Time Compression & You

Good add-on ideas Panzer,

Now I like the idea of randomly dropping out of travel mode, because it would make players think twice. It would require players, and commanders to think before they give orders. They wouldnt know if it was random or if there is a hostial target in the area. Making them decide on the hard calls. If they send out sub-hunters to search for subs. Which would make it take longer to get to the otherside. Or stay in formation, go to flank speed and run for the otherside. Making them still rather open to attack from subs, or long range attack.

However for neutrals which would be AI's by my guess, I dont think they should require you to drop out everytime. Now this is speculation on my part, but im presumming that there will be trade lanes, and so forth. Making NPC (Non-Player-Cahracters -AI-) control the ships going to points. So there would likly be quite afew of them all over the place, if you dropped to play screen everytime you traveled to a spot they are in, it would get frustrating. But then again, it would also allow an enemy in prusute of you to catch up.

For some other ideas to make "Travel Mode" more useful for players, is if someone is traveling in "Play Mode" and they are picking up contacts on there radar friendly or otherwise. The infomation could be displayed on a window in the "Travel Window". Allowing Inteligance Gathering much faster for fleet leaders. IT could also display all location of your faction.

However this could be exploted by players for the enemy. So prehaps ship locations/movements/ports, etc could only be viewed by people with certain ranks. Or Task Force/Fleet Commanders, etc. Making things a little harder for the enemy to get the infomation.

I don't like the idea of being able to see everything in travel mode. That means for a large fleet action, one side would only need to send out a few number of ships in every direction to get a complete snap shot of what was around them. Because these searching boats would be in 'travel mode' they would effectivly travel extremely fast and detect all non freindies in a large area around the fleet. It would be like being able to have a super long range radar set at the cost of just sending a few boats in several directions.

I think it would be better to limit the amount of available info given to 'traveling' ships and force them to go into 'play mode' in order to gather intelligence and see what is around. Prehaps a cool off time for the travel option is in order so a person can't just go in and out rapidly.... Maybe like 2 minutes or so?

I see what you mean, what I meant is if there is a friendly (Your Faction) vessel in play mode in a sector of the map. (Sailing through) and not in travel mode. His/Her radar contacts would be displayed in the "travel" mode. Not there exact locations on the sector, just that they are there. Just as if the friendly ships communications officer reported back that contacts have been found. Perhaps on the ships options in the "Play" mode there is a button to press called "Report In" or something that would send the information to be display in the "Travel" window. If the captain doesn?t press the button then the infomation isnt displayed in the "Travel" window.

Now to me a cool-off time is required yes. But what I meant is if you come out of "Travel" into "Play" then you would have to "sail" to the other side of that area. Which we will say takes 15 minutes. But yes you could turn around and go out the way you came. So perhaps it would take 16 minutes before you can enter "Travel" again. Giving you just a little more time then it would take to go across the map. (Making it so people who want to save a min or two go sailing. Allowing friendly, or enemies to meet up with you. Maybe attack you )

But as I said, they have to be in"Play" mode to have the infomation displayed for other people on "Travel" mode.

Actually this is where the whole callng your crew to battlestations will start to become important. If you are traveling along and suddenly there is an enemy... naturally you want to come to battlestations. Of course that should take some time to do. The larger the ships generally the longer it takes to get everything turned on and people to their posts. There is going to have to be something added to the game where you need to come to battlestations and come off battlestations. Having your men go to battlestations is generally something that doesn't allow you to do other things, like sleep, eat and repair work. Its hard to fix the engines if they are running all the time... So prehaps it should be necesary to be off of battlestations in order to go into travel mode and to do important things like dock, repair/rest, etc...

Yea, I like that idea. Say you randomly drop out, well if you come to battlestations. Then you cant go to travel mode, and maybe you slow down (For some reason) Prehaps because you are diverting resources to other locations of the ship.

Eather way it would keep players on there toes, just as Captains would be at sea. You dont know if there is hostial there or just dropped out because the computer gave you the finger.

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Assuming, for a moment, that this poll might actually affect future Enigma chapters, I'd like to offer a plea to those about to vote against TC, that it's something that you need not ever use. Hell, I may not use it very often.

It's the option that I like, and really, who wants to deny themselves the option of doing something?

It's called freedom, people!

Yea, but people having the option would unbalance the game.

Anything online needs to all run along the same lines, otherwise there aer far to many chances for players to find ways to abuse the system.

Although you, or myself may not do it. I can tell you know there will be atleast a small group of people who will.

I think it very true that the best option is to leave it in there and let people use it if they choose to. However, I am of the firm opinion that it's use need to be edited or resctricted so that it isn't abused. I like the idea of being able to travel the world and not have to literally spend months to do it. However at the same time I don't want fleets on enemy vessels to be able to blink in right next to me. I think that there is a happy middle ground here that will allow things to work well. That will allow people to travel about quickly where they need to.. prehaps pre-defined travel areas... and still get to go on long cruises or patrols.