[Chainfall Original] Air Cruisers: Next

[Baneblade]

PlanetSide lacks a naval aspect, but the idea that the future armies will be using water based navies when they have the technology to hover indefinitely is slightly absurd. The obvious solution to that is to bring the naval aspect to the game in an air ship capacity. This also adds some major gameplay concerns. So my solution:

Outfit Air Cruisers as Outfit Bases and Outfit Dependent Assets intended to support the Empire on the Outfit level.

Air Cruisers are owned and operated by outfits using outfit points as the currency interface with the empire. Outfit points could be renamed to Prestige.

Air Cruisers must be the following:

Significant Assets
Strategic Assets
Vulnerable Assets
Permanent Assets (the cruiser never despawns unless destroyed or sold back to the empire at a loss)
Outfit Level Assets (no single player can get one in any reasonable amount of time)

Air Cruisers must not be the following:

Ground Farming Mechanism
Empire Spawn Point
One Man Killing Machine
Easily Replaced
Spammable (outfits can only own one at a time)

So how do we do this? First of all separate the ground game from the air game from the air cruiser game. Ground fights should not have a significant impact on what an air cruiser is doing and the air cruiser should not dominate the ground fights. The only interaction between the two is collateral (an air cruiser being destroyed can have negative impacts on anything below it) and having the air cruiser acting as an outfit spawn point. Similarly nothing based on the ground can really affect the air cruiser. The air game is a little different, other than a few small short range AA weapons the cruiser has no defenses against things like Reavers, but the Reavers don't have any significant ways of damaging the cruiser either.

The only real threat to a cruiser is enemy cruisers (friendlies too I spose). And the only thing the cruiser is a significant threat to is other cruisers. All of the weapons are designed and intended for cruiser on cruiser engagements.

Cruisers acting as outfit spawns will have an effect on the ground game, but no more than an AMS outside of an SOI. And the cruiser will be a giant target for enemy air cruisers wanting to cash in on the million(s) xp kill.

There is a lot of stuff and potential stats that need to be covered, but the basic idea is ready for discussion.

Addendum I: Air Cruisers would be altitude and attitude locked. They would have the aspects of water based naval ships except their 'sea level' would be a specific altitude range even if zero.

The idea here is to both force geography into play as well as disallow the air cruiser from 'landing' to bring its equatorial focused weaponry to bear on targets they weren't ever intended to engage. Gunships that wander into the air cruiser engagement plane are toast, but there is nothing wrong with that.

Addendum II: Crews would have a minimum compliment of 3 to 5 bridge crew other than gunners and support personnel.

Possible crew positions:

Commander (The Captain)
Helm (The Driver)
Tactical (The Gunner Coordinator and The 'Torpedo' Launcher)
Engineer (The Systems Manager, probably lies to The Captain about how long repairs will take)
Navigator (Assists the Driver) (Defunct)
Point Defense Gunner (The AA)
Secondary Weapons Gunner (The 'Phasers')
Damage Controller (Gluegun repairing systems)
Shock Trooper (Spawn, Rearm, Deploy, Die, Rinse, and Repeat Guy)
Infiltrator (Enemy Trying To Disable And/Or Hinder Target Cruiser Guy)

EDIT NOTE : Navigator is now a Command function.

Addendum III: Shield Management is critical to air cruiser survival. The ship's designated Chief Engineer can cert for Air Cruiser Abilities such as Shield Manipulation, Shield Reinforcement, and Shield Fortification.

Addendum IV: Crew Abilities can be certed by anyone, but can only be used by outfit members assigned to the appropriate crew position by the outfit leader or the ship's assigned Captain.

Potential Crew Abilities and Certifications:

6 Basic Cruiser Command : Allows the player to command a Frigate or Destroyer class Air Cruiser
3 -Intermediate Cruiser Command : Allows the player to command a Cruiser class Air Cruiser
3 --Advanced Cruiser Command : Allows the player to command a Battlecruiser class Air Cruiser

3 Basic Cruiser Engineer : Allows the player to act as an Air Cruiser's Engineer : Shield Manipulation Ability Unlocked
2 -Intermediate Cruiser Engineer : Shield Reinforcement Ability Unlocked
2 --Advanced Cruiser Engineer : Shield Fortification Ability Unlocked

3 Basic Cruiser Helmsman : Allows the player to act as an Air Cruiser's Helmsman : SuperCruise Ability Unlocked
2 -Intermediate Cruiser Helmsman : Overload Engines Ability Unlocked
2 --Advanced Cruiser Helmsman : Evasive Maneuvering Ability Unlocked

3 Basic Cruiser Tactical Officer : Allows the player to act as an Air Cruiser's Tactical Officer : Target Control Ability Unlocked
2 -Intermediate Cruiser Tactical Officer : Focus Fire Ability Unlocked
2 --Advanced Cruiser Tactical Officer : Overcharge Ability Unlocked

Addendum V: Crew Abilities are integral to a solid Air Cruiser's functionality, but they require commitment on the part of the crew members.

