The aims for the space combat system are (in addition to the obvious one of providing a way for ppl to kick the sheet out of each other) :
- to avoid the repetitious nature of normal hi-speed, hi-tech 3d combat
- to avoid a situation where idiot players annoy ppl by attacking em frequently
- to create a combat system that encourage co-operative attacks
In the new (0.48.2) system..
Every ship has 'Shields', which are normally on all the time. While your shields are on, lasers do no damage. (i.e. You can sit there in space while someone blasts you repeatedly with lasers and it will do no harm).
There are 4 missile variants available:
Standard Missile
Ion Missile
EM Missile
X Missile
.. each costing a bit more than the previous to purchase and having increasing power etc. Hitting someone with a missile will generally knock out their shields for a bit, and often will temporarily damage other ship systems. Hitting someone with a missile while their shields are down will cause more damage, as will multiple missiles hitting the person at about the same time.
All ships have a limit to how many missiles they can carry and a missile reload delay of about 7 seconds - so to get lots of missiles hitting someone simultaneously you'll need more than one attacker.
The target player is alerted when an incoming missile is detected, and they have the opportunity to launch defense systems that stop the missile. There is one defense system equivalent to each missile type - launching an ion defense against an x missile would be ineffective, and vice versa.
All ships have a limit to how many defense systems they can carry.. so even the most alert defender won't be able to prevent damage from a combined attack of enough players.
Auto-defense systems, that automatically detect and launch the appropriate ecm (essential for those afk traders) will be available at a "fairly decent" price.
So.. the idea is.. you whack someone with a missile first to take out their shields (and maybe their engines for a bit)... if they're not alert, or very unlucky, the missile will work, the target will be limited to low impulse drive at best, and you'll then be able to do serious damage to em using lasers (and other missiles if you don't mind the expense.)
If they are alert/well armed/lucky, then you'll need to have a good supply of missiles (from multiple ships, ideally), before you can progress to the blasting em to bits stage.
Oh and btw.. if a target quits the game during an attack they will automatically be considered to have been killed, so dont think you can get out of it that way :]
All of the messaging code is now in place to allow you to steal cargo from other players by destryoing their ship - however, im not gonna activate this system for a lil while yet until theres been a few people trying out the new fighting setup. So for now.. killing each other in space still has no point other than the fun of it and (if you post your
feedback here) for the benefit of tweaking, testing and fot the general benefit of the game etc.
I'll provide fairly cheap missiles initially for anyone willing to give the combat system a good play through - and please post back with your comments, thoughts and ideas.. I have no doubt that it'll take a fair bit of playtesting to get it reasonably balanced, so the more the merrier..
{ EDIT - aint quite finished yet and needed to put a 48.2 client up to resolve a few nasty stability issues, so the space combat stuff will follow in a .3 patch later in the week (probably) )
0.48.3 - Notes on the new space combat system
0.48.3 - Notes on the new space combat system
Last edited by Mit on Mon Nov 14, 2005 1:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
Me too. There's one special model that hasn't been included yet, but other than that, i'm out of ship designs at the mo. We have another potential source of ship models via one of mit's colleagues... but I dunno if that ever produced fruit. Still, you have 8 models to play with (or something like that), which isn't a bad start :)
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Re: 0.48.2 - Notes on the new space combat system
Dammit! - there goes my cunning strategyMit wrote: Oh and btw.. if a target quits the game during an attack they will automatically be considered to have been killed, so dont think you can get out of it that way :]
seriously tho this looks great
one question - presumably when the pirates are able to steal cargo,after a succesful attack on a trader, the cargo will be floating in space, so what happens if the pirates ship has a smaller cargo hold than the ship s/he attacks- is the remainder lost completely, or left floating there for whoever else (including the original owner) retrieves it first, or is there some kind of spacial distortion effect from the weaponry which allows a pirates ship to temporarily hold more than it should?
initially, itll probably just be transferred automatically to the attacker, up to their cargobay limits. Anything beyond that will disappear.
Collecting the cargo cannisters using a 'scoop' was the Elite method, and that'd probably be the next stage after that. The cargo cannisters would expire after a bit of time - not valid on a persistent online game to have em remain indefinitely.. few months time we'd have systems covered in cannisters.
Collecting the cargo cannisters using a 'scoop' was the Elite method, and that'd probably be the next stage after that. The cargo cannisters would expire after a bit of time - not valid on a persistent online game to have em remain indefinitely.. few months time we'd have systems covered in cannisters.
Minku, if you managed to kill 2406 before Mit stopped you, I think a bigger bounty would be warranted - something to reflect your status as a mass killerMinku wrote:WOuld be neat on these top 10 space murdars a price on their head... If they get killed the final shot killer gets however many kills they got since last death in credits..
So lets say Minku gets 2,406 kills without dieing, When Mit hacks and kills Minku he gets 2406 credits.
if the bounty was only 1cr per kill commited, everyon'e gonna be mass-murderer before bounty hunters see any profit in their job. there's got to be something much more enticing to bounty hunters than 1cr bounty per death. 100cr bounty for someone who's killed 100 times is a bit pitiful!traders are gonna lose their cargo (& implicit in that - the seed money & the potential profits) when they are killed, and pirates gain a cargo load of clear profit - financial outlay has been a couple of missiles - what do pirates/attackers lose when they are killed by a bounty hnter/trader? a percentage of their ill gotten financial gains maybe? their weaponry? if there is no equally significant pay-off for traders/travellers gettting revenge and making the universe a safer place - whats the point? maybe a "federation reward fund" needs to be set up, or "clean ships" - those who only kill for bounty - get subsidised weaponry and defenses in addition to a reward
Mm... I know..
When a BH kills a top 10 he gets the place their in backwards TIMEs their kills, and 1/8 their credits...
So if the 10th slot had 15 kills, then the BH would get 15 credits... (15x1)
If he kills 3rd slot who had 90 kills then he gets 270 credits.... (90x3)
And with that a extra 400 too... as long as their on the list...
Plus their normal cargo drop.. and their 1/8 credits (Maybe when ye kills anyone ye would get like 1/16 of their credits or something...)
So if a BH manages to kill anything above like 5th slot then the profits would be hiiiiigh.
When a BH kills a top 10 he gets the place their in backwards TIMEs their kills, and 1/8 their credits...
So if the 10th slot had 15 kills, then the BH would get 15 credits... (15x1)
If he kills 3rd slot who had 90 kills then he gets 270 credits.... (90x3)
And with that a extra 400 too... as long as their on the list...
Plus their normal cargo drop.. and their 1/8 credits (Maybe when ye kills anyone ye would get like 1/16 of their credits or something...)
So if a BH manages to kill anything above like 5th slot then the profits would be hiiiiigh.
The bounty element that was added to the info screens a few versions back willl work the same as the standard bounty modes on the world server - if someone attacks someone else who is 'innocent' (i.e. they have no bounty on their head), then the attacker gets a bounty. Anyone can them kill that personally, legitmately, without incurring their own bounty, and when they kill em, they get the bounty as a reward.what do pirates/attackers lose when they are killed by a bounty hnter/trader? a percentage of their ill gotten financial gains maybe? their weaponry? if there is no equally significant pay-off for traders/travellers gettting revenge and making the universe a safer place - whats the point?
Later on, some of the bounty effects may be limited depending on the type of star system you're in.
Also to be added later is the chance of losing ship systems and drives during combat.
ok - that came in before i started playing here, and as i dont play planets v often, is something I dont have much experience of.Mit wrote: The bounty element that was added to the info screens a few versions back willl work the same as the standard bounty modes on the world server - if someone attacks someone else who is 'innocent' (i.e. they have no bounty on their head), then the attacker gets a bounty. Anyone can them kill that personally, legitmately, without incurring their own bounty, and when they kill em, they get the bounty as a reward.
Can you clarify - does bounty increase by a set amount for each kill committed eg 50c per kill, or is it an incremental scale - 50c for 1 kill, +75 for 2nd, +100 for 3rd etc
also - nice space improvements so far in 48.2 - clearer targetting graphics on galactic map, minigames, guide added into comm . TYVM
Perhaps "stations" could be owned by various factions or something, and by paying a fee and when entering a medium-ish distance and you get attacked by a pirate some long range anti-engine missiles are launched at pirates, and at close range damaging missiles are launched. The fee of course would be scaled up depending on ship/current cash and would have to be repaid on a regular basis.