Question about a few of the systems, namely the High Energy Focus and Fortress Shield. You didn't mention that they were for a limited amount of time (like you did for Burn Drive for instance). Does that mean it's going to be something like a toggle ability? When you choose whether they are on or off constantly?
Yeah, they're toggleable, but with a small cooldown (5s on Fortress Shield, at the moment).
how is telefragging handled in the game?
What happens if you teleport into another ship/asteroid?
3. teleportation. What happens if we intentionally teleport on any other ship? What happens if we do it unintentionally (skimmer type teleport)? I assume that there is some safe-guard code that prevents such collisions?
It'll pick a nearby location such that the ship doesn't materialize on top of something else.
1. drones. Can a ship have drones and hangars for standard fighters? Are drones shown on the ship (attached) like turrets or do they just launch from bays? Is there a new hardpoint type for drone hangars?
Yes, it can have both. No, drones are not shown - they launch from/land at a defined location, which is generally a single new "SYSTEM" type "weapon slot". If that's not defined, it'll use the center of the ship.
2. ship systems. How do we put those on a ship? Via variants or through other ways? I ask because i`d like to know if those are hull-specified or variant-specified. If it is a variant-specified than all drones/flares etc. probably launch from the ships center...
A new column in ship_data.csv, so it's per-hull. Think of the balancing nightmare it'd be otherwise
4. missile flares. Once again - are there any hardpoints for those? Or do they launch from the center of a ship? How much flares are launched?
These have fake weapons defined in weapon_data.csv, along with some fake "weapon slots" defined on each ship. The flare system just puts a launcher into each defined slot - so, different ships with the same "Flare Launcher" system could launch a different number of flares, depending on how many slots are configured on the hull. Right now, each individual slot is set to launch 10 flares (configurable in weapon_data.csv).
Lastly - nice MOO2-ish names! I love how those classic things end up in this game with almost the same features.
Hahah, thanks
Yeah, it was fun to include those.
And - congrats on finishing a really interesting combat element
Might be a little early for "finishing" - still lots of playtesting and usability stuff left - but it's definitely a good ways along.
... especially the Buffalo MK2. Jesus Christ, it's about time it got a buff. Mind telling us how much more speed and manueverability it recieved?
The top speed is 80 now - not great, but no longer horrible. It's still not a good ship, and really isn't supposed to be one.
Wow this all sounds awesome! Im hoping the midline drones are not OP, can they target shields? Or just missiles?
They can target ships, though they prefer missiles and fighters first. As to it being OP, well, it's the Gemini - not exactly a scary front-line combatant. And the drones are very fragile.
Good point, actually. But the enemy could also send out a strong and quick advance force, and just skirmish with your Onslaught and Dominators--which are horrible at doing so with smaller ships--until your own big ships arrive, which have better systems.
Ah, but with Burn Drive, these ships become quite good at bullying smaller ships. It's a bit of a bull vs matador thing, but the matador doesn't always win. If a frigate gets behind it, the ship can get away. If a frigate is in front of it, it can close the gap with frightening speed. It's an awesome system, with tons of combat utility, especially vs smaller ships - and, lets face it, the main problem for these ships was mobility, not firepower or armor. Burn Drive is a tool to overcome that limitation. It's got some downsides (no turning, no shields) but without those it would be incredibly OP.
I don't know about you guys but i can't wait to ram a ship to death with my onslaught going at full speed.
That's probably just gonna make you lose your engine. Could still be fun.
The flameout chance only comes into play when you hit something as big as your ship or larger.
The infernium injector got cut - could never nail down what it was supposed to do, in a satisfying way (it was meant to be a high-tech movement enhancer, akin to Burn Drive, but different).
Well, you've got something that fits that bill quite nicely: the phase skimmer.
Yeah, good call - the skimmer is indeed the "spiritual successor" to the injector - it's on the same two ships the injector was supposed to go on.
High Energy Focus - boosts energy weapon damage by 50%, increases damage taken by 50%, can't use shields
Sunder, Aurora, Odyssey
I'll have to wait to play this and see how it goes. In my mind either 50% extra damage or no shields would be appropriate. Of course I'll probably eat those words the instant I switch this on and gore an overloading enemy to death. My main concern, like a lot of other people, is how this will affect the Tachyon lance. Because of the range tachyon Odyssey's will have no downsides to this ability...
Alex, how do you feel about the Tachyon lance?
We'll see - there hasn't been an awful lot of playtesting, beyond just making sure the systems "feel" good. I have to admit, I hadn't considered the "Odyssey with Tachyon Lances and always-on HEF" angle - but was already thinking of reducing Tachyon Lance range to around 3000 (from 5000). Definitely something to keep an eye out for, though.
I like the ship systems that are being implemented, but there are a few systems that I'd be interested in seeing that aren't there:
•A system that increases ballistic/energy/beam weapons' range and velocity by, say, 25-100% while active (perhaps with increased flux cost or something, to offset it). Range is one of the most powerful stats, though.
•A system that just deals damage. I like the idea of a ship built around a weapon, like a weapon so large for its ship class that the only way to feasibly accomodate it is to build it right into the frame. Also, think 'Death Star'.
Well, there are lots of cool ideas, and only so many ships and so much time
As for a "ship around a weapon", I've been thinking about that a bit - came up early on during this dev cycle. *IF* that happens, it probably won't be handled through ship systems. You actually could do this with a mod - easy enough to strap any kind of weapon onto a hull using the same functionality that, say, the flare launcher uses - but the problem would be in making the AI use it. Needs a bit more thought on my end.
Wow, that was a lot of questions! Hope that means you guys are as excited about ship systems as I am