I was reading some excellent threads on this forum about organizing personal items and personal defense. However, when I thought about it a bit more, my mind drifted to a revolutionary system added in another game I'd been following. The core of the idea was that, instead of having a dedicated content team that would hardcode preset items into the game, the players would create their own items and weapons for use. Depending on the size, shape, and module types used, the items would scale in attributes: power, range, etc.
Because StarMade is a game based on building things, I thought it would mesh well with the system used for designing ships, albeit on a much smaller scale. I've included a picture of the item editor I mentioned earlier:
I think this system would hit two birds with one stone. The first: schema would not have to design a host of different weaponry and armor to satisfy the playerbase. As this system would be based around player design, the items would be designed by the end-users. Thus, schema would only have to focus on implementing an in-game editor to create items and balance the modules in a way similar to ship construction. The second, players would be inject these items with all sorts of creativity. You could have a blueprint subregistry for item blueprints that would help with establishing lore for RPGers and allow for independent item balancing by server admins.
Furthermore, as for implementation, I believe these items would be best added if they required a factory to aquire. That is, a player would have to design the item, acquire the resources, buy a blueprint, and manufacture the item in a factory to be able to use it. A palette of standardized items could be retained, however, for players who are just starting out (i.e. mining laser, standard pistol, generic space suit).
I did a search on these forums for similar systems, and, while I did find the threads relating to personal defense, I didn't see many referring to player-created items...and so I am interested to hear what others think...
So, without further ado, here is a preliminary list of examples for how I think this system could be implemented...
1) Firearm Item Modules (Long-gun and Handgun Categories): Used in the creation of both pistols and long guns (rifles, blunderbusses, explosive launchers), these modules can be tweaked with the trigger module just like ship weapon/missile computers (range, rate of fire, damage, choke/radius).
a) Trigger Module - similar to ship weapons computer; bind trigger to barrel. Want a double-barrelled gun? Two triggers with one barrel each! Want a gun with stun/kill? Assign multiple barrels to one trigger and flip between them!
b) Scope Module - magnification increases per module; sight-in mechanic defaults to scope-view. Smaller scope would act like low-power, aimpoint optics. Larger scope would act like a long-distance scope. Time to bring up the scope and sight-in target would be increased with larger scopes.
c) Magazine Module - on projectile/energy weapons, it increases the amount of ammunition between reloads per item module. Larger magazines allow for longer sustained fire, but would also take much more time to reload
d) Barrel - used for standard projectile/energy/plasma weapons. Rate of fire, choke, damage, and range would be adjusted in the trigger module. Generally moderate rate of fire, no radius of damage/expanding-with-range radius of damage (shotgun), constant damage/decreasing-with-range damage (shotgun)
e) Launcher Tube - used for grenade/explosive launchers. Attributes alterable in the trigger. Generally slow rate of fire, constant radius of damage, high-mass (encumbering).
f) Taser Module - used to immobilize/paralyze players for a short while. Depending on affected player's equipment, this duration may be shorter than normal. For the user, it would be one-shot (like ship missiles) before requiring a long reload.
g) Mini-Salvager - used to mine/salvage minerals and equipment similar to the ship-sized beam. More modules would decrease the mining time but increase the rate of drain on the personal battery.
2) Armor Modules (Body, Feet, Hands, Head, Utility Backpack Categories): These modules would be applied to the primary armor categories (body, head, utility backpack, boots, gloves) and would increase the players personal survivability at the cost of player speed. Depending on the armor plating, the armor mass may increase by a large amount, or by a little amount. This can drastically change player movement so that armor design becomes an issue of mobility vs. protection.
a) Energized Plate - provides good resistance to enemy gunfire. Little resistance to enemy melee. Increases player mass by a large amount. Players wearing large amounts of energized plate should be prepared to move slowly and soak up gunfire.
b) Low-velocity Polymer Plate - provides good resistance to enemy melee. Little resistance to enemy gunfire. Players wearing large amounts of polymer plate should be prepared to move slightly faster than their gunfire-soaking buddies at the cost of surviving enemy gunfire. NOTE: many players might opt for a good all-around suit that incorporates a little of the energized plate and the polymer plate, giving them moderate resistance to both types of attack.
c) Personal Shield Modules- provides immunity to both melee and ranged attack but requires shield modules and a good source of suit power (via batteries/energy packs).
