Ok, hello there. Sit down and have some tea.
So with the current state of thrust, weapons available, and turrets, there really isn't a whole lot that a smaller ship can do in most of the PVP fights I've seen. What I've noticed is that large titan ships just sit there and rely on their turrets to kill everything. They don't even need to turn. The current system encourages boring fights between large ships that are also very laggy. We need to give people a reason to enter the cockpit of a smaller ship and fly around like madmen to help bring down their opponent. Not only would it be more FUN but it would be a lot less laggy for servers.
Now, I don't think a small fighter SHOULD be able to bring down a large titan very easily, BUT, I do think they should be able to have some effect if they are skilled enough.
That said, here are some of my ideas on how I think we can make small ships more viable:
1. Allow shields to weaken FASTER if a specific part of a ship is hit over and over. For example, a small fighter might not do much damage at all when first attacking, but if they keep hitting the same spot on their opponent, their enemy's shields weaken faster. The fighter still has to worry about possibly getting blown out of the sky by turrets, but if they fly carefully and their aim is true, they can become significant. If they have terrible aim though.. well they are just gnats.
2. Give ships a kind of flare gun. Any missile locked on would retarget the flare instead. Turrets would also target these flares. We've seen this in many flight combat simulators because it adds a level of skill to the game. With StarMade, perhaps the "Flare" could be something a little more unique, like a device that simulates their core signature. When activated, it shoots out and would actually look like their ship to everybody who is targeting it (though their real ship would still be quite visible). Perhaps a player's ship would also need to power down completely for a moment for it to be effective, and their true signature bleeps off the radar for a moment while their fake signature pops up. The "flare" would remain active for 10 seconds.
3. Give ships a combat scanner, which is passive and tells a pilot when missiles are locked on. It would flash a warning in red. It might also tell them when someone is targeting them. It does not have any active ability. It can only be turned on and off, using a small amount of power while on.
4. Implement DOT (Damage Over Time) and status effect weapons. The purpose of this in most games is that it introduces a play style of hit and run. This is an important tactic of nimble fighters. For all of these types of weapons, the projectiles need to be slow enough for smaller ships to dodge, but larger ships would have a much harder time since they are bigger, slower moving targets. Here are a few examples of new weapons I propose:
A. The Shield Disruptor.
This slow-moving projectile crackles and glows as it moves forward and when it hits, hit damages shield regeneration. It would stack and last a certain amount of time, perhaps five seconds. If you keep hitting the same spot, over and over, it would do a slight exponential amount of damage for each additional hit, so long as the effect does not wear off before the next hit happens. The downside of this effect is that it is a rather slow projectile with a short range. They would also be dumb-fire. No lock-on. This weapon would NOT be very useful against small fighters (even if equipped on a turret), but small fighters could use it well on a large ship.
B. Energy Distruptor
Each module does 5 energy damage per second, over 5 seconds. The hits stacks with the previous amount of disruption and lengthens the time of the effect from previous hits. The difference between this and a shield disruptor is that it doesn't matter where you hit the enemy, it works the same. So a small fighter could actually completely disable a large ship's power regeneration if they kept hitting them long enough and does not allow the status to come off.
C. Thruster Disruptor
This works the same as an energy disruptor, except it affects thrusters. It could be strengthened with a push/pull/stop module as a tertiary effect, which would affect what TYPE of thrust it affects. A push module oriented forward as a tertiary effect would affect the forward/backward thrust of a ship. A stop module would make it affect the ability of a ship to brake. A push module facing backwards would make it affect the ability of a ship to rotate.
