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Author Topic: Starfarer 0.53a (Released) Patch Notes  (Read 368174 times)

Thaago

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Re: Starfarer 0.53a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #420 on: July 12, 2012, 08:34:04 PM »

I'm not sure changing the damage bonus to reducing the flux cost would be a good idea - a lot of the considerations of ship design revolve around flux balance and dissipation. Also the small energy weapons are fairly
light on damage - the boost to PD and tactical laser damage from flux is really essential as the current balance lies. Its a very large change and I don't really see the benefit from it.  :-\

That's why my original post suggested increasing damage & flux generation across the board to start with - essentially trying to sort of average in the existing damage bonus.  At low flux levels the guns would be deal more damage (at the cost of more flux); at medium flux, it'd be exactly the same as currently at medium flux, and at high flux they'd do less damage, but be cheaper to fire.

The benefit is that there'd no longer be any possible value to "gaming" your flux levels - assuming it was tuned right, there'd never be a situation in which it was cheaper to artificially boost flux and then fire, instead of just firing to start with.

Why is that a benefit?  See the entire previous discussion full of complaints about the raise-your-flux button going away.

Wouldn't it be simpler to just give energy weapons a flat +25% damage and leave all the flux unaltered (the current system doesn't change flux consumption, unless I'm missing something)? Thats probably even a little low - I know that I like to ride my energy ships at high flux by not venting when I'm going for the kill.

I'm just confused why the damage boost for flux needs to be removed at all. It adds an important and meaningful choice during the regular operation of high tech vessels: do I keep my flux high and blast away, possibly taking high damage on the hull or overloading, but possibly scoring a decisive kill? Or do I play it safe and retreat to vent - much safer but stalling on this vessel could mean the death of other ships in my fleet.
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Alex

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Re: Starfarer 0.53a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #421 on: July 14, 2012, 04:05:43 PM »

Updated.
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Faiter119

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Re: Starfarer 0.53a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #422 on: July 14, 2012, 04:10:11 PM »

Quote
Phase Beam: increased range by 100 units

Yes! My beautiful Phase Beam is even better!
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MidnightSun

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Re: Starfarer 0.53a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #423 on: July 14, 2012, 04:32:08 PM »

Loving the changelog. The tweaks to the Tachyon Lance are fantastic; I think there'll be a lot more strategy in using them than with the current "nuke from orbit" usage. And of course, the phase ships :)
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Reshy

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Re: Starfarer 0.53a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #424 on: July 14, 2012, 05:04:58 PM »

This version is not out yet - this is just a list of changes made/new features implemented so far in the development build.

Changes as of July 14, 2012

Ship AI:
  • Adjusted strafing/pursuit algorithm to help avoid a situation where two ships will circle each other ineffectively for a long time. This result in a significant AI quality improvement overall:
    • Better aim with forward-facing weapons
    • Better aim with guided *and* unguided missiles - in particular, AI frigates can now use Reaper torpedoes effectively
    • More aggresive engagements when appropriate
  • Improved tactical response to being kited
  • No longer tries to flee from frigates or fighters, since that generally doesn't ends well
  • Improved collision avoidance - ships should more reliably go around each other when their destinations cause them to cross paths

Yay, this will help fleet formation a lot.


Added Phase Cloaking:
  • Replaces shields on phase ships (right click to phase in/out)
  • Phased ships can be seen, but not hit
  • No flux dissipation, builds a percentage of base flux per second - can't stay phased indefinitely
  • Costs a percentage of base flux to activate
  • Ship overloads if the phase cloak maxes out the flux level
  • Can't unphase inside a solid object (but will overload)
  • Can't fire while phased
  • Three new phase ships: one cruiser and two frigates
  • See blog post for more details: http://fractalsoftworks.com/2012/07/09/the-evolution-of-phase-cloaking/

So basically this is an invulnerability shield?  Can Phase weapons damage ships phasing or can phase weapons fire while phased?  IS hardflux built up when phasing, and can soft flux be vented possibly?



Weapon/balance changes:
  • Phase Beam: increased range by 100 units
  • Phase Charge Launcher: renamed to "Proximity Charge Launcher", increased ammo to 30, increased launch speed, reduced rate of fire from 1/second to 1/3 seconds, reduced damage
  • Tachyon Lance: reduced range and damage by 50%. Increased EMP damage by 50%. No longer goes through fighters.

The charge launcher probably needs to work more like mines and to have a cheaper cost associated with it.  Second, does the lance really need to be nerfed?  It already costs 32 OP which is a lot and it cannot penetrate the shields of larger ships due to the soft flux, I rarely if ever use it anymore and this change won't help that.



