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Author Topic: Plasma Burn can be held down for one big burn  (Read 753 times)

AxleMC131

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Plasma Burn can be held down for one big burn
« on: April 24, 2020, 12:59:54 AM »

This is inspired by a modified Plasma Burn system I put together this evening for a ship in my mod, and I'm so gorram proud of it that I think it should be a vanilla feature. ;D

Basically, when you use the Plasma Burn system as on the Shrike and Odyssey (though I haven't considered the balance of the latter), if you hold down the system activation key it consumes both charges in succession and extends the burn as if it was one double-length burn. So, with two charges you can perform two separate 0.5 second burns, or hold it down for one 1.0 second burn.

(The system I've put together consumes charges one at a time, as the duration of each system "use" runs out, but it's also built for 3+ total charges so you can divide up the burns as you please with a bit of good timing.)

I thought it was so much fun, and could probably be done much more simply in the base game than through my hacky wacky code, that it might be neat to have as a vanilla feature of at least the Shrike's Plasma Burn. Thoughts?
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Mordodrukow

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Re: Plasma Burn can be held down for one big burn
« Reply #1 on: April 24, 2020, 06:40:50 AM »

Imo, one long burn must be bigger than 2 short, because:
- you spend part of each burn on acceleration, so 1 burn = 1 part of energy wasted
(Also... why sips even have speed limit in zero-gravity? Except for balance reasons)
- why even use long burns if you can press button 2 times for the same effect (while having more versatility, because you can decide to stop after first burn)?
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Mondaymonkey

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Re: Plasma Burn can be held down for one big burn
« Reply #2 on: April 24, 2020, 07:04:23 AM »

Quote
why sips even have speed limit in zero-gravity?

Extremely dense vacuum.
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AxleMC131

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Re: Plasma Burn can be held down for one big burn
« Reply #3 on: April 24, 2020, 03:57:28 PM »

Imo, one long burn must be bigger than 2 short, because:
- you spend part of each burn on acceleration, so 1 burn = 1 part of energy wasted
(Also... why sips even have speed limit in zero-gravity? Except for balance reasons)
- why even use long burns if you can press button 2 times for the same effect (while having more versatility, because you can decide to stop after first burn)?

Well, having it as one longer burn means you can cover the distance in a shorter time, since you don't need to stop in the middle to decelerate and accelerate again.

I'm aware of the balance differential here, and while I'm unsure what could work for vanilla, for my own version of the system I'm toying with an "extension" on the duration of each charge when used in sustain mode - so if you're holding down the key, instead of two 0.5 second burns you get a 1 second burn plus a little extra, 0.2 seconds or something. Then it becomes a more balanced decision between a short controlled burst, or a longer one for covering a large distance quickly.

I don't think this would work for vanilla though as I fear it would be a bit complicated. Something else might be more sensible to apply, but I'm not sure what.
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