Engineer Abilities

Shield Manipulation : Engineer can direct normal shield recharge to one shield facing or spread it out equally among all six (Dorsal, Ventral, Port, Starboard, Bow, and Aft shield facings)
Shield Reinforcement : Engineer can burn reserve NTU to bring one shield facing to full strength (continually drains NTU and the other five shield facings while active)
Shield Fortification : Engineer can drop (as in no protection) three shield facings to bolster the other three to full strength. This also directs the recharge normally sent to the dropped facings to the bolstered facings.

Helmsman Abilities

SuperCruise : This ability allows the Helmsman to burn NTU fuel to bring the Air Cruiser to double its normal speed. 120 second charge up, shield recharge disabled, and no maneuvering while active.
Overload Engines : Essentially an Afterburner. It uses NTU to give the Air Cruiser a short burst of speed roughly 200% faster than normal. 20 seconds only, Engines must be repaired to do this again.
Evasive Maneuvering : This ability allows the Helmsman to increase the acceleration rate of the Air Cruiser by 100%. NTU cost when ship changes vector, can only be used for 60 seconds, and Engines need repair before being able to be reused.

Tactical Officer Abilities

Target Control : Allows the Tactical Officer to fire the Air Cruisers Primary Weapon Systems at another Air Cruiser. This ability does require NTU.
Focus Fire : Allows the TO to designate a specific target for the gunners to fire on. This ability is always on and has no cost or drawback.
Overcharge : Allows the TO to Overcharge the PWS for 3 cycles (each activation of Tactical Control is a cycle), increasing the cost of Target Control 1000% and increasing PWS damage by 250%. Weapon systems must be repaired to use this ability again.

Command Abilities

Frigate/Destroyer, Cruiser, and Battlecruiser hulls are all different classes of Air Cruiser. All Command abilities are native to each, which each hull having it's own special ability:

Frigate : Cloaking : Commander can cloak the Frigate. NTU consumed constantly while cloaked, shields are down when cloaked, and no abilities work while cloaked. Shields reactivate 20 seconds after decloaking, but weapons and abilities are available immediately. Spawn timer increased 50% while cloaked.

Destroyer : Pulse : Commander can emit an anti cloak pulse wave which consumes NTU and decloaks any cloaked Frigate (even friendly) within 2000 meters of the Destroyer. 300 second reuse timer.

Cruiser : Logistics : Commander can direct the Cruiser's native shield recharge at another Air Cruiser. Possible to help an enemy AC with this ability. Costs NTU and doubles cost of Engineer Abilities while active.

Battlecruiser : Collector : Passive ability that slowly regenerates NTU by using special collector cells. Can not keep up with demand of constantly used abilities, but can help during prolonged encounters.

Addendum VI: BEP and CEP are integral to PlanetSide character advancement. Air Cruiser Crews should be no exception. There are two new EP pools for Cruiser Crews: CBEP and CCEP.

CBEP is Cruiser Battle Experience Points, which advance the character in Cruiser Battle Ranks. CCEP is Cruiser Command Experience Points, which advance the character in Cruiser Command Ranks. CBR and CCR offer only aesthetic upgrades. They are a mark of experience only.

Crew members will get 50% bep for kills made by outfit members that have spawned at the cruiser and are on the same continent regardless of squad status. Kills made aboard the cruiser give 100% BEP regardless of squad status. The EP is split 40/60 between BEP and CBEP.

Crew members aboard the cruiser DO NOT gain BEP or CEP from base status changes regardless of squad status.

Crew members gain 50% of Air Cruiser kill BEP if aboard the Cruiser at the time of the kill and at least fifteen minutes prior to the kill. Crew members gain 100% only if they are actively manning a Crew Station (Command, Engineer, Helmsman, and TO) and are doing so for at least fifteen minutes before the kill.

The Commander of the Cruiser gets 50% of their BEP share converted into 10% CEP. This means a kill worth 1,000,000 BEP will result in 500,000 BEP and 100,000 CEP for the Commander. Commander CEP is split 20/80 between CEP and CCEP (20,000/80,000).

