Fractal Softworks Forum
Starsector => Suggestions => Topic started by: Reshy on November 20, 2012, 11:38:31 AM
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I've been playing around with some mods recently and I think it might be worth adding in shields that aren't completely round, instead being able to choose how much they push out in each direction so that elongated ships don't require huge shields.
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Love the idea, this would also fix the AI's behavior of shooting your collision radius from the side and totaly missing due to out of range if your ship is really big or long or wide.
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Totally in favour.
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+1, although IIRC that would make hit detection a bit more expensive.
Maybe a circle of the longest edge +10% to eliminate the need for constant checks against the oval? Or just a new Shield type that just uses the hitbox and a visual effect using a slightly-larger version of the hitbox and similar code to the damage system but with a different look and translucency? All Alex territory, just was thinking about ways to solve it :)
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+1, although IIRC that would make hit detection a bit more expensive.
Maybe a circle of the longest edge +10% to eliminate the need for constant checks against the oval? Or just a new Shield type that just uses the hitbox and a visual effect using a slightly-larger version of the hitbox and similar code to the damage system but with a different look and translucency? All Alex territory, just was thinking about ways to solve it :)
I think the shield arc is not used for hit detection but for a weapon distance check that tells enemies when to fire. You can see that with beams sometimes; if a slim ship is engaged from the side they stop a few meters before connecting with the hull. Uh...but maybe that's what you meant.
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It would be interesting for modding purposes to have polygonal shields too. But I do believe shape-able shields should be implemented to make things look cleaner and operate better.
Someone should point out the absurdity of the shield problem by making a ship that's very thin and wide and give it a very large shield just to show the problems the AI has.
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Someone should point out the absurdity of the shield problem by making a ship that's very thin and wide and give it a very large shield just to show the problems the AI has.
There already is one out there. The AI absolutely hates my Sovereigns and Battleships.
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It would be interesting for modding purposes to have polygonal shields too. But I do believe shape-able shields should be implemented to make things look cleaner and operate better.
Someone should point out the absurdity of the shield problem by making a ship that's very thin and wide and give it a very large shield just to show the problems the AI has.
Polygonal shields are a brilliant idea
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Little bump.
As a corollary to this, if possible I would like for shields to be allowed to protect multiple arc segments simultaneously. For instance, if attempting to simulate, say, fighters in Wing Commander, you could have fore and aft fixed shields but the sides would remain exposed. For Honor Harrington-style ships, you could have sidewalls along the entire length of the ungainly long ship, but have an exposed throat and skirt.
Would it be possible to consider giving various shield segments higher flux-per-damage ratios than others, such that the aforementioned Wing Commander fighter could take many hits on its fore shield, some hits on its aft shield, and few hits on its port or starboard shields, but would otherwise be able to maintain a 360-degree bubble?
This does demonstrate that trying to shoehorn straight damage-absorbing shields into the Starfarerverse is a bit difficult to reconcile with other genre fiction...
[edit] Aaaaand... ruh roh (http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=2379.msg31014#msg31014)
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[edit] Aaaaand... ruh roh (http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=2379.msg31014#msg31014)
That was in April. The problem with the shield bounds is that the AI fires at the shield's bubble so it'd need to be redone to compensate.
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Even a number of the stock ships would play better if the shield bubble could be distorted on 1 or other of its axis to form an ellipse. (i.e. Odyssey)
That said, shield arcs would feel odd when applied to an ellipse; the effective coverage of a given sized arc would vary according to its positioning on the ellipse.
Though there's 2 ways of doing it, either:
- calculate the arc extents on the ellipse, or
- calculate the extents on a circle & project it onto the ellipse.
I've a feeling the latter would look and play better.