Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[PCCL]

So after a bit of experimenting, I want to achieve a "heavier" feel for ships

as is some ships (especially frigs but some lighter destroyers) handle much like one would expect strikecrafts to (fast with main weapons mounted pointing front and generally rapid firing) and can go reverse and turn really fast.

Basically what I'm trying to do is make ships work a bit more like sea-faring ships (realism and no friction in space be damned!!), slower, harder, longer range, and less maneuverable.

So far I've halved ship speed, halved most weapon fire rate, doubled weapon range, 1/5'ed deceleration and turn, and doubled ballistic and unguided weapons projectile speed.

anything I've missed that might help? Don't care if it's crazy, I'm all for experimenting.

thx in advance

gunny

[Hardlyjoking67]

If you're trying to literally achieve a heavier feel for ships, you would want to look at inertia. Inertia is the concept of how more massive objects are harder to start moving and stop moving as well as harder to change directions. From what you've written, it looks like you've done a pretty good job. If you want a sea-shippy type feel, then sure, reduce speed, but if you're just going for heavy, I'd leave it closer to where it is. If i'm not mistaken, a more massive object is also harder to turn the faster it goes so you may want to drop turn even more than you drop acceleration. Lol, a free crash course on physics.

[PCCL]

inertia is kinda hard to simulate in the current engine as afaik the acceleration goes in a linear fashion as opposed to exponential...

and afaik turn speed is independent on speed so that's outta the window too...

If possible I would also like to make ship collisions more lethal... right now they're more or less bumper boats

also what I'm trying to achieve is more heavier cannons (less rapid fire) since imo that fits the modern naval status quo better

[Archduke Astro]

Gunnyfreak, it's not easy to tell owing to the way that you wrote it, but when reducing ship acceleration and turn rate, did you likewise reduce turn acceleration? There's a stat specific to that one quality and it's vital to ship handling -- it's arguably the most "visible to the player" momentum-vs.-inertia effect.

[Archduke Astro]

If possible I would also like to make ship collisions more lethal... right now they're more or less bumper boats

Well, then the mass stat is your friend. Or enemy, depending on how you handle it here.

[PCCL]

no... isn't that just how long it takes for a ship to reach max turn speed?

Not sure if that would make a difference since the max turn is low as heck as is....

guess i should try it

also won't increasing mass for all ships just return the status quo? or would that make them do considerably more damage?

[Archduke Astro]

no... isn't that just how long it takes for a ship to reach max turn speed?

Not sure if that would make a difference since the max turn is low as heck as is....

guess i should try it

If you're hoping for an "OMG this ship is ponderous" feel, consider raising the turn rate but reducing turn acceleration. Take notes on what works for your desired feel.

also won't increasing mass for all ships just return the status quo? or would that make them do considerably more damage?

My understanding is that it's somewhat more relative than absolute. Differential mass is what helps to make ship collisions to be extremely destructive on occasion. Spread the values out across a much wider range for all hulls, and see where that takes you. I don't think that it's the sole such factor in Starfarer, but it could be the decisive one for eliminating the existing "bumper cars at the amusement park" feel.

If when you're done tweaking, a cruiser ends up having 30X the mass of a frigate and a capital ship ends up having 15X the mass of a cruiser, I think you're gonna get some serious kinetic hurt going on

[PCCL]

I am in fact going for an "OMG this ship is ponderous" feel, so I'll definitely give that a shot.

afaik difference in mass just make ships bounce off like those tiny asteroids all over the map..... still no damage being done...

[Archduke Astro]

I am in fact going for an "OMG this ship is ponderous" feel, so I'll definitely give that a shot.

Cool.

afaik difference in mass just make ships bounce off like those tiny asteroids all over the map..... still no damage being done...

Then all I can say is experiment ad nauseam until you hit upon the combination of tweaks that you need, taking careful notes all along the way. Please share your results with us.

[PCCL]

will do! 

on a side note, I might try one with nigh infinite max speed for ships (after all, there IS no friction in space) and slow as heck acceleration...

not sure how the AI would handle that tho...

[Plasmatic]

will do! 

on a side note, I might try one with nigh infinite max speed for ships (after all, there IS no friction in space) and slow as heck acceleration...

not sure how the AI would handle that tho...

Probobly not very well... but who knows

I forsee Frigates becoming the best fleet ships again though.. infinte speed and fastest acceleration (smaller mass) aside from fighters. But maybe your not going the "logical" route - Smaller ships = faster acceleration.

[PCCL]

I think decel is still gonna be way down, so frigs still have to go at a reasonable speed lest they overshoots their target.

They still can't outshoot anything tho...

[Temjin]

I foresee lots of collisions and more time spent maneuvering than actually fighting.

[Archduke Astro]

I foresee lots of collisions and more time spent maneuvering than actually fighting.

Consider a wider viewpoint: if, as gunnyfreak desires, the collisions are modded to be sufficiently frequent and destructive, and the hulls are modded to be sufficiently sluggish and just-barely-too-unresponsive, then the maneuvering IS the fighting. Harpoons, phase beams etc. are just the icing on the "F=ma" cake.

[K-64]

Having the fighting like that would be rather awesome to have. That's something I quite like about the tabletop space games I play: The ships are ponderous and moving into the correct position is just as important if not moreso than your choice of ships for the fleet