(Sorry I really liked the idea of something that could be really powerful and hard to get XD)
Yeah, I've been a fan of that ever since artifacts in the original TES:Arena.
Also maybe debris would attract salvagers (Independent) and Pirates. At least the ones that are large and can spell "profitssss". Obviously I do not mean non stop, but more like random and rarely, just to give a feeling that in this galaxy you are not the only one that would salvage from them when they appear.
Been thinking about that too; nothing concrete to say though.
In other tweeter news, this.
But look closely:
Spoiler
I see two other new ships in addition to the "Domain era automated defenses" that was shown in the blog post...
I suppose it's not really surprising considering the need for variety though.
Whoa, I've really got to keep on my toes.
Whaaat, you just about doubled combat performance, Alex? Ok then...
I prefer to think of it as releasing previously untapped performance reserves.
Sort of like having "sleep(100 - versionNumber)" built into the code somewhere. Performance increase on every release!
I wonder if this has any implications for game mechanics, like a higher standard amount of deployment points or even new combat scenarios...
I don't think so. This is more about making the high end of the battle size workable on more computers, and being able to do some fancier things in smaller battles. That many ships deployed actually isn't very fun - it's too crowded for the kind of maneuvering that the game is really about.
How about giving each ship a bunch (less than 30% of total?) of 'rotatable hardpoints' where u can place up to 3 weapons in the same hardpoint (config 1, config 2 and config 3) (you have to purchase all the weapons and they are all on the ship even if only 30% of then are usable in each battle, so there is greater risk involved if its lost) and when u deploy the ship you chose which config it uses (config 1: point defence, config 2: missile boat, config 3: EMP for eg. - however the player has labelled them)
this allows for ship flexibility and limitted countering without needing to have a fleet 3x bigger?
maybe even allow players to choose the AI script attached to each config when they label it?
I think this kind of thing might work in a game that was really focused on refitting to counter a specific threat - hard counters etc - but Starsector very much isn't that. It just seems too complicated for something of marginal benefit, you know?
Yeah, I hear what you're saying here. Counterpoint: by the time you've got multiple ships and can afford to have some of them be specialized (meaning, you're sacrificing total fleet strength!), you're probably not very interested in fighting small pirates. It might still happen, but is it a case worth building for?
Ah, but the whole point of the exercise is to motivate the player to have a diverse fleet, which should not "sacrifice total fleet strength". Ideally, the differently specialized ships complement each other (and the generalists) in a fleet context, having no negative or even a small positive (when they can each single out the opponent they were designed for) impact on overall fleet performance. While, and this is the central point, having a great impact on combat diversity and thus making the battles more fun to play and watch.
Hmm. Counterpoint! If the specialized variants work in a general fleet context, then it's not necessary to provide specialized opponents for them to be useful.
Come to think of it, I had a lot of fun one playthrough with a 2nd ship being a Vigilance with a cautious officer, unstable injectors, an Ion Beam, and a Salamander Pod. That's a totally specialized support ship and it was super effective early game - best case scenario it disables things all the time, worst case it's a distraction. I'm pretty sure I've seen people talk about using Kites in a similar fashion. Specialized PD ships seem like they could be quite useful as well, as long as there's a priority target that needs guarding. It's probably just not *necessary*, in part due to max skills being good enough to just wipe the floor with anything on your own.
It is so nice to see you can get them on your side. Makes me wonder how though. Not that I want to know, since I like surprises, but makes me wonder.
I think this is just an engine test, I wouldn't draw conclusions from that about drone behavior.
Yeah, this is just "run simulator with max battle size, and deploy the most possible frigates on both sides".
I miss being able to bring a fleet of forty ships and smashing endgame fleets in a big free-for-all. With only eleven fighting ships at most (and some specialized for pursuit), there is no way I can fight epic fleet vs. fleet battles efficiently. That leaves god-of-war (solo/chain-flagship) vs. 40+ ship enemy fleet.
Just want to say that bringing back bigger battles on the high end is something I'd really like to see, myself. Skills are part of it, but other stuff I'm not quite ready to talk about factors in as well.