Ship Systems:
  • Changed Fast Missile Racks to generate flux per use, drastically reduced cooldown

Miscellaneous:
  • Added per-system icons to in-combat ship status display
  • Missile engine glow will now gradually diminish a couple of seconds before it flames out, giving some warning that it's about to happen

Bugfixes:
  • Ship AI no longer tries to avoid an (impossible) collision with the transfer command shuttle pod
  • Fixed potential game freeze if two fleets with ships with no attack capacity whatsoever engaged in an autoresolved battle
  • Fixed bug where autofiring missile weapons didn't properly recognize when friendly fire is NOT a danger
  • Fixed bug where switching weapon groups quickly would sometimes cause the weapon arcs for the wrong group to be displayed



« Last Edit: July 14, 2012, 05:12:52 PM by JamesRaynor »
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minno

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Re: Starfarer 0.53a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #425 on: July 14, 2012, 05:06:40 PM »

  • Fixed potential game freeze if two fleets with ships with no attack capacity whatsoever engaged in an autoresolved battle

So how do you handle it now?  Do you just end combat with no damage, or do you try to simulate who's the better rammer?
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Thaago

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Re: Starfarer 0.53a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #426 on: July 14, 2012, 05:16:43 PM »

Interesting on the Tachyon lance - still long ranged and decent burst, but a switch from killing to knocking out every weapon/engine at once...

Will the AI know to 'spray' the beam over the whole exposed surface of a ship to knock out as many systems at once as possible or will it still try to find a hole in the armor, like other weapons? I should go check if the ion cannon sprays to knock out systems, I've never actually used it...
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Shoat

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Re: Starfarer 0.53a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #427 on: July 14, 2012, 05:46:39 PM »

Quote
Phase Beam: increased range by 100 units

Yes! My beautiful Phase Beam is even better!


100 additional units of purple on the screen. YES.
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Gaizokubanou

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Re: Starfarer 0.53a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #428 on: July 14, 2012, 07:40:20 PM »

If I'm understanding the current phase ship under solid object rule, then technically it's a feasible tactic as a non-phase ship to just move through a phase ship to overload it, right?
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Alex

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Re: Starfarer 0.53a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #429 on: July 14, 2012, 07:54:43 PM »

  • Fixed potential game freeze if two fleets with ships with no attack capacity whatsoever engaged in an autoresolved battle

So how do you handle it now?  Do you just end combat with no damage, or do you try to simulate who's the better rammer?

No ramming simulation, that would be silly :) They just both successfully retreat.

Interesting on the Tachyon lance - still long ranged and decent burst, but a switch from killing to knocking out every weapon/engine at once...

Will the AI know to 'spray' the beam over the whole exposed surface of a ship to knock out as many systems at once as possible or will it still try to find a hole in the armor, like other weapons? I should go check if the ion cannon sprays to knock out systems, I've never actually used it...

In theory, no - but if the lance is in a turret, the AI generally doesn't go for such niceties as keeping the ship from turning to ensure the turret hits the same spot - so, let's go with "yes" in regard to spraying.

If I'm understanding the current phase ship under solid object rule, then technically it's a feasible tactic as a non-phase ship to just move through a phase ship to overload it, right?

Yeah - if you prevent it from phasing in, it'll overload - while still phased. Between phase ships generally being pretty fast, and the forces pushing the ship trying to do so away from the phase ship's normal space shadow, I wouldn't expect doing this to be easy.
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YAZF

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Re: Starfarer 0.53a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #430 on: July 14, 2012, 08:59:17 PM »

Can a phased ship pass through another phased ship? I mean, they are both using the same technology right? Aren't they also going into the same "phase space" thing?
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Dear Alex,
There should be a battlestation/star fortress fight in the main menu mission mode.  :)

Nooblies

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Re: Starfarer 0.53a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #431 on: July 14, 2012, 10:31:48 PM »

Missiles now give warning when about to go free for all, friendly pilums won't be as scary to be around now.

Also, no more friendly harpoon death for me! (has happened to me more times than you'd think)

Nice change.
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keptin

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Re: Starfarer 0.53a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #432 on: July 14, 2012, 11:45:10 PM »

Starfarer, KSP, and Blockade Runner are all the same update schedule and the wait has been brutal.  I can only imagine the joyous day when all three games patch simultaneously, overflowing with new content.  Ah, yes, I can picture it now.

Ship systems are making me salivate.  I really hope they're plenty moddable.

Psycho Society

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Re: Starfarer 0.53a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #433 on: July 15, 2012, 03:02:51 AM »

It'll be a good update. Mix things up a bit. Can you imagine a hound with a flare launcher? Things gonna be dodging and weaving and even salamanders won't be able to take it out of the action. Those things are gonna tear into ships like ravening hyenas. It looks like the AI update will change the game a lot too. I am concerned though if a lone skirmish frigate like the hound or wolf no longer runs from other frigates, they'll be surrounded and crushed. Will this not be the case?
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hadesian

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Re: Starfarer 0.53a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #434 on: July 15, 2012, 03:05:44 AM »

It'll be a good update. Mix things up a bit. Can you imagine a hound with a flare launcher? Things gonna be dodging and weaving and even salamanders won't be able to take it out of the action. Those things are gonna tear into ships like ravening hyenas.
That'll (hopefully) be balanced out by the update to AI that makes them more tactical when dealing with being kited.

I never used Salamanders to begin with. I just took them down with weapons, because they tend to make mistakes and get caught out quite easily. Pulse lasers and such are the main dealers of death here.
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Changes as of May 24, 2013
  • Reinvented Starsector.
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