I'd like to add an option so that Limpets actually work. The new approach would allow your ship to carry one Limpet per player or Corp in the game. The tactic of clearing mines by picking up other mines would not work with this option enabled. You'd just pick up more Limpets and pay more to have them cleared away.

I'd also like this option to remove the ability to log off and back on to scrub Limpets. How does that work again?

Anything else I should address with the Enhanced Limpets option?

One and the same thing.

You want us to pick up multiple limpets and pay to have them all removed? That could prove to be cost prohibative to new players entering a game. And could also have multiple baddies chasing after them. New players generally don't know how to scan density and recognize a limpet in a sector before they enter.

The way HVS works is you pick up one and it's stuck like super-glue, or actually welded onto your ship's hull! LOL Will not fall off if you enter a sector with more limpets, and can ONLY be removed at SD, not at any of the zero ports.

I actually like that we can remove them at the Zero ports since SD is usually pretty heavily guarded at times.

Well, if I understand it correctly, it's not quite the same thing. Being able to replace one player's Limpet with another player's limit is one thing, but being able to replace a Limpet with the same player's Limpet is another issue. Is that what's happening here? You log out, then back in and a Limpet from the same player gets picked up to replace the one that you're carrying? Even if the ship will carry one Limpet per player/corp, I don't want you to be able to wipe out a whole cluster of Limpets just be logging off and back on.

This could cause a lot of change to game strategy. Not saying that is a bad thing, and logically it never made sense to me as currently implemented. Under this strategy, could multiple corps have limpets in the same sector?

One addition to limpets I would love to see is the ability to see (and clear) deployed limpets from TEDIT. It would be a big boon to my truce/building games to be able to remove them like I do figs and mines from certain sectors.

It will make limpet gridding even more important in an unlim while under truce. Currently you drop limps and expect to have a lot of them cleared during the gridding phase that happens before truce end. Now I would just drop 5 or so per sector knowing that probably 2 or more will still remain. The person that drops first has the limpet grid. The same importance exists in non-truce games since it will be more expensive to clear the limpets, and more hazardous unless done by a fed-safe blue. It will reuire burning turns to clear at dock or class 0, or a corpie adjacent dropping personal. I like the option as it will make killing players easier.

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

You are correct, that is how it plays now. Limpets fall off very easily simply by entering a sector with more limpets, the first one falls off and you pick up the next one.

Exiting and reentering the game without a relog penalty is how limpets are removed from a sector without any cost at all currently.

On the flip side - HVS with limpets that can ONLY be removed at SD means that corp members can also tag each other with personal limpets. This keeps them from picking up enemy limpets.

Ok, so there are really three different Limpet modes that we might provide. One, standard Limpets which behave like they do today. Two, I could make the Limpets in MBBS mode behave like the Limpets in the HVS version. That was overlooked when creating the MBBS emulation mode. And three, an enhanced Limpets mode where Limpets behavior is more like it was designed to be, where you must go to SD to have them removed.

For Enhanced Limpets, I'd say that dropping a Limpet would behave like it does today. If Limpets are already there, you can't drop. So there wouldn't be a need to track Limpets for every player in every sector, which would be problematic.

As far as how this would effect gameplay, the point of all of these options is to mix up gameplay, and to provide options to create games that are closer to the intended design. But it's unlikely that any option could be turned on without gameplay suffering in some way. Combinations of settings will be necessary to achieve any balance.

That sounds like a good way to go.

H

The problem with a limpet sticking unless cleared at stardock is red players will be much more vulnerable than they already are. They'll have to go to the dock to clear and take a chance on getting killed. I'm assuming that you want to stop the limpet clear scripts. The way to do that would be to make limpets stick until it is a limpet of a different corp or player. That way they could still clean with personal limpets, but they couldn't clear a sector by exit/entering.

Or allow cleaning at zero ports, modified HVS behavior for limpets. ?

The point I was getting at was limpet clearing should require turns or planet fuel to clear a sector. If a limpet is picked up that belongs to corp X, it would take a limpet from another corp/player to remove that limpet or a visit to a class 0/9 port. Now a corp of 5 could clear 5 limpets in one sector without moving, and then move and clean all 5 ships with personal limpets, BUT if there is 250 limpets there, that will take a lot of gas or turns to accomplish the task. Therefor it would be much more difficult to clear sectors of limpets. They would really have to want the sector to go to that much trouble, but it would be possilble for reds and blues equally.

Killing Newb's just got a WHOLE LOT EASIER! in one mode.

Free Gridding in another.

This'll make unlim limpet gridding more powerful. I
already drop like 50 limpets per sector while gridding,
this'll make it more difficult to clear out sectors and
make it easier to lockup the grid. Altho, that said,
you could just drop a planet in the sector and twarp
back and forth to a class zero for scrubs. Not exactly
that big of a deal.

From a turns game, this would be a fun way to chase
after a gridder once they're torped. You could chase
down any planet and invade them before the guy's
turns regen. Of course the limpet needs to stay with
the ship, so tactics will probably adapt to use only
swappable ships during gridding. I could build a bot
module to swap someone in and send them to scrub
for me. That's hardly a challenge.

All in all, it's a fun proposal, but I don't think it will
really make that big of a difference. Using the exit
enter trick to drain limpets can be pretty risky to
the turns. If you are going to create something like
this, I suggest an option to allow mine disruptors to
disrupt limpets too. It's only fair, if limpets get more
powerful then people need a way to disrupt them
to keep the balance.

Edit: An option to require turns, and then an option
to extend the planet landing delay, would accomplish
the same net result. Just FYI.