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

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Author Topic: front/side/rear Armor  (Read 6679 times)

ValkyriaL

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Re: front/side/rear Armor
« Reply #15 on: September 12, 2012, 09:00:06 AM »

Woooah that's allot of text, shuttle can mount burst PD, it has 2 small turrets, brawler can mount 2 flak or dual flak cannons, even if that wouldn't be the best idea, because there are hard point versions of every weapon so all ships can mount PD of some sort >.^ Ain't i smart?

But i would rather use PD than have a shield if i had to chose. the shield can overload, thus your PD cant shot and you will die within seconds. while PD can protect you from mostly anything if you have plenty of it constantly active ( flak cannons can shot down any projectiles), i would rather take more/less damage than lose my ship altogether.

but im pretty sure i made this post for different kinds of armor thickness :P not shields or PD or what defends you best.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2012, 09:02:28 AM by ValkyriaL »
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Alex

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Re: front/side/rear Armor
« Reply #16 on: September 12, 2012, 09:11:08 AM »

This idea does come up a fair bit. The reason it's not in the game, well... let's take a look at what ships would be prime candidates for it, conceptually.

Anything with lots of front-facing firepower is a decent match at first glance. So, the Dominator, the Onslaught, maybe the Hammerhead/Eagle/Falcon. Perhaps a few other ships. Note that most of these (all the ones listed, at any rate) already have front shields. Combined with frontal-focused firepower and engines being in the back, it's already a great idea to flank them.

So, gameplay wise, what would this actually change? It'd either make the ships tougher from the front (which you could easily do within the existing framework by adjusting the shield stats) or make them even more vulnerable from the back (which isn't a good thing - they're already very vulnerable.

To top it off, ships aren't exactly like tanks. They're more like, well, ships. The nature of the combat means that hits to the back are at least as likely as hits to the front in anything other than a 1-1. A ship designer would probably go through great pains to make the engine section of a front-shielded ship as durable as possible - that's the Achilles heel of a large ship, after all.

The current system serves its role - rewarding surgical fire my making repeated hits to the same area more effective. Varying armor by location... well, I'm not going to say it would flat out be a bad thing. But at the same time, I don't see what compelling gameplay it brings to the table, and it does bring complexity. All this information would have to be conveyed to the player somehow.
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ValkyriaL

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Re: front/side/rear Armor
« Reply #17 on: September 12, 2012, 09:33:18 AM »

It was just an idea, didn't know it had come before tho, and certainly didn't know that saying "Alex I summon thy" makes you show up :O are you Jesus or something that appears when you are called?  ;D
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Alex

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Re: front/side/rear Armor
« Reply #18 on: September 12, 2012, 09:40:21 AM »

(Oh yeah, I forgot the rule where I try not to post in threads that explicitly try to get me to do that without a very good reason. Although what you said wasn't quite that.)

Actually, I try to read as much of the forum as I can - even if I can't respond to everything I'd like to. I've seen this suggestion a few times, so it seemed like a good idea to offer my thoughts on it.
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Aleskander

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Re: front/side/rear Armor
« Reply #19 on: September 12, 2012, 10:30:25 AM »

I made it thinking of a ship meant for ramming, with a high-armor front section and lower armor behind. I ended up making a system that combines burn drive and the armor one(forgot the name). It'd also be nice to have weak points on ships, like flight decks.
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