Intruders...

[Guest Sauce]

First of all, the BCM demo is great! The graphics and interface are a great addition to an already rich game. Okay, on to my beef... Intruders

This subject has been touched on, but I still feel the need to address this issue. I am seriously hoping that the development team will find a way of toning down the intruder factor of the game. It just seems so unrealistic that it takes mere seconds for an enemy craft to "crack" your unbelievably sophisticated transporter codes to invade your ship. I still play BC3000 2.9 regularly and this was my main concern with that game as well. It is just too often and you end up spending more time fending off invaders than fighting enemy ships. The time patrolling for the intruders is time that you are being shot at constantly. Factors such as shields at full strength and distance to enemy ships has no bearing on the intruders beaming to your ship. I can understand the motives for enemy captains to invade your craft, but it takes away from the gameplay when your ship is CONSTANTLY being boarded. Intruders play a large role in this game and it should not be eliminated, just toned down a bit. I don't even want to uncloak sometimes because the second I do, there they are again.

My question is this: Will there be any limits to boarding actions against your ship in the final version of this game? I have been a fan of this series for a long time and this has always been the thorn in my side. (the only drawback to a very deep game IMO)

Thank you to anyone who reads this and considers it.

[Soback]

I never had any problems with intruders. Keep half of your men searching at all times, when intruders board they will always try to steal a shuttle or a interceptor. I also keep 2 marines in each shuttle (used to keep 1 but he was complaining about how there was nobody to play cards with) and keep your power for launch control off. It's not a big deal if they do board, if your marines are patroling then the intruders will be killed in less then 5 minutes. By the way, I don't think that this will be changed and also they don't need to crack your transporter codes, they got their own transporters. The only thing I feel is unfair is them getting onboard when your shields are up.

[Emmett.hendrick]

I'm afraid I have to agree and I'll probably get myself in trouble with SC for saying this but the fact that intruders can beam on board when your shields up is very annoying. By design your shields are meant to block energy discharges (among other things from hitting your ship) and borrowing heavily from ST here my understanding of a transporter is that it converts your body to energy and recombines it at another location, therefore your shields should be able to block a transporter.

A boarding party is usually the last thing deployed in combat once the target ship is significantly weakened and its shields have dropped a boarding party is deployed to capture the target vessel/clean up, much in the same way that commanders will hold off deploy marines planetside until the defences have been weakened by planetary or interceptor bombardment.I am new to the BC series and have lost many a shuttle when escaped prisoners steal em but now at least I believe I can stop that, but the intruders issue is a bit thorny....

I'm going to shut up now before I get shot out the nearest airlock!!!!

[Joel Schultz]

I've noticed in the first Ep 1 demo mission I get boarded at one point, and more keep beaming in from somewhere, but not sure where they're coming from. Cloaked ship maybe? I've been killed once already by the invaders because all my marines were either dead or in Medibay from dealing with the last batch that beamed in. 10 marines ain't a whole lot when you end up in a tiff with 10+ intruders with more on the way. Of course, I probably would've fared better had I actually been paying attention to the game at the time...

I kind of agree about intruders. That first, they are a necessary and interesting (and sometimes even amusing ) part of the game. And that second, they are also annoying the way they are used right now. I too wish shields played some role in that -- e.g. if your shields are above X% they block enemy transporters. That, and their ability to transport from all the way on the other side of a sector bugs me to no end. Having a range limit would make things interesting -- at the least it'd force you (or them!) to have the guts to go within the range of the defending ship/station's guns if a boarding party was to be employed. Plus the defender would get a chance to return the favor.

Of course, a smart commander would probably cloak to get in transporter range undetected...

-------- EDIT --------

Whoops! Methinks this has already been addressed! Hunting through some previous posts here I come across this:

quote:

---

Supreme Commander, 03-20-2001

The Beta testers had requested some relaxing of the boarding rules and I have made a note of a few things that I'd like to do. Expect some relaxation of the boarding rules, shortly.

Also, I have, in my todo list, the ability

to have you board other command crafts and stations with your own troops using shuttles or transporter. In fact, the new Perscan was designed to do just that and currently supports it. As you would be able to use it to track your troops on the target ship, as you would in your own ship. This will give you the ability to know when to get them the hell outta there when things get hot.

Unfortunately, this feature is way down on my wishlist and probably won't make it into the first game release, but will DEFINITELY appear in a patch - since I'm notorious for doing stuff like that (adding new stuff, along with bug fixes, in patches).

Once the first person, terrain and multiplayer are 100% finished, this is the first wishlist (my wishlist, damnit ) item that I plan on addressing.

---

So, it looks like I'll be playing "wait-and-see" some more...

[ 04-13-2001: Message edited by: Joel Schultz ]

[Epsilon 5]

Ever got boarded when there is no hostile in the region?

In bc3k, I got board in polaris-2 when there was only the trading station and some hacker transports.

