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Author Topic: No ship system should be finite.  (Read 3542 times)

j01

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No ship system should be finite.
« on: August 11, 2012, 01:14:00 AM »

Even flares and especially drones should at least slowly regenerate their stock over time, back to the initial amount.

Ship systems are now integral to gameplay, and really should have a constant presence in combat. This seems no more poignant than in the case of the ships with drones, where the supply often runs dry fairly quickly even in light combat, and then the ship is crippled with minimal effort for however much longer the battle goes on.

I love the concept of drones, but I can't justify using the ships that get them when other ships have the overwhelming, infinite tactical superiority of reusable systems.

I'd rather this weren't the case.
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Hyph_K31

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Re: No ship system should be finite.
« Reply #1 on: August 11, 2012, 01:18:15 AM »

I can agree with you point on the drones, as you would expect a ship like the apogee to be able to produce more. although ships like the gemini would not, because there wouldn't be enough room inside for a drone 'factory'.

As for the flares, I think they're fine. although they could use a little more ammo - for prolonged fights. and anyway, ballistic weapons have a large presence in combat, and they have finite ammo. all that means it that you've got to be a little bit more careful when and what you shoot at.
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Reshy

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Re: No ship system should be finite.
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2012, 03:23:45 AM »

I can agree with you point on the drones, as you would expect a ship like the apogee to be able to produce more. although ships like the gemini would not, because there wouldn't be enough room inside for a drone 'factory'.

As for the flares, I think they're fine. although they could use a little more ammo - for prolonged fights. and anyway, ballistic weapons have a large presence in combat, and they have finite ammo. all that means it that you've got to be a little bit more careful when and what you shoot at.


Gemini has a flight deck, so why not?
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Hyph_K31

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Re: No ship system should be finite.
« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2012, 03:30:48 AM »

Thats a flight deck, not a production line. It might be able to repair and replace fighters - but from what i've been told before, it already has a number of spare fighters (of an unknown number) - that doesn't mean to say that it also has to ability to replace drones, sure it can repair and there are spares. but I don't think it would be able to produce more.
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j01

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Re: No ship system should be finite.
« Reply #4 on: August 11, 2012, 04:45:50 AM »

I don't think it would be able to produce more.

Only the game designers can speak for the lore, so it's irrelevant to discuss.

My point is that it should be able to produce more, because gameplay.
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TJJ

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Re: No ship system should be finite.
« Reply #5 on: August 11, 2012, 07:11:12 AM »

I agree.
Even with unlimited supplies I don't think drones or flares would be that impressive.

Skimmers/Teleporters on the other hand... they're most definitely edging toward the ROFLstomp IMBA classification.
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IIE16 Yoshi

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Re: No ship system should be finite.
« Reply #6 on: August 11, 2012, 07:19:33 AM »

I think with something like flares, maybe the ability to 'reload' them. I.E, you can burn through the stack of flares you have after which the flares start to 'cool down' much like weapons do after firing. After this cooldown is complete, you can go crazy with the flares again. The idea of 'magazines' in ballistic weapons is something I'd very much like to see. While some energy weapons have the ability to constantly recharge new shots, a ballistic weapon would need to reload a new magazine. Hull mods or ship systems with the ability to reduce this 'cool down' could also be introduced.
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hadesian

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Re: No ship system should be finite.
« Reply #7 on: August 11, 2012, 07:23:35 AM »

Skimmers/teleporters are not using anything other than reactor power I think, so they would regen.

But if you say that flares should regen then why not ballistic weapons themselves? Or missiles? It makes sense for drones but not flares.
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IIE16 Yoshi

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Re: No ship system should be finite.
« Reply #8 on: August 11, 2012, 07:38:26 AM »

Skimmers/teleporters are not using anything other than reactor power I think, so they would regen.

But if you say that flares should regen then why not ballistic weapons themselves? Or missiles? It makes sense for drones but not flares.

I think with something like flares, maybe the ability to 'reload' them. I.E, you can burn through the stack of flares you have after which the flares start to 'cool down' much like weapons do after firing. After this cooldown is complete, you can go crazy with the flares again. The idea of 'magazines' in ballistic weapons is something I'd very much like to see. While some energy weapons have the ability to constantly recharge new shots, a ballistic weapon would need to reload a new magazine. Hull mods or ship systems with the ability to reduce this 'cool down' could also be introduced.
But I did~.....
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TJJ

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Re: No ship system should be finite.
« Reply #9 on: August 11, 2012, 07:53:35 AM »

Skimmers/teleporters are not using anything other than reactor power I think, so they would regen.

But if you say that flares should regen then why not ballistic weapons themselves? Or missiles? It makes sense for drones but not flares.

There's nothing to stop flares being energy weapons that don't require 'ammo' (in fact, that's precisely how they're implemented at the moment if you encounter the 'flares in the shop' bug!)

There are lots of infinite ammo energy weapons that *should* require reaction mass; plasma cannon, pulse lasers, heavy blasters, but for gameplay reasons they don't.
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Plasmatic

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Re: No ship system should be finite.
« Reply #10 on: August 11, 2012, 09:35:32 AM »

it's fairly easy for you to make all system regen back to the inital amount,

Just edit the ship_systems.csv found in Starfarer/data/shipsystems

theres a column that is regen. i find 0.1 or 0.2 to be a good value there, not too fast, and not too slow.
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phyrex

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Re: No ship system should be finite.
« Reply #11 on: August 12, 2012, 01:48:35 PM »

it's fairly easy for you to make all system regen back to the inital amount,

Just edit the ship_systems.csv found in Starfarer/data/shipsystems

theres a column that is regen. i find 0.1 or 0.2 to be a good value there, not too fast, and not too slow.

but that would be an unoficial, user made fix. he's talking about future balance of the game overall
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MidnightSun

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Re: No ship system should be finite.
« Reply #12 on: August 13, 2012, 10:20:15 AM »

I do agree that having a (very slowly) regenerating stock of drones would be very useful. If for balance's sake that means cutting the total number of deployable drones for the Gemini/Astral/Apogee, that would be fine, I think.

As for flares, I think it should continue to be limited. Missiles are highly limited, and given how effective flares are as a counter to missiles, they should be limited as well.
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