Player Features and Ideas Discussion

TL;DR: EVE should implement a capital ship weapon module that let's you use pilots in sub-capital ships as ammo.

Introduction

Ever been in a fleet battle you know you were going to lose? Ever wanted to have something in-game for such moments that could be used to give a final "F$@& YOU!!!" before departing? Or maybe you are in a fleet battle you are winning so hard that you just want to give the enemy that final grind in the dirt to show them that they are below dirt? Maybe you already thought of such in-game ways to do such a thing, but I was browsing the internet when I came across something interesting to say the least. It was then it hit me, and idea of such glory and fury simultaneously that it had left me in awe one moment and rushing to post the idea onto these very forums the next moment. Is it probably a stupid idea? Most likely, but I care not for the point of this idea is not as much for practicality as much as it is just a way of out-letting a special kind of rage in-game in a manner that could be only done with actions, not mere words.

Source of Idea

I came across the idea as a friend was trying to introduce me to the game of Warhammer 40K (cue many readers probably leaving at this point). Being the avid internet lurker I am, I came across this popular, homebrewed, custom Space Marine chapter referred to as the Angry Marines. I loved them at first site just because of their rage induced methods of battle. They care not for tactics, nor for looking before leaping. Just that they get face to face with their enemy as quickly as possible so they can smash their enemies skulls below their power feet. Because of their preference for melee combat, they have a very special launcher. Instead of this launcher firing missiles, it fires fellow Angry Marines so that they may reach their prey in the quickest manner possible. Then I thought to myself, "Why doesn't something of such rage-induced, badass, space-age technology exist in EVE?"

Idea Details

So here, ladies and gentlemen, I propose a very special new carrier module. What does it do? Well, what else? You are flying a carrier, so ideally you are carrying the ships of fellow pilots. So why is it that when such ships are launched, they have to be launched so gently into adjacent space? That's not how REAL MEN launch ships into battle! So this module is a cannon that lets you use those ships as freakin' ammo! That's right, this thing will launch your fellow pilots right into the starboard side of that battleship as the ultimate sign of flipping him the bird. So let's look at the pros and cons of this module.

Pros:

• You'll show how much of a badass you are.
• If you have fleet-mates with super short effective ranges and the enemy is far, you can launch them right where they need to be.
• Depending on the size and mass of the ship launched, you can do massive amounts of kinetic damage.
• You can use the same "ammo" over and over again assume it can make its way back to you.

Cons:

• Ammo is expensive as hell (you're firing whole ships for crying out loud!)
• You need to find willing (also read as: suicidal) pilots to "pilot" the ammo
• If you miss your shot, the "ammo" will go sailing past off course and will need to find their way back to the carrier for reloading.
• On hit, the "ammo" will take significant kinetic damage as well, but if fully loaded with kinetic resistance modules, should come out alright. This, however, will leave the "ammo" susceptible to other kinds of damage once at the target.

So in conclusion, I believe this module with it's pros and cons would be a nice addition and would serve to help release some of the stress, rage, and mother f$@&ing fury that can go along with large fleet battles, thus increasing the average health, life span, and happiness of the average EVE player. Thank you for reading and good night.

Who the **** pissed you off, since you want to shoot fricking BATTLESHIPS at the enemy? I didn't know being pissed off did that kind of funny stuff to the human brain. At least it would give the whiners a way to make Amarr-ships deal Kinetic damage. It's an expensive way, though.

On another note, would the ships fired at the enemy be able to use weapons themselves? If they can, I can see some potential for missile-spam here... And lots of lag. Probably more lag, and not so much missile-spam.

So first off, no one pissed me off. In fact, I am quite happy. Like I said, I was just browsing stuff related to the Angry Marines when I came up with the idea. I figured there has to be some angry people in EVE that would love this. Here's an image of the Angry Marine launcher that was the initial inspiration.

Image/Drawing of Angry Marine Launcher

The idea of that launcher plus when combined with the type of rage that can be shown in the following fan comic sort of shows where this is coming from. Not from any personal rage, just maximum awesome rage, for anger and happiness are not mutually exclusive.

Angry Marine Comic of Maximum F$@&!!!

Secondly, even though I used the term "Launcher", I just settled for the name because I was finding it hard to come up with a better name. However, since ships already have some form of combustion based propulsion but this "launcher" needs to get ships there faster, it doesn't make sense to me to treat it as a kind of super big missile launcher. So instead, since ships have a nice, big, metallic hull, why not make it work like an over-sized rail gun? Because like I said, these speeds should be so high that the launcher shoots that if the target was missed, the launched ship should effectively be sent to some area far away from the battle, but still in system. I'm just talking so far away that the fleet battle and the launched ship are no longer within visible range of each other. So once the ship finally stopped, they would probably need to warp back to fleet or a bookmark.

Edit: Also, to answer the weapons usage by launched ships more directly, what I am saying is these ships should be flying so fast that you wouldn't have time to use weapons along the way, in a similar manner to how weapons are effectively disabled while warping. However, if a pilot was in a ship that hit its target and managed to stay in one piece, the piloting of the ship in the fight could continue as normal with all weapons now online.

With the way collision works in EVE, this would be the most ineffective weapons system in the game... it would be useful to bumping people though!

The idea was that while the ship is being launched by this module, it's treated as kinetic damage type ammo rather than a ship during its flight, hence why I was suggesting treating the gun like a super-sized railgun. So when it hits, server-side it is calculated like kinetic hybrid ammo hitting, and if it hits it moves the launched ship from the carrier ship to right next to the target but if it misses it places you in a warp to some aligned deadspace pocket. Now client side, it would look like your flying, maybe like warping or something with a possible sudden stop, depending on if it hits or not.