Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Pages: 1 ... 11 12 [13] 14 15 ... 107

Author Topic: [0.95a] Shadowyards Reconstruction Authority 0.9.5-rc4(4/12/21)  (Read 1115379 times)

Uomoz

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 2663
  • 'womo'dz
    • View Profile
Re: (0.54.1a) Shadowyards Heavy Industries v0.3.2c
« Reply #180 on: April 05, 2013, 03:10:45 PM »


    • Reduce Pandora Arrays charge time so that the AI can actually make use of it.

    Have you tried adding

    "autocharge":true,

    to the weapon script?
    Logged

    MShadowy

    • Admiral
    • *****
    • Posts: 911
      • View Profile
    Re: (0.54.1a) Shadowyards Heavy Industries v0.3.2c
    « Reply #181 on: April 05, 2013, 03:27:16 PM »

    Yeah, it's already set up for that.  Rather, the charge time is so long that the ai will sometimes drift off target to deliver it's broadside while the shot is still charging to fire.  Which then leads to the blast flying off into the void and possibly hitting friendlies or whatnot.  Well, hopefully I can arrive at a solution to this little problem beyond reducing the charge time.
    Logged

    CopperCoyote

    • Captain
    • ****
    • Posts: 451
      • View Profile
    Re: (0.54.1a) Shadowyards Heavy Industries v0.3.2c
    « Reply #182 on: April 07, 2013, 02:45:13 PM »

    It took me a bit but i finally got the time to test the other two ships.

    I really like how fast the sargasso is. It makes having zippy fighter fleets a breeze. It has decent maneuverability too. The shield radius is much bigger than the ship's. This allows for all sorts of strangeness. Like tricking sabots into shooting at the edge much more easily. I could also use it to trick enemies into firing at me backing off a tiny bit dropping the shield and having their shots dissipate into nothingness. It allowed me to passively lose flux while theirs stayed up.

    The lack of PD and shield arc means it is extremely vulnerable to salamanders and nimble ships. I always needed a wing of talons to help with PD. When i gave it to the computer to fly it fared worse so i ended up having all 4 wings of talons support it and took off the dual flak. The computer did pretty well with a more aggressive armament.

    I'm not entirely sure the ship system does anything. I tried some tests to try and see what the ballpark improvement was. I tested on the same buffalo2 over and over. I didn't notice a difference. I couldn't recall what exactly it was supposed to buff so i looked at damage accuracy and speed. I didn't know what else could be buffed. I also couldn't recall the buff range so i stayed pretty close to my fighters; within about 1000 SU. A thought just struck me: what if the buff was always on even if i didn't activate it?

    Over all the sargasso is pretty good. It has similar strengths and weaknesses as the charybdis. Decent offence, flimsy, and trades good speed for less cargo and hangar capacity. With its name i was expecting it to be like its namesake: the calm in the center of whipping currents. In game terms i was expecting it to be defensive (the calm) and boost the fighters to great heights (the whipping currents).

    The elysium is a riot to fly. The ship system might be broken. Its really fun though. Continuously flying about at 250(or thereabouts) SU with my shields up is a little insane. Basically any ship i couldn't outgun i could easily flee from. Salamanders could hypothetically catch me, but a pair of light cepcs on the back was plenty to fend them off. The broadside nature scarcely mattered because it is so maneuverable. I could flop back and forth taking advantage of the flux efficient nature of fully charged cepcs. I was like a laser spewing blurred pendulum of death. It was glorious.

    I really like the elysium in case it isn't obvious.

    The built in gun isn't done yet so i didn't fiddle with it too much. It is really hard to aim due to the long charge time. Is it possible to make it so it doesn't fire until you release the fire button? That would make it more manageable. The amount of damage you do with it is also very small. Once it can jump and arc 200 per arc will probably be good though. I eventually just put it in group 5 and only used it to hamper fighter wings i was chasing down.

    I'm not sure how i feel about the new armaments on the fighters. The new gun on the skin walker is ok, but the sound it plays when they fire is really overwhelming when i have 3 wings of them. I ended up having to turn the sound down quite a bit. The neriad's assault gun means it could hypothetically 1 2 punch things really well with their shrikes, but the shrike missile is delicate and easily swatted. So they end up futilely lobbing HE shells at shields. Things without shields are thoroughly ruined so there is that.

