Captain Trent here :D, 4 Year veteran and i Consider myself to be a Builder/Fighter.
Here today to talk about combat mechanics and strategic depth in Starmade!
So at the moment fighting pretty much happens as follows.
You target Ship X, All your turrets Fire at ship's X Center of Mass.
You shoot all of your main weapons at Ship X, They shoot back at you.
Whos ever shields drop first pretty much looses the fight.
So i propose a few new blocks be added :D
1: Optical Targeting lense(exactly what it sounds like, Just adds a Fancy reticule to help you with long distance combat)
And 2: Targeting Computer(Shows a prediction of where you will need to aim to hit a ship based on its current Velocity and distance based on the weapon you are currently using, Also Interacts with Bobby AI to increase its accuracy)
3: Targeting Computer Module, Increases the accuracy of the targeting computer.(and decreases the spread on Bobby AI)
Along with a new Turret Targeting and Grouping System.
Turret Grouping.
A System that allows players to group together turrets, Much like the way weapons can be grouped together, As to allow easier control over said turrets.(Having only to select 1 Target for 10 turrets, V/S Target the same thing 10 times for each individual turret), Additionally Each turret group will use the same targeting computer and modules.
Turret Targeting.
Allow Each turret group to Target a Specific Ship, And more so. a Specific SECTION of a ship.
This would be done by allowing the player to enter a "Buildmode" Around the ship they are currently targeting, For the sake of clarity lets call this Strategic Targeting Mode or... STM for short. Now During STM You are able to select a particular Turret group, and then "Tag" a location on the enemy ship for those turrets to fire at.
So lets just go through a quick Scenario, Your in combat with an enemy battleship, And you have just brought down an enemys shields, You then enter STM. To switch the focus of your turrets from their center of mass to their engines to quickly disable and cripple the ships Mobility.
Scanners.
I Also propose an interesting update for scanners, And that is, Scanning a ship while in STM(If the enemy's shields are down) will make the armor/hull of the enemy ship transparent., Allowing you to identify and target subsystems with ease.
Just me Theory crafting about the potential future of combat for Starmade :P, Thanks for reading and leave your opinions down below :D
*EDIT*
Just some more Theory Crating here.
But what if we Remove Global Armor HP and Structure HP completely? Along with some new changes to Armor blocks.
A Ship should be Disabled when its actually disabled. Not when the games HP system decides the ship is Disabled. IE, Destroying a ships Power generators to eliminate its ability to generate power and thus function. V/S hitting the ship enough untill the game says "lul your dead"
Hull BlockUnchanged)
================================
Light Armornew)(1400 EHP)
Block Health: 1000
Damage Reduction: 40%
Mass: 1.0
================================
Standard ArmorOld)(320 EHP) *Effective Hit points*
Block Health:200
Damage Reduction:60%
Mass: 0.15
Standard Armorupdated)(3200 EHP)
Block Health:2000
Damage Reduction:60%
Mass: 3.0
================================
Advanced ArmorOld)(435 EHP)
Block Health: 250
Damage Reduction: 75%
Mass: 0.25
Advanced ArmorUpdated)(8750 EHP)
Block Health: 5000
Damage Reduction: 75%
Mass: 6.0
================================
The purpose of this change is simple. To add meaning and intelligent design to the choice of where you place armor. Atm i feel like armor scales horribly with large ships, almost as though its not even there if you dont have incredibly thick layers of it.
With this update, 3 layers of Advanced armor, Would be Equivalent of having 60 layers of the old stuff, In both weight and protection.
Now you may be thinking "Omg thats such a huge buff to armor! that would make it overpowered!!!!". Now let me explain why its not overpowered and is actually Quite balanced.
1: We are simply increasing the density of armor which has a few perks to it.
1.1: It allows players to add meaningful protection to their ships vulnerable insides w/o placing an absurd amount of armor.(70 layers of armor may be nice, But it can look quite gross and is hard to make look pretty)
1.2: The weight of the armor was increased by the same amount of the HP(20x) Which means, that if something possess you to literally put this stuff everywhere your ship isint going to move unless you also increased the size of your engines by 20x. and have fun with that
1.3: To use armor effectively you have to put it where it matters, and sacrifice armor on unimportant parts of you ship.
