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Author Topic: [0.95.1a] Scy V1.66rc3 (2023/03/19)  (Read 1097621 times)

Sabaton

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Re: [0.65.1a] Scy V0.86 (01/12) Hotfix
« Reply #330 on: January 28, 2015, 05:56:03 AM »

You said you wanted to change the lore, but why? Nomad science colony>explorers>aimless wanderers>victims of genocide>settlers of a hostile planet>covert pirates.
The current lore is very good and gives a good insight of their motives. But I am sure you have your reasons.
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Tartiflette

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Re: [0.65.1a] Scy V0.86 (01/12) Hotfix
« Reply #331 on: January 28, 2015, 06:46:46 AM »

I didn't said I'll change their past lore: I'm prolonging it with some events that will shift their motivations! In short I'm moving their lore a bit in the past and add some new elements just before the actual game start. The result will be both logical lore wise, and better from a gameplay perspective.
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Tartiflette

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Re: [0.65.1a] Scy V0.86 (01/12) Hotfix
« Reply #332 on: January 28, 2015, 09:36:08 AM »

CIC transcript

[CDR A'Holia] Commodore, military head of the squadron.
[LT Hol] Lieutenant, Head of Detection.
[LT Gomez] Lieutenant, head of the Sckoll inspection team.
[CPT Athos] Captain of the HNS Vigor, Dominator class cruiser.
[CMD Nillian] Commander, Tactical officer and second to CPT Athos.

207.211.06.50

[CDR A'Holia]: Okay everyone, I'm still not liking it but LT Gomez and CPT Athos made very good arguments in favor of a tactical retreat. So lets do this right: The Atlas is the prize, I don't want even a micro-meteorite to scratch it's hull.
   Tactical, I want two Hounds in front to clear the path and makes sure there isn't any nasty surprises ahead. The rest of the fleet in bubble formation around the civies. The Vigor take the tip, with the Dominion as support. The Argos takes the rear. The rest of the frigates cover all four sides. We don't have any fighter screen but they have some so everyone keep your PD weapons ready. These bastards are sneaky and you can bet they won't let us leave with their tech without a fight.
   Navigation, I want a nice trajectory that go way above the rings. I insist: stay clear of the asteroid field. It will leave them time to adapt to our vector, but I want to force them out of their cover if they want to engage us.
   Detection, send a pair of probes to the area were we lost the signal of the enemy force, with a bit of luck we might be able to catch their emissions when they fire up their engines again. We are not seeking a fight, but if these Skolls come get one I'll be more than happy to oblige.

Spoiler
[close]

207.211.07.25

[CMD Nillian]: Commodore, Detection report two unknown contacts on our nine per eleven. They are coming extremely fast. Their orbit is very elliptical and there is no way they can slow down enough to maintain contact. I think they intend to fly though our formation and deal as much damage as they can. with their speed we won't be able to maneuver quickly enough to maintain our shields between our ships and them. I suggest to tighten the formation and try to form a single protection wall with all ships' shields.

[LT Gomez]: Ma'am, we can't rule out the possibility of a suicide attack. In that case such tight formation could lead to catastrophic chain reaction if they collide with one of our ships.

[CDR A'Holia]: Mmh, indeed, we can't take that risk. Then the obvious parade would be to disperse a bit the formation, and maintain at least one ship between them and the civilian ships on their approach and escape vectors. How much time do we have?

[LT Hol]: 13 minutes.

[CDR A'Holia]: Good, transmit the new formation to all ships then. And assign the Vigor to protect the Atlas.

[CMD Nillian]: Yes ma'am.

Spoiler
[close]

207.211.07.29

[CMD Nillian]: New bogey, four per ten and leaving the asteroid field. Given the low acceleration it's probably the carrier!
 
[CDR A'Holia]: On the other side? Damn they are stealthy! Could the first contacts be a decoy?

[CMD Nillian]: I doubt it: we are getting a better signal from those, their energy signatures are close to those of a Vigilance class and a Hound class frigates but we know they aren't. It might be another ship, but it's highly improbable that they are anything else than two frigates.

[CDR A'Holia]: Then they moved to late: it's way too far to provide support fire for the frigates when they reach us.

[CPT Athos]: I don't know, we didn't saw their fighters yet.

[LT Gomez]: Also, assuming they have roughly twice the acceleration of a Lasher, where will they be once cancelling their relative velocity to us?

