Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Author Topic: Suicide Ships!  (Read 4553 times)

PyroFuzz

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 110
    • View Profile
Suicide Ships!
« on: April 01, 2017, 10:33:24 AM »

So you know how ships explode and do damage to stuff around it?!?!

And then the obvious, ships carry cargo.

Well i thought that if you loaded a cargo ship with certain cargo. Different things would happen.
So lets say you have a cargo ship loaded with fuel, and you flew it into another ship (Hopefully your enemy)
And it would then explode a larger explosion than a regular ship, and it would most likely destroy your ship.
But it would also damage the other ship.

But then you might be asking "How would i load a certain ship with cargo?" That could be a feature too!

So that's my whole idea, kamikaze ships in a nutshell.
Tell me what you think of it!
Logged
Hello!

Linnis

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1009
    • View Profile
Re: Suicide Ships!
« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2017, 02:37:27 PM »

Basically Missiles? Because right now when ships explode they do alot of damage already.
Logged

intrinsic_parity

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 3071
    • View Profile
Re: Suicide Ships!
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2017, 03:24:06 PM »

I think in the current iteration of the game, ships are way too valuable to intentionally lose them. If you are attempting to get a 50k bounty, the average frigate is probably worth ~10k so you are losing 20% of your profit. In order to be worth that much, the frigate would have to have a very large guaranteed impact (destroying multiple ships etc.), I don't see how you could easily make that balanced.

I do think the idea of having cargo tied to specific ships could be interesting. It might encourage the player to have freighters/fuel tankers so they don't risk losing valuable cargo/supplies/fuel in combat. You could add mechanics where ships lose cargo if they take hull damage. I'm not sure if it's worth the effort to implement but it's a cool idea.

The suicide ship mechanic could maybe work if there was a specific cargo type that made it possible (a nuke or bomb or something) that was rare and expensive but had a major impact. I imagine an explosion something like the nuke variant of the Olympus from the imperium mod. That could be cool and maybe balanced (maybe).
Logged

BillyRueben

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1406
    • View Profile
Re: Suicide Ships!
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2017, 03:59:31 PM »

No please. The AI usually gets access to the same toys we do, and they are already annoying enough to fight when they are piloting certain ships. Fighting a suicide ship like this would be a major PITA.

Also, I think we already do lose some cargo/fuel when our ships are damaged/destroyed, and I don't want to start micromanaging our fleet inventory. I'd rather not start seeing complexity for the sake of making the game complicated *cough*sensors*cough*.
Logged

Gothars

  • Global Moderator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 4403
  • Eschewing obfuscatory verbosity.
    • View Profile
Re: Suicide Ships!
« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2017, 04:15:43 PM »

I really like that the fleet has a shared inventory, the few downsides are far outweighed by the benefits. If the game had per-ship inventory though, having the cargo influence ship behavior would be great! I could imagine a lot of emergent gameplay coming out of it.



I'd rather not start seeing complexity for the sake of making the game complicated *cough*sensors*cough*.

Whaaat, but sensors are so fun!   ...OK, there might have be easier ways to implement them.


Logged
The game was completed 8 years ago and we get a free expansion every year.

Arranging holidays in an embrace with the Starsector is priceless.

SafariJohn

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 3010
    • View Profile
Re: Suicide Ships!
« Reply #5 on: April 01, 2017, 06:30:41 PM »

I'd rather not start seeing complexity for the sake of making the game complicated *cough*sensors*cough*.

Whaaat, but sensors are so fun!   ...OK, there might have be easier ways to implement them.

I'm not sure how you could make sensors simpler without removing either the possibility of stealth ships or sensor ships.
Logged

BillyRueben

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1406
    • View Profile
Re: Suicide Ships!
« Reply #6 on: April 01, 2017, 07:40:12 PM »

It's not that sensors themselves are overly complicated, I think that the whole detection system is unnecessary. I can never remember a time where I thought "Oh, hey, I had better run dark for a couple of seconds!" Nope, it's always E-burn in to or out of that situation. Besides, you can always tell when a fleet is hostile or not by how they behave. You never really need to see them at all. But, this thread has kinda derailed a bit....

So I started a new thread:
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=11722.0
« Last Edit: April 01, 2017, 07:45:44 PM by BillyRueben »
Logged

King Alfonzo

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 679
  • -- D O C T O R --
    • View Profile
Re: Suicide Ships!
« Reply #7 on: April 01, 2017, 08:57:22 PM »

I was originally thinking of making a large missile weapon to be a Hermes packed with explosives for a possible Luddic Path mini mod.

But then I thought it was too ridiculous.

AxleMC131

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1722
  • Amateur World-Builder
    • View Profile
Re: Suicide Ships!
« Reply #8 on: April 01, 2017, 09:01:15 PM »

I was originally thinking of making a large missile weapon to be a Hermes packed with explosives for a possible Luddic Path mini mod.

But then I thought it was too ridiculous.

I wanna see someone do this with a fighter actually. Have a Mistel type thing. ;) Those are truly ingenious, and extremely evil.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistel
Logged

ANGRYABOUTELVES

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 592
  • AE ALTADOON GHARTOK PADHOME
    • View Profile
Re: Suicide Ships!
« Reply #9 on: April 02, 2017, 10:35:14 AM »

Well i thought that if you loaded a cargo ship with certain cargo. Different things would happen.
So lets say you have a cargo ship loaded with fuel, and you flew it into another ship (Hopefully your enemy)
And it would then explode a larger explosion than a regular ship, and it would most likely destroy your ship.
But it would also damage the other ship.

But then you might be asking "How would i load a certain ship with cargo?" That could be a feature too!
That would require an inventory system that is capable of said micromanagement. I think even adding a system to micromanage which ships carry which cargo would be a mistake, as it would open up new muddy cesspools of incredibly-tedious-but-optimal gameplay for inveterate optimizers like myself to get covered in filthy degenerate strategies in. For example, putting as much cargo as possible on support ships that are never supposed to enter combat, so that if any of my combat ships get destroyed I lose the minimum amount of loot. Crew is also managed like cargo, so I would put only the minimum amount of crew on combat ships, so that if they take damage they take minimum crew losses and store all the extra crew on said support ships.
Logged

Thaago

  • Global Moderator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 7173
  • Harpoon Affectionado
    • View Profile
Re: Suicide Ships!
« Reply #10 on: April 03, 2017, 09:11:54 AM »

I was originally thinking of making a large missile weapon to be a Hermes packed with explosives for a possible Luddic Path mini mod.

But then I thought it was too ridiculous.

Ok, its silly, but it would be very awesome. Especially if you didn't advertise the missile on the mod page...

Player: "Huh, why is that Hermes flying weird? And why aren't my main guns shooting at it?"
:: KABOOM ::
Player:  :o
Logged