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News:

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

Poll

What would you like to see in Blackrock?

More ships
- 755 (23.7%)
More weapons
- 481 (15.1%)
More campaign features
- 478 (15%)
Space monsters
- 705 (22.1%)
More lore
- 207 (6.5%)
More music
- 131 (4.1%)
More portraits
- 157 (4.9%)
Subfactions
- 277 (8.7%)

Total Members Voted: 1425


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Author Topic: [0.9.1a] Blackrock Drive Yards  (Read 1790681 times)

Cycerin

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Re: Blackrock Drive Yards
« Reply #45 on: August 27, 2012, 03:08:42 PM »

Thanks a lot! ;D You have encouraged me to try to get a release out fast.

EDIT: Alex answered this one, and it isn't currently possible. Said he'd put it on his todo list. Does anyone know if you can make a MIRV produce a sound effect when the second stage of the missile fires? fireSoundOne and fireSoundTwo seem to have zero effect.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2012, 09:45:02 AM by Cycerin »
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Cycerin

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Re: Blackrock Drive Yards
« Reply #46 on: August 28, 2012, 01:18:45 PM »

<removed nonexistent DL link>
Features three missions - A challenging one, a hard one, and a random one that lets you play around with the ships.
Also features a rudimentary campaign implementation thanks to Uomoz - very much a work in progress.
[/center]

Tear into the missions, boys, and post some recounts of your meanest Nevermore snipes!
« Last Edit: June 10, 2019, 05:51:35 AM by Cycerin »
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Brainbread

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Re: Blackrock Drive Yards - First version release!
« Reply #47 on: August 28, 2012, 05:26:00 PM »

Lets seee so far.

Krait Heavy Bombers have 1 Armor

Revanent: Tactical Variant has 121 out of 120 Points


Thats for "bugs" at least. The Gondactylus are awesome; tons of armour, good shields, fairly fast, and good weapon slots (I'd say they're a bit underpriced for FP?). The heavy fighters are cool. Like tiny frigates, and seem to do a good job overall.

As for the rest of the ships; they have painfully bad shields. 1.2, 1.1, 1.35 Damage->flux makes them very susceptible to missiles, as unlike most factions, you can't just eat the missiles on your shields.

For the missions, I keep exploding my ships on missiles in the Hegemony one, and I've maxed out at 50% on the Tri-Tach one. Sniping works well enough, but the lack of map control with the fleet makes taking and keeping points all but impossible. I'll keep at it though. I like the Antimatter Blaster and the Ship System for it; they make for a difficult but reward ship to use.
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Cycerin

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Re: Blackrock Drive Yards - First version release!
« Reply #48 on: August 28, 2012, 06:10:24 PM »

Thanks for the feedback! It's so cool to finally hear what people think about all the spreadsheet nerdery I've been doing.

As for the bad shield ratios, consider it a designed weakness. Blackrock ships have several inherent strengths that I had to find a way to counterbalance. I had this post laid out as a draft for some time, and now is a good time to put it out here.

  • + They're fast. This one was the toughest to balance, because if a ship can always pick its fights, it often only fights when it has an advantage.
    + They have a lot of damage output, and often strong burst damage. They also have a TON of Ordance Points. Have you tried customizing the Nevermore yet?
    + Their flux stats are quite respectable, only falling short of certain Tri-Tachyon ships.
    + They mix Energy and Ballistic weapons, allowing a lot of flexibility in damage type and damage delivery. In addition, they have the flux stats to use the more advanced Ballistic weapons freely, compared to Core Epoch or Hegemony ships.
    + Because of speed and firepower, Blackrock ships mop the floor with enemy frigates and fighters.

  • - They are fragile. With the exception of the Gonodactylus and Revenant, Blackrock ships don't have good armor or hull integrity. You should be constantly moving.
    - The aforementioned bad shield ratios. This is to put emphasis on speed and positioning (HIT AND RUN) and to ensure that you can't simply outmuscle Tri-Tachyon and Hegemony ships all the time. The only Blackrock ship with a good ratio is the Gonodactylus, because its shield is so narrow.
    - A combination of the above factors makes it hard for Blackrock ships to win in a straight up slugfest. Even though the Nevermore has amazing frontal firepower, never send it head-on against an Aurora, Dominator etc. You will get overloaded.
    - Slightly high FP costs across the board.

Both the Tri-Tachyon and Hegemony missions are designed to be quite hard though, so if you want a good score, you'll have to put in an effort ;D

In the Hegemony mission, you'll also have to place your Revenant well and protect it so you can keep repairing your fighters. If you don't have any ships to distract the HMS Rajah with, there's no way you can hurt it. But the goddamn Desdie can OUTRUN missiles. I've activated the burners and just done a U-turn towards the enemy with all the missiles still trailing me, and then taken out his engines, only to vent just in time and soak the missiles with my shield. I almost got my ship blown up because I kept doing tiny fistpumps and cocking my head back to hiss "yesssss" through my teeth
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DSMK2

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Re: Blackrock Drive Yards - First version release!
« Reply #49 on: August 28, 2012, 06:33:57 PM »

It's nice to see my ancient sprites in there, especially since they've been put to good use :)
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Wriath

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Re: Blackrock Drive Yards - First version release!
« Reply #50 on: August 28, 2012, 07:35:51 PM »

The ships not available for sale in the campaign intentionally or did I somehow mess something up?

Amazigh

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Re: Blackrock Drive Yards - First version release!
« Reply #51 on: August 28, 2012, 08:03:42 PM »

Love the mod so far, looks like it's gonna be awesome when it's finished

A couple of things I noticed when playing around with your ships:
the Squall cannons muzzle flash looks a bit silly, maybe give it a slightly narrower angle.
The Antimatter Lance is so satisfying to fire, with all those lovely effects and THAT SOUND, I love that thing.
the Hammerclaw is pretty interesting, the really short primary phase can make it a bit difficult to use at times.
some variants haven't got their PD weapons set to autofire as default which can be mildly annoying.
also the "desdinova_fastattack" variant fails to load ingame for me, no error, but doesn't appear in either the codex or the refit menu.

But overall it's a really good looking mod.

The ships not available for sale in the campaign intentionally or did I somehow mess something up?
It seems that the station is not set up to sell the ships yet.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2012, 08:08:20 PM by Amazigh »
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Alex

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Re: Blackrock Drive Yards - First version release!
« Reply #52 on: August 28, 2012, 08:08:27 PM »

Didn't have a lot of time with it, but just a bit of quick feedback.

First of all, great stuff overall. Kept getting killed in both of the first two missions, but was progressing so I'm quite sure they're doable. The ships feel very distinct - the Arc Jet burners and the mobility on the destroyer give a neat feel, sort of like a Tempest of the destroyer world.

The cruiser (? flagship in first mission) is great, too - love the Antimatter Lance, and pairing it with the Lucifer system is a fun thing to try to get to work right. I didn't quite manage, but it seems like if you do, the results would be quite worth it.


The projectiles for the Squall Cannon look scaled-up and a bit pixelated - I'd change up the graphics to something else, maybe even a full-on energy bolt like the Onslaught's built-in TPC, or just a new, higher-resolution bullet graphic altogether. The gun has a great feel to it, though, but also seems too strong for a small slot. IMO, would be more appropriate power-wise for a medium, or small with a much longer cooldown.

(I'm guessing you probably based it on the AM Blaster in terms of keeping it balanced - but it's got superior stats in some very important areas (range, higher rate of fire, *much* less flux headroom needed to fire), and more importantly, it's paired with shield-busting kinetics, where the AM Blaster is usually not, due to flux concerns. Consider that a Harpoon does 750 damage per shot - not *that* much more - and it's much easier to counter, where these things are so fast they're almost guaranteed hits when shields so much as flicker down. I get that it's part of the whole package of fragile + superior firepower, so maybe just raising the OP cost somewhat would do. Obviously, just my opinion here, don't feel obligated to change it if you feel otherwise.)


The sound for the Arc Jet has the built-in deactivation, so if you start a burn and then pause the game/switch to the command UI/etc, it'll finish playing out and sound like it shuts off. You probably want to separate the sounds into activation/loop/deactivation - take a look at burndrive.system for how it does it.

