Ship Core Explosion

[Valiant70]

When a ship core blows up, the whole ship disappears. Currently it just kind of fizzles out of existence, which is a little boring. There's no "AAAH! SHE'S GONNA BLOW! FLY AWAY!"

I'd like to see an explosion when an overheating core blows. The size of the explosion should be determined by the original mass of the ship. The actual magnitude/scaling should be a config option so that it can be customized or disabled.

Another possibility would be a pulse weapon-like wave emitting from the core, which I think might look cooler, and be more fitting for a reactor-like explosion. There could be another config option to choose between explosion and pulse, or a combination of a small explosion and a large pulse emanating outward from it.

 

[MossyStone48]

It lends well to a pair of ideas:
http://starmadedock.net/threads/procedurally-generated-space-dungeons-or-ssds.1454
and
http://starmadedock.net/threads/pro...tion-and-reduced-salvage-beam-efficiency.2396

 

[Dragon2000]

this idea reminds me of a warp core breach and could be cool thing to be implemented and could be rather funny if say it done damage so the person trying to salvage your ship finds out that there is about to be a massive explosion and they just boarded the ship overheating

 

[Cybertooth]

Yea ship death should be cooler, something I thought would be great is if the core explosion didnt destroy the whole ship, but just took out an area around the core. And then the breakoff mechanic was used to split the ship in two, with the fracture in line with where the core was, like it blew it apart.

 

[Calbiri]

When a ship core blows up, the whole ship disappears. Currently it just kind of fizzles out of existence, which is a little boring. There's no "AAAH! SHE'S GONNA BLOW! FLY AWAY!"

I'd like to see an explosion when an overheating core blows. The size of the explosion should be determined by the original mass of the ship. The actual magnitude/scaling should be a config option so that it can be customized or disabled.

Another possibility would be a pulse weapon-like wave emitting from the core, which I think might look cooler, and be more fitting for a reactor-like explosion. There could be another config option to choose between explosion and pulse, or a combination of a small explosion and a large pulse emanating outward from it.

Pretty much i love the whole concept, and once particle effects are finalized, just you wait and see, itll be beautiful!

 

[Ithirahad]

Yea ship death should be cooler, something I thought would be great is if the core explosion didnt destroy the whole ship, but just took out an area around the core. And then the breakoff mechanic was used to split the ship in two, with the fracture in line with where the core was, like it blew it apart.

Naaah, massive (size depending on hitbox) explosions are cooler than just ships splitting...

 

[Cybertooth]

Oh I wasnt saying there cant be a huge explosion, i'd just really like some sizeable bits of debris

 

[jayman38]

I'd love to see a mod where there are a bunch of tiny little explosions along a fault line, and then the parts simply split apart and slowly drift away. It would be sad and subtle. I'm almost burned out on giant space explosions. Besides, I always thought the overall construction of spaceships wouldn't produce that much of an explosion. With Star Trek, you have antimatter, which will create a giant boom when in uncontrolled contact with matter. But other sci-fi? I never really understood where the big boom came from. It reminds me of the classic Hollywood car crash exaggeration, where it's as if the whole car is made of plastic explosive when it crashes. The slightest fender-bender and KABLOOEY! I'd just like to see it be more subtle. Freespace got closer to my ideal, by having the parts split up and then exploding in a series of smaller explosions.

The plus side to subtle ship destruction via splitting? Miniature spaceship asteroids, ripe for the salvaging. I get so disappointed when I miss the opportunity to salvage ship parts, at that moment when an overheating ship suddenly up and disappears.

 

[Ithirahad]

I'd love to see a mod where there are a bunch of tiny little explosions along a fault line, and then the parts simply split apart and slowly drift away. It would be sad and subtle. I'm almost burned out on giant space explosions. Besides, I always thought the overall construction of spaceships wouldn't produce that much of an explosion. With Star Trek, you have antimatter, which will create a giant boom when in uncontrolled contact with matter. But other sci-fi? I never really understood where the big boom came from. It reminds me of the classic Hollywood car crash exaggeration, where it's as if the whole car is made of plastic explosive when it crashes. The slightest fender-bender and KABLOOEY! I'd just like to see it be more subtle. Freespace got closer to my ideal, by having the parts split up and then exploding in a series of smaller explosions.

