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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: Starsector 0.65a (Released) Patch Notes  (Read 257862 times)

Alex

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Re: Starsector 0.65a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #180 on: October 02, 2014, 08:43:48 AM »

Don't use the word Update without giving us the real update you monster!

How else am I supposed to generate hype?

I couldn't help but wonder what the heck ShipVariantAPI.get/setQuality is for.

It's for figuring out which variants to pick when creating a fleet from a market. Higher market stability means higher quality variants are more likely to be picked.

Nice changes, by the way.

:)

For modders it's the next best thing! Thanks a lot Alex, lot's of good things have appeared (and we are already dissecting the update potential)  ::)
I'm now very curious to see how the new everyFrameWeaponEffects will be used on vanilla ships ;)

Some of those were experiments that didn't pan out, so I wouldn't read too much into them.
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TheBawkHawk

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Re: Starsector 0.65a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #181 on: October 02, 2014, 09:04:32 AM »

How else am I supposed to generate hype?

The Hype-Train is already at mach 6, and will be arriving at Release Station at approximately SoonTM O'clock.
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Tartiflette

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Re: Starsector 0.65a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #182 on: October 03, 2014, 12:57:54 AM »

Accurate description of the current situation:
Spoiler
[close]
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Lakis

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Re: Starsector 0.65a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #183 on: October 04, 2014, 02:11:44 AM »

Popping in to say this.

It's going to be scarey learning how to make the faction compatible with the 0.65a release...

Reading through the API documentation would probably help with that now that I think about it... though just waiting for others to update their mods and then looking at what they did is another way to do it.

Meh, we'll cross that bridge when it happens! So eager, can't wait!
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Jonlissla

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Re: Starsector 0.65a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #184 on: October 04, 2014, 07:14:36 AM »

I haven't played the game in a long time now, and I've noticed quite a few mods have popped up. I seriously want to try these mods, but at the same time, I know that the update is around the corner and will make them incompatible.

WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME, ALEX.
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OOZ662

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Re: Starsector 0.65a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #185 on: October 04, 2014, 01:19:45 PM »

I haven't played the game in a long time now, and I've noticed quite a few mods have popped up. I seriously want to try these mods, but at the same time, I know that the update is around the corner and will make them incompatible.

WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME, ALEX.

As it stands, the update will essentially be a new game using "old" ships and combat mechanics. I fully plan of keeping a 0.6.2a Ironclads install alongside my vanilla 0.65x install for a while.
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senor

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Re: Starsector 0.65a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #186 on: October 05, 2014, 04:59:02 AM »

These changes and additions sound great, I can't wait to play the new release.

I'm particularly interested in the changes to Combat Readiness, as I always felt that CR was (both generally, and specifically for me/my playstyle of Tri-Tachyon medium-large ship fleets) too heavy of a burden and in a way, felt sort of arbitrary.  I felt there was too much pressure in terms of time and cost to either quickly find more combat to get more supplies or run back to a station to sell off loot, while my supplies are ticking away.  Too many times I would get low on supplies, start flying to a station, and as I run out of supplies, my ships start disintegrating right before my eyes.  I don't mean to take these changes as a "buff" or "nerf", I just mean that I like the sound of them and I'm eager to see how these tweaks feel for both balance and fun.

And will there be a way for haulers to be nerfed in terms of smuggling capacity in a similar way to how the new hullmod works, ie extra thin cargohold?

And could you make cargoholds discriminate specific items, such that for example my faction's hauler could only carry supplies and fuel but no commodities? Or maybe only supplies, fuel, an "energy cells" commodity and guns?

No to all, though you could probably code around that if you really wanted to. As far as the player, though, cargo capacity is cargo capacity. I can't really imagine doing something like "X of your capacity can only be used on Ore", etc.

Secondly, after reading the above quotes by Zudgemud and yourself it occurred to me that there could be certain cargo ships that were naturally (i.e. permanent hull-mod) better equipped to handle certain types of cargo.  Not in a cut-and-dry manner as freighters, fuel tankers and personnel transports are currently.  Instead certain ship hulls may reduce the cargo space per unit of a given item, Supplies for instance, by a percentage, and increase the space cost of another item(s) by a percentage.  Though, after giving it a few more minutes thought I can't really fit the idea into the game thematically, and I don't see a need for it for gameplay reasons.  I thought I would mention it anyway in case it sparked an idea for someone else.

That said, I like the idea of mixed-use as well as dedicated transport types.  Tankers, cargo freighters and personnel transports are all great, but just for variety it'd be cool to see freighters that look and function as half built for one purpose and half built for another.  For instance a ship that looks half tanker (with the signature orange color and bulbous tanker style) and half cargo freighter (styled like the Atlas or other freighters) with stats to reflect this.  No urgency for this addition, of course.

I love the game, keep up the great work.

Edit: Specifically for long and narrow ships, the perfectly circular shield shape ends up taking up a lot of unnecessary space, and the larger the ship the goofier it seems.  What're your thoughts on the idea of allowing some ships to have more oval-shaped shields in order to better fit the hull shape?
« Last Edit: October 05, 2014, 05:59:58 AM by senor »
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Alex

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Re: Starsector 0.65a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #187 on: October 05, 2014, 10:00:02 AM »

Secondly, after reading the above quotes by Zudgemud and yourself it occurred to me that there could be certain cargo ships that were naturally (i.e. permanent hull-mod) better equipped to handle certain types of cargo.  Not in a cut-and-dry manner as freighters, fuel tankers and personnel transports are currently.  Instead certain ship hulls may reduce the cargo space per unit of a given item, Supplies for instance, by a percentage, and increase the space cost of another item(s) by a percentage.  Though, after giving it a few more minutes thought I can't really fit the idea into the game thematically, and I don't see a need for it for gameplay reasons.  I thought I would mention it anyway in case it sparked an idea for someone else.