[LT Hol]: One second... Less than ten thousands Standard Units from the carrier if they decelerate at once point seven time the acceleration of a Lasher after their fly-by.

[CMD Nillian]: That's some nice maneuver!

[CDR A'Holia]: Indeed, though that's assuming they survive this fly-by... I don't like it! Their commander must be good, and as you said Athos we didn't saw their fighters yet. Maintain the formation for now, but I want to be informed immediately if Detection report even the shadiest probable contact.

207.211.7.33

[CDR A'Holia]: Okay, I want all guns on full continuous fire on these two frigates as soon as they are in range. Launch one volley from our Pillums pods but keep the other ships torpedoes, they probably won't help much against such fast targets. The targets will enter and leave effective range in less than seven seconds so I want all firing solutions locked only ten seconds before they reach it. They will also penetrate our formation so beware of any friendly fire! All ships acknowledge reception of these orders.

Spoiler
[close]

207.211.7.37

[CDR A'Holia]: Here they come, let's do this right, I don't want them to survive this fly-by under...

[LT Hol]: Incoming missile! Multiple missiles hits on the Argos and the Smooth-bore, they are coming from our four!

[CDR A'Holia]: Don't break the formation! On our four? Are we in range of the Carrier?

[CMD Nillian]: I don't know but if they are, their missiles have an incredible endurance. We didn't saw them coming, it's like they fired up their engines only when... The frigates are entering range!

[CPT Athos]: Launching missiles, guns armed.

[CMD Nillian]: They aren't firing at our shields, they may try to hit our rear!

[CPT Athos]: Two hits on target alpha, it's engine's malfunctioning.

[CMD Nillian]: What the Hell? The other one just flew through the whole missiles volley and don't seems fazed at all! It's shield just expanded for a second and soaked up the damaged like it was nothing...

[LT Hol]: Incoming fire from the targets, four hits on our shield, three miss.

[CMD Nillian]: New missile hits on the Argos, the Smooth-bore is sinking.

[CDR A'Holia]: Move the Pollen to support the Argos and turn us around. I want to hit those bastard hard as they try to escape!

[CPT Athos]: Concentrate fire on target Beta, we must prevent it from getting back to support the carrier.

[CMD Nillian]: One more hit on target alpha, this one won't get home without help. Beta is getting away but lost some feathers...

[LT Hol]: FIGHTERS! FIGHTERS! There were fighters following the frigates! OUR ENGINES ARE EXPOSED!

[LT Gomez]: They must have hidden themselves in their shadows.

[CDR A'Holia]: It wasn't a suicide attack, bring all ships closer to each other, our PD are too spread out against a fighter attack!

[CPT Athos]: We are taking hits! Engines malfunctions, we are out of control!

[LT Hol]: New volley of missiles from the carrier! Wait, there are also missiles in ballistic mode between the fighters!

[CMD Nillian]: The Jason is hit, the Cassandra is sinking.

[CPT Athos]: There is another group of fighters approaching behind.

[LT Hol]: New contact, nine per eight! Looks like a destroyer and... OH SH**T Torpedoes incoming, I repeat four incoming torpedoes, they are targeting the Atlas!

Spoiler
[close]

[CDR A'Holia]: All ships, all PD, destroy those torpedoes!

[CPT Athos]: Acknowledged. Comm, tell the Dominion to move there and support the Atlas!

[CMD Nillian]: What the? Laser heads! These are laser head torpedoes, the Atlas is hit

[LT Hol]: The destroyer is firing again. Four more torpedoes incoming!

[CMD Nillian]: Already? What kind of ship is that?

[CPT Athos]: Our engines are still non operational, we can't help them.

[CMD Nillian]: Multiple hits on the Atlas, it's sinking...

[LT Hol]: Launch detected. Four torpedoes again... Still targeting the Atlas? They are trying to vaporize it.

[CDR A'Holia]: DAMMIT!

[CPT Athos]: The remaining fighters are leaving our engagement range. They suffered heavy losses.

[CMD Nillian]: The Dominion is getting in a forward defense position... Firing PD... Three hits, only one torpedo got in attack position.

[LT Hol]: The carrier is interrupting the chase. And... Yes, the destroyer is disengaging too, it's going to rejoin with the carrier.

207.211.8.02

[CDR A'Holia]: Civies Status!

