Escape capsule automatization

[Corbeau]

Since I'm new to this board I'm still running on risk that this may have been mentioned before and also have a lot of energy and new ideas. I'm sure it will change in the future, but for now, I guess you'll simply have to suffer

Anyway, what I think would be a good addition is for the escape capsule work automatically, meaning, a moment before your ship blows up, it ejects and thus saves the pilot (just like in FFE, a.k.a. Elite III). I think this would be a good add-on because, of the last three times I got killed, twice I was missiled from the point-blank range (ok, so I'm inexperienced, should have seen that coming and fire the ECM as a precaution) and the third one was a collision with a Python (yeah, ok, I know I should have swerved, but I honestly though he was going to do it first), so in both cases I simply didn't have the time to pull the lever.

The contraargumant may be that it's realistic not to have the time to eject in some situations, but, to be perfectly honest, how many people here ever use the escape pod anyway? I know I never do, and when it's too late, it's simply to late and then I just reload the game. This way, you'd get the feel that the thing is actually useful and there'd be a point in having it on board.

As a trade off, I'd agree to the escape pod being much more expensive.

Cheers

[Dr. Nil]

Ok idea. I never remember to use the escape pod either. Perhaps it could be so that it only worked automatically, sometimes - e.g. not on collisions or missile impacts.

[Commander McLane]

Hm. How do we imagine the escape pod to work anyway? Is the cockpit itself the escape pod? Or does the pilot have to get to and into his escape pod first?

In the latter case an automatic launch of the escape pod wouldn't make sense. Imagine: You're still in your cockpit, fighting against your enemies, and suddenly you realize that your escape pod has launched from somewhere off your ship--without you inside, as you are still firing your lasers from your cockpit seat. Of course you wouldn't reflect on it for too long, as after a few fractions of a second you would be dead.

In the first case I could think of a kind of automatized escape sequence, where your cockpit is cut off the rest of the ship a few moments before everything is blast to pieces.

But I always imagined the escape capsule as something you have to get to first, which is represented by pressing ESC. So I wouldn't change the routine.

Other opinions on that?

[Killer Wolf]

i was always dubious about an escape capsule working in combat. it's like the old joke about plane blackboxes - if it can survive an assualt that blows its owner-ship into vapour, why don't they make the rest of the ships out of that same material?! if you chase one down and fire, it doesn't take much to tw@ it, so it never made sense to me that it would survive a ship exploding around/nearby it. i prefer to think of them like lifeboats, used to abandon a ship in other circumstances

[Dr. Nil]

But I always imagined the escape capsule as something you have to get to first, which is represented by pressing ESC. So I wouldn't change the routine.

Other opinions on that?

I you have to get up from the chair and go somewhere else on your ship, close a hatch and launch, then some kind of countdown would be fitting. Perhaps 5 seconds.

abandoning ship

in 5 seconds

[Commander McLane]

But I always imagined the escape capsule as something you have to get to first, which is represented by pressing ESC. So I wouldn't change the routine.

Other opinions on that?

I you have to get up from the chair and go somewhere else on your ship, close a hatch and launch, then some kind of countdown would be fitting. Perhaps 5 seconds.

abandoning ship

in 5 seconds

I agree. Would make sense. Had the same thought when I wrote this.

[Corbeau]

Well, most of the craft being single-seaters, I'd imagine the system would work like it does in jet fighters today: you pull the lever and are blasted out of danger, without needding, and having the room to change your position inside the ship in order to get to the pod.

it never made sense to me that it would survive a ship exploding around/nearby it. i prefer to think of them like lifeboats, used to abandon a ship in other circumstances

For example, no reason why the rest of the ship mass wouldn't act as a tampon between the exploding reactor and the quickly accelerating pod, just enough for it to reach a safe distance. Besides, when a ship is smashed, the problem here isn't that it's completely destroyed, but that the necessary systems - engine, lifesupport - have been killed. So an obvious solution is to backup these systems on a smaller scale, regardless the fact that this backap is no tougher than the whole ex-ship.

And all of your arguments maybe stand for realism, but what about gameplay? You mean you really use the escape pod as it is now?

[Corbeau]

I you have to get up from the chair and go somewhere else on your ship, close a hatch and launch, then some kind of countdown would be fitting. Perhaps 5 seconds.

But that would make the escape capsule completely redundant because who ever decides to leave his ship while there is the least bit of hope? Which is perfectly justified because a lot can change in five seconds.

[Captain Hesperus]

In much of the original Elite fiction (such as 'The Dark Wheel' and drew's excellent 'Status Quo') the escape pod is a separate module into which those lucky crew members who can bundle in and hit the button marked 'Launch' in big friendly letters. However, I can imagine that there would be, for smaller ships maybe, adaptations that allow the whole cockpit to be ejected from the hull, such as the Cobra NjX.

Captain Hesperus

[Commander McLane]

The more I think about it the more I am in favour of a small countdown. Perhaps not 5, but 3 seconds. It makes perfect sense to me that there is no instant release of the escape capsule.

@ Corbeau: As far as gameplay is concerned: I don't think that anybody really would wait till the very last moment before hitting ESC. The danger of the ship exploding just before that is too big.

[TGHC]

I don't go with the idea of automatic escape pods, the audio from laser hits is sufficient to tell you get ready to hyperspace or escape. I do think it a good idea for a few seconds time delay before the launch of an escape pod it would be more credible. When you hit hyperspace you have to sweat through the countdown as your shields are being savaged, and you get a major adrenilin rush if you survive!

To be fair though this is more a feature of classic elite, with Oolite you have injectors to get you out of real trouble (hopefully)

[Arexack_Heretic]

As (normal) cargo is lost when escapepod is used,
how does this affect contracts?

Cargo contracts are unaffected, just set back one cargo load.
passenger contracts: should be failed.
(even IF the cabins are selfcontained and return to station along with your pod, the surviving passengers will probably sue you for being a useless chauffeur)
special cargo...depends.
scripted 'cargo' will usually be only a mission_variable in the savegame file.
cargohold-filling cargo (like the Nova evacuees) should be lost with the ship, failing any associated mission.


I always assumed detachable bridges were a luxury item.
But a neccesity for most single seater craft. There simply is no room on the ship to stow a standard pod and its emergency detachment cradle.
(try imagining a Mamba with a pod attached)

I'd love the countdown. (but who would steer the ship?)
For a nominally multi-crew ship, the countdown could be related to crew-size, the Commander remaining behind untill all crew have left the ship. (if multiple personal pods are norm. or waiting for all crew to arrive at the single pod).
If ever NPC crew is introduced, saving the crew could be a good reason to buy multiple pods for a big ship. As well as an 'abandon ship' delay.
Maintenance crew would prefer a pod close to the drive/shield section in an anaconda as opposed to jogging up to the bridge only to find it already ejected.


The only reason besides the shady 'shipID scam' to reset legal rating, might be to escape overwhelming odds versus a superior foe.
Then again such would only be advantageous when a jump results in a scripted event and is required to accomplish or further a mission.

....might be cool ...
eject to avoid capture (...? hmm OK, death.)
Problem be that some elite commanders might 'break' the mission by winning anyhow.
'capture' may be the mission requirement.

[Commander McLane]

I'd love the countdown. (but who would steer the ship?)

Well, I guess the autopilot would (and it's just a few seconds anyway).

....might be cool ...
eject to avoid capture (...? hmm OK, death.)
Problem be that some elite commanders might 'break' the mission by winning anyhow.
'capture' may be the mission requirement.

On the contrary, Commander: Eject to provoke capture! Remember, it's the escape pods that are being scooped to capture the pilot inside, not the ship. That's only being blown up.

But otherwise a very nice idea for an OXP. Eject during a fight, in order to being captured and infiltrate the enemy. Would need an overhaul of the escape-sequence-code though, to make it scriptable.

[Arexack_Heretic]

no rewrite needed for that, I think.

You dock the nearest dockable.
script a custom carrier closeby and add the condition status_docked or docked to namedstation: customcarrier (or something like it)
missionscreen pops up before you can do anything....hopefully.

Also there is a STATUS_EJECTING iirc that may be usable.

[Commander McLane]

no rewrite needed for that, I think.

You dock the nearest dockable.
script a custom carrier closeby and add the condition status_docked or docked to namedstation: customcarrier (or something like it)
missionscreen pops up before you can do anything....hopefully.

Sounds feasible and should indeed work.

But of course I imagine something like this: after ejecting you see your ship tumbling away and--after a short while--exploding. Then you see your enemy approaching, getting closer and closer, while you can do absolutely nothing to prevent it, until he scoops you.

And this would need some re-programming, I guess.

Also there is a STATUS_EJECTING iirc that may be usable.

That doesn't work, because as soon as you eject the ejection sequence is started and all scripts are halted until you are docked at the next station. Tried this a while ago. So STATUS_EJECTING is actually superfluous.