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Author Topic: Little request: Accidents  (Read 12679 times)

Alex

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Re: Little request: Accidents
« Reply #15 on: May 08, 2012, 06:04:32 PM »

^This. "Minor" accident: Lost 3 plasma cannons, 200 supplies, 100 fuel, a crapload of minor weapons and 30 crew, including 5 elites.
"Minor" my arse.

I hate to point this out, but accidents are limited to 4 different things lost. You're going to have to pick 4 of these 6 to make your point ;)

I'm also unsure how you managed to have a minor accident while still having supplies. Unless I'm missing something, that shouldn't be possible - it was probably major. Minor accidents are negated at the cost of some supplies every day.


Edit: I don't mean to imply that you're "wrong" in any sense for liking large fleet battles - that's a matter of personal preference. In practical terms, though, the 150 fleet point limitation doesn't affect the amount of ships you see in battle at once - since that's already above the battle size - unless you've modded that up too. It does, of course, affect the duration of such battles...
« Last Edit: May 08, 2012, 06:11:32 PM by Alex »
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keptin

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Re: Little request: Accidents
« Reply #16 on: May 08, 2012, 06:39:01 PM »

Thanks for clearing up the mechanics a bit Alex.  It must just seem more severe than it actually is--the edge of a cliff rather than a gradual linear or exponential curve.  My experiences with accidents thus far have left me with mixed feelings.  When starting a new game in a small frigate, one or two pieces of valuable loot can put you over into "unforgivably overloaded" territory where I'm accident prone every few paces, often before I can reach a station.  The punishment is so severe when said accident occurs, I end up reloading the save.  

This break in gameplay is the root of my frustration.  If accidents were moddable, I'd make it so they occurred more gradually as the fleet becomes overloaded, frigates and smaller fleets would be more forgiving and punishments never so severe that I'd want to stop my play and return to a previous save.  I can live with losing a small weapon, a few crew and some supplies, but it seems to go right for my golden loot every time.

I like having to be conscious of my inventory, but I hold my opinion that it's intrusive in its current form.


*edit*- My favorite approach to being overloaded is Fallout 3's take on it, where your character becomes severely impeded (speed wise), making you easy prey for slow and large enemies.  It's possible to hobble back to safety long distances with a bunch of loot in your inventory, but it's so painfully slow that it's often only done with the most precious of loot.  The game also has dropped item persistence, so you can take multiple trips to haul large inventories of goodies back to base.
« Last Edit: May 08, 2012, 06:47:50 PM by keptin »
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Alex

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Re: Little request: Accidents
« Reply #17 on: May 08, 2012, 06:51:50 PM »

Hmm - I can see making it a bit more gradual as far as what happens when you go just over the limit, or tuning the chances somewhat to give you a bit longer.

Save/loading shouldn't help much, btw - the random seed used to generate the accident is saved. I guess it can help in that you can load and then dump the excess cargo yourself, though.

But really, any kind of a gamble like that is going to make reloading appealing when it fails, even if the penalty is small - unless the penalty is smaller than the payoff, in which case it's not a gamble to begin with - which is roughly what the supply cost per day represents. The only way to eliminate the incentive to load after an accident is by adding an iron mode where you can't do that.

Ultimately, an accident represents either a lost gamble or bad judgment. Reloading after that is no different than reloading after a lost battle.

Anyway, as with everything else, tweaks and fine-tuning are almost inevitable. For now, if you find yourself over 50% above capacity, I'd say the best move is to dump all/most of your supplies and then head for the nearest station. The "lack of supplies" accidents won't kick in for quite a number of days.
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keptin

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Re: Little request: Accidents
« Reply #18 on: May 08, 2012, 07:02:33 PM »

The only way to eliminate the incentive to load after an accident is by adding an iron mode where you can't do that.

Or by making the punishment for being overloaded an active one, e.g., severely reduced speed and triple rate of supplies & fuel cost.  Then come the serious accidents once supplies run out.

I'm sure tuning will smooth things out, just providing some player feedback.

harperrb

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Re: Little request: Accidents
« Reply #19 on: May 08, 2012, 07:17:06 PM »

I feel like this is an impromptu poll.

my vote: Love accidents.

one thing while I'm thinking about it. Perhaps the obviousness of degree of risk involved can be increased in some way.  I often forget to look at the rather unobtrusive risk potential signifier, but I feel like, if my fictional crew are floating out in space to chain up some giant gun to the outside of my ship (hyperbolic example) I should be more aware of the potentially dangerous situation.

As for specific implementation:
 A. confirmation popup for taking on cargo that would increase accident risk,
 2. some sort of "we are about to have a problem" icon on the fleet itself in the system map
 d. a 'potential accident' report giving a potential range of damages (crew, ships, supplies, etc) so players can decide if a high risk losing 20-50 supplies, crew, etc is worth it
« Last Edit: May 08, 2012, 07:20:48 PM by harperrb »
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icepick37

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Re: Little request: Accidents
« Reply #20 on: May 08, 2012, 07:21:30 PM »

I've literally never had a problem with accidents. I had one when I knowingly picked up too much stuff. Other than that I just dump supplies to make room early game. And make frequent pit stops.

If you want to pick up more cargo than you can safely carry expect consequences. Do you prefer the hard cap? B/c I sure don't. This is so much more fun.
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Silus44

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Re: Little request: Accidents
« Reply #21 on: May 08, 2012, 07:28:22 PM »

I've actually never had a major accident, but I tend to go dump my cargo when I get overloaded, rather than trying to pack in just a little bit more loot.

It's possible I've had minors and lost supplies to them, but if so they weren't noticeable.
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Temjin

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Re: Little request: Accidents
« Reply #22 on: May 08, 2012, 07:29:11 PM »

I've literally never had a problem with accidents. I had one when I knowingly picked up too much stuff. Other than that I just dump supplies to make room early game. And make frequent pit stops.

If you want to pick up more cargo than you can safely carry expect consequences. Do you prefer the hard cap? B/c I sure don't. This is so much more fun.

I don't mind accidents, but that's because I don't usually run massive fleets and I'm careful not to carry too much. I much prefer the excitement of smaller engagements over the management involved with larger ones. If you're used to running around with a planet-crushing fleet, I can see how the system might bother you though.
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silentstormpt

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Re: Little request: Accidents
« Reply #23 on: May 08, 2012, 07:45:39 PM »

Wouldn't having a huge fuel usage when overloaded be a more realistic approach instead of supplies, im still selling fuel and now im buying supplies more then ever, wouldn't balance out the usage of those 2?
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BillyRueben

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Re: Little request: Accidents
« Reply #24 on: May 08, 2012, 07:48:11 PM »

Wouldn't having a huge fuel usage when overloaded be a more realistic approach instead of supplies
Yeah, if we actually used fuel to move around to begin with...
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Trylobot

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Re: Little request: Accidents
« Reply #25 on: May 08, 2012, 08:33:31 PM »

I'm with icepick. I have never had an issue with accidents. The few times I was at risk, I high-tailed it to the station. Dumped my lewts and was on my way. It's amazing how much crap you accumulate.
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FlashFrozen

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Re: Little request: Accidents
« Reply #26 on: May 08, 2012, 09:19:07 PM »

I've run into accidents only when I decide to alt tab unknowingly draining all my supplies until eventually I run and then bam, accidents away! xD

thankfully at least it pauses during the accidents or else I might as well just blow up my own ships myself.
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Uomoz

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Re: Little request: Accidents
« Reply #27 on: May 09, 2012, 01:18:04 AM »

I've literally never had a problem with accidents. I had one when I knowingly picked up too much stuff. Other than that I just dump supplies to make room early game. And make frequent pit stops.

If you want to pick up more cargo than you can safely carry expect consequences. Do you prefer the hard cap? B/c I sure don't. This is so much more fun.

This.
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cp252

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Re: Little request: Accidents
« Reply #28 on: May 09, 2012, 02:44:51 AM »

If there were more write-ups, plus fitting art to go with it, I'd have accidents just to see them. Just saying. (run a kickstarter)
As for FP, I gave up and divided all the FP costs by half eventually.
The game became noticeably less fun.
Back to the prescribed numbers I go.
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Shazar02

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Re: Little request: Accidents
« Reply #29 on: May 09, 2012, 02:48:48 AM »

Not a single time have I had an accident.  If Im trying to pick up some loot after a battle, but don't have enough space, I often time drop loot that isn't as good, or a few supplies to make sure it doesn't go over, or very far over, the cargo limit.

I personally think this makes the game more fun, because you have to make choices on what you want to take, what you want to leave, what you want to throw away to make more room for, or just take everything and make a mad dash to the nearest orbital station to dump it off.
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