[CMD Nillian]: The Valkyrie hasn't been targeted, the tarsus took one missed shot on it's armor but is alright. The Atlas however is a complete loss. The recovered object is destroyed and we probably won't even be able to get it out of the cargo-hold after such pounding.

[LT Gomez]: The Valkyrie being intact don't surprise me, it's obviously an hospital ship, I don't think they would attack that.

[CDR A'Holia]: LT, I know your opinion of these Skoll has changed recently, but until proven otherwise they are bloodthirsty pirates in my book! If the Valkyrie has been ignored it's certainly for the same reason than the Tarsus: it's not a menace and can be intercepted at will if they defeat us. Now what about the rest of the fleet?

[CMD Nillian]: Our Vigor took some hit in the engines section, our acceleration is roughly limited by 40% and we will have trouble turning to the right. Other than that she is at full combat capacity. Between the Enforcers, the Argos is very damaged. It first took several hits from those long range missiles and then one of the fighters crashed at high speed in it's rear left, we don't have enough equipment to bring it back to combat ready. The Dominion however didn't even got hit once. For the frigates, we lost the Smooth-bore Lasher and the Cassandra Hound frigates. The Jason is beyond our repair capacity, and the Dallas took a nasty volley of fighter rockets to the side but can still fight. Other that these, the rest of the fleet only took armor scratches and very minor damages. Medical report 32 dead, 27 seriously wounded, 132 lightly wounded and still able to work. 22 are still missing.

[CDR A'Holia]: And the enemy?

[CMD Nillian]: Target Alpha is certainly out of combat. We lost it's sight shortly after it's engines shut, but that's probably a bad sign for them. The last images we got showed a cloud of debris and no atmosphere escaping the holes. Beta however escaped after taking only one major hit. It clearly suffered during the engagement, but it might still be able to support the carrier. On their twelve fighters, we took out five for sure. The confusion prevent confirming the destruction of four others, and they were all damaged to some extend.

[CDR A'Holia]: That's not very good... Not for a fully prepared force expecting an attack.

[CPT Athos]: You mean they completely outsmarted us and we got beaten for it?

[CDR A'Holia]: Not really, even knowing their capacities, I don't think we would have done anything differently. They just used their equipment and forces to the best of their potential, and maximized their chances to achieve a very specific objective. One thing is certain, I'll NEVER underestimate them.

[CMD Nillian]: I have to admit LT, when I first read your briefings about the Skolls, I thought they were greatly exaggerated.

[LT Gomez]: I've been surprised by them too. But we can see their hardware isn't really better than our. Very different yes, and maybe we don't have the right tools to defend ourselves against their tech, but not better. On the other hand if all their officers are as good as this one, they are far, far above your average pirate!

[CDR A'Holia]: Indeed. Okay, while they are leaving us a bit of time to catch our breath, I want all search and rescue operations finished within two hours. In the meantime, try to restore the maximum of the Vigor's propulsion and...

[Communication incoming]

[CDR A'Holia]: Yes?

[LT Hol]: Commodore, Detection here, the Skolls are moving toward us, and the carrier just launched two new wings. They are bigger, probably bombers.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2015, 12:16:06 PM by Tartiflette »
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Nanao-kun

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Re: [0.65.1a] Scy V0.86 (01/12) Hotfix
« Reply #333 on: January 28, 2015, 02:37:39 PM »

Really interesting reads, these are.
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ahrenjb

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Re: [0.65.1a] Scy V0.86 (01/12) Hotfix
« Reply #334 on: January 28, 2015, 03:10:42 PM »

It's a little fragile for the AI, but works ok if managed carefully. The only reason I don't use the armored variants as fleet ships is their burn rate is just so low. It's hard for me to stomach anything below 4-5.
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Tartiflette

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Re: [0.65.1a] Scy V0.86 (01/12) Hotfix
« Reply #335 on: January 28, 2015, 04:06:41 PM »

I quite understand... And I lowered the burn rate precisely for that reason! I think the burn rate is one of the most powerful balancing factor with the combat speed (and precisely for the same reasons) but is often overlooked. The armored Sthenos can win reliably in duel versus any other cruisers, so I gave it a low burn rate for a cruiser. Same goes for the Nemean Lion that is close to a Paragon in fighting power. No really, I know it is excruciatingly slow, but it just blow up anything that comes close. It's my go-to ship when I try to defend a system against a Templar crusade.
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ahrenjb

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Re: [0.65.1a] Scy V0.86 (01/12) Hotfix
« Reply #336 on: January 28, 2015, 05:02:08 PM »

Oh absolutely, burn speed is certainly a powerful balancing factor. I think the burn speeds on your ships are very appropriate, actually. I think ships with lower burn rates are going to really find their place when the campaign is more complete. I don't know exactly what Alex has in mind, but I like to imagine that the late to endgame involves capturing and controlling your own planets or even systems, building and upgrading stations, etc. Obviously with this addition would come the ability to construct your own AI fleets and assign AI commanders to them. If I were building a system defense fleet, burn speed wouldn't be a huge priority and ships with that 1-3 burn speed would be acceptable. Ships like the Nemean Lion would be phenomenal in this regard.

They would also be useful when assembling large system attack fleets. It might take a while to get to your destination, but you used tugs and probably brought all the supplies needed along for a longer sustained war, and you're going up against some of the most powerful fleets in the game. Quick response fleets and patrol fleets would naturally utilize ships that could get around quicker. Anyway, didn't mean to get too off topic. Just meant to say that while the current game sort of discourages the use of very slow ships, the end product might not, so I'm glad to see them in place.
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Tartiflette

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Re: [0.65.1a] Scy V0.86 (01/12) Hotfix
« Reply #337 on: January 30, 2015, 02:55:58 AM »

Require Debido's TwigLib.
Require LazyWizzard's LazyLib.

New dev up, some way too improved weapons have been toned down a bit, some other slightly improved. The biggest changes:

 - The Vibrating Beam becomes the Burst Repeater Beam. It has a clip reload mechanic close to what we might get with 0.65.2. Because of this it's a great PD against swarm of missiles but is much less powerful against continuous incoming threats has iit doesn't have time to reload.

 - The Hacking comlink now destroy any missile after roughly one second. That explosion can damage nearby missiles depending on the size of the destroyed one. It's good against slow incoming threats but much less so against fast missiles.

 - The Laser torpedoes now deal High-Explosive damage, and have more beam. These do less individual damage so it only deal slightly less damage to armor and hull but much less to shields. On the other hand it's still terrific against small and medium ships. I'm not sure about that change so tell me what you think.

Added the Keto Siege Carrier: A powerful all-in-one solution for fighter fleets. Reasonably fast, long range attack capacity, not very customizable and quite fragile for a capital ship. It's still a tad rough though.

Also added the mission that conclude the story chapter from the recent teasers. It also prelude some significant changes in the Scy political landscape.

Spoiler
Code
V0.87
WIP

New content:

 - Keto Siege Carrier: A capital sized 4 decked carrier equipped with a built-in Astrapios artillery canon capable of disabling several ships at once from standoff range

Weapons re-balancing:

DEV 2

 - Small Autonailer: range decreased from 350 to 300, flux requirement increased from 50 to 100.
 - Burst Nailer: range decreased form 650 to 600.
 - Small Flak: ammo increased from 40 to 60, turn rate decreased from 40 to 30 deg/sec.
 - Small Kinetic Accelerator: fire rate reduced from 60 to 48, flux usage reduced from 250 to 240, projectile speed reduced from 1000 to 800.
 - Medium Kinetic Accelerator: fire rate reduced from 30 to 24, flux usage reduced from 400 to 350, DPS reduced from 250 to 200, projectile speed reduced from 1100 to 900.
 - Large Kinetic Accelerator: fire rate reduced from 30 to 24, flux usage reduced from 1000 to 800, DPS reduced from 500 to 400, projectile speed reduced from 1000 to 900.
 - Small Mortar Gun: damage per shot reduced from 250 to 200, fire rate raised from 40 to 48, dps unchanged, flux usage unchanged.
 - Medium Mortar Gun: DPS reduced from 275 to 250, range reduced from 800 to 700.
 - Large Mortar Gun: DPS reduced from 650 to 500, flux reduced from 1250 to 1000.
 - Ricochet Gun: Range increased from 850 to 1000.
 - Manticore Swarm Launcher: Damage per missile reduced from 500 to 300.
 - Manticore Phase Missile Launcher: Damage per missile increased from 1500 to 2000, launching range increased from 2500 to 6000.
 - Laser Torpedoes: Detonation range reduced from 500 to 250, damage per beam reduced from 500 Energy to 200 High Explosive, emp per beam reduced from 150 to 100, number of beams increased from 5/7/9 to 8/10/12.
 - Hacking Commlink: detonate missiles after a second, the explosion can take out nearby missiles.
 - SCPB: get a clip reloading mechanic instead of a shot by shot ammo regeneration. Same stats otherwise.

 - Vibrating Beam now become Burst Repeater Beam: a PD weapon with long range, limited charges and a clip reload mechanic

[close]

[EDIT] Oops, I linked the previous DEV! My bad, if anyone downloaded the mod in the first half hour, please retry. Sorry about that... :-\
« Last Edit: January 30, 2015, 03:25:53 AM by Tartiflette »
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Lcu

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Re: [0.65.1a] Scy V0.86 (01/12) Hotfix
« Reply #338 on: January 30, 2015, 06:11:27 AM »

Nice bit of lore you've written there, that is actually an interesting interpretation for the battles we commonly encounter in the game.
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Spoiler
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ahrenjb

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Re: [0.65.1a] Scy V0.86 (01/12) Hotfix
« Reply #339 on: January 30, 2015, 11:04:56 AM »

One idea I had for the laser torpedos would be to keep them as energy damage, which feels right for the weapon, but instead of the laser emissions going in every direction, restricting them to a narrower cone in front of the missile. Maybe 90 degrees or so, but toning the total damage down.
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Tartiflette

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Re: [0.65.1a] Scy V0.86 (01/12) Hotfix
« Reply #340 on: January 30, 2015, 11:22:19 AM »

It was my first idea, but when I tried it didn't had the result I expected: If I tone down the damage enough to avoid overloading a cruiser in two small torpedoes, it become quite weak against armor. Problem is, that makes the bombers useless too! I tried this way because it's the least of two evils. Btw, the attack cone is already much narrower than 90 degrees. Aren't you mixing them with Mayorate laser missiles?
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Wyvern

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Re: [0.65.1a] Scy V0.86 (01/12) Hotfix
« Reply #341 on: January 30, 2015, 11:48:57 AM »

Here's a hint on adjusting damage vs. armor separately from damage vs. shields: beam weapons calculate damage reduction from armor based on 1/2 the instantaneous DPS of the beam.

So, a beam weapon that fires continuously at 100 DPS will be reduced by armor as if it were a projectile weapon dealing 50 damage per shot.
A beam weapon that fires at 300DPS but is only active for a third of a second every second, for a total sustained dps versus shields of still just 100, will be reduced by armor as if it dealt 150 damage per shot.
A beam weapon that blips on for just a tenth of a second (pretty sure this is the lowest interval the game supports) for 1000DPS will be reduced by armor as if it dealt 500 damage per shot, and thus cut through armor far more effectively than the continuous beam would.

So, in short, if you've got a beam that's supposed to burst for, say, 1000 damage versus shields, and you want it to cut through armor better than a plasma cannon does, try making it deal 5000DPS with a duration of 1/5 of a second.  Alternatively, if you want armor to just shrug it off, spread that 1000 damage across several seconds.
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Wyvern is 100% correct about the math.

Tartiflette

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Re: [0.65.1a] Scy V0.86 (01/12) Hotfix
« Reply #342 on: January 30, 2015, 12:02:03 PM »

I'm very well aware of this ( and it's true for vanilla, but not SS+). But that's not the problem since these aren't beam! We cannot, and probably will never be able to, spawn beams ex-nihilo, they can only be produced by a weapon. I used trickery and black magic to obtain something similar: in this case, invisible fast missiles with a trail that looks like a beam  ;)
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TartarusMkII

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Re: [0.65.1a] Scy V0.86(released 01/12) + V0.87(in-development)
« Reply #343 on: January 31, 2015, 12:39:47 AM »

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4esps59bgyi9nfk/haxbullshit1.jpg?dl=0



This has happened again. I just started the game and accidentally fell into Acheron. This consistently ruins my games. Please make this stop. I really like using your mod, your ships, etc. But this is just one more thing that breaks the game for me.
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Tartiflette

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Re: [0.65.1a] Scy V0.86(released 01/12) + V0.87(in-development)
« Reply #344 on: January 31, 2015, 01:09:34 AM »

The new version will have a new method for that, but I have to spawn something for you to kill and loot fuel! Otherwise you would just have been stuck in there without fuel and could only wait until your supplies were expended.
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