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F8 is used to bring up the base/turret transfer selection.
As such, it doesn't even work when you're out of base.

Could it be made so that when you launch from base, the F8 will still work, but switch from showing bases and turrets and instead show rip receiving probes/ships/stations?
Clicking the selections could select the target and allow you to ripcord directly to them without having to worry about priorities or anything else.


Another side suggestion is for this list to show the energy of these targets, and the amount of energy it will take for you to rip to them. This would avoid time wasted trying to ripcord to a ship that's too low on energy.




Not sure how hard or time consuming this would be to code, but it would a great addition to the game and make Rix SRs, TP2's, and use of carriers a much more streamlined process.

Hey this is actually a quality idea, long as it doesn't interfere with already established behavior for clicking on the minimap and such (no reason it should just sayin)

QUOTE the amount of energy it will take for you to rip to them.[/quote]
The amount of energy req is dependant on the ripping ship (i.e. YOU), so would only need to be displayed once.

just show the ones that don't have energy in gray or something. don't show the entire energy bar.

juckto wrote:QUOTE (juckto @ Aug 18 2010, 05:39 PM) The amount of energy req is dependant on the ripping ship (i.e. YOU), so would only need to be displayed once.

Correct, but aptest has a great idea for just having ships without sufficient energy simply grayed out, no need for numbers cluttering up the dialog.

Ships that are rip receivers, but cannot receive you should also be grayed out, or another color such as red, or not shown at all. Such as a SR scout if you're flying a bomber.

This sounds like a great idea.

Funny, I think it's more realistic when you're not able to transfert your ship from the space to a base. When you're in a base, you can teleport. It means that if you're away of one of your base, you take a risk...

French Toast, he's not suggesting we incorporate a transfer from 'Space to Base' as you said, instead he is saying 'give the F8 key an out of base function' (as currently it does nothing).

What he's suggesting is that when you press F8 OoB you will see specific teleportation destinations such as carriers, teleports and SR scouts in each sector. He goes on to suggest that target rips which you could not use currently (Small Rips in large or capital class ships or rip destinations with too low energy to accept your rip) would be grayed out.

Normally ripping to a sector will only send you to the prioritized ripcord (I have no idea how destinations are prioritized), if the suggested system was incorporated then you could select a specific target to rip to.

An example: if you wanted to repair a miner under attack with your TF scout and it was in a sector with a friendly teleport you wouldn't have to worry about ripping to the teleport when you want to go straight to the miner to save it because you could select to rip to the miner directly. Additionally you wouldn't be able to select to rip to the miner unless it had enough energy to accept incoming ships, preventing you from wasting time failing to teleport and forcing you to use the teleport (which could accept incoming ships).

Personally I think it's a brilliant idea. It solves a very old problem and would make the game run a lot smoother. Add a bonus of less chat flooding every time a SR scout has enough energy to accept a rip and I'm sold.

Sadly I wouldn't be able to use it personally (no use of F# keys currently) but I think it would be a great change to Allegiance ^^



There's two things I would add to the suggestion assuming the coding wouldn't be significantly harder to do (it probably would).

Firstly, make it so ships/carriers capable of accepting a ripcord from your ship before a ripcord would be resolved are capable of being selected as destinations.
I will throw out random fake numbers to show what I am proposing clearly:

'Accepting SR scout': Energy total 800. Current Energy 450. Energy Regen 15 points/second.
'Ripping Rix Enh Fig': Energy cost of rip: 550. Ripcord time: 12 seconds.

Now in this case despite the fact that the SR scout couldn't accept a rip from the Enh Fig at that very instant, it could accept one before the Enh Fig could resolve a rip. See in the 12 seconds it would take the Enh Fig to rip, the SR scout would have gained 180 points of energy (again made up numbers) would have a total of 630 and would be able to accept the incoming Enh Fig.

If the proposed code change were implemented as described it would mean (for example) that the Rixian figs spamming ripcord to get near an enemy miner wouldn't actually be able to begin ripping until the scout had enough energy presently. This means a potential loss of nearly full ripcord time for that ship and each other later ship which must wait before beginning its rip to that SR scout. While not a significant problem it could still mean the difference between killing a miner (in Rix's case) or saving one (in TF's case).

On the other hand, If we were to allow people to rip to targets which currently didn't have the energy to accept them (and thus were still shown gray) then people would have to make judgement calls and hope that the Rip destination in question had enough energy by the time their teleportation was completed. That's a messy solution at best.

What I would propose (given possible with coding) is that if the SR in question would have enough energy to accept a rip from your ship by the time the teleportation resolved (the 12 seconds or whatever) it be shown as available and be able to be selected as a destination.

I still think the change would do more good then bad even if this minor problem isn't fixed but I think the above suggestion is the 'cleanest' solution.

Secondly, that F8 would also indicate if a TP1 or TP2 will have been destroyed by the time your ripcord would resolve and 'gray it out' accordingly. Probably a bit easier to code but a much smaller problem as most people wouldn't be ripping late enough for the TP1/2 to die of... 'natural causes'.

I hope some of that made sense... >.>

Oups, misunderstanding... I was wrong. That's a good idea!

Perhaps energy could be shown simply as a percentage, 100% meaning you can rip to it, 550% meaning you and 4 other similar designs could rip to it with 50nrg left over.

Just because its grayed out doesn't mean you wouldn't be able to select it, it would just be there to show you that it currently doesn't have enough energy at that moment to receive you.


Though, having it resolve your ripcord time, and the energy regain of the target ship shouldn't be too difficult, and it could be made so that the grayed out portion means that you wont be able to reach them if you ripcord at that instant.