D. Turret Discombobulator
What it does is damages the ability of turrets to turn on their axis, by reducing the effectiveness of the rail mass enhancers. The shots would HAVE TO hit a turret, not the main ship to be efffective. These shots would also be a bit faster than the disruptor varieties, since turrets tend to move around a bit. It could also be modified with a push or pull module (facing a certain direction), which would change the effect to make a turret spaz out, turning in that direction involuntarily and disrupting it's aim. With this, I would also suggest a change in how rail mass enhancers work. Turrets would have a move speed proportionate to the amount of mass enhancers provided. So if there is 50% of the required mass enhancers, it turns at 50% speed, not 1% speed as it is now. The effect stays for as long as the turret keeps getting hit, and the effect grows larger and larger. If the DOT comes off however.. the turret regains full functionality.
5. Implement hacking.
This could basically be a series of mini-games - or simply a hack requiring time. You have to get very close to an enemy ship and then start hacking them. You can also be counter-hacked by a person on the ship you are attempting to hack. It would work fastest while in astronaut mode and touching the ship. While you are hacking, you are unaware of the outside world (unless you die). The larger a ship is, the harder it is to hack. You can hack their shields, energy regen, thrusters, open all doors on the ship, or disable all AI turrets - you choose. If you succeed, shields/energy/thrusters are brought down entirely for 30 seconds, all the doors on the ship open, or all turrets are turned off for 30 seconds (and then reset to their previous state). If you fail, you lose nothing. However if the enemy ship being hacked had a "Feedback Computer" installed, it sends a power arc toward the hacker upon an unsuccessful hack. It would do significant damage to shields and power if the hacker was in a ship and would do significant damage to an astronaut, possibly killing them. It only affects the person who attempted the hack, not everyone else nearby. The more modules attached to this feedback computer, the stronger the effect would be. This would encourage smaller ships and boarding parties with the intent of hacking! Also, a combat scanner would tell a pilot if someone is attempting to hack them.
Hacking Mini-Game Ideas (New! 01-20-16):
There are so many possibilities. Many games throughout the years have introduced mini-games for such things as lock picking, hacking, etc. So, what would be appropriate for StarMade? I am definitely curious to know other player's thoughts on this, but here's what I have so far for some thoughts.
A. Matrix-style
Hacking:
This is arguably the most complicated route to go, but I think it would be pretty cool. You plug in and enter an alternative world that has three dimensional properties. This "world" would be procedurally generated, with a virtual base being the target. Weapon systems, shields, doors, and turret AI systems would have physical counterparts which would need to be disabled by the hacker. The larger these systems are on the real ship, the more difficult it would be. Perhaps the virtual manifistation could be a modular base that is like a maze. You have to navigate through it to find the system you want to affect. The larger the mass of the ship, the larger the maze is. When you find the system you want to affect, the hacker holds down their right mouse button to initiate deactivation. The larger the system is, the longer it takes. Perhaps the virtual base could also be player designed, being docked segments that HAVE TO comply with certain rules (such as being a certain size, have a docking port on different edges and docking modules on the edges. It could be configured that players also start in a small fighter ship in this universe (which they cannot exit) and instead of right clicking on systems, they have to destroy them. More than one hacker can join this virtual world at a time, but when all hackers have left, it resets to it's default state.
Counter-Hacking:
To banish the hacker, a member of the ship being hacked plugs into the virtual world equipped with a weapon, and has to kill the hacker.
B. 2-D Asteroids Style
Hacking:
A 2-dimensional game opens up and a person is piloting a simple 2-d ship that shoots straight shots. They have to fly around and find the systems floating around. The larger the ship they are hacking, the more asteroids are around to impede their traveling and the farther apart the different ship systems are. There might also be somewhat dumb AI controlled ships flying around, working as the ship's natural self-defense system. Once the hacker finds the ship system they want, they have to destroy it.
Counter-Hacking:
A member of the ship being hacked enters the world with their own ship and a pointer directing them to where the hacker is.
C. A Simple Hacking Console
Hacking:
This would not be a mini-game at all. The hacker simply selects the system they want and starts the hack. The larger the ship is and vitality of the system, the longer it takes. For example, how long it takes to hack the doors would simply rely on the mass of the ship for the calculation. Shields would rely on the amount of shields, shield rechargers, AND mass - it should probably take longer than opening doors. Disabling turrets would rely on the number and mass of attached turrets, not taking into account the main ship size. Etc.