The new sounds are really nice, btw. Adds a whole new feeling of freshness to the ships.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes!
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Amazigh

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Re: Blackrock Drive Yards - First version release!
« Reply #53 on: August 28, 2012, 08:15:17 PM »

What Alex said made me remember something I was going to say about the Squall Cannon, it should probabally have quite a bit less ammo it seems to have quite a lot for a small weapon of it's power, 40 or lower would be a reasonable amount imo.
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Brainbread

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Re: Blackrock Drive Yards - First version release!
« Reply #54 on: August 28, 2012, 09:52:40 PM »

Tried it out again. Swapped missile slots for more caps and vents (the missiles don't really seem to have much value when compared to Squall Cannons). Replaced the MG's on the Revanant with Squall Cannons and Rail Guns to help clear Hegemony everything, and let the AI handle the Squall's on the cap. Pulled a 90% this time around, and am absolutely loving the ships.

They're fast, stylish, and they have interesting systems! I also learned that Arc Jetting right behind an Onslaught who just used their own Burn Drive does not work. As you go significantly further than they do, then you crash into their engines and explode because of massive hull damage from it.

Still fun though. I can't wait to see them when they're all tweaked out and campaign playable. They feel like... High Performing Mid-Line ships, which is a great nice. Current mid-line ships feel like they are caught between two extremes and can't perform well in either, whereas the Blackrock Ships took the idea of being a Hybrid and made it into a thing. They don't feel like, "Neither Hi or Low Tech" but a new kind of tech all together.
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Psycho Society

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Re: Blackrock Drive Yards - First version release!
« Reply #55 on: August 28, 2012, 11:04:39 PM »

This is a really cool mod. I love the smoke effect on the antimatter lance and squall cannon. Absolutely in love with the ship aesthetic too.
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Acolnahuacatl

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Re: Blackrock Drive Yards - First version release!
« Reply #56 on: August 29, 2012, 01:55:05 AM »

Going to echo what Alex et al. said about the squall cannon being a bit too powerful right now, but otherwise the mod is very well-balanced, fun to play, and aesthetically appealing. Nice work!
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Cycerin

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Re: Blackrock Drive Yards - First version release!
« Reply #57 on: August 29, 2012, 05:30:53 AM »

Ah man, YOU GUYS! I'm so glad you like it.

The Squall Cannons are basically supposed to to be Ballistic AM Blaster-esque weapons. I have half-considered building them into the Desdinova at one point in order to skip the balance concerns resulting from letting any ship equip them. But what Alex said is very true, too, I could simply have made them Medium with more OP cost. They are a last-minute addition to the mod, though, and as such they lack a lot of polish. Gonna have to take a look at them again.

Either they will be Medium guns with much more flux cost, and I will give the Desdinova two forward-firing built-in versions with less flux cost, or I'll rebalance the whole thing. Open to suggestions too!

Quote
The cruiser (? flagship in first mission) is great, too - love the Antimatter Lance, and pairing it with the Lucifer system is a fun thing to try to get to work right. I didn't quite manage, but it seems like if you do, the results would be quite worth it.

It feels like hitting a homerun, basically.

Quote
It's nice to see my ancient sprites in there, especially since they've been put to good use

Dude, they're great. I owe a lot to those sprites!

As for the campaign and the station not selling ships, I really haven't done much in that department yet. It'll come, though.
« Last Edit: August 29, 2012, 05:34:33 AM by Cycerin »
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Piroton

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Re: Blackrock Drive Yards - First version release!
« Reply #58 on: August 29, 2012, 05:51:03 AM »

Yes! It's the legendary Cycerin!

Fantastic work. I love the style you've brought over from your old BSF stuff. That was, and still continues to be amazing. I'm looking forward to more from you :D

Also, how did you manage to get the sprites to work properly? I can't seem to get mine right ._.
« Last Edit: August 29, 2012, 06:02:26 AM by Piroton »
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Uomoz

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Re: Blackrock Drive Yards - First version release!
« Reply #59 on: August 29, 2012, 06:20:52 AM »

As for the campaign and the station not selling ships, I really haven't done much in that department yet. It'll come, though.

We can work on that as soon as I get back from Uni buddy.
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