- Joined
- Mar 30, 2013
- Messages
- 24
- Reaction score
- 0
Hai schema (and forumgoers)
I brainstormed a bit after seeing discussions in chat. I came up with some ideas that would make weapons more flavorful and fun to play with, and would allow server owners to deal with balance on an individual basis.
The first thing you need to do is treat damage types identically, if you don't already. Add an EMP damage type, that deals nothing to blocks, but percentile damage to shields. Add a shield-piercing damage type that ignores shields and deals damage directly to blocks. Also add beams as a weapon. You'll see what I mean in a minute.
With the rather excellent block editing interface that you already gave us, allow users to easily create blocks and define them as a weapon. Weapon blocks are named and textured on an individual basis of course, and will require separate block IDs (perhaps set aside an arbitrary ID range for weapon blocks, like 2000+).
Modders will assign to each weapon block a projectile type and a damage type. Projectile types would pretty much break down as projectile (what AMCs are now), beam (like salvagers), pulse beam (beam that blinks on and off), and the 3 missile types. Damage types would be explosive (like the current missiles), kinetic (what AMCs do), and EMP (%damage to shields, nothing to blocks).
Once these are selected, allow modders to choose an algorithm for how the weapon scales with block size - box dimensions, single dimension, two dimensions, block count, etc. Allow the modders to define if and where diminishing returns occur for applicable stats, setting their own values wherever reasonable. Don't worry about people making horribly broken weapons - allow them to. Serious servers will only use balanced itemsets.
So in the end, what this does is create a system where modders can exercise a fair bit of creativity in what weapons they want. You could have a shield-draining EMP beam, or an heat-seeking EMP missile. You could have weapons that act like AMCs, but have projectiles that explode on impact. You could have dumbfire missiles that impact instead of exploding. And the actual balance damage-wise is done by the modders. Servers can select itemsets that they feel are balanced, modders can collaborate, and most importantly schema, you don't have to worry about weapon balance. We'll have a ton more flavor for weapons (AMCs and missiles that are too slow to hit anything are getting a bit dull), people can tune things to their own likes, and it'll just be better overall.
I brainstormed a bit after seeing discussions in chat. I came up with some ideas that would make weapons more flavorful and fun to play with, and would allow server owners to deal with balance on an individual basis.
The first thing you need to do is treat damage types identically, if you don't already. Add an EMP damage type, that deals nothing to blocks, but percentile damage to shields. Add a shield-piercing damage type that ignores shields and deals damage directly to blocks. Also add beams as a weapon. You'll see what I mean in a minute.
With the rather excellent block editing interface that you already gave us, allow users to easily create blocks and define them as a weapon. Weapon blocks are named and textured on an individual basis of course, and will require separate block IDs (perhaps set aside an arbitrary ID range for weapon blocks, like 2000+).
Modders will assign to each weapon block a projectile type and a damage type. Projectile types would pretty much break down as projectile (what AMCs are now), beam (like salvagers), pulse beam (beam that blinks on and off), and the 3 missile types. Damage types would be explosive (like the current missiles), kinetic (what AMCs do), and EMP (%damage to shields, nothing to blocks).
Once these are selected, allow modders to choose an algorithm for how the weapon scales with block size - box dimensions, single dimension, two dimensions, block count, etc. Allow the modders to define if and where diminishing returns occur for applicable stats, setting their own values wherever reasonable. Don't worry about people making horribly broken weapons - allow them to. Serious servers will only use balanced itemsets.
So in the end, what this does is create a system where modders can exercise a fair bit of creativity in what weapons they want. You could have a shield-draining EMP beam, or an heat-seeking EMP missile. You could have weapons that act like AMCs, but have projectiles that explode on impact. You could have dumbfire missiles that impact instead of exploding. And the actual balance damage-wise is done by the modders. Servers can select itemsets that they feel are balanced, modders can collaborate, and most importantly schema, you don't have to worry about weapon balance. We'll have a ton more flavor for weapons (AMCs and missiles that are too slow to hit anything are getting a bit dull), people can tune things to their own likes, and it'll just be better overall.