Counter-Hacking:
To counter hack, a member of the ship being hacked has to respond within a certain timeframe and initiate the counter hack. If they don't respond fast enough, however, there will be nothing they can do. Perhaps it could show an animated progress as it "searches for the hacker." When the hacker is found, they are booted from the system (and punished if a Feedback Computer is installed on the ship).
D. A memory game - One Example
Hacking:
A ship would have a certain amount of points necessary for each system to be disabled, calculated based on the strength of the system. For example, disabling shields may take 10,000 points on a particularly strong ship, 2,500 to open the doors, 6,000 for disabling turrets, etc. The hacker has to play a memory game, where they flip over different panels which have symbols on them. They have to match them up to other ones of the same type, getting points for each successful try. When they reach the number they need, options to hack the different systems open up.
Counter-Hacking:
The counter-hacker could initiate a counter-hack, which would "search for the hacker," (like the simple console hacking), but with a twist. They can change the order the panels are in to further twart the hacker, there perhaps being a cooldown time per change they make before they can make another change.
6. Charge-Up Modules - New! (Added 01-20-16)
I got this idea when responding to Kookster, regarding damage beams having a kind of DOT effect. His idea lead me to another idea, which he seemed to like! So I expanded on it a bit! The goal of these modules would be to give an advantage to PLAYERS who control the weapon system, but would not be used well by AI. They would be similar to overdrive modules, being a tertiary effect, but instead of doing flat bonus damage (by 2x) and increasing power usage (by 5x), they change the way the weapon needs to be used. If you hold the fire button down, it charges up. Depending on the type of weapon it is attached to, it either needs to be charged up BEFORE being fired or charges up AS you fire it. It would modify existing combos, such as missile/cannon, missile/damage beam, etc. requiring more or less time to charge up fully. AI would be unable to utilize the charge-up effect, except for damage beams. I'll detail below the effects for each weapon type:
A. Missiles:
Holding down the fire button will first use up the amount of power needed to fire the weapon, and then continuously use power as it charges up. When you release the fire button, a larger, faster moving missile screams through the sky. The damage, speed, and explosion effect are increased. (I highly recommend adding some sound effects as well, like a rumbling noise as it charges and a BOOM as it is launched.)
B. Damage Beam:
When firing the weapon, it creates an energy feedback loop for as long as it continues to hit the target (up to a maximum effect). The beam becomes larger, more powerful, and would need more energy to keep the beam stabilized. The higher the effect percentage, the greater the effect can be (but also longer to achieve it). It would use less power than an overdrive module to achieve the same damage bonus, but if you lose your target for even a few seconds, it loses that feedback charge. The natural counter for smaller ships would be to dodge these hits or if evading turrets, use a radarjammer or flare to disrupt the turret's aim.
C. Cannons:
These would work similarly to Missiles, except the speed, damage, and penetration of the projectile is changed. The projectile would not grow in size.
D. Damage Pulse:
These would do more damage, have a larger range, and would possibly gain a moderate push pulse type effect too.
E. Push Pulse:
These would have more push effect, have a larger range, and might also cause the enemy ship to lose a certain amount of thrust for a moment.
So, these additions to the game I think would require balancing, of course, but it would give pause to anybody who relies on brute force alone. It would encourage some pretty interesting fights. As always, thoughts and suggestions are welcome. Thank you for reading.
Edit: Added a fourth DOT weapon, the Turret Discombobulator, better explained the purpose of slow projectiles for DOT/status effect weapons, and added a new section for "Charge-Up Modules."
Edit: Expanded on hacking, giving some suggestions for mini-games, including some of the ideas suggested by other forum members, and added some more effects hacking might have.
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