Okay, so i want to lock a system, I fire a lock-down drone.

So, how do I unlock the system? And how do i do this if the enemy locked the system?

And finally, given that I can 'jump' out of a locked system. What is stopping me from having 30 ships on the galactic map, jumping all of my ships out (20 minutes before galactic turn), and having all of my waiting ships enter the now unlocked system.

Oh, on a related note. Any reason why Kindred & I shouldn't team up to make a ship with around 120 darklight?

I thought you open a system by destroying the drone...
I dislike the idea that all of a ship's drones in a system are destroyed by it's exit. some drones (like lockdown) should remain just for this reason.

But theres no point to it. I can look at the system and tell the number of ships, and their sizes. I know my ships, and their sizes, hence, I know my opponents.

Given that, if I out-number em, I'll close the system. If he out-numbers me, he'll close the system, and if we're even, we'll both bring MORE ships to the system to get the advantage, and once we get it, we'll close the system, then the outcome of a system is essentially decided when the lock-down drone deploys.

As for destroying the drone. Well, I can see my drone, but I've yet to see an opponents drone despite looking for it. I'm beginning to think they're invisible.

I've seen a couple of yours, one not even in a beholder field (though the beholder fields are confusing me thoroughly- am I supposed to see Kindred's ships under your Beholder illumination?)
edit: I was wrong, your other lockdown drone is within your beholder field.

Aye, you're supposed to be able to see ships what other peoples beholders have lit up. Think of em as giant flares, you might not of fired em, but you can still see with the light they produce.

Perhaps I'm just blind. I canna see the opponents lock-down drone for looking... And I'm not convinced they can be destroyed anyways. (already tried an emp drone against my own beholder to see if I could destroy it, but I guess I mis-understood the rules as that didn't seem to work).

well, that explains a lot about the beholders... completely miscalculated how that worked from the discription.
haven't seen any lockdown drones other than yours...

EMP worked at least once against a deployed drone. Depends on the drones armour though.

If lockdown drones are too restrictive the rule can be changed in some way. The objective with lockdown drones (apart from epic battles) was to allow two players to have fast turn around goes, ie they decide where to fight, jump in, lock it and thus restrict a slow turn around player from joining.

They are not supposed to mean all battles are decided up front.

Maybe any ship that jumps out destroys all lockdown drones in a system..... Some kind of backlash which destroys them. Or they have a very short lifespan, and so must be constantly renewed.

or they set a password which is needed to enter the system and is presented as (part of) the drone's name?

GameAdmin wrote:

The objective with lockdown drones (apart from epic battles) was to allow two players to have fast turn around goes, ie they decide where to fight, jump in, lock it and thus restrict a slow turn around player from joining. They are not supposed to mean all battles are decided up front. Maybe any ship that jumps out destroys all lockdown drones in a system..... Some kind of backlash which destroys them. Or they have a very short lifespan, and so must be constantly renewed.

so, lockdown drones should have a fairly short life span which is measured in galactic turns, not system turns.

I do like ships jumping out destroying one or more of (another ship's) lockdown drones in a backlash. the drone should continue to have effect until the next turn, which means it can be replaced (at appropriate costs), but also that ancients can't escape an epic battle by jumping out with another ship.

Perhaps all the current occupants of a system should have to to fire a lock-down drone to lock a system. Then it becomes a mutual decision.

But, you can destroy lockdown drones, simply get close and fire an EMP. They are on scan all the time, so why do we need to worry.

This is a game of small fleet battles, always travel in groups of 3, one of which is an emp, lockdown killer....or whatever tactic you choose.

Admitedly they could just fire off another lockdown....hmmm.

I'm not sure its a terrible thing. i.e. if you are cought on the hop, by a superior force then your option is jump out, and then return with a superior force and get them back. i.e. think in the slightly longer, slightly edgier term and maybe its fine as it is?

the flip side is that the current situation can have the reverse effect as desired- to wit; extending the lingth of time before a battle happens. Example; maps locks systems constantly, having become aware of his propensity towards this tactic I vectored a fleet to the battle and held up the next go (and thus his virtually-inevitable lockdown drone) for at least two galactic tides.

Wow, I have propensity, who'd of thought it. :-p

Anyways, I'm testing those drones. I'm not convinced an emp drone will kill a deployed lock-down (or other drone) for that matter. In fact I suspect that emp affects only ships, and drones that are in motion on that turn. Could be wrong though.