3) Explosives Modules (Explosives Category): these items would provide a larger punch for players. Explosives would find use in ship sabotage (lining ship reactor with explosives, blowing through a faction-protected, locked PlexDoor) as well as player-to-player combat (small, throwable explosives). As the number of explosive modules per item is increased, the throwable range drops rapidly to zero until, at large enough sizes, the explosives can only be dropped. To simplify the physics of explosive modules, when thrown, they may travel a straight path. Also, certain types of explosives could be used for salvaging and mining. This would help with creating playerbases and carving out mineshafts on mineral-rich planets.
a) Thermal Explosive (Mini Dis-integrator) - provides the explosive power. More explosive modules increase the explosive radius, damage, and mass (player encumbrance) but decrease the range the explosive can be thrown to zero quickly. Thus, extremely large explosive items cannot even be thrown and will significantly weigh down the carrier while providing a large punch for taking out doors and ship/station subsystems.
b) Radio Trigger Module - required to remote-detonate the explosive. Communication frequency is set just prior to explosive placement and a remote detonator must be tuned to this frequency to trigger the explosive. Useful for remote-detonated 'grenades' in player-to-player combat. NOTE: if defending players realize an explosive has been set, they can attempt to use the disarm command on their own detonator within range of the explosive to deativate it. However, they would need to tune to the correct frequency...
c) Timer Module - alternative to remote detonation, player will set this parameter before placing the explosive. It will count down and trigger the explosive at timer = 0. If another player encounters the explosive before it goes off, they can attempt to disarm it. This would be a useful module for anti-personnel explosives like 'grenades' that would detonate on a timer after being thrown.
d) Manual Trigger - for all the crazies out there, this would be a last resort...
e) Mining Charge - works just like the thermal charge but converts all destroyed blocks into items that float at the former site of the explosive for collection. For balancing, there would be a chance to destroy items when this is used.
4) Melee Item Modules:
a) Impact Surface Module (I write this because then it wouldn't necessarily have to be called a blade or a bludgeon) - chaining together would increase range (but not necessarily damage). Longer impact surfaces would also decrease the speed with which attacks and parries can be made.
b) Handle/Hilt - where the player holds the item. Similar to a trigger in the firearm, impact surfaces would be bound to the handle, which would always be oriented at the center of the item (like a ship core and so that item rendering in a player's hand doesn't look strange).
5) Cybernetics: Includes internal items such as intradermal slow-release drugs, regulators, and implants. These items may find themselves equipped to the player internally, to be destroyed upon player death. Larger, more complex implants would be very expensive to acquire and alter a player's natural statistics by a greater amount. Simply, cybernetics would add to some of a player's attributes and take away from a player's other attributes equally. This would allow some players to tweak their performance based on the implant they were using. This would also allow RPGers to create their own drug labs and biomedical complexes where they manufacture medicinals and implants (and RP as creepy doctors).
a) Adrenaline Pump: instantly spike a player's speed and temporarily increase player health for duration based on number of modules when player health dips below 30%. After duration when temp. health removed, if player health
Because StarMade is a game based on building things, I thought it would mesh well with the system used for designing ships, albeit on a much smaller scale. I've included a picture of the item editor I mentioned earlier:
I think this system would hit two birds with one stone. The first: schema would not have to design a host of different weaponry and armor to satisfy the playerbase. As this system would be based around player design, the items would be designed by the end-users. Thus, schema would only have to focus on implementing an in-game editor to create items and balance the modules in a way similar to ship construction. The second, players would be inject these items with all sorts of creativity. You could have a blueprint subregistry for item blueprints that would help with establishing lore for RPGers and allow for independent item balancing by server admins.
