I meant this in-case everyone else might get confused
Hazard - Sabre
Module: Active ECM
Range:
Recharge:
Damage:
" Disrupt all healing effects including own modules on target ship after 10 seconds. Enemy ships within 1,500m radius of target are also infected after that time. Effect duration varies with ship class."
Further concepts… you know, I’m starting to think I shouldn’t hijack this thread further with these. I’ll relocate any ideas not related to the ‘virus’ elsewhere. However, I will share this one:
Nano-Hack [v0.1**]:**
Target reconfigures and sabotages AoE modules for x seconds.
Frigates: All healing abilities of the Frigate instead reduce healing by their normal healing rate.
Command Fighters: Buffs instead reduce resistance to all types of damage.
Shutting down an infected module decreases the cooldown time.
Meanwhile I wanted say I am amazed and pleased that a lot of people have come together in this discussion. For this I thank you.
I read all post and see good idea to come out.
But my initial idea was to give a fixed damage and infinite, if not divided from the other space ship.
Let me explain better.
We take a exemple:
Im with my ship i deal 1000 damage at sec.
i encounter a ship have 100 resist and 10 000 life (50%hull/50%shield). Have 90 natural regen and 200 shield/100 hull regen
Im in aoe debuff (signature maskin mk 3) nerf my damage 29%
Then my output is 1000-29%= 710 damage>>>>>hit encounter resist>>>710-50%= 335 damage at sec
My danage are coutered of shield buff and natural regen 335-(200+90)= 65 damage at sec (and this is only for the half of life, after are the hull regen)
This is the solo ship output agaist a frigate ball, i don’t count deal with mines, missile % of hit and critics all of this under counter fire.
If i have 2 ship i can have a different output.
first ship 65 damage
Second ship 335 damage. Total output 400
the famous focus fire in game foucs fire are preseent in 20% of situation if you a random. Raise in squad 40% and i think in team speck raise to 80%
Then.
I see idea of exponential dot, and is op but like the hurry put in the mind of enemy ship.
A fixed danage and infinte in time is good becouse have 2 effects.
1> To be the exemple solo ship counter the enemy regen (the 65 damage) and give the chance to deal the 400 danage
2> prevent cap of beacon.
Now, if the damage are scalable with various resist we can chose 3 types
Thermal> is all around resist and some ship chose to tank it becouse of mines and other special effect are theremal based, guard can resist better of this module.(because 70% of guard don’t change shield)
EM** >**Shield weakness and can be very helpful if damage is if this type but wen reach hull are more less effective.
Kinetic> hull weakness but less effective agaist shield. Can be funny this type because at the first stage can do lot of danage but wen reach hulll you are more effective.
Or do a Fixed and pure damage not scalable.
A fixed 150 at sec souds good and the only way to toggle this damage is to go away and give more urgency.
Another option is a only hull damage bypassing shield (like a nanodrone infestation) 
Then if sounds good i can redo the vote option to implement this choise .
Hope to explain better why i prefer a dot and not a other things.
You must think this stuff can have enemy to is good to take a balanced game no modules op.
Thks for read this.
Meanwhile I wanted say I am amazed and pleased that a lot of people have come together in this discussion. For this I thank you.
I read all post and see good idea to come out.
But my initial idea was to give a fixed damage and infinite, if not divided from the other space ship.
Let me explain better.
We take a exemple:
Im with my ship i deal 1000 damage at sec.
i encounter a ship have 100 resist and 10 000 life (50%hull/50%shield). Have 90 natural regen and 200 shield/100 hull regen
Im in aoe debuff (signature maskin mk 3) nerf my damage 29%
Then my output is 1000-29%= 710 damage>>>>>hit encounter resist>>>710-50%= 335 damage at sec
My danage are coutered of shield buff and natural regen 335-(200+90)= 65 damage at sec (and this is only for the half of life, after are the hull regen)
This is the solo ship output agaist a frigate ball, i don’t count deal with mines, missile % of hit and critics all of this under counter fire.
If i have 2 ship i can have a different output.
first ship 65 damage
Second ship 335 damage. Total output 400
the famous focus fire in game foucs fire are preseent in 20% of situation if you a random. Raise in squad 40% and i think in team speck raise to 80%
Then.
I see idea of exponential dot, and is op but like the hurry put in the mind of enemy ship.
A fixed danage and infinte in time is good becouse have 2 effects.
1> To be the exemple solo ship counter the enemy regen (the 65 damage) and give the chance to deal the 400 danage
2> prevent cap of beacon.
Now, if the damage are scalable with various resist we can chose 3 types
Thermal> is all around resist and some ship chose to tank it becouse of mines and other special effect are theremal based, guard can resist better of this module.(because 70% of guard don’t change shield)
EM** >**Shield weakness and can be very helpful if damage is if this type but wen reach hull are more less effective.
Kinetic> hull weakness but less effective agaist shield. Can be funny this type because at the first stage can do lot of danage but wen reach hulll you are more effective.
Or do a Fixed and pure damage not scalable.
A fixed 150 at sec souds good and the only way to toggle this damage is to go away and give more urgency.
Another option is a only hull damage bypassing shield (like a nanodrone infestation)
Then if sounds good i can redo the vote option to implement this choise .
Hope to explain better why i prefer a dot and not a other things.
You must think this stuff can have enemy to is good to take a balanced game no modules op.
Thks for read this.
No offence, but I find that a tad difficult to read, but your point is clear enough. So, you’re saying that:
The damage is fixed and lasts for an undetermined amount of time.
The damage is enough to counter natural regen plus a little extra on top.
With a second ship the damage you deal can very quickly disable or even obliterate frig balls.
The effect is applied to one ship only, but any ships within that radius suffer the same effect. No spreading (which, TBH, is certainly more entertaining).
The damage could be any of the three types, or it could be one that is fixed and unaffected by all resists.
Okay, that sounds good… But I still think what we really need to do to stop frigate balls cold is just take away their healing ability. Without that healing ability they only have their natural shield regeneration (I’m not harsh enough to have HAZARD stop your shield regen) which will not be sufficient under focused fire. With HAZARD, I expect maybe a Cov Ops, a Gunship and an ECM (for HAZARD itself) could give a frig ball a really bad day.
EDIT: Why don’t you copy/paste everyone’s ideas in this thread, stick them in the OP, and then add another vote option asking for which do you think is the best? We can decide that way.
We take a exemple:
My danage are coutered of shield buff and natural regen 335-(200+90)= 65 damage at sec
Hi Pony … here is my input. Let’s create module that attack regen. Not one that deals damage
335-(200+90)= 65 335 damage at sec
This way, the module wont be able to directly kill small ships and become OP
attack healing. not create new damage.
Hi Pony … here is my input. Let’s create module that attack regen. Not one that deals damage
335-(200+90)= 65 335 damage at sec
This way, the module wont be able to directly kill small ships and become OP
attack healing. not create new damage.
As a engineer frigate pilot, that is going to be a b*tch of a module… but I guess that’s the whole point isn’t it? You’d have to balance it out though so it doesn’t become too ‘spammable’.
Eh, I’m a bit worried that by making it directly effect regen you’re treading on the toes of Spy Drones, which frankly are the main thing that makes recons worth flying right now.
Puny’s simple DOT idea is alright, but that function is mostly implemented by plasma web already, and I think most folks are looking at this as a frigate blob cracking device, which the kind of damage you’re talking about would be ineffective at because mutually repairing engineers would laugh off a 300 dps dot, even if it was ticking on several ships at once.
If you’d rather focus on the original idea then we can spin the blob cracking ideas off in to another thread.
While Viruses etc. are good ideas for one, and truthfully, this kind of “chain lightning” or “moon glaive” weapon would be nice indeed (or did that idea now disappear?), I cannot really say “yeah” to a “virus” which basicly “infects spaceships over the vacuum” and seems to have no natural counter even if you experience it more often; you would fail after two attempts if the ships went home and some software engineer would close the “holes” in software you misused.
Viruses just dont work this way, not today, not ever, and certainly we are over the age, where any computer related “mysticism” is easily accepted. You need a hardware vector for this, basicly something which interacts directly with the hardware and “creates the virus on the fly” inside the system.
So basicly, I would not do it as a virus, if it is about multiple infections. Instead, I would do it much like spydrones, or as additional ability for spydrones, you can activate once the target has a spydrone attached (no matter if by you or others).
I would say, you can infect a primary ship as a carrier, and “any ship which it affects / gets affected by” with aura buffs would get affected, except the carrier, resulting in the buffs simply turning off with cooldowns, much like ECM does to one target. This brings in two main things:
* first off, you need to infect an enemy and he brings havoc to his own people, by turning off all their nice buffs they try to give.
* second, your team has to let him escape back to his team.
* it deactivates any buff the carrier is exposed to. shield recharge, energy recharge, missile shields, anything turns off with cooldown. It can be instantly reactivated.
* the carrier should not be automatically notified about him being infected.
* ecm against the carrier turns off the virus too.
* directed buffs on a carrier - like shield heals - cause the virus to piggyback to the caster and is the only way to infect other ships becoming carriers themselves. This makes it ideal for captain maps.
