temporary stealth revamp

[RoyalWolfe]

OK I was checking out the new combat changes and so far I've been very impressed. the new hp system is really great, it makes the games combat so much more fun and interesting.

So I then jumped onto my build server to go and give this whole system a go. and have to say it is so much more efficient. I did notice how now we have some actual variable to play around with and the new config features are really good. you can now use those variables to tweak the level of combat you really want in the game now.

so when i was looking at those i noticed the things you could do if you chose to, and if you did know a few things about java programing you know that the way this new system works is pretty interesting. if you look at the conditions that the game now tracks you can see that changing the variables lets you have effects on individual entities now.

this means that if I had access to the games engine code, and really wanted to I could in fact manage, to balance say the way certain previously was impossible. the stealth module for example, because it now tracks the actual systems, VS Armor damage separately, i could then make it tear off (either partially, or in its entirety) the Armor HP in its power requirement.

This means that if I wanted to the ships could justly and fairly stay in stealth as it should be expected to be according to the sum of its systems mass. that would be a fair way it should work based upon that if one were to do enough damage to the ship it will eventually permanently loses its stealth till repaired. this seems like a fair way to use it in combat, and you would still be able to fully armor the ships, but because the systems health is the factor not the armor, you still get a glass stealth generator in an actual ships armor shell. so even if you lose the stealth the whole damn ship isn't totally useless. I'm not saying unnerf stealth, I'm simply offering that if we can at least lightly armor them, then the game technically can track the armor points separately now so why not hard cap the amount a cloaking device can stealth that way it can at the least be grey hulled enough to cover the ugly vulnerable systems.

Isn't it about time we actually get a stealth counter that doesn't totally cripple it?

 

[Ixalite]

I like the idea of only using hull hp in stealth calculations!

 

[RoyalWolfe]

I like the idea of only using hull hp in stealth calculations!

well that's the beauty of it you could even do both or one or the other the settings could be made both ways.

the idea is you could make it scale based on how you want it set.

If you want the stealth system base for like Ala star trek as long as the warp drive works the cloaking device does, or like star wars where the hull is coated in stealth material so if it takes too many hits it stops working. the idea is there for both as a potential.

 

[DivineEvil]

I agree with the suggestion. Both Jammers and Cloaks needs to be tweaked. I felt that creating a new thread for this suggestion was unnecesary, but considering that it does involves the HP system, which were brought recently, I'd give it a go.

The only things I can add to it is the same suggestions I had in previous threads regarding these systems - to remove the disparity of these systems from the majority of internal systems we're used to have, thus expanding them both into a Master/Slave structure. There's no reason for either to be based upon a single CPU as it essentialy forced Schema to implement unrealistic and counter-productive power requirements to compensate, while also being a black sheep around other items regarding item production and trading. Jammers and Cloaks does not require anything but a single unit installed on a ship, similar to most Master blocks, but require an amount of resources comparable to Slave blocks and has the same price tag.

• Cloak and Jammers need to obtain their respective slave Modules. Prices and Crafting recipe values should be tweaked accordingly.
• Jammers might have their efficiency based on ship's Structure HP or the amount of Structure blocks. Since Hull does not emits any electromagnetic signatures by itself, it is illogical to account for it when calculating the required amount of Jammer modules for efficient performance. That will allow for heavily armored ships to easily run the jammers, but will prevent the usage of vast amounts of other Structure blocks on that ship, making it impossible to abuse Weapons and Defensive Effects.
• Cloakers might have their efficiency based on ship's Armor HP or the weight of Armor blocks. Cloakers, as name suggests, provide an optical camouflage, which means that accounting for internal systems is also illogical. This dependency will allow players to use efficient stealth ships with decent additional equipment, but will force them to use lightweight materials to protect it.
• Combined, these dependencies would allow to use full-stealth ships with very significant limitations based on ship's power and weight, without being detrimental to the ship's decorative appeal. Different ship layouts would require different numbers of module blocks of both systems to be installed for desired effect. Power regeneration and capacity also would play a big role on stealth performance.
• There's a dozen of different possible ways to make a counter for either system. Structure/Armor damage based disabling is a good fundament. Jammers would be disabled if a parent ship fires any weapon, producing a EME, that Jammer cannot migitate, thus overloading it, while Cloakers would drain a severely larger amount of energy each time the ships is hit by any weapons instead. Either way, both systems require a cooldown value, which renders them inactive after being turned off or disabled for the amount of time based upon the size of the system - the larger the ship, the longer it would take to return the system into nominal state.
• If perma-cloak ships are not favored, increasing the power consumption over active time can easily make that impossible to achieve. The value of delta would be determined by the ratio of stealth modules to the blocks of the ship, which would allow players to make longer-standing stealth systems by increasing the space that they occupy on a ship. This is an optional feature at best in case if these calculations will end up detrimental to the game's performance.

Proposed Server.Config values:

RADAR_JAMMER_ACTIVE_RATIO //Value of sHP that 1 Jammer module can jam. If division of a structure HP by the number of Jammer modules returns anything less than this value, Jammer cannot be activated and warning message is shown instead. Default value should consider the sHP that Jammer modules give on their own!
RADAR_JAMMER_KNOCKDOWN_VALUE //Percentage value of intact structure HP, below which Jammer can no longer provide jamming due to emission leaking.
RADAR_JAMMER_DURATION_DRAIN (optional)//Percentage value from a base energy consumption, by which it is increased for each 0.5 second while Jammer is active.
RADAR_JAMMER_INTERFERENCE (optional) //Multiplier value which affects the power consumption of a ship weapon being fired while Jammer is active.

CLOAK_ACTIVE_RATIO //Value of aHP that 1 Jammer module can jam. If division of an armor HP by the number of Cloak modules returns anything less than this value, Cloak cannot be activated and warning message is shown instead.
CLOAK_KNOCKDOWN_VALUE //Percentage value of intact armor HP, below which Cloak can no longer provide its function due to integrity damage of a cloaking array.
CLOAK_DURATION_DRAIN (optional)//Percentage value from a base energy consumption, by which it is increased for each 0.5 second while Cloak is active.
CLOAK_INTERFERENCE (optional) //Multiplier value which affects the power consumption of a Cloak system when ship's armor is under attack. Might also apply the same multiplier to the Shield power drain, if shields are being damaged instead.

 

[hunterRAE]

I do think that DivineEvil has the right way of going about the situation, but one thing that comes to mind is that with the concept of active camouflage or cloak is that within the bubble of cloak, everything can be seen, but to the outside it cannot. This might go into calculations based on the outside/surface blocks and only make the blocks invisible to the outside, not the inside. Their is plenty of room to debate, but I believe that with the system DivineEvil suggested, this seems more logical and more balanced for power sake, because cloak is one heck of a power drainer as of this moment.