Furthermore, as for implementation, I believe these items would be best added if they required a factory to aquire. That is, a player would have to design the item, acquire the resources, buy a blueprint, and manufacture the item in a factory to be able to use it. A palette of standardized items could be retained, however, for players who are just starting out (i.e. mining laser, standard pistol, generic space suit).
I did a search on these forums for similar systems, and, while I did find the threads relating to personal defense, I didn't see many referring to player-created items...and so I am interested to hear what others think...
So, without further ado, here is a preliminary list of examples for how I think this system could be implemented...
1) Firearm Item Modules (Long-gun and Handgun Categories): Used in the creation of both pistols and long guns (rifles, blunderbusses, explosive launchers), these modules can be tweaked with the trigger module just like ship weapon/missile computers (range, rate of fire, damage, choke/radius).
a) Trigger Module - similar to ship weapons computer; bind trigger to barrel. Want a double-barrelled gun? Two triggers with one barrel each! Want a gun with stun/kill? Assign multiple barrels to one trigger and flip between them!
b) Scope Module - magnification increases per module; sight-in mechanic defaults to scope-view. Smaller scope would act like low-power, aimpoint optics. Larger scope would act like a long-distance scope. Time to bring up the scope and sight-in target would be increased with larger scopes.
c) Magazine Module - on projectile/energy weapons, it increases the amount of ammunition between reloads per item module. Larger magazines allow for longer sustained fire, but would also take much more time to reload
d) Barrel - used for standard projectile/energy/plasma weapons. Rate of fire, choke, damage, and range would be adjusted in the trigger module. Generally moderate rate of fire, no radius of damage/expanding-with-range radius of damage (shotgun), constant damage/decreasing-with-range damage (shotgun)
e) Launcher Tube - used for grenade/explosive launchers. Attributes alterable in the trigger. Generally slow rate of fire, constant radius of damage, high-mass (encumbering).
f) Taser Module - used to immobilize/paralyze players for a short while. Depending on affected player's equipment, this duration may be shorter than normal. For the user, it would be one-shot (like ship missiles) before requiring a long reload.
g) Mini-Salvager - used to mine/salvage minerals and equipment similar to the ship-sized beam. More modules would decrease the mining time but increase the rate of drain on the personal battery.
2) Armor Modules (Body, Feet, Hands, Head, Utility Backpack Categories): These modules would be applied to the primary armor categories (body, head, utility backpack, boots, gloves) and would increase the players personal survivability at the cost of player speed. Depending on the armor plating, the armor mass may increase by a large amount, or by a little amount. This can drastically change player movement so that armor design becomes an issue of mobility vs. protection.
a) Energized Plate - provides good resistance to enemy gunfire. Little resistance to enemy melee. Increases player mass by a large amount. Players wearing large amounts of energized plate should be prepared to move slowly and soak up gunfire.
b) Low-velocity Polymer Plate - provides good resistance to enemy melee. Little resistance to enemy gunfire. Players wearing large amounts of polymer plate should be prepared to move slightly faster than their gunfire-soaking buddies at the cost of surviving enemy gunfire. NOTE: many players might opt for a good all-around suit that incorporates a little of the energized plate and the polymer plate, giving them moderate resistance to both types of attack.
c) Personal Shield Modules- provides immunity to both melee and ranged attack but requires shield modules and a good source of suit power (via batteries/energy packs).
3) Explosives Modules (Explosives Category): these items would provide a larger punch for players. Explosives would find use in ship sabotage (lining ship reactor with explosives, blowing through a faction-protected, locked PlexDoor) as well as player-to-player combat (small, throwable explosives). As the number of explosive modules per item is increased, the throwable range drops rapidly to zero until, at large enough sizes, the explosives can only be dropped. To simplify the physics of explosive modules, when thrown, they may travel a straight path. Also, certain types of explosives could be used for salvaging and mining. This would help with creating playerbases and carving out mineshafts on mineral-rich planets.
a) Thermal Explosive (Mini Dis-integrator) - provides the explosive power. More explosive modules increase the explosive radius, damage, and mass (player encumbