Elevator Tiers 2 and 3 : Grav Lifts

Discussion in 'Suggestions' started by J'ee, Nov 28, 2020.

?

Need a lift?

  1. Yes, I can think of many uses!

  2. Nah, lifters are worthless.

Results are only viewable after voting.
  1. J'ee

    J'ee Lieutenant

    Joined:
    Dec 18, 2018
    Messages:
    50
    Likes Received:
    22
    TIER 2 Civilian Grade People Mover
    Elevator blocks are nice, and I mean, who would want a solid-state elevator with no moving parts, right? But for large projects with plenty of CPU, power, and a pension for good looks, you want bigger and better. Thus enters the Elevator Tier 2. It also is solid state--no silly moving platforms or anything to screw the game up, but it just has a longer range than one tile. Possibly configurable for range, or just has a set range which needs an endpoint block to complete the lifter. Going up? Or sideways, perhaps, for some interesting builds which look better than if you just used a bunch of ugly regular elevator blocks. Need lock ability? Just place it in a locked room and there you go--let the door do the work for you!

    TIER 3 Military Grade Personnel Mover
    It's all about the troop movement when you're raiding a POI, so for a military grade version of a grav lifter, it needs to be activatable and not require an endpoint. You just turn it on and step into the beam and use it just like an elevator. Again, sideways potential, or going straight up for some unorthox sniping or whatever mad plan you have with omnidirectional grav beams.
    The most common use, I imagine, will just be to be able to leave and return to your CV on foot while it covers your ground assault while it continues using those turrets you had mounted under the hull for just such an occasion as a ground assault. Careful that hostile players don't use it against you!

    TIER 4 Military Grade HV Mover
    HVs need a helping hand getting around, sometimes. They just can't return to their cruiser without leaving cockpits multiple times to mount it to a hauler SV, which isn't too practical in the wrong territory, and sometimes they get grounded and just need reacue. Provided it can just turn on at all, no worries with the Tier 4 version of the grav lifter! Simply fly over a grounded HV qith an equipped CV, turn on the beam, and it gives the HV the means to move along the beam even with no engines at all! Could be used with interesting tactics in live fire, or getting around a supercarrier, but since it also moves personnel and has no lock ability (it's just modifying localized gravity), hostiles could use the beam, too.

    All these tiers, like the original Elevator, when used on a CV, should require the CV be still lest the effect dissipate.
     
    #1
  2. zaphodikus

    zaphodikus Captain

    Joined:
    Oct 1, 2016
    Messages:
    471
    Likes Received:
    226
    I think you are talking about a tractor beam. Or are we conflating this with Minecraft style pistons, when it comes to feature descriptions, a story, but also a drawing might help.
     
    #2
  3. J'ee

    J'ee Lieutenant

    Joined:
    Dec 18, 2018
    Messages:
    50
    Likes Received:
    22
    Ah, a story, sure. Here's one. True story, too, generally.

    Once upon a time just last week, an enterprising lad owning a modified Forge Aerospace Stratus capital vessel which floats there to this day, decided to go for a walk. The oceanic air was very nice, after all, the salty breeze just the way he liked it. But his Forge Aerospace Stratus, with its broad wing design, while sufficiently aerodynamic to turn the down thrusters off in flight to save greatly on fuel, was greatly lacking in its ability to land. With the SV just an HV for this was all that the, at least vanilla, Stratus design could hold, the bald-headed lad put on his padded thinking cap and thought awhile, busying himself by punching into the Easy Food machine an order of his favorite veggie burger.
    "Ah ha!," he thought, "I'll just go to 200m and build a bunch of Elevator blocks." The lad was excited, now--finally, a way to explore without splashing his sky ship into the water. And so, armed with intuition and a veggie burger, the lad entered into his PDA an order for 30 standard grav elevator frames. "That should do, for now."
    Indeed, by the time he finished lunch and brought the ship to exactly 200m over the ground, the Elevator frames were ready. The target area would also include a cored Zirax POI in need of salvaging, a little work to accompany his stroll about.
    And so the lad busily salvaged away, but along the way, looking upwards, he had an unexpected concern.
    "All this salvage is enough to replace the elevator blocks, but I can't just disconnect them and drop them to the ground--they'll stay in midair! And my drone doesn't have range enough to reach 200m. What will I do? I can't just retrieve them as I go up the elevator--can I?" The lad rubbed his head for a moment, thinking. "I guess I could go up a bit, send the drone, then go up a bit more. I really don't think I wouldn't mess up going up while buzzing the multitool on the way."
    Now, this enterprising young lad was enterprising because he knew his own capabilities well. He knew that eventually, as he went up the long elevator to his hovering home, pointing a multitool down to retrieve the blocks as he traveled, he would overshoot the last block and jump a bit up, and that jump, he knew full well, would leave him with no jetpack charge because he would have forgotten to switch it off on the way up or otherwise would be in too much a hurry, being shot at by things with high-powered rifles and/or rocket propelled grenades.

    And that is the story, the perceived facts of it, anyway, taken from the logs of the Captain's personal workstation, and transliterated and rendered in folktale format. Given the Stratus II, as it is proudly called, with no extraneous elevator blocks on it, is still there today but no Captain, we can postulate what transpired afterwards, alas.
     
    #3
    Last edited: Dec 8, 2020
    zaphodikus and Kassonnade like this.

Share This Page