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

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Author Topic: Starfarer 0.51a (Released) - Live Patch Notes  (Read 236213 times)

Blips

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Re: Starfarer 0.5a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #60 on: March 02, 2012, 11:39:17 AM »

Sounds really overpowered, even if those weapons were fully neutralized by shields.

They could/would still inflict armor/hull damage, but would have a chance of killing crew members. Also, for balance purposes, they could perhaps be limited to extremely large ships/weapon mounts and generate an absurd amount of flux.
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j01

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Re: Starfarer 0.5a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #61 on: March 02, 2012, 11:46:29 AM »

Sounds really overpowered, even if those weapons were fully neutralized by shields.

Honestly, I would like to see things take a step in the opposite direction, but with something similar to what that guy suggested.

I feel like ships should not be boardable and recoverable AT ALL in regular combat, and at most you should only be able to get salvage from ships that you disable or destroy. I'm iffy on enemy ships even surrendering and thus providing free, fully intact ships for your fleet under any circumstances. It's just too easy.

If anything, I would like to see it changed so that you could only capture enemy ships if you specifically outfitted your own ships with nonlethal, disabling weaponry and fought with the intention of capturing an intact or mostly intact target.

As it stands, it seems to me that it's way too easy to frequently get extra ships without having to build up your own credits, or even do anything particularly special other than count on the luck of the draw. It isn't a problem so far, with how barebones the campaign mode currently is, but I think it will become an issue as more gameplay features are implemented and fleshed out, such as commodity trading and such.

Why would I ever consider investing in trade ships and playing a living interplanetary market to rack up credits as a viable method of progression when I can simply blow crap up willy-nilly and grab some shiny new ships from the smoldering wreckage just by fighting normally?

Well, I still would because I really like that sort of thing, but it would seem a lot more evenly balanced if I had to replace my attack ship's explodey torpedoes with special disabling EMP torpedoes just to have the chance to board and acquire an enemy ship, thus weakening my overall combat effectiveness and placing that ship in particular at greater risk during normal combat.
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blackfang

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Re: Starfarer 0.5a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #62 on: March 02, 2012, 11:55:43 AM »

Because using trading you can do it the legit way and also have access to a huge multitude of stations. Along with good connections and a possibility to get hired for stuff that grants you way larger rewards and more frequent crew pools that you can draft from. Being a pirate will probably cost you a lot elsewhere, while if you figure doing this against pirates you could give the pirates larger and more powerful ships to reflect that they are better pirates at least in the start in front of you. There are way too many fixes that can balance that:)
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Paul

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Re: Starfarer 0.5a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #63 on: March 02, 2012, 12:12:04 PM »

We already have an EMP damage type, and a good variety of weapons that use it.

How about in addition to disabling turrets and such, EMP damage could build up in the ship's power core? There could be mods that make you less vulnerable to it, and it could dissipate over time similar to flux. Bringing the EMP in the power core above a certain point (depending on ship) would disable the ship completely - engines, shields, and all weapons - and would keep the ship disabled until it drops below that point - which could be a long time if you hit it with a few extra bursts of EMP weapons after the initial disabling hit. It could still recover and start fighting again if you take too long to mop up its friends, but if all the enemy ships are destroyed or disabled with EMP the battle would end - and all ships disabled this way would be able to be boarded.

The EMP dealing guns still do other damage, and don't work through shields, so it would still be difficult to disable ships without heavily damaging them. You could even set it so that the EMP damage doesn't add to the ship's power core unless it's getting through the armor, with a percentage of the EMP damage getting through based on how much of the gun's main damage got through to the hull.

That way you would have to cause hull damage to get the ship disabled, and trying to keep more than one or two ships disabled might be difficult. And the EMP dealing weapons are already balanced to deal lower damage than other similar weapons.
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Nori

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Re: Starfarer 0.5a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #64 on: March 02, 2012, 12:36:32 PM »

To be honest, I think the fix to ships being too easily captured is different entirely.

The real problem isn't that ships are too easy to capture, it is that they are too easy to repair. A ship knocked down to 10% should take a long time and be very expensive to repair. Think about it, that ship is full of holes, with systems shot to hell and equipment needing replacement. Heck you could argue that tug boats should be added along with dry docks. Haul all of the ships to port and have the mechanics scavenge for parts from them all to make a working ship and scrap the rest for credits.

I guess it really depends on the way Alex is thinking about the lore. From what I gather new ships are difficult to come by, so you are mainly going to be seeing low and midtech stuff that has been flying around for a long time. Given that shouldn't ships be easily disabled but tough to patch back together, however worth it as new ships are hard to come by and expensive. Currently it is much too easy to buy new ships at full health.

