organized events so far but they usually have a set time, location and instructions on what to bring. Out of curiosity how long does it usually end up from the pre-arranged time to when you actually start doing the activity on average? I dunno, I hope things like exploring and data mining will still be viable as soloable activities as they introduce more mechanics as an option for people who just don't have the time. Or add crafting. In an org this big I would craft the hell out of some shit if people fed me the raw materials and we worked out some sort of way to split the profits.

WAIT... we do group mining. It's not happening right now, other than individual players forming groups themselves, because the game was so buggy for a while, but it is happening. The current plan is to start it up again when 3.7 drops at least if we can. We also do other fun things as a group. Sometimes we just go on a tour of what's out there. Sometimes we even rescue someone who might have fallen out of a ship.

There's a test chat in Discord too. Look for Rock Raiders. the best people to talk to about times is @Black Sunder and @Printimus, but they post events like that here and when they occur. More people makes it more flexible too I might add.

 

[Blind Owl]

It sounds like you need a shot or 3. You can have a bunk on my Carrak and run the night shift while we're all asleep. There will be plenty of beer, scotch, and mixers but no food, we will survive only on alcohol!

Sounds good to me brother, lol. I could really use all the shots.

I hear ya and I find myself in a similar boat with random opportunities to steal a few hours of game time. The good news is
A. You are never alone there are plenty in this org who I imagine when it's game time will be playing around the clock.
B. NPC are going to be a thing so even if you are far from the action you can still hire or be hired to participate in some of these adventures while not as much fun as joining the drinking crew for some shenanigans will still allow you to Haul or Mine or even live the life of a pirate with your own NPC crew. And the best part is if nothing else you'll just be free to explore and find new points of interest that you can sell from some credit to fund further drinking.

So what you really need to do is make sure you get a gaming laptop when the game gets into beta so that the next time you go one of these trips and have lots of free time to game you can take advantage of it.

Yeah, I think I was just caught in a salt loop. The ridiculous childish game of this ship reveal along with the disappointing single person usage tipped me over the edge. I know there will always be people online, but as @SoloFlyer points out, will we always be able to link up, get to a destination, do a thing? NPCs may be a viable option. Time will tell I reckon.

Also, I have my gaming laptop with me. I just have no idea if the internet here will support gameplay. Also, I'mon GMT + 2 right now, so its 730 am here, lol.

Lets interdict vessels into our minefields :D

This . . .This is GD brilliant. Now I want a Nautilus! Haha

I hear you, I'm in the same boat, probably having a consecutive 2 hours throughout the course of the week is going to be the best I can hope for at release, and I'm probably not going to be able to plan ahead of time when those 2 hours will be. I don't mind doing group stuff, I look forward to it actually, but even though the org is so big I have a feeling that I'm still going to end up doing a lot of solo play.

For people in our situation, that two hours includes the time it takes to find people who are on, find out what they're doing and hope it's something you want to do too(I think group mining sounds like a cool thing to do but I can imagine it would bore the hell out of others), hope the ship you need for the task is stored nearby (best case scenario, let's assume that it is), factor in the fact that space is going to be huge and travel times will not be insignificant...how much time does that leave to actually play by the time you've all gotten together? I haven't made it to any of the pre-organized events so far but they usually have a set time, location and instructions on what to bring. Out of curiosity how long does it usually end up from the pre-arranged time to when you actually start doing the activity on average? I dunno, I hope things like exploring and data mining will still be viable as soloable activities as they introduce more mechanics as an option for people who just don't have the time. Or add crafting. In an org this big I would craft the hell out of some shit if people fed me the raw materials and we worked out some sort of way to split the profits.

These are all things that I think about as well. If a person only has X amount of time to play, and it takes 45 minutes to get to a destination, and that's after link up with friends (however long that takes) and setup of ships and resources, how much time do you actually get to play? I'll all for immersion, but I should have to devote a 5 hour block just to mine a single asteroid. I'd liek to be able to get things done in the time I'm in game.

WAIT... we do group mining. It's not happening right now, other than individual players forming groups themselves, because the game was so buggy for a while, but it is happening. The current plan is to start it up again when 3.7 drops at least if we can. We also do other fun things as a group. Sometimes we just go on a tour of what's out there. Sometimes we even rescue someone who might have fallen out of a ship.

There's a test chat in Discord too. Look for Rock Raiders. the best people to talk to about times is @Black Sunder and @Printimus, but they post events like that here and when they occur. More people makes it more flexible too I might add.

If I'm lucky, maybe 3.7 will drop before I leave this country and head back into the other country I was in, where the interwebs suck (more). Then maybe I can do a thing with y'all.

 

[Michael]

I don't think its specificly a tool for pirates. Of course its a great tool for pirating.
On the long run i see as a great tool for orgs to defend their territories.

We will need to find out how it really will affect the whole trading/hauling gameplay. They will probably need to ramp up profits slightly more.

I do understand why they want to minimize the effectivity of the mantis as a solo ship and i'm totally with them (CIG) at that specific ship and role.
I still hope we will see modules with a similar functionality for our regular ships. (Maybe reduced in effectivity)

 

[Vavrik]

If I'm lucky, maybe 3.7 will drop before I leave this country and head back into the other country I was in, where the interwebs suck (more). Then maybe I can do a thing with y'all.

That would be very cool Owl, but don't hurry too fast, we don't even know if 3.7 isn't going to be as buggy as Petawawa in July. no wait, nothing can be that buggy. And those things are so big they have landing lights.

