Cadet I/Pods and Killbonus

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The Eject pod

When your ship is destroyed you are launched into space in an eject pod. The pod is a small, slow and defenseless craft that serves no other purpose than saving the pilot's life, with supplies of oxygen that can last no longer than 5 minutes. After 5 minutes the pod explodes and you respawns at a base exactly as if your pod had been destroyed by an enemy.

Don't get yourself podded

Many games with respawn make dying a very small issue. It is not a small one in Allegiance.

For starters getting yourself podded renders you useless to your team until you are picked up which can take up to 5 minutes if you're unlucky! Secondly by getting yourself podded by enemy pilots "feeds" their killbonus, making them a greater danger to everyone else on your team. Lastly don't forget that every time you get podded is another opportunity for the enemy to take your killbonus from you! (assuming you're good enough to get a decent one, of course ;))

Getting a pickup

A pilot placed in an eject pod is completely useless. He can do nothing more than sit there and wait to get back to base using the pod's weak thrusters. As a pod pilot, it is your responsibility to get home as soon as possible so you can help the team again. You have several options:

1. Fly all the way back to the nearest base or rescue probe/beacon/sanctuary.
2. Use Autopilot to fly to a nearby friendly pilot.
   • This works only if the pilot is flying in a straightish line and will pass nearby your pod. If they're boosting or dodging enemy fire you can expect your AP to fail.
3. Ask a friendly pilot to pick you up, then do #2.
   • To ask for a pickup you can either send a voice chat to the entire team, `np (I need pickup) or `yi (I need rescue help!). This will send a message to the entire team and you may find it gets ignored, or responded to by pilots on the opposite side of the map!
   • Or you can left-click on their ship then right-click on your pod, which will send them an order to pick you up.
4. Destroy your lifepod.
   • You can suicide by ramming enemy ships or flying through minefields.
   • Destroying your lifepod will reset your killbonus to zero (see below)
   • If you're playing a game with limited lives (unlikely) this will reduce the number of lives you have left.

As a pilot, you must make an effort to pickup all pods you see to help bring pilots back in the action. This is most crucial when under attack. You are in a remote sector and 6 pods are coming out of an aleph 5000 metres from you. Suddenly, your minimap indicates that your home is under attack! The worst thing you could do in this case is ripcord home. What you must do is quickly pickup the pods. That will instantly bring 6 pilots back in action which help the defense far more than your one ship appearing at the teleporter. Once you've picked them up you can ripcord home yourself and also help defend.

Tip: If you are picking up a large number of your team's pods in a sector, fly to a safe spot, STOP and let them come to you. It takes skill to grab a large number of pods on the fly. It is always better to get close to the group and stop so they can come to you.

If you are Bios, however, the best thing you can do is ripcord home and then sit still. Bios pods can ripcord and so this way you can stand by the teleport receiver and pickup the pods that are ripcording in.

If your faction has them available be sure to lay rescue probes when possible, at key moments.

Example A rescue probe must remain available when you are on a bomber run, so that the many pilots that participated in the bomber run must be able to quickly get back home. A RP that expires just as the run is underway is no good to anyone.

A team that focuses on quickly picking up pods can easily make a difference between defeat and victory, especially in smaller games where every pilot is downright crucial.

Kill bonus

Kill bonus (KB) is a unique aspect of Allegiance. It is a bonus given to the damage you deal and can be increased by killing enemy ships.

This gives value to engaging in dogfights (aside from the fun factor!). For instance, some players attempt to win several dogfights before they fly a bomber so that they require one less anti-base missile than normal. It also adds a strategic element to killing enemy life pods - do you destroy their pod, resetting their kb to zero but respawning them at their base, or do you let them slowly float home with their kb intact?

Important facts about killbonus

• Your kill bonus starts at ten when you join a game (most of the time).

  There is a bug where sometimes you start with zero for unknown reasons.

