Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Gothars]

Simple idea: When venting, the expelled flux can damage other ships.

At the moment your only good option when venting is to keep your distance and/or take cover, taking you out of the fight. Offensive venting would offer the alternative of staying in combat and trading your safety for some more damage to the enemy by getting really close. That might be worth it if he's about to overload, if you're helping an ally or if you just really want to kill him ASAP. Should be very situational.

The venting damage should of course not be as high as normal weapon damage, you don't want an incentive to build up flux artificially. But it also doesn't have to be really low, since you're already at risk from not having shields or PD. I was thinking of energy+emp damage and a little push back effect (like with high-flux-phasing) so you have to keep pushing (and get away upon flame-out).


This is btw inspired by DOOM's glory kills, which incentivize you to go into melee when you're at your weakest. I would love to have some of this addictive non-stop combat pacing in Starsector.

[Megas]

Friendly fire accident waiting to happen.

[Alex]

As much as this is a neat idea, I don't think it'd be Responsible to go mess around with core combat mechanics at this juncture Plus, the AI work this would require, *shudder*.

It's an interesting theoretical question, though - would this sort of thing be good? I can see it working in Doom, but isn't the end result that you're not really at your weakest when you think you are?

With the caveat that I'm entirely unfamiliar with the specifics in Doom: it's more of a gameplay flow thing there, right? It's not that the design wants you to be weak at a certain points, but more that it wants you to do something else (which is cool to boot) when the normal approach runs out of steam. It's there for variety, possibly to keep gameplay fast, and probably to make sure that progression doesn't stall out when you run out of juice (i.e. you're not in a weak state, just a different one).

In Starsector, venting needs to be a vulnerable state. Quick example: missiles! If this "venting damage" could take out missiles (and it'd be kind of weird if it didn't), then that would pretty much break missiles straight up.

[King Alfonzo]

I wouldn't mind this being a unique ship system for specific ships (either Boss ships, a la Templar, or experimentally light ships that can hurt other ships while venting (Excelsior), but because they're light they run the risk of getting whacked easily). I can't see this being something that any ship could do.

[borgrel]

i see this being a hull mod in a mod faction

can some1 say japanese kamikaze pilots?

[Gothars]

As much as this is a neat idea, I don't think it'd be Responsible to go mess around with core combat mechanics at this juncture Plus, the AI work this would require, *shudder*.

I can imagine^^ It's just, whenever I encounter something I really like in a game, I can't help but think "how could this work in Starsector?". What can I do with these ideas but post them here?

With the caveat that I'm entirely unfamiliar with the specifics in Doom: it's more of a gameplay flow thing there, right? It's not that the design wants you to be weak at a certain points, but more that it wants you to do something else (which is cool to boot) when the normal approach runs out of steam. It's there for variety, possibly to keep gameplay fast, and probably to make sure that progression doesn't stall out when you run out of juice (i.e. you're not in a weak state, just a different one).

Yes and no. You are weaker in the sense that you have less options. At high health you can keep shooting, go to melee and absord hits, at low health melee without absorbing hits is your only good option. You definitely feel vulnerable! If you die it's usually because you mess up in that situation. But, like, 80% of the time you do manage to bounce back, so it's definitely more than a "last ditch" thing. That it's not obvious if getting hurt is more a punishment or part of the flow is maybe one of the great strenghts of the game.

Anyway, what I suggested for Starsector was different, it's not about recovering from a bad situation by being agressive, it would be about staying agressive to push an advantage in special situations.
 [/quote]

[Inventor Raccoon]

I'd think that instead of active venting dealing damage, it should instead add flux to anyone nearby, maybe even overloading them if it pushes them over their capacity.

[Alex]

I can imagine^^ It's just, whenever I encounter something I really like in a game, I can't help but think "how could this work in Starsector?". What can I do with these ideas but post them here?

Yeah, same - except for the posting part

Yes and no. You are weaker in the sense that you have less options. At high health you can keep shooting, go to melee and absord hits, at low health melee without absorbing hits is your only good option. You definitely feel vulnerable! If you die it's usually because you mess up in that situation. But, like, 80% of the time you do manage to bounce back, so it's definitely more than a "last ditch" thing. That it's not obvious if getting hurt is more a punishment or part of the flow is maybe one of the great strenghts of the game.

Thanks for explaining - yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Anyway, what I suggested for Starsector was different, it's not about recovering from a bad situation by being agressive, it would be about staying agressive to push an advantage in special situations.

Right, I see what you mean. A fine line to walk, though - not so strong that "high flux" a good condition, not so weak that it's pointless.

[Alex]

I'd think that instead of active venting dealing damage, it should instead add flux to anyone nearby, maybe even overloading them if it pushes them over their capacity.

Fun fact: waaaaay back - before the first release, iirc - venting flux actually created nebula-like clouds and being in those clouds raised flux. Was way too fiddly and complicated, though, so got ditched.

[Midnight Kitsune]

I'd think that instead of active venting dealing damage, it should instead add flux to anyone nearby, maybe even overloading them if it pushes them over their capacity.

Fun fact: waaaaay back - before the first release, iirc - venting flux actually created nebula-like clouds and being in those clouds raised flux. Was way too fiddly and complicated, though, so got ditched.

Didn't Ion weapons also raise flux as well?

[Alex]

They did, yeah. Didn't work well - was too easy to keep a ship fully locked down.