[Hector Socas Navarro]

How do you know there wasn't a cloaked ship?

[Guest Sauce]

Maybe there could be some sort of "artifact" that you could acquire through playing the game that allows you to track cloaked ships when you are within a certain distance to them. That would even the score out a little bit, you would just have to make rough estimates when firing on them, but they would have to decloak. Since the computer seems to have limitless cloaking times, it would be a good addition.

[Gallion]

The TMCD - description located in the BC3K manual - gives the player that has this artifact the ability to just this thing-a-ma-jig.

TTFN

[Guest Sauce]

I just hope they include it in BCM... & it's relatively easy to get.

[Gallion]

Learn GBS and script it into your scenario/campaign

TTFN

[Tyrn]

I don't mind intruders too much but then I use the following intruder basics:

• Shut down launch control

• Deploy all marines to search duty and evac unarmed crew from shuttles

• With only ten marines, I rotate them into the medibay if they drop below 90 LF, with 10-20 medibay below 80 LF.

• Very important treat your marines in the medibay, don't just let them sit there. You'll cycle them back into battle much quicker this way.

• Finally, dock with a station if you're having too much trouble and need assistance from station security.

[ 04-13-2001: Message edited by: Tyrn ]

[Supreme Cmdr]

I do plan on toning down their ability to board you, especially since I won't have time to implement the code required to have you board them.

However, I won't be doing it based on shield strength, or you'll never get boarded - since most people (at least the smart ones) have their shields on all the time.

I will probably revise it as follows:

1. Cloak state (already implemented)

2. Range based

3. Reduce the number of intruders that can be transported at a time.

Thats the plan. So, please save yourselves the trouble of making suggestions that am not going to implement.

[Epsilon 5]

Put a limit to the intruders that will come at a time? Great.

Something that already happenned to me:

5 intruders board

8 intruders board

12 intruders board

3 intruders board

Total: 28

Elapsed time: 10 mins

Remaining marines: 7 on 40, plus misc casualties.

This ain't a joke. That when I was defending GHQ from a bunch of insurgents carriers and cruisers.

[Guest Sauce]

Thank you for answering this question Supreme Commander. I think that would be perfect with those limits implemented. You're right by the way, everyone does have shields up all the time. OMG Epsilon! 28 in 10 minutes? I hope there was no one home to hear you yelling at the 'puter. Thanks again everyone!

[Epsilon 5]

"What the h***... s***... f***"

When some syseng started to disappear, I wondered it they were rebelling against me...

I always had a very bad experience with insurgents, rp way and non-rp.

[Guest]

I always keep marines all over the ship. I send some to their posts, some to medibay, most on search.

The moment intruders come on board, I activate the medibay marines (which had been prepped for combat) and put them on search. Most of the times, the medibay marines catch the intruders before the searching ones do.

Guess them intruders want the morphine cabinet

[Soback]

Yeah, they figured out that laser burn hurts so why not be full of morphium first, plus think about how much cooler those laser beams look !!! LOL

[ 04-13-2001: Message edited by: Soback ]

[Baloogan]

I find that intruders is a very cool adition

when i first played bc3kad i though the guy was joking when "We have intruders abourd"... HS that was a very cool adition!!!

Perscan should be more pleasing to the eye i think,,, or when the game ships put thing like the deck1 aft corrador is connected to the turboshaft the turboshaft is connected the deck2 aft corrador, the deck 2 aft corrador is connedted to the gally

[Emmett.hendrick]

on 4/14/2001 DeSylva Wrote

_____________________________________________

TRANSPORTER

#4) How does the personnel transporter work? Does it use matter dformation / reformation, like Star Trek? Or does it use hyperspace technology, like ships do?

My Proposal:

Exactly like a hyperspace jump, only with people. Perhaps using a Guardran field also to prevent exposing nushielded life-forms to hyperspace. ST transporters are so far from believable, they're laughable (my opinion only, of course).

_____________________________________________

I found this in another thread, I don't know if the SC has adopted the ideas yet or if he even will but it might explain (if correct) why shields do not stop intruders boarding your ship even from distance.

Much of the problem will depend on how ship shields function and of course the SC will have finally say in all things.

[Soback]

That thread you found it in has been updated, go take a look. Don't take stuff from that thread too close to heart or mind, and my guess is that SC will not like posts from that thread appearing here or anywhere else. He will make his own manual about technical stuff and so on, after the BC:M comes out. So I suggest we refrain from discussing anything about techs and how they work untill then.

(and he explained why intruders are allowed to transport through shields, read a couple of posts above)

[ 04-16-2001: Message edited by: Soback ]

[Emmett.hendrick]

As I said it is only in discussion at the moment and the SC has not approved any of the suggestions so none of them are law(or may never be as the SC sees fit.) but I thought it might be of some interest considering the conversation here, I just posted it as a possible explaination. I was just pointing out that the way shields and transporters work could be in such away that the two have very little or no effect on each others performance.