Needlessly to say, ECM intys should have it of course - however, since I am still adamantly against a subclassing of the interceptor class so much, I would like them to be deployed on any Interceptor classed ship;
Using the same device without drones to attach them (or if they are out), gives only a chance to infect a single target and is basicly then only a half-baked ECM device. The chance is higher if the target is inside (hostile) mines, using mine control signals as carrier. An alternative would be in this case, that the mines kinda turn on their master, but well, it is complicated as it is now.
Using the device without a target lock will activate it on an active spydrone of yours.
So, for the enemy to infect others, you need spydrones to make him a carrier, and use the network bridges the buffs use to heal him to hack for you - otherwise you can use it as a general ECM, which is mainly useful against tanks in minefields. And its perfectly explainable in every detail, why it is so hard to counter it via a simple software upgrade at base. Also, since spydrones are limited on the battlefield, you cannot simply spam this, and offer it to numerous interceptor classes.
taking into account Binky’s and g4borg’s intput:
Module: Active
Class: Interceptor
Range: 2,000m
Recharge: ?
Activation: 3/4 of average interceptor cap pool
Duration: 7 seconds
" Disables target’s shield and hull regen. Ships attempting to heal the target during this time will have their own systems disrupted."
No mysticism here. If another ship can link with a target and heal them, it’s safe to assume matter can reverse travel back to the source. We already have technology to detect the firmware of all electrical household equipment simply by plugging into a wall socket. We can assume future engineers are able to rewrite the operating software of heal modules if they had a link. In this case, that link would be existing heal auras and remote heals as engineers activate them.
“… Ships attempting to heal the target during this time will have their own systems disrupted.”
To deal with remote heals. Target will not receive the heal. Healer will have all their heal buffs canceled and suffer the same affects as the target ship ie. it gets ‘infected’. If another ship tries to heal the healer or have active auras within range, they too will get infected and it daisy-chains all the way down.
Too OP?
taking into account Binky’s and g4borg’s intput:
No mysticism here. If another ship can link with a target and heal them, it’s safe to assume matter can reverse travel back to the source. We already have technology to detect the firmware of all electrical household equipment simply by plugging into a wall socket. We can assume future engineers are able to rewrite the operating software of heal modules if they had a link. In this case, that link would be existing heal auras and remote heals as engineers activate them.
To deal with remote heals. Target will not receive the heal. Healer will have all their heal buffs canceled and suffer the same affects as the target ship ie. it gets ‘infected’. If another ship tries to heal the healer or have active auras within range, they too will get infected and it daisy-chains all the way down.
Too OP?
i like it, but it
should only proc once (not infecting others),
should not be stackable and
should have a relative high cooldown.
instead trippling the cooldown of all deactivated restoration modules.
perhaps not a module, but special kind of missile (so counterable), limit in terms of usage?
even organized squads should not be able to disable enemies heal permanently.
i like it, but it
should only proc once (not infecting others),
should not be stackable and
should have a relative high cooldown.
instead trippling the cooldown of all deactivated restoration modules.
perhaps not a module, but special kind of missile (so counterable), limit in terms of usage?
even organized squads should not be able to disable enemies heal permanently.
It’s not permanent, I think. Again, scaling effect duration with ship size is a must for this.
Too OP?
thats why i would *not* affect the carrier itself, and not make it “spread over the network”, simply by using the “network link” the aura ships would need to use anyway to talk to each other to send lockout codes or confuse the system, but instead really only use the carrier to disable anything which tries to heal or protect him (so the healer of the healer is not affected if outside of carrier range, and the carrier himself does not even know he knocks out his own guys)
The problem is, that on a high tech battlefield, the chance of you interacting with the enemy network is a one time break deal. It could be explained that undetected on a friendly ship this virus could interact, but would rendered useless, as soon as the encryption updates. Even plugging in stuff into the electrical wires needs you to physically interact
Of course we are all talking about hypothetical things, so all I dont want to see is “a virus spreading without counter mechanism in each battle through wireless connection without any physical interaction to the attacked system” - because lets face it, i dont think, the enemy would let you interact with their systems, and any break-in by the enemy would be a one time deal in history, because somebody gets fired for stuff like this.
otherwise, yeah, since i got carried away in the middle of my brainstorm, dont take the realism part too serious, it basicly only underlines my idea of making it a little bit less op, on the other hand, especially useful against balled up enemies; while as single target spell it only is half as effective as a simple ECM, except you can catch his buffs, especially while he tries to camp in his own mines. (basicly, same effect as the carrier would induce to your ship, but only on a single target and chance based)
Also, it would make a great “spy drone” add-on spell, which if equipable by multiple interceptor classes, would make teamplay nicer and give e.g. cov ops a half working ECM device if no recon has spy drones.