Here today to talk about combat mechanics and strategic depth in Starmade!
So at the moment fighting pretty much happens as follows.
You target Ship X, All your turrets Fire at ship's X Center of Mass.
You shoot all of your main weapons at Ship X, They shoot back at you.
Whos ever shields drop first pretty much looses the fight.
So i propose a few new blocks be added :D
1: Optical Targeting lense(exactly what it sounds like, Just adds a Fancy reticule to help you with long distance combat)
And 2: Targeting Computer(Shows a prediction of where you will need to aim to hit a ship based on its current Velocity and distance based on the weapon you are currently using, Also Interacts with Bobby AI to increase its accuracy)
3: Targeting Computer Module, Increases the accuracy of the targeting computer.(and decreases the spread on Bobby AI)
Along with a new Turret Targeting and Grouping System.
Turret Grouping.
A System that allows players to group together turrets, Much like the way weapons can be grouped together, As to allow easier control over said turrets.(Having only to select 1 Target for 10 turrets, V/S Target the same thing 10 times for each individual turret), Additionally Each turret group will use the same targeting computer and modules.
Turret Targeting.
Allow Each turret group to Target a Specific Ship, And more so. a Specific SECTION of a ship.
This would be done by allowing the player to enter a "Buildmode" Around the ship they are currently targeting, For the sake of clarity lets call this Strategic Targeting Mode or... STM for short. Now During STM You are able to select a particular Turret group, and then "Tag" a location on the enemy ship for those turrets to fire at.
So lets just go through a quick Scenario, Your in combat with an enemy battleship, And you have just brought down an enemys shields, You then enter STM. To switch the focus of your turrets from their center of mass to their engines to quickly disable and cripple the ships Mobility.
Scanners.
I Also propose an interesting update for scanners, And that is, Scanning a ship while in STM(If the enemy's shields are down) will make the armor/hull of the enemy ship transparent., Allowing you to identify and target subsystems with ease.
Just me Theory crafting about the potential future of combat for Starmade :P, Thanks for reading and leave your opinions down below :D
*EDIT*
Just some more Theory Crating here.
But what if we Remove Global Armor HP and Structure HP completely? Along with some new changes to Armor blocks.
A Ship should be Disabled when its actually disabled. Not when the games HP system decides the ship is Disabled. IE, Destroying a ships Power generators to eliminate its ability to generate power and thus function. V/S hitting the ship enough untill the game says "lul your dead"
Hull Block
Unchanged)================================
Light Armor
new)(1400 EHP)Block Health: 1000
Damage Reduction: 40%
Mass: 1.0
================================
Standard Armor
Old)(320 EHP) *Effective Hit points* Block Health:200
Damage Reduction:60%
Mass: 0.15
Standard Armor
updated)(3200 EHP)Block Health:2000
Damage Reduction:60%
Mass: 3.0
================================
Advanced Armor
Old)(435 EHP)Block Health: 250
Damage Reduction: 75%
Mass: 0.25
Advanced Armor
Updated)(8750 EHP)Block Health: 5000
Damage Reduction: 75%
Mass: 6.0
================================
The purpose of this change is simple. To add meaning and intelligent design to the choice of where you place armor. Atm i feel like armor scales horribly with large ships, almost as though its not even there if you dont have incredibly thick layers of it.
With this update, 3 layers of Advanced armor, Would be Equivalent of having 60 layers of the old stuff, In both weight and protection.
Now you may be thinking "Omg thats such a huge buff to armor! that would make it overpowered!!!!". Now let me explain why its not overpowered and is actually Quite balanced.
1: We are simply increasing the density of armor which has a few perks to it.
1.1: It allows players to add meaningful protection to their ships vulnerable insides w/o placing an absurd amount of armor.(70 layers of armor may be nice, But it can look quite gross and is hard to make look pretty)
1.2: The weight of the armor was increased by the same amount of the HP(20x) Which means, that if something possess you to literally put this stuff everywhere your ship isint going to move unless you also increased the size of your engines by 20x. and have fun with that
1.3: To use armor effectively you have to put it where it matters, and sacrifice armor on unimportant parts of you ship.
Last edited by a moderator:
