Ship core death changes.

[Ithirahad]

1. Make ship cores explode when their overheating countdown expires, with the explosion size proportional to either the ship's largest dimension or its smallest. I know this has been suggested numerous times before, but seeing as it paves the way for the main part of my suggestion, it has to be included. For this suggestion, some kind of visual warning about 10 seconds before an explosion would be nice, something like random beams of energy/light or fire/plasma cones shooting out of the ship.
   
   
2. Make overheating cores a bit harder to fix.
   
   Perhaps you would have to heal the core back to full health before it stabilized, with a chance that the healing beam might not be as effective during certain random periods. This would make stabilizing cores more urgent but riskier, and make salvaging a ship more common than simply entering the core and deleting all of the resources since it's easier to get out of the way if you're in a salvage ship that's capable of zooming away in the case of a core blowing up. Another thing that could contribute to the risks of an overheating ship is random explosions, starting off very small and extremely rare (Average radius ~1.5) but slowly becoming more common and a bit larger (up to an average radius of ~4?) as the core gets closer to overheating. These explosions, regardless of radius, would only deal about 8-15 points of damage. (If I remember correctly, players have... 50 points of health? Maybe?)

 

[Comr4de]

How would this interact (if at all) with the planned ship HP mechanic?

 

[Lecic]

How about the average of all of the ships dimensions, times, say, 3?

I think the "warning" of the imminent explosion should be a fiery ring that flies out from the largest axis that deals no damage. Then, the actual explosion. A retextured pulse, made to look like a massive ball of fire. I think the damage the explosion deals should be based on the mass of the ship, maybe x3 or so?

If a ship takes killing damage from collision damage, it should instantly explode, also.

How would this interact (if at all) with the planned ship HP mechanic?

Do we know what happens once a ship drops below the HP threshold yet? I presume the explosion would just happen the same way once that happens.

 

[Ithirahad]

How would this interact (if at all) with the planned ship HP mechanic?

When the HP hits 0, the core goes into overheating-countdown-mode, and this mechanic doesn't really need changing due to that.

Also, @Lecic, I'm not sure if a giant orange pulse is the best choice here. Ever seen ships blow up in STO? That would be closer to what I want to see. (But of course, bigger and more awesome-looking since explosion spam shouldn't happen in this game, and furthermore, you see the explosions from a lot closer up)

 

[jayman38]

I think a great pre-explosion warning would be to throw particles out into space in random directions in more frequent and urgent cycles, to illustrate parts of the ship are starting to explode all over the place. Nearer to the moment where the main explosion starts, the core is spitting out fountains of particles (sparks, embers, etc.) to illustrate terminal criticality. It would be visually exciting, and as the particles become more regular, it would provide an immersive visual countdown. I am thinking if particle systems look good enough, I'll want to just stand by and watch as the ship goes up. It'll be beautiful. Poof.... Poof.... Poof, poof... Poof... Poof, Poof, Poof... Poofffffffffff, BOOM!

Plus, particle systems can be scaled back for older computers, so it'll work for a wide range of computer capabilities, with ship explosions on good computers that can handle detailed particle systems looking gorgeous.

 

[Ithirahad]

It would also be kinda cool if factions could choose their ship explosion glow color, which would go along with the normal fire colors... As kind of a visual signal of whose ship blows up. Lorewise, it would be because of differing reactants and things being lit and burning/blowing up in different colors.

 

[NeonSturm]

I think this is late game stuff.

Just have a explosion after the timer expires would be nice for Isants and ramming ships :p

 

[Lecic]

When the HP hits 0, the core goes into overheating-countdown-mode, and this mechanic doesn't really need changing due to that.

Also, @Lecic, I'm not sure if a giant orange pulse is the best choice here. Ever seen ships blow up in STO? That would be closer to what I want to see. (But of course, bigger and more awesome-looking since explosion spam shouldn't happen in this game, and furthermore, you see the explosions from a lot closer up)

Those explosions are much nicer looking, I agree. I was just trying to think of a way to make a huge explosion that wouldn't take much work to create, just a quick texture modification. Also, this is the image I had when I talked about a warning ring and then a huge orange explosion...

 

[jayman38]

I think that an expanding ring works really well... as long as it is always perpendicular to the viewer - any viewer, so that it looks like the outer shell of a regular sphere. If it looks like the edge of a ring is approaching the viewer, then it kind of takes me out of the game/movie. There is the rule of cool, but I've seen an approaching ring of fire enough so that it's no longer cool enough to justify. (ST6:TUC, SW:ANH:SE)

It would be a client-side effect that can be turned off for less lag by the player.

Bonus points for a client-side ring effect:
1. Option to mod: Depending on if the devs allow it, each player might be able to replace the default ring motion graphic with their own version to taste.
2. Option to shake: Maybe calculate the distance to the explosion, and if enough time has passed and the viewer is close enough, maybe give the whole client-side view a slight shake to simulate the passing of an effect wave. Maybe not the most realistic thing, but it might be a fun effect for a lot of players, similar to seeing stars/space dust fly past at high speed.
3. Another option: I hate it, but allow the player to change the random angle that the ring does render, so it can look like it is approaching them edge-on or near to it. I'd keep this setting at 0% random angle (always perpendicular), but some people would like to have it. I think OpenFreespace has random-angle fire-rings.