Thoughts?
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blackfang

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Re: Starfarer 0.5a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #65 on: March 02, 2012, 12:52:41 PM »

God yes! Nori, you are brilliant. The issue really is the repair part. Also adding an upkeep for crew might be smart. If every ship is damaged or of lesser standard which would be the norm when most ships flying around is mid to low tech due to them flying for a while meaning it will be hard to come by a well patched together ship, although it would be possible. Anyways, this would add the need for you to actually authorize patching cash and the parts are not necessarily available at every port? Meaning that every ship you capture will cost you cash to keep up to date so you might not want to keep all your ships even tough you can repair them simply because they cost more to repair and keep while repairing then they are worth in battle.

This will also bring the rag tag fleets as a viable way to play. keeping every ship at top standard would lead to good ships that rarely malfunction. Then you got normal standard which sometimes does but not to much. They cost less then top standard ship. Then you got the bottom. Where rag tag mercenaries come in. Terrible standard, ships are prone to breaking apart much earlier in the battle and so on. They barely cost maintenance but it would allow for players to choose their fleets. Well kept ships that are really good? Or terribly kept ships but more of them or somewhere in between. That would be epic!

That would be my thought:)
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Flare

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Re: Starfarer 0.5a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #66 on: March 02, 2012, 01:04:36 PM »

Currently it is much too easy to buy new ships at full health.

Thoughts?

When the campaign gets a bit more flushed out and some sort of news system is in place, it'd be great to see an ad in there promoting a second hand ship business ;D.
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Quote from: Thana
Quote from: Alex

The battle station is not completely operational, shall we say.

"Now witness the firepower of this thoroughly buggy and unoperational batt... Oh, hell, you know what? Just ignore the battle station, okay?"

Nori

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Re: Starfarer 0.5a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #67 on: March 02, 2012, 01:30:30 PM »

Great ideas blackfang. I was thinking along similar lines with crew and ships taking credits for wages and maintenance respectively.

You idea about ship standards is awesome, low maintenance ships have higher chance to breakdown, but cheaper to fly around. It could also be that high-tech ships naturally have slightly higher maintenance since they have all the intricate parts, whereas low-tech is simple mechanical stuff.

Doing this would require "parts" to be added, something more complex than just simple supplies. Imagine searching the galaxy to find that part which will allow your kickass Odyssey to run in tip top shape...  :)  Could be fun.

Good stuff here...
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j01

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Re: Starfarer 0.5a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #68 on: March 02, 2012, 01:31:07 PM »

Stuff

More Stuff

You guys seem to have the right idea. I pulled my suggestions mostly from another game that already had a nicely working system in place, though for boarding, not capturing (Ascii Sector).

I still think it might work well in conjunction with what you are suggesting, but if I had to choose, I'd say you guys are thinking on terms that are better suited for how Starfarer works. In this way, the distinction could just remain disabled=chance to salvage, destroyed=no salvage, but with highly increased chance to accidentally destroy ships in combat with too much damage after they're disabled.

Either way, I want the act of obtaining more and newer ships to carry some REAL weight, with saving up credits to make purchases being a very valid alternative to boarding disabled enemy ships, with its own set of advantages in comparison.
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Nori

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Re: Starfarer 0.5a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #69 on: March 02, 2012, 01:40:16 PM »

@j01: Totally agree with you. Getting that shiny new Medusa should be a rare and treasured experience. Though on the flipside I would argue that your own ships should have a lower chance of being totally scrapped or else it would be mind-numbingly frustrating to get the Medusa and lose it the next battle. Maybe that sort of thing will be effected by character and officer skills.
I'm thinking surgery, first aid and wound treatment in mound and blade, that sort of thing.  :)  Obviously SF has to come to it's own formulas calculations and systems though.
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Alex

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Re: Starfarer 0.5a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #70 on: March 02, 2012, 04:09:50 PM »

Just wanted to say that I agree with the sentiment that ships should be harder to get. It's easier right now, because combat is the only way to get ships OR money, and it's inherently risky, so can't make it too hard. Still, in the next version, it'll be a bit more difficult - in some yet-to-be-mentioned ways.

As the game progresses, and non-combat elements are added, getting new ships will become a more and more momentous event.
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Nori

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Re: Starfarer 0.5a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #71 on: March 02, 2012, 04:12:51 PM »

Good to hear Alex, thanks for the reply.
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blackfang

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Re: Starfarer 0.5a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #72 on: March 02, 2012, 06:01:08 PM »

As the game progresses, and non-combat elements are added, getting new ships will become a more and more momentous event.
When that happens and the ships are actually getting hard to come by i will start naming them with unique names:D
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Avan

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Re: Starfarer 0.5a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #73 on: March 02, 2012, 06:19:38 PM »

By next version you mean... .51a? or you mean the actual .5a? I'm presuming something like the former

Alex

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Re: Starfarer 0.5a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #74 on: March 02, 2012, 06:23:24 PM »

By next version you mean... .51a? or you mean the actual .5a? I'm presuming something like the former

I mean this upcoming "bugfix and improvements" release. Still  undecided on what to call it, actually. Since technically this current release an 0.5a preview, but I've got half a mind to call it 0.5a, and then call the next one 0.51a just to simplify things :)
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