How to add fighter role correctly.

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    Lets be honest here, as a consistent space adventurer my games library spans hundreds of space and space rts games. Sins, Space engineers, Star wars, you name it. I love space, I love Legos even more than space. Put them together and what do you get? Starmade of course.

    I can't help but notice that titan class ships seem to be the "Meta" these days. I want to point out that one man faction ships are completely wrong. I've decided to share my thoughts on this issue and offer suggestions to the developers at Starmade.

    Firstly, the shields.
    Now, im not being horse with the shields entirely. They're are well executed and the algorithms for such a feat are extremely well done. But, you've got it wrong. Here is my proposal: The shields should be a bubble around the ship, elongated to fit the x,y,and z coordinate of course. It won't be visible, or would it, your choice. But, its the same shield function, just a bubble, now here is the kicker. Energy weapons such as cannon or missile projectiles can puncture the shield after a while, this is pretty much the core mechanics at work still, nothing is changed except having a bubble around the ship. Now, lets say your having trouble taking down said shields. Well? Why not send out your fighters to breach the shields? I mean, physical objects ie debris and actual ships should be able to pass right along the shields. The fighters would then scurry across the hull shooting the ship apart while the turrets tried their best to hit the fast moving ships.

    Now, you may say in rebellion "But alk, that's not fair to the titan class ship I mean come on we're talking about..." Now hold on there, I didn't say the titan had zero reserve fighters? So in counter, the other fighters would be launched as the two capital ships keep bombarding each other.

    Just my thought, discuss.
     
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    I like this idea. Star trek fan too I assume?

    As long as the giant ships cant force their forward guns inside the shields (Causing collision lag) I think this would be pretty viable.
     
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    a server could be set so that shields are on a lower soft-cap. Diminishing returns for shield modules would permit fighter scale weapons to potentially damage a larger ship.

    A similar adjustment could be made to engines, meaning that fighters can outrun capital ships too (capital ships should not be able to accelerate as quickly as fighters).
     
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    I agree that we need a way to be more efficient with smaller crafts.
    Not a bad suggestion :)

    A similar adjustment could be made to engines, meaning that fighters can outrun capital ships too (capital ships should not be able to accelerate as quickly as fighters).
    After playing on a local server with max speed 2000km/t and 100km sectors, that problem is solved!
     
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    Lets be honest here, as a consistent space adventurer my games library spans hundreds of space and space rts games. Sins, Space engineers, Star wars, you name it. I love space, I love Legos even more than space. Put them together and what do you get? Starmade of course.

    I can't help but notice that titan class ships seem to be the "Meta" these days. I want to point out that one man faction ships are completely wrong. I've decided to share my thoughts on this issue and offer suggestions to the developers at Starmade.

    Firstly, the shields.
    Now, im not being horse with the shields entirely. They're are well executed and the algorithms for such a feat are extremely well done. But, you've got it wrong. Here is my proposal: The shields should be a bubble around the ship, elongated to fit the x,y,and z coordinate of course. It won't be visible, or would it, your choice. But, its the same shield function, just a bubble, now here is the kicker. Energy weapons such as cannon or missile projectiles can puncture the shield after a while, this is pretty much the core mechanics at work still, nothing is changed except having a bubble around the ship. Now, lets say your having trouble taking down said shields. Well? Why not send out your fighters to breach the shields? I mean, physical objects ie debris and actual ships should be able to pass right along the shields. The fighters would then scurry across the hull shooting the ship apart while the turrets tried their best to hit the fast moving ships.

    Now, you may say in rebellion "But alk, that's not fair to the titan class ship I mean come on we're talking about..." Now hold on there, I didn't say the titan had zero reserve fighters? So in counter, the other fighters would be launched as the two capital ships keep bombarding each other.

    Just my thought, discuss.
    Bubble shields were a thing once, but they were scrapped for performance reasons.
     
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    Mariux

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    Exactly as Mega said, bubble shields-not happening. It also allows anyone to destroy a titan ship that's not docked to a faction base with a tiny fighter.
     
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    After playing on a local server with max speed 2000km/t and 100km sectors, that problem is solved!
    That's just.... horrifying! How do you hit, well, ANYTHING? Forget fighters, I couldn't hit TITANS with a closing rate of 2,000 km/t. The AI can't have handled that gracefully either.
     
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    Another way to make small ships more better would be the increase shield capacity and decrease shield regeneration.
     
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    That's just.... horrifying! How do you hit, well, ANYTHING? Forget fighters, I couldn't hit TITANS with a closing rate of 2,000 km/t. The AI can't have handled that gracefully either.
    Works really well. Most crafts goes max 350 km/t which can take some time to achieve, you have to make specialized vessels to go max speed, which is not that easy.

    And pirates flies around 80-100 km/t.

    Just.. don't crash into anything, ok? :eek:
    Anyways, I can't really figure out if we are going slightly off topic?
     

    CyberTao

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    The biggest problem with anything that bypasses shields in any way becomes a problem when you consider undocked ships on servers while the owner is away for the 12-18 hours they need for their personal life.

    I also generally dislike the "Can go under shields" idea anyways, as it punishes ships that don't maximize on their dimensions. Things like antennae and risen bridges or even wings/fins would increase the bubble and cause more empty space under the shields. I think it'd be limiting.