    I think that is all the new things so far in the dev build. If i missed something let me know and i'll give it a go. Oh yeah i tried the missions, but i'm not very good at this game so the only one i finished was the one with the shamash.
    Logged
    Itches are scratched. Back-rubs are savored.

    MShadowy

    • Admiral
    • *****
    • Posts: 911
      • View Profile
    Re: (0.54.1a) Shadowyards Heavy Industries v0.3.2c
    « Reply #183 on: April 07, 2013, 07:56:16 PM »

    Hmm... from the sounds of things I may need to adjust the shield radius on the Sargasso then.  I made an attempt to come up with an ingame debug system for it's ship system, but it seems I'll have to go with Wyverns suggestion instead.  Well, as long as I can figure out if its actually doing something; I may need to include some AIHints in the .shipsystem file but I dunno if that'll work.  Alternatively I could do a flat adjustment to turnrate, turn acceleration and what not instead of percentage based, which may work more obviously.

    And yeah, the ships system on the Elysium is totally broken.  Either it needs to cost a lot, lot more for jetting around nonstop or the jetting around needs to have a limit.  I'm not really sure which to go with really, but going 200+ SU in a light cruiser is a bit insane even if it forces you to fly forward (which really isn't that huge a detriment).  And the AI has no idea how to deal with it.  I am glad you're having fun with it though, as it is indeed quite amusing to zip around the battlefield in a ship that large.

    The Skinwalkers gun... I forgot to mention it, didn't I?  Well, I felt like it just wasn't using the pulse laser often enough; the particle burst cannon seems to have rectified that, though it does have a fair bit lower DPS.  I kinda figured it would make up for that by actually shooting things.  It is a bit loud though.  Sounds kinda like bacon sizzling.

    I haven't adjusted the neriads armaments at all, though.

    I'm pretty sure I did, however, made the shrike as tough as a harpoon though, so it shouldn't be quite as frail now.  It may I suppose, still not be tough enough, however.  Oh, also I fixed the shrike pod, which somehow had gone a long time without me noticing it had the same launch velocity and missile speed as the blackcap launchers.  D'oh!
    Logged

    CopperCoyote

    • Captain
    • ****
    • Posts: 451
      • View Profile
    Re: (0.54.1a) Shadowyards Heavy Industries v0.3.2c
    « Reply #184 on: April 08, 2013, 01:01:07 PM »

    A flat bonus from the sargasso might be better. That way it shores up the weaknesses of a variety of fighters, but doesn't make the really good ones unreasonably better. I noticed the ai continuously spins up the ship system over and over sometimes, but i don't know what the conditions are that cause that.

    I went back and had a look at the elysium's shield. It has a little extra room in the front and back. It doesn't matter too much though because it is huge. Nearly as long as a paragon i managed to bag. I really like the continual speed boost so i'd prefer it if using the system costed more flux. Maybe have it cost at least as much as the base ship flux venting. Alternatively you could leave it the same as now, but disable venting while it is activated. That would make it quite risky to use in combat, but leave the wonderful utility of moving from skirmish to skirmish as needed.

    I think the loudness from the gun is because the sound is longer than the refire rate. So all the little overlaps add to the volume of the next sound. With 3 wings i had 6 overlaps all adding together. I think if the sound was compressed a little it would help with the loudness. It would sound less like bacon too. It would probably sound more like a pneumatic tube.

    I could have sworn the neriad had a kinetic weapon and shrikes. The only time i used shrikes (and neriads) in this version was against a venture with an entourage of fighters helping with PD. That was quite a bit of PD so they didn't have a chance to shine. If they're as tough as harpoons it'll probably be much better. Part of the problem beyond the shrikes specifically is the fact that to use kinetic missiles you necessarily have to use them while the enemy ship can still fight back. I think that is why the sabot portion of sabot SRMs is immune to damage.

    I'd like to make a request please. Could you spare some thought for a tough ship that can comfortably put at least a quarter of its OP into missiles? The enlil and sargasso both could put a large portion of op into missiles, but make poor choices for a mid to late level missile specced combat char. Ideally something that could stand toe to toe with a heavy cruiser. The aurora kind of fits the bill, but is definitely late epoch. I like how the Shadowyards ships feel like they're the transitional designs between mid and late epoch. I also really like the techno-organic theme. Thanks for any thought spared in advance.
    Logged
    Itches are scratched. Back-rubs are savored.

    MShadowy

    • Admiral
    • *****
    • Posts: 911
      • View Profile
    Re: (0.54.1a) Shadowyards Heavy Industries v0.3.2c
    « Reply #185 on: April 09, 2013, 04:10:50 PM »

    Hmmm... considering there's still at least one cruiser still to go (the Tartarus class heavy cruiser) I believe I can indulge you your missile ship, aye.  Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to have a missile support destroyer either.

    Anyway, had an idea for a ship some last week and took a break to do a quick sketch of it.



    The Archipelago class Deep Space Construction and Repair Ship, with a shoddy conquest for comparison, is not a ship meant for combat by any means.  While technically a super-capital ship, it is less well armed than many cruisers; it is slow, vulnerable and strategically invaluable, as it essentially can operate as a mobile drydock.

    Vessels of this class often carry a large civilian population, who make their living off the regular ship traffic being serviced by the crafts repair facilities.
    Logged

    Thule

    • Admiral
    • *****
    • Posts: 580
      • View Profile
    Re: (0.54.1a) Shadowyards Heavy Industries v0.3.2c
    « Reply #186 on: April 09, 2013, 04:38:25 PM »

    I really like those non combat related special purpose ships. I made a Medical transport cruiser, only armed with some pd.
    Hope your sketch comes to live soon ;)
    And as always, thanks for the look inside your design and thought process, always quite interessing to see and read.
    Logged

    MShadowy

    • Admiral
    • *****
    • Posts: 911
      • View Profile
    Re: (0.54.1a) Shadowyards Heavy Industries v0.3.2c
    « Reply #187 on: April 09, 2013, 05:03:08 PM »

    I really like those non combat related special purpose ships. I made a Medical transport cruiser, only armed with some pd.
    Hope your sketch comes to live soon ;)
    And as always, thanks for the look inside your design and thought process, always quite interessing to see and read.

    Yeah; it's a thing that I feel like a lot of factions are missing; it is understandable, the combat ships are more glamorous, but I feel like support ships add a lot of character.  Particularly for a faction like SHI, which should have a heavy focus on its infrastructure -- i.e mining ships, fuel processing ships, tankers, personnel transports and shuttles, various cargo haulers, etc.

    And yeah, I'd like to have the Archipelago done for 0.6, as the possibility to move SHI out of a station and into a mobile factory ship offers tantalizing possibilities for Corvus.

    In any case, glad to hear you enjoy my rambling.  Have a good one.
    Logged

    CopperCoyote

    • Captain
    • ****
    • Posts: 451
      • View Profile
    Re: (0.54.1a) Shadowyards Heavy Industries v0.3.2c
    « Reply #188 on: April 09, 2013, 06:35:14 PM »

    I rolled up a new character with a combat focus (before was fleet and carrier to test sargasso) and the new and improved shrikes are great! They still fail more than harpoons, but work about as often as sabots. Their shortcomings have a  kind of a nice symmetry to sabots too. The sabots are sometimes too slow and shoot rather inaccurately, and the shrikes are sometimes too fast and home in an easily shootable nearly straight line.

    I've been looking at the ships i like to use with missile characters carefully. I think the threshold for being a good missile ship can be even lower than 25% op. The critical threshold seems to be if you can mount more missiles than the expanded missile racks will add. The ships also have a decent amount of other armaments, or fast missile racks.

    The thought of having a Shadowyards heavy cruiser spewing missiles fills me with glee  ;D
    I really like to use mules as support missile ships, and buffalo2s if i'm heavily invested in tech. A dedicated missile support destroyer will be really nice addition.

    The implications of having a strong mobile base of operations are impressive. Imagine how awesome it'd be to be able to refit to fit any fight you need nearly instantly (or without CR loss). Imagine being able to carry every bit and bob you've ever gathered with you so you can always fit the best loadout without guessing what you have stashed. Imaging if it could carry frigates during intersystem travel like carriers will carry fighters.

    Outside of the mechanics portion there is the feel it would add. I imagine it would be kind of like how the mining ship felt from Homeworld cataclysm. The added tension of making sure thousands of personnel are ok would be intense too. Off topic side story:
    Spoiler
    I really like to keep maximum crew levels so i can imagine they have the shortest shifts possible. Similar in 4X games i like to be a benevolent dictator if i can. I actually had to stop playing FTL: faster than light because i felt bad about my little pixel crew members dying horribly over and over.
    [close]

    I'm looking forward to the archipelago.
    Logged
    Itches are scratched. Back-rubs are savored.

    MShadowy

    • Admiral
    • *****
    • Posts: 911
      • View Profile
    Re: (0.54.1a) Shadowyards Heavy Industries v0.3.2c
    « Reply #189 on: April 09, 2013, 09:18:04 PM »

    I hadn't really thought about it, but the Archipeligo does give SHI a more homeworldish feel with the mothership construction vehicle, doesn't it?  It certainly adds some interesting narrative potential for the campaign when it gets closer to being complete.  Beyond which it would of course be a huge investment in credits and resources so losing it would be a pretty serious blow even without that attachment.
    Logged

    SainnQ

    • Commander
    • ***
    • Posts: 219
      • View Profile
    Re: (0.54.1a) Shadowyards Heavy Industries v0.3.2c
    « Reply #190 on: April 10, 2013, 03:33:17 AM »

    See things like this would be awesome if Alex actually had Campaign content in that utilized this.

    Damaged patrol cruisers giving SoS's you dock up to attempt repairs and assistance only to find it's nearly overrun deck by deck with some menacing unknown.
    Then your marine compliment has to attempt to save the remaining survivors.

    Or there has been a large scale skirmish and you've been contracted to provide afterbattle support & rescue.

    Logged

    sini002

    • Captain
    • ****
    • Posts: 394
      • View Profile
    Re: (0.54.1a) Shadowyards Heavy Industries v0.3.2c
    « Reply #191 on: April 10, 2013, 12:56:54 PM »

    The Archipelago Looks pretty damn awsome shadowy  ;D
    Logged

    HELMUT

    • Admiral
    • *****
    • Posts: 1363
      • View Profile
    Re: (0.54.1a) Shadowyards Heavy Industries v0.3.2c
    « Reply #192 on: April 12, 2013, 04:09:03 AM »

    It looks very cool, but as it is a "civilian" ship, will it be just some kind of big, slumbering target like the Atlas? Or will it get some cool ship system? The FP cost of that thing must be huge and as such, i hope it at least could reasonably support the rest of the fleet.  Maybe making him able to spawn some frigates or an area buff for the other ships.
    Logged

    MShadowy

    • Admiral
    • *****
    • Posts: 911
      • View Profile
    Re: (0.54.1a) Shadowyards Heavy Industries v0.3.2c
    « Reply #193 on: April 12, 2013, 08:05:24 AM »

    It looks very cool, but as it is a "civilian" ship, will it be just some kind of big, slumbering target like the Atlas? Or will it get some cool ship system? The FP cost of that thing must be huge and as such, i hope it at least could reasonably support the rest of the fleet.  Maybe making him able to spawn some frigates or an area buff for the other ships.

    Its primary defense is keeping out of battle, though I may give it something keeping with its fleet supporting abilities--repair drones or the like.  However, most of its behavior will probably happen outside of combat, with a huge increase to repair and refit rates, storage capacity and maybe some ability to produce and/or scrap items and ships, though that might be a tad overpowered.
    Logged

    Etfaks

    • Lieutenant
    • **
    • Posts: 50
      • View Profile
    Re: (0.54.1a) Shadowyards Heavy Industries v0.3.2c
    « Reply #194 on: April 13, 2013, 12:32:36 AM »

    I dont know, being able to produce fighters and such would be realistic enough for a ship that size I would say. Would be awesome if it cost (a ton of) supplies in stead of credits though.
    Logged
    Dev of the mod "The Hoplites of Corinth" and  artist for "Portraits Galore".
    Pages: 1 ... 11 12 [13] 14 15 ... 107