Addendum VII: Air Cruiser Hull Classifications

Frigate: In General a Frigate in the context of PSN:AC will be simply a generally affordable and cost effective, yet versatile AC for smaller outfits who may never actually have more than 8-10 people online at any time of the day.

Special: Cloak Field (works like AMS cloak)
Decks: Two
Spawn Tubes: One
Equipment Terminals: One
Lockers: None
Drop Tubes: One (DTs have a cooldown of 15 seconds and look like a Spawn Tube, you run in and drop once the cd is ready)
Hangar: None
Aircraft Service Pads: Two (one on port and one on starboard side of the AC)
Command Crew: Two (Command/Helm ; Engineer/Tactical)
Heavy (AS*) Weapons: Two
Medium (AV) Weapon Turrets: Two
Light (AA) Weapon Turrets: Two
NTU Silo: One
Minimum Crew: Six
Optimal Crew: Eight

*AntiShip - Not Gunner controlled; Tactical controls them

Destroyer: These formidable airships are primarily intended for cooperative operations with other ACs, but they are more than capable of solo operations as well.

Special: Anti Cloak Pulse Wave
Decks: Three
Spawn Tubes: Two
Equipment Terminals: Two
Lockers: Yes
Drop Tubes: Two
Hangar: None
Aircraft Service Pads: Four
Command Crew: Three (Command/Helm, Engineer, Tactical)
Heavy (AS) Weapons: Two
Medium (AV) Weapon Turrets: Three
Light (AA) Weapon Turrets: Three
NTU Silo: Two
Minimum Crew: Nine
Optimal Crew: Twelve

Cruiser: The veritable standard fare of the AC world, the Cruiser is easily the most versatile AC for the cost with respectable firepower, utility, and defensive capabilities.

Special: Logistics Shield Boost
Decks: Four
Spawn Tubes: Three
Equipment Terminals: Three
Lockers: Yes
Drop Tubes: Three
Hangar: Small (Star Destroyer Style, hangar door is underneath and the Deck is large enough for a Galaxy to comfortably land and load)
Aircraft Service Pads: None (Hangar replaces them for repair/rearm)
Command Crew: Four (Command, Helm, Engineer, Tactical)
Heavy (AS) Weapons: Three
Medium (AV) Weapon Turrets: Four
Light (AA) Weapon Turrets: Four
NTU Silo: Four
Minimum Crew: Twelve
Optimal Crew: Sixteen

Battlecruiser: The penultimate Air Cruiser, dwarfing all of the rest in every way possible except speed and maneuverability. This monster is not at all cost effective, any outfit investing in one will eventually run out of points to maintain it if it does not score any kills on other ACs.

Special: NTU Collectors (takes roughly an hour to fill a silo)
Decks: Five
Spawn Tubes: Six (Two separate rooms)
Equipment Terminals: Six (^)
Lockers: Yes
Drop Tubes: Six
Hangar: Large (Throughdeck style, entrance door is aft of the hangar, launch door is fore of the hangar)
Aircraft Service Pads: None
Command Crew: Four (Command, Helm, Engineer, Tactical)
Heavy (AS*) Weapons: Four
Medium (AV) Weapon Turrets: Six
Light (AA) Weapon Turrets: Six
NTU Silos: Six
Minimum Crew: Sixteen
Optimal Crew: Twenty

Addendum VIII: Weapons

Heavy: Forward Facing AntiShip Weapons

NC: Titan Torpedo - 50000 Damage per unit/1 unit per clip/120 second reload/3000 m range/300 m/s speed
TR: Shiva AutoCannon - 1000 Damage per unit/60 units per clip at 0.25 RoF/120 second reload/1500 m range/1500 m/s speed
VS: Siege Beam - 45 Damage per unit/1000 units per clip at 0.01 RoF(continuous laser)/120 second reload/2000 m range/10000 m/s speed

Medium: Gunner Turrets with limited arcs (all have at least 180 degrees of horizontal arc), primarily for anti flanker defense.

NC: Coil Pulse Cannon - 2500 Damage per unit/10 units per clip at 2.00 RoF/10 second reload/1500 m range/1500 m/s speed
TR: Pharaoh AutoCannon - 400 Damage per unit/50 units per clip at 0.10 RoF/10 second reload/1000 m range/1500 m/s speed
VS: Ancient Defender - 15 Damage per unit/1000 units per clip at 0.01 RoF/10 second reload/1250 m range/10000 m/s speed

Light: AA weapons designed to take out enemy aircraft trying to infiltrate and or directly attack the AC.

NC/TR/VS: Flak Weapons, in the style of the Skyguard. These have excellent coverage, but relatively small down angle arcs.