The plus side to subtle ship destruction via splitting? Miniature spaceship asteroids, ripe for the salvaging. I get so disappointed when I miss the opportunity to salvage ship parts, at that moment when an overheating ship suddenly up and disappears.

The kablooey is from sparks hitting huge tanks of highly-volatile rocket fuel, or just reactants hitting each other in an uncontrolled fashion... Or possibly something (Water? Other coolant?) being violently expanded by released heat or energy... Also, a big explosion would more definitely signify "Okay, that thing's dead" when you don't have much time to see if a ship's drifting apart.

 

[jayman38]

I agree that a big explosion signifies certain death, so I think a big explosion should be in the default game. I'd like the more subtle effect I described to be an optional mod.

 

[Valiant70]

That's not a bad idea, jayman, although it would cause a lot of lag if a lot of ships broke apart in that manner, like in a fleet battle. Debris, split/fragged ships, weapons fire, more ships still active and launching missiles everywhere... and all the noobs screaming "LLLLLAAAAAAAAGGGGGGG! ADMIN PZL FIX NAO!!!!!!!" It would be pretty neat-looking if the server could handle it though.

Although to be honest, what must be in the power grids in our ships to produce an essentially infinite power supply? I should think whatever it is would make a pretty nice kablooey. Also think about all the power storage blocks on a large ship. Ever seen a plasma explosion from a ruptured capacitor? Yikes! Something thousands of cubic meters in volume with power density certainly far exceeding 21st century ultracapacitors would really make a fireball if split open. If we were going for total realism, they should react like disintegrators when shot, but that wouldn't be very nice for gameplay.

Anyway, there should be plenty of stuff onboard our ships that could cause a large explosion if it malfunctions, so it's not like the holywood car "don't shoot the gas tank" stupidness, although I'm still all for customization.

 

[jayman38]

You'd be surprised how little kablooey is in a nuclear reactor. It simply melts down and turns all nearby metal into a solid ingot. (So it would be really neat if all the blocks around power cores were at low-hp bright orange (and glowing!) when it split up, kinda like the edge of missile hits.) However, I hadn't thought about power storage going off. That would be an interesting game mechanic. Treat groups of power storage blocks like exploding missiles that blow large holes within the ship structure when the ship starts to die. That sounds neat and appropriate.

I'd be really upset with my engineering foreman if he were to design a spaceship for me that exploded wildly at the first errant electrical plasma arc or micrometeoroid puncture. I mean I'll be in deep space doing crazy high-energy experiments. I can't be worrying about such primitive notions as rocket fuel. Not that I have someone working on real spaceships for me. *looks around nervously* That would be absurd. *looks behind him* Nobody has that technology yet. *starts to sweat* No more questions about real life spaceships!

 

[Valiant70]

I'm well aware of the mechanics and results of a nuclear meltdown. At worst, a runaway reaction would likely cause a steam explosion rupturing the casing and throwing hot radioactive material for some distance, NOT a nuclear explosion!

The real point is that there is plenty of stuff that has a good chance of going poof if the ship is too heavily damaged. A lot of poofs all at once = kablooey.

If the notion of realism (not a particularly big deal in Starmade TBH; things just kind of remotely make sense) is bugging you too much, here's a theory to chew over:

You know those long lines of power blocks? Those are particle accelerators. The glowing power tanks store suspended antimatter, and of course the more you stick together the more efficiently they can store large amounts of it. Where's the antimatter coming from you ask? How about all of that space dust that's so thick that it slows down starships almost like an atmosphere? The benefit of adding more power blocks to your ship diminishes after a while because there's only so much space dust to refine antimatter from. Eventually, you need fewer accelerators and more collection to generate additional power, meaning big blocks instead of long lines. Ship cores of course contain 50000 units of antimatter storage. (50000 antiprotons maybe? Those things are actually pretty potent so that's at least somewhat realistic.) That's why they are such a disaster if they begin to overheat. Although there is some new tech on the way that will allow the cores of large ships to be better shielded until the ship loses too much structural integrity [the new HP system].