Anyhow any time, I'm sure there are a lot of testes that wanna invite to that party too, so we might have to steal someone's 890J. But there's a bar I know of on a planet not far away that's kind of empty most of the time too.

 

[SoloFlyer]

WAIT... we do group mining. It's not happening right now, other than individual players forming groups themselves, because the game was so buggy for a while, but it is happening. The current plan is to start it up again when 3.7 drops at least if we can. We also do other fun things as a group. Sometimes we just go on a tour of what's out there. Sometimes we even rescue someone who might have fallen out of a ship.

There's a test chat in Discord too. Look for Rock Raiders. the best people to talk to about times is @Black Sunder and @Printimus, but they post events like that here and when they occur. More people makes it more flexible too I might add.

I know we do group mining, it was just an example of a group activity that you might be able to jump into on a day you only have 2 hours to play but there is a group doing it. But I also said I could see how some people ( not myself) might find something like that boring. The same holds true for other activities, like trade runs or bounty hunting or PvP that could be going on at a given time, you might like one but have no interest in the others. or it could be none of the above are going on, even in an org this size.

I was more pointing out the fact that if in the above example you only have 2 hours play time for the week, and you do luck out and something catches your eye you still have a problem. Especially if you can't plan when during the week you'll get those two hours meaning you can't join events reliably.

Supposing that you find a group you still need to gear up, get the appropriate ship (or wait for someone to pick you up if you're going as crew), and travel possibly long distances to wherever the group is before you're actually ready to "play", eating up a lot of your limited play time. And that's for what would most likely be an ad hoc PUG, likely less organized than a prearranged group activity, and how long do those take from the planned start time to actually beginning the objective? Grouping up sounds like fun, but if things are moving more towards "having" to group and you only have a couple hours, finding a group doing something you like uses up a significant portion of your play time, but they seem to make it less viable to do much solo instead so you can use your limited time actually playing the game.

 

[Richard Bong]

I think it'll be handy for pirating, or even for bounty hunting. It's be great for our Privateering group. I just despise that they're pushing the "group play" so hard that you literally can't do anything alone. This ship is completely useless without friends, so anyone who may be spending even a little time playing alone, who would want to use this mechanic, is fucked. Would it kill CIG to make a ship that's even slightly viable? Put something resembling decent armament on it? This min-maxing thing they're doing with ships is frustrating as hell. I get they need revenue, but I feel like it pigeon holes people into doing one thing in one ship, and that's it. You affect people's quantum with this ship. That is it. You can't attack them after. You can't defend yourself if they attack you. You certainly can't board them. You can't loot anything. Nothing. One job. One niche job.

For bounty hunting, the keep them from jumping mechanic is useful, pulling ships out of quantum, not so much.

A good EMP should accomplish the same task though.

All the more reason to not want to take bounties in space.

 

[Richard Bong]

Put this device in a Retaliator rear module, Caterpillar module, Connie, Hammerhead, Polaris or Idiris cargo bay and maybe it makes sense.

On this, no sense at all.

 

[Blind Owl]

That would be very cool Owl, but don't hurry too fast, we don't even know if 3.7 isn't going to be as buggy as Petawawa in July. no wait, nothing can be that buggy. And those things are so big they have landing lights.

Anyhow any time, I'm sure there are a lot of testes that wanna invite to that party too, so we might have to steal someone's 890J. But there's a bar I know of on a planet not far away that's kind of empty most of the time too.

I'm in no hurry my friend. Work here is keeping me plenty busy, lol. And why in God's name would you even speak of that horrendous place, haha.

Ugh, watch them try to post me there, haha. FML.

I know we do group mining, it was just an example of a group activity that you might be able to jump into on a day you only have 2 hours to play but there is a group doing it. But I also said I could see how some people ( not myself) might find something like that boring. The same holds true for other activities, like trade runs or bounty hunting or PvP that could be going on at a given time, you might like one but have no interest in the others. or it could be none of the above are going on, even in an org this size.

I was more pointing out the fact that if in the above example you only have 2 hours play time for the week, and you do luck out and something catches your eye you still have a problem. Especially if you can't plan when during the week you'll get those two hours meaning you can't join events reliably.

Supposing that you find a group you still need to gear up, get the appropriate ship (or wait for someone to pick you up if you're going as crew), and travel possibly long distances to wherever the group is before you're actually ready to "play", eating up a lot of your limited play time. And that's for what would most likely be an ad hoc PUG, likely less organized than a prearranged group activity, and how long do those take from the planned start time to actually beginning the objective? Grouping up sounds like fun, but if things are moving more towards "having" to group and you only have a couple hours, finding a group doing something you like uses up a significant portion of your play time, but they seem to make it less viable to do much solo instead so you can use your limited time actually playing the game.

These are exactly the thoughts I was trying to articulate. Group play is amazing, yes, but we shouldn't be forced into it.

For bounty hunting, the keep them from jumping mechanic is useful, pulling ships out of quantum, not so much.

A good EMP should accomplish the same task though.

All the more reason to not want to take bounties in space.

I reckon. If you can grab your target on the ground, then why the hell not?

Put this device in a Retaliator rear module, Caterpillar module, Connie, Hammerhead, Polaris or Idiris cargo bay and maybe it makes sense.

On this, no sense at all.

I'm in 100% agreement here. Or even have a dedicated large/cap ship who's job it is to keep the eneny fleet from running. But a bunch of defenceless little ships makes no sense to me whatsoever.