And maybe, the best idea is still evolving upon other ideas stated here 
In the end its also up to the devs, how expensive such spells are in terms of the state-machine and if they even do it, so …
still, great ideas here. love it.
thats why i would *not* affect the carrier itself, and not make it “spread over the network”, simply by using the “network link” the aura ships would need to use anyway to talk to each other to send lockout codes or confuse the system, but instead really only use the carrier to disable anything which tries to heal or protect him (so the healer of the healer is not affected if outside of carrier range, and the carrier himself does not even know he knocks out his own guys)
The problem is, that on a high tech battlefield, the chance of you interacting with the enemy network is a one time break deal. It could be explained that undetected on a friendly ship this virus could interact, but would rendered useless, as soon as the encryption updates. Even plugging in stuff into the electrical wires needs you to physically interact
Of course we are all talking about hypothetical things, so all I dont want to see is “a virus spreading without counter mechanism in each battle through wireless connection without any physical interaction to the attacked system” - because lets face it, i dont think, the enemy would let you interact with their systems, and any break-in by the enemy would be a one time deal in history, because somebody gets fired for stuff like this.
otherwise, yeah, since i got carried away in the middle of my brainstorm, dont take the realism part too serious, it basicly only underlines my idea of making it a little bit less op, on the other hand, especially useful against balled up enemies; while as single target spell it only is half as effective as a simple ECM, except you can catch his buffs, especially while he tries to camp in his own mines. (basicly, same effect as the carrier would induce to your ship, but only on a single target and chance based)
Also, it would make a great “spy drone” add-on spell, which if equipable by multiple interceptor classes, would make teamplay nicer and give e.g. cov ops a half working ECM device if no recon has spy drones.
And maybe, the best idea is still evolving upon other ideas stated here
still, great ideas here. love it.
Not necessarily. A computer virus could very easily be used over and over again.
Ever heard of metamorphic code? If you haven’t, it’s essentially code that can rewrite itself in its entirety into something totally new. There’s nothing for a virus scanner to latch onto that was present in a previous version.
Therefore, each time you activate the module, the virus could recode itself. Of course, it would target antivirus systems first to allow it to spread.
Digital warfare will always be a race. A good enough coder can make something that will always be in first place.
EDIT: And this should most certainly _ not _ be for Recon. That ship already has the parasitic remodulator and the phase remodulator. Allowing it to deny healing… It’s more suited for an ECM.
Try not to get too hung up on how the module works. Think of the game mechanics you want, and we can come up with a reason for them. It’s a well known fact that in sci-fi absolutely anything is possible with a sufficiently complicated arrangement of black holes.
this kind of “chain lightning” or “moon glaive” weapon would be nice indeed
Yeah I still like the “chain lightning” ideas of damage dealing based on proximity to other ships. I might spin that out in to another thread if Puny would prefer to focus on infectious small DoTs.
ok then. only one layer down.
the target, the engineer + command currently buffing him and any other ship trying to activate remote heal on him while the effect is still active.
I might spin that out in to another thread if Puny would prefer to focus on infectious small DoTs.
i say these are all trying to affect 1 common element - discourage frigate spheres. vote to keep everything on same thread but at the same time kill off ideas that won’t work so we dont end up with a million module ideas.
I think there should be a bigger incentive for the target to get rid of the effect. Your suggestion shuts down his allies trying to buff him but doesn’t affect him at all, which will lead to extreme frustration for engineers and commands as oblivious allies wreck their performance.
Something as simple as a dot ticking while he’s in range of friendly engineers and commands might do, though I’d prefer it to be structured so that the target suffers at least as much if not more than his allies.
Which makes a thought occur to me that’s totally off-topic from viruses, but how about a module that just makes a target unable to receive remote assistance for N seconds?
I think there should be a bigger incentive for the target to get rid of the effect. Your suggestion shuts down his allies trying to buff him but doesn’t affect him at all, which will lead to extreme frustration for engineers and commands as oblivious allies wreck their performance.
Something as simple as a dot ticking while he’s in range of friendly engineers and commands might do, though I’d prefer it to be structured so that the target suffers at least as much if not more than his allies.
Which makes a thought occur to me that’s totally off-topic from viruses, but how about a module that just makes a target unable to receive remote assistance for N seconds?
Not gonna cut it, Binky. This module’s requirements are really that it’s an AoE and somehow discourages healing.
Could you be more specific, since you quoted the entirety of a post with about 4 things in it, and I’m not really seeing the connection.
Could you be more specific, since you quoted the entirety of a post with about 4 things in it, and I’m not really seeing the connection.
Okay, what I really mean is this:
The module would optimally be an Area of Effect module which spreads to other ships in a short radius that could chain. The effect duration should scale with ship size (since it’s really designed for softening frigate balls) and somehow reduce or eliminate any and all healing effects besides natural shield regeneration.