Fractal Softworks Forum

Starsector => Suggestions => Topic started by: Gothars on August 22, 2020, 04:03:31 PM

Title: Indicate overload duration with flux bar
Post by: Gothars on August 22, 2020, 04:03:31 PM
The overload duration could be visually inidcated by the flux bar. The flux bar shrinks by a certain amount during overload, if the part of the flux bar corresponding to that amount was textured differently, the remaining time of the overload could be estimated accurately. If the texture would look like chaotic noise the would communicate the meaning clearly, I believe.


Related to that, it might be interesting to give ion damage the additional property to increase overload duration. In order to not give them the ability to keep enemies in overload indefinitely, they could increase total overload time by an percentage of the time that would be left from the original overload time.
Would make them into even more interesting support weapons.

(There's the rare case were a ship has so much dissipation that it can shed more that 100% of flux during an overload, in such a case the bar indicator would not be precise. That could be fixed by the new texture overruning the flux bar or by resseting it at 0%. But I dont think it's much of an issue to just be vague in these cases.)


Title: Re: Indicate overload duration with flux bar
Post by: Thaago on August 22, 2020, 05:48:45 PM
Would this give us the ability to estimate the overload duration on an enemy ship that we've targeted? That would be quite useful!

I'm not sure about giving ion the role of extending overloads. What gameplay purpose do you see for this? I already think Ion is quite good against overloaded targets as they have no shield to stop it from taking out their engines (and their weapons will be down when they get out of overload).
Title: Re: Indicate overload duration with flux bar
Post by: Gothars on August 22, 2020, 06:06:53 PM
Would this give us the ability to estimate the overload duration on an enemy ship that we've targeted? That would be quite useful!
Sure!

I'm not sure about giving ion the role of extending overloads. What gameplay purpose do you see for this? I already think Ion is quite good against overloaded targets as they have no shield to stop it from taking out their engines (and their weapons will be down when they get out of overload).

Ions seem kinda redundant, since usually you can also knock out the engines of an overloaded ship with conventional weapons. Given the choice between firing at an overloaded target with damage dealers or ion weapons, 95% of the time I'd choose pure damage. That of course also influences weapon choice during loadout, making ion weapon a relatively rare choice.
If they'd increase overload duration, they would increase actual damage done on an overloaded ship, making them a great combination weapon for the situation.

I also like the idea of a little ion support frigate that swoops in on overloaded ships :)
Title: Re: Indicate overload duration with flux bar
Post by: SafariJohn on August 22, 2020, 07:13:27 PM
Ion damage is already brutal. Even with high tech, a Paragon duel for example can easily be decided by a lucky sweep of a Tachyon Lance or Ion Beam knocking out a bank of weapons.

Better overload duration displays would be really useful.
Title: Re: Indicate overload duration with flux bar
Post by: Morbo513 on August 25, 2020, 03:34:59 AM
This would be great