Consider also that cargo isn't explicitly assigned to ships - this sort of thing would get very troublesome.

That said, I like the idea of mixed-use as well as dedicated transport types.  Tankers, cargo freighters and personnel transports are all great, but just for variety it'd be cool to see freighters that look and function as half built for one purpose and half built for another.  For instance a ship that looks half tanker (with the signature orange color and bulbous tanker style) and half cargo freighter (styled like the Atlas or other freighters) with stats to reflect this.  No urgency for this addition, of course.

Hmm, yeah, I could see that. Depends on whether it's necessary/makes sense backstory-wise, but no mechanical issues :)

Edit: Specifically for long and narrow ships, the perfectly circular shield shape ends up taking up a lot of unnecessary space, and the larger the ship the goofier it seems.  What're your thoughts on the idea of allowing some ships to have more oval-shaped shields in order to better fit the hull shape?

I don't see doing that. Too much complication for too little gain.

Long, narrow ships are indeed problematic, but that's just an engine limitation to work with (probably by avoiding long, narrow ships with standard shields, or accepting that they won't quite feel right). They cause other issues, too, mostly with the AI.
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Debido

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Re: Starsector 0.65a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #188 on: October 05, 2014, 10:13:41 AM »

@Senor
Regarding narrow ships, to get a 'shield-like' effect, modders sometimes use what we call 'contour' shields, see the 'The Knights Templar' for an example if that's the something you like.

I'm also working on something else to get around the collision radius issues as well with TWIG Tech. So if you want to make your thin ships in mods you can, however one thing I have noticed about thin ships in particular is that they are able to avoid more weapons fire than their wider counterparts by virtue of simply having a small cross sectional area exposed that makes it harder for weapons to hit in the first place.

So in terms of game balancing, longer ships in head on battles with another ship in a one on one situation, the thin ship will have a distinct advantage. I noticed this when using one of the Diable Avionics ships.
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senor

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Re: Starsector 0.65a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #189 on: October 05, 2014, 01:24:38 PM »

Secondly, after reading the above quotes by Zudgemud and yourself it occurred to me that there could be certain cargo ships that were naturally (i.e. permanent hull-mod) better equipped to handle certain types of cargo.  Not in a cut-and-dry manner as freighters, fuel tankers and personnel transports are currently.  Instead certain ship hulls may reduce the cargo space per unit of a given item, Supplies for instance, by a percentage, and increase the space cost of another item(s) by a percentage.  Though, after giving it a few more minutes thought I can't really fit the idea into the game thematically, and I don't see a need for it for gameplay reasons.  I thought I would mention it anyway in case it sparked an idea for someone else.

Consider also that cargo isn't explicitly assigned to ships - this sort of thing would get very troublesome.

Oh, right.  I haven't played very recently, I forgot about that.

Bummer about the oval shields issue.  It's really a pretty minor thing for me, but it would be the cherry on top if it one day made it into the game.  AI issues aside, would it be more workable if a given faction was styled around longer / narrower ships with 360 degree front shields with an oval shape?  Just curious, really.

Thanks Alex and Debido for the replies.  Looking forward to the 6.5 update, Alex!
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Megas

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Re: Starsector 0.65a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #190 on: October 05, 2014, 06:23:32 PM »

Today, I tried (a max Combat/Technology) Wolf with Frontal Shields, and the change seems negligible overall.  Defending against Salamanders is slightly harder; but for overall fighting, Wolf with frontal shields is slightly easier to use.
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Midnight Kitsune

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Re: Starsector 0.65a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #191 on: October 05, 2014, 08:01:03 PM »

Today, I tried (a max Combat/Technology) Wolf with Frontal Shields, and the change seems negligible overall.  Defending against Salamanders is slightly harder; but for overall fighting, Wolf with frontal shields is slightly easier to use.
Did you double the shield arc?
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Callabaddie

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Re: Starsector 0.65a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #192 on: October 06, 2014, 01:15:25 AM »

Alex been busy. :^)
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Megas

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Re: Starsector 0.65a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #193 on: October 06, 2014, 06:16:18 AM »

Shield arc was doubled - I added the Front Shield hullmod (and removed a few points from capacitors) to test it.

If shield arc is not doubled, it would hurt the Wolf badly.

I imagine it would be like the shield change on the Aurora, where it used to have 360 frontal shields, but now has 180 omni shields - that made it worse.  Why would I want to trade 360 shields for 180 omni?  That just gives the Aurora an OP tax to get its 360 shields back (and less OP for missiles).

I did not play the Lasher enough to see if frontal shields helps or hurts it because my preferred Lasher configuration has no anti-missile PD, and is already OP starved even with all of the OP bonuses, including Optimized Assembly perk.  I would need to try to find a new Lasher configuration that would work with frontal shields.

EDIT:  With frontal shields, Wolf will probably want some form of PD lasers more than ever.  Those who prefer weapons that are bad at PD, such as ion cannon or antimatter blaster, on their Wolf will probably be hurt by the frontal shield change, at least against enemies that use missiles.
« Last Edit: October 06, 2014, 06:40:39 AM by Megas »
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Jonlissla

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Re: Starsector 0.65a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #194 on: October 06, 2014, 08:49:22 AM »

  • Ships that are not performing repairs or recovering CR do not consume supplies (previously: consumed 10% of the supply/day value)
  • Hyperion: now has "High Maintenance" built-in hullmod that makes it consume extra supplies per day

Explain.

If the hullmod just increases supply usage while repairing or recovering CR, why not just increase the values on the ship instead of tying it to a hullmod?
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