• Kill bonus increases when you kill any craft.
• Destroying or capturing towers, probes, pods or bases does not increase your kill bonus.
• A player's kill bonus is reset to zero when their life pod is destroyed.
• Kill bonus is a percentage bonus on the damage dealt by your weapons.

  That is: a player with 35 KB will do 35% more damage than a player with 0 KB.

• Kill bonus also affects repairs dealt by nans.
• Kill bonus is an integer number (see below).

  Killing 76 ships (kb = 47.500) or 129 ships (kb = 48.496) makes no difference - in both cases your damage is a "mere" 48% greater than normal.

Kill bonus on your HUD

Where is my KB?

In picture to the right the 21 enclosed by a green circle is the current pilot's kill bonus. Each shot they fire performs 21% more damage. The 10 in the target view is the targeted opponent's kill bonus.

How is KB calculated?

Kill bonus is worked out by this simple formula:

<math>Killbonus = 50 \times \left( \frac{kills}{kills+4} \right)</math>,

where kills starts at one, is incremented after each kill and is set to zero after each death. The result is then rounded to the nearest integer.

This is an asymptotic relationship - that is, the higher your kb gets the less killbonus you are rewarded. This is demonstrated in the table below:

    0 kills =  0 KB = 100% damage
    1 kills = 10 KB = 110% damage        10.0% gain
    2 kills = 17 KB = 117% damage         6.3% gain
    3 kills = 21 KB = 121% damage         3.4% gain
    4 kills = 25 KB = 125% damage         3.3% gain 
    5 kills = 28 KB = 128% damage         2.4% gain
    6 kills = 30 KB = 130% damage         1.6% gain
    7 kills = 32 KB = 132% damage         1.5% gain
    8 kills = 33 KB = 133% damage         0.8% gain
    9 kills = 35 KB = 135% damage         ...
   10 kills = 36 KB = 136% damage         
   11 kills = 37 KB = 137% damage         
   12 kills = 38 KB = 138% damage
   14 kills = 39 KB      ...              
   16 kills = 40 KB 
   18 kills = 41 KB 
   20 kills = 42 KB 
   23 kills = 43 KB 
   27 kills = 44 KB 
   33 kills = 45 KB 
   40 kills = 46 KB 
   54 kills = 47 KB 
   76 kills = 48 KB 
  130 kills = 49 KB 
  396 kills = 50 KB = 150% damage         

The highest attainable KB is 50, and has yet to be reached as far as we know.

Pod killing

Most First Person Shooters with a respawn feature deal with dying as a very small issue. You just have to wait a few seconds and then respawn at base.

Such is not the case in Allegiance.

In Allegiance, a killed player is forced into an eject pod, a slow, low armoured ship with no weapons and only 5 minutes supply of oxygen. The pilot cannot do anything until they are rescued or manage to fly all the way home. An enemy pilot in an eject pod is effectively out of action, and your team has a temporary advantage in numbers.

• A pod can be rescued by any friendly player.
• or by a friendly carrier.
• or by docking at a friendly base.
• some factions have bases that can rescue pods, even though you can't normally dock at them.
• some factions have special ships that can also rescue pods.

But if you shoot the pod then that player is instantly transported home and can jump in another ship and be right back in your face. Instead of the long pod ride home they are straight back in action - by pod killing (PK) them you've done them a favour.

That's the downside. The upside is that whenever a pilot is pk'd their Kill Bonus is reset to zero. The question becomes, when should you PK the player and when should you let them float?

When to PK

• The pod has a high KB. The general rule of thumb is to pod kill anything which is 30 or higher.
• NEVER kill a pod when your team is on a bomber run, heavy troop transport run or other major offensive action. The reason should be obvious: any player that is podkilled can instantly launch to defend again.
• Always kill Bios pods. Why? Because they can rip home and don't have the long pod ride. Removing even a 10 KB is worthwhile.
  • Exception - If you know the enemy Bios team has no home teleport.
• Your opponent is Tactical and you know someone on that team who is an awesome miner killer and/or stealth bomber pilot. You want them to have a low bonus because otherwise they will perform devastating stealth attacks.

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