Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Save/Load UI, Autosave, Intel Map Markers, and More (04/10/24)
What does "will not be considered repaired" even mean when it comes to the armor and hull regen mods? It's as unclear as it gets.
Ok, so what's going on with Autopulse Laser? It has 30 charges but I can't actually shoot them - I have to wait 12 seconds before each shot, that's not how autopulse laser is supposed to work (also it's pointless that it has 30 charges, or any charges at all, recharge time is shorter than re-fire delay). Perhaps recharge - re-fire should be swapped?
Once that is fixed, it will cause another problem where fighters have weapon ranges being 2-5 times longer than the PDs, but even that problem is less frustrating than ships limiting themselves to using PD, and there's honestly worse problems to solve before that one.
Going back to AI quirks, some of those can be worked around with using Advanced Gunnery Control - e. g I can set PD weapons as "PD" so they only get used against fighters. I can tag expensive-to-fire weapons to not get fired above certain flux levels to alleviate the issue of overloading perhaps (I don't know yet how effective that will be).I have a message on there for 'PD-priority' so that PD can still shoot at ships once they have cleared out the missiles and fighters, PD damage is still damage after all, but I haven't tried out the new shields yet...
I think that PD weapons having really good range is because their projectiles have to be fast to hit small targets like missiles and they aren't blocked by other friendly ships.
The balance is that they usually arent too powerful, and future changes to shields may nerf down the damage.
The shield changes are live, by the way.
Yes you're right, but also at the same time, in my game, PD can reload so it isn't that crippling.QuoteThe problem with PD having insane range is that AI targeting priority can be an issue since they like to shoot at the currently targeted ship.
I think you mean that ships are wasting their limited PD ammo on ships that can absorb it easily. Care to elaborate?
Fair enough... I guess blowing off armour with concussive blasts rather than explosively formed penetrators was too much.QuoteI recall from the field manual that the surface armour is 1/13 as thick as the citadel armour, and that the compartment is basically a buffer space between the surface armour and the citadel armour. A blast in the compartment should break up the surface armour and contribute to its failure. But that only applies if HE is a blast and not a penetrator.
~1/15th as thick, and remember that the citadel armor itself is quite thick at 150mm for even a Mudskipper (Armor Rating 150), so the surface armor would be 10mm or a full cm. Each combat screen pixel at 1:1 zoom is 25cm, so each armor grid cell is about 2m on a side. Destroying the surface armor covering one armor grid cell on a Mudskipper would entail blasting a 4m^2 hole through 1cm of composite armor--thereby likely disintegrating the Mudskipper.
QuoteSome (heavy) fighters and gunships rely on armour, and with certain settings can become immune to point defences. There is no way to configure them separately from ship stats. Because armour does not degrade, if PD cannot damage them, then the target ship is effectively defenseless.
Ok, now I understand better! Thanks for explaining. What "certain settings" are you talking about, and how do they make these heavy fighters and gunships immune?
Also also, having a less strict PD mode would be nice since energy PD actually contributes surprisingly well against other ships and it's better to have them spray into the enemy ship instead of waiting to shoot fighters and missiles.The PD-tag is mainly intended for PD weapons that either have a high flux cost to fire (such as e.g. dual flak) or limited ammo (such as e.g. Bust PD lasers), where you don't want to waste ammo/flux on shots that are unlikely to do much against enemy ships.
For weapons such as the machine gun, I'd recommend simply not giving them the PD tag.
If you mean something else by "a less strict PD tag", please clarify =)
I recall from the field manual that the surface armour is 1/13 as thick as the citadel armour, and that the compartment is basically a buffer space between the surface armour and the citadel armour. A blast in the compartment should break up the surface armour and contribute to its failure. But that only applies if HE is a blast and not a penetrator.Quote
If the (surface) armour reaches 0 on any part of the ship (maybe when blasted off by high-explosives), I suggest that fragmentation ignore surface armour so that they still have some use even if they can't wreck the stuff further inside.
Anything powerful enough to blast the armor off a ship is powerful enough to blast the ship itself apart.
QuoteFighters end up shrugging off point defense systems, and no hullmod or skills apply to increase damage dealt to fighters or missiles. Is there a conflict somewhere?
Please elaborate: are they absorbing point defense weapon damage?
