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[Temjin]

Great game! Loving it so far.

One question: Is there any way to make sure that when your fleet is all clustering round that last cruiser, you don't lose irreplaceable destroyers and frigates when it finally goes nova? I just lost a Tempest and a Medusa when a crappy Pirate cruiser went up. From full shields and hull to nothing, all because they decided to butt heads with the thing while pumping it full of holes.

[MidnightSun]

I think Alex said he tweaked the AI behavior a bit for the next release to prevent this from happening, by making the AI put its shields up to protect against such damage if moving to avoid it is not possible.

[xanderh]

I think Alex said he tweaked the AI behavior a bit for the next release to prevent this from happening, by making the AI put its shields up to protect against such damage if moving to avoid it is not possible.

I can confirm this, ships will know when to get away from the enemy ships to avoid death by fireball. And they will activate their shields just before the explosion, so that the frigates and destroyers don't get killed if they can't get away.

[espritcrafter]

Now if only my aurora ships will stop taking down their shields right after a firefight, just to desperately attempt bringing them back up to avoid the missiles that were nearby and heading straight for them....

[DM818]

And if Conquests would prefer circling broadside as opposed to flying directly toward a paragon.

[powerbonger]

Now if only my aurora ships will stop taking down their shields right after a firefight, just to desperately attempt bringing them back up to avoid the missiles that were nearby and heading straight for them....

This. Holy bananas, this. The Aurora is a fine ship, but once the AI gets its hands on it... 

Anyway, Alex is fixing this in the next patch, I believe. Here's the relevant quote from the patch notes thread:

Ship AI improvements:

• Fixed bug that was causing most ships to think it was a good idea to circle the target in close quarters instead of engaging head on
• Will use shields to protect against collisions
• Made heavily damaged ships avoid asteroids they otherwise would not try to avoid
• Increased wariness of interceptors faced with PD weapons
• More careful about not colliding with ships it's attacking
• More careful about getting close to ships that are very powerful
• Ships with front shields are more careful about exposing their sides to enemy fire
• Carriers and civilian ships are better about keeping away from combat ships
• Ships now properly treat other ships about to explode as a threat
• Improved omnidirectional shield AI
• More prone to using limited-ammo missiles vs frigates (to reflect the missiles' improved tracking AI)
• AI better about spreading ships out
• Improved flanking logic (better about picking which direction to flank in)

[Reshy]

Honestly I don't think ships should explode in space, as unless the ships are actually touching there's no transfer of energy.  So maybe it should be changed to fragmentation damage instead of explosive and have the hitbox reduced?

[DM818]

Honestly I don't think ships should explode in space, as unless the ships are actually touching there's no transfer of energy.  So maybe it should be changed to fragmentation damage instead of explosive and have the hitbox reduced?

It is possible that the ships are transferring energy through radiation similar to a small supernova therefore with a very good chance of damaging other ships.

[Koshka]

Honestly I don't think ships should explode in space, as unless the ships are actually touching there's no transfer of energy.  So maybe it should be changed to fragmentation damage instead of explosive and have the hitbox reduced?

It is possible that the ships are transferring energy through radiation similar to a small supernova therefore with a very good chance of damaging other ships.

I'm also going to add that if there was fragmentation damage it should probably be randomized as fragments have no reason to slow down ins space....
regardless, small supernovas would indeed do quite a bit of damage.

[powerbonger]

Also, sci-fi 

Setting the actual science aside (which are good points regardless), I'd prefer explosions in a game myself. It just feels more satisfying that way.

[Simberto]

Honestly I don't think ships should explode in space, as unless the ships are actually touching there's no transfer of energy.  So maybe it should be changed to fragmentation damage instead of explosive and have the hitbox reduced?

It is possible that the ships are transferring energy through radiation similar to a small supernova therefore with a very good chance of damaging other ships.

I'm also going to add that if there was fragmentation damage it should probably be randomized as fragments have no reason to slow down ins space....
regardless, small supernovas would indeed do quite a bit of damage.

Spaceships should be able to deal with small amounts of small fragments with a high relative velocity, there is still some stuff flying around in space. And since the fragments should spread out in all directions simultaneously, the further away from the explosion you get, you will get hit by a smaller amount because the amount of particles and radiation decreases with the square of the distance to the source. So, while not completely accurate obviously, it makes sense to declare that at a certain distance, you are safe.

I don't think we know any details about the propulsion technology in Starfarer, but usually, the fuel source used for propulsion is designed to release energy, and it is not unreasonable that it would be able to explode, too. And since ships are also full of air, i don't see why there shouldn't be a nice, large shiny explosion. The only thing a space explosion does not have which an earth explosion has is a shockwave besides the propagation of the fragments, because there is no medium to propagate it in.

[Thaago]

I'm so glad this is getting fixed.... just lost 2 Auroras a Medusa and a Lasher to a Paragon when it exploded after they perfected it.

[DM818]

I'm so glad this is getting fixed.... just lost 2 Auroras a Medusa and a Lasher to a Paragon when it exploded after they perfected it.

Never had anything that bad happened, then again my auroras always die before they get close to anything.

[Doom101]

in my new file i had been using a gemini as a carrier i swear every battle it got stuck in behind something and exploded -.- it was ridiculous. traded it up for a venture.

[TJJ]

A Paragon fireball just claimed one of my two Odyssey class thanks to this AI short-coming
What surprised me is that the Odyssey was at full health (though it's armour was pretty beaten up as I'd only just captured it!)

I look forward to this issue being fixed!