Fractal Softworks Forum

Starsector => Suggestions => Topic started by: goduranus on December 16, 2019, 07:02:23 PM

Title: Fake transponder special ability
Post by: goduranus on December 16, 2019, 07:02:23 PM
Would be cool, you can maybe purchase transponder codes as a trade good on the black market, then have an map view ability that when you activate, you take on the guise of a fleet of another faction, to conduct false flag operations and such.

Upon activation, a number of transponder code trade good is consumed equal to the player’s fleet size, similar to how the sensor ability consumes volatiles. The logic being that larger ships are scrutinized more closely.

The fake transponder code would have a health value that is depleted by conducting illegal activities such as smuggling piracy or conducting unprovoked attacks against non hostile factions, upon running out of health value, the transponder code automatically turns into a pirate transponder code.

The player is unable to make money through bounty hunting while fake transponder code is active.

Destroying ships would yield transponder codes as loot, the logic being that you take on the guise of the ships you killed.

Customs scan will reveal if the player if using fake codes.

Hostile actions with fake codes will still have limited impact similar to transponder off, due to suspicion.

This special ability should require one of the science skills.
Title: Re: Fake transponder special ability
Post by: SonnaBanana on December 16, 2019, 07:30:54 PM
Codes should decay over time even when not being used.
Activating ability shouldn't have cost but increase decay rate instead.
Customs scans should remove a large amount of codes in your possession (loss determined by fleet size) instead of being always revealing.

Otherwise, I think this is great idea because it looks like what I posted earlier  :P
Title: Re: Fake transponder special ability
Post by: goduranus on December 16, 2019, 10:41:46 PM
May be a lot of similar suggestions popping up because of the transponder play in Season 4 of The Expanse, which just came out :P
Title: Re: Fake transponder special ability
Post by: Plantissue on December 17, 2019, 05:54:21 AM
Should the player have the ability to enter hostile systems freely if the have the transponder consumable? Would be interesting if after killing enough pirates, yielding transponder codes, you can simply waltz into pirate station or after killing enough pathers, you can waltz into pather stations as you now have enough transponders. Seem kind of anti-intuitive.
Title: Re: Fake transponder special ability
Post by: Beep Boop on December 26, 2019, 06:27:28 AM
Should the player have the ability to enter hostile systems freely if the have the transponder consumable? Would be interesting if after killing enough pirates, yielding transponder codes, you can simply waltz into pirate station or after killing enough pathers, you can waltz into pather stations as you now have enough transponders. Seem kind of anti-intuitive.
I don't actually need a transponder code to waltz over to pirate bases after killing enough pirates, because every pirate who would stop me from going there is now dead. If anything, what we need is not the ability to sneak into bases, but the ability to simply DEMAND it OR ELSE WE WILL OPEN FIRE. After all, regardless of how much commotion you've caused, once the pirate base is staring at a battlefleet that has destroyed all of its defenders and will clearly destroy it next, it really has only two options: Submit, or Fight, and one of these options is a lot less likely to end in immediate death. If I wanna just sail openly into the place like Perry into Japan, what are they gonna do about it?