Increase Torch power, disable block placement during boarding attempt

[Winterhome]

Blocks have enough HP that it takes a few minutes for the current Torch to break through one block of Advanced Armor. It takes a very long time to even get through squishy systems.

I recommend kicking up the Torch cutting power to 5 damage per hit, rather than 1 damage per hit. It'll make boarding heavily armored ships a massive pain in the ass, but at least it'll be possible that way. Right now you're not about to be able to board any ships that aren't basically just newb bricks.

I also recommend disabling placing blocks while you're in combat, or disabling placing blocks while you're being boarded.

Right now, all you have to do to stop a boarder is literally just put a few blocks of advanced armor in front of them, and that alone will delay them for a good ten minutes or so.

 

[Mariux]

Blocks have enough HP that it takes a few minutes for the current Torch to break through one block of Advanced Armor. It takes a very long time to even get through squishy systems.

I recommend kicking up the Torch cutting power to 5 damage per hit, rather than 1 damage per hit. It'll make boarding heavily armored ships a massive pain in the ass, but at least it'll be possible that way. Right now you're not about to be able to board any ships that aren't basically just newb bricks.

I also recommend disabling placing blocks while you're in combat, or disabling placing blocks while you're being boarded.

Right now, all you have to do to stop a boarder is literally just put a few blocks of advanced armor in front of them, and that alone will delay them for a good ten minutes or so.

+0.5

I only agree with the second part. Why? Because a complete newb alsmost borded me using a newb brick ship to catch up to me (luckily I had a fighter to squish that little bugger). He was able to cut through the hull in a surprisingly short period of time and actually did 2 damage for some reason (idk might be just be seeing things)

 

[Valiant70]

Blocks have enough HP that it takes a few minutes for the current Torch to break through one block of Advanced Armor. It takes a very long time to even get through squishy systems.

I recommend kicking up the Torch cutting power to 5 damage per hit, rather than 1 damage per hit. It'll make boarding heavily armored ships a massive pain in the ass, but at least it'll be possible that way. Right now you're not about to be able to board any ships that aren't basically just newb bricks.

I also recommend disabling placing blocks while you're in combat, or disabling placing blocks while you're being boarded.

Right now, all you have to do to stop a boarder is literally just put a few blocks of advanced armor in front of them, and that alone will delay them for a good ten minutes or so.

Torch damage is sufficient as it is, and IIRC the update video says it does 2 damage, not 1.

Disabling block placement when boarders are aligned is a good idea, but it is only a partial solution.

There would remain two critical problems with boarding:

1. Damage pulse.
2. Blocking hallways with advanced armor before going into battle.

Solving the damage pulse issue is easy - don't let it damage astronauts who are aligned to a ship that is part of the same docking chain as the one firing the pulse. It's not damaging the stuff in the docking chain, so it shouldn't damage people inside of it.

The out-of-battle hallways blocking is a more awkward issue. You can even do things like 1x1 tunnels that require (faction-locked) sideways gravity to get through. Point in all is, there are lots of exploits to keep players out of your ship. I currently do not have any ideas to prevent this sort of exploit.

 

[Pacific_Jim]

I have a solution to that. Let Astronauts choose their alignment angle. I kind of wish we had that feature already.

 

[Winterhome]

Torch damage is sufficient as it is, and IIRC the update video says it does 2 damage, not 1.

That doesn't hold up in practice.
It deals one point of damage per shot. I don't know the firerate exactly.

As for Mariux's issue: Were you using a very small ship with basic hull? Because it takes bloody forever to break through standard or advanced armor.

 

[Valiant70]

I have a solution to that. Let Astronauts choose their alignment angle. I kind of wish we had that feature already.

That doesn't fix people totally blocking all the halls with advanced armor before a battle.

 

[Winterhome]

That doesn't fix people totally blocking all the halls with advanced armor before a battle.

I imagine the Shipyard update can do that, but I'm not really sure how to handle it in the meantime.

 

[Valiant70]

I imagine the Shipyard update can do that, but I'm not really sure how to handle it in the meantime.

That takes out build mode, but people can still place blocks by hand. The only solution I can see is requiring hand-placed blocks to be welded in place slowly, taking about as long as it would to break it with a torch. Needless to say, that is not a desirable solution, although it would keep people from filling hallways with advanced armor.

 

[Pacific_Jim]

That doesn't fix people totally blocking all the halls with advanced armor before a battle.

True, I was suggesting a fix for one specific problem. As it stands right now, boarding isn't really practical.

 

[friendofvampires]

True, I was suggesting a fix for one specific problem. As it stands right now, boarding isn't really practical.

It is actually in a very specific scenario, namely stealth attacks. you and your buddy pop up on an enemy in a permacloak, and you slip in and murder the person undetected. With the astronaut marker its more for semi-RP servers who have that off

 

[Winterhome]

It is actually in a very specific scenario, namely stealth attacks. you and your buddy pop up on an enemy in a permacloak, and you slip in and murder the person undetected. With the astronaut marker its more for semi-RP servers who have that off

You're never undetected or stealthy when you're using a torch. The game notifies you when you're being hit with a torch.

 

[friendofvampires]

You're never undetected or stealthy when you're using a torch. The game notifies you when you're being hit with a torch.

on the core or on any block? the core is fine

 

[0Samuel0]

If the people creating ships find ingenious ways to stop boarders using the current system, than there is no reason to think that boarders cannot find ingenious ways to get around these strategies. Although I do feel that perhaps they should make it so that gravity systems are not faction locked.

 

[Winterhome]

on the core or on any block? the core is fine

Any block.

 

[friendofvampires]

Any block.

oh, well that's stupid >.>
it should just be the core block

 

[TheOmega]

Hey Az, put 3 or 4 torches in your hotbar next to each other, then hit E.G. 123123123123123123 a lot and it goes very quickly. Or fill the entire bar with torches and use the scrollwheel. It only does 1 damage because armor percentages, I think.

 

[Winterhome]

Hey Az, put 3 or 4 torches in your hotbar next to each other, then hit E.G. 123123123123123123 a lot and it goes very quickly. Or fill the entire bar with torches and use the scrollwheel. It only does 1 damage because armor percentages, I think.

Torches totally ignore armor values of any sort. It's 1 damage per tick no matter what.

Also, that seems a little exploity.

 

[TheOmega]

Meh, I usually make a flechette cannon on my hotbar out of sniper rifles anyway.

 

[Visitor]

I doubt that using equipment in salvos from quickbar was intended behavior. I'd rather see it balanced (cooldown time on every item of the same type in the inventory after using the last one?) and then, have the torch/corridor covering issue addressed, To be honest though, given how many ships of all sizes still don't really make any interior worth speaking of, the boarding feature still has some development required before it'll be fully useful. Maybe one day, once ships will require crews requiring quarters etc it'll be better.

 

[bigmonmulgrew]

I have a solution to that. Let Astronauts choose their alignment angle. I kind of wish we had that feature already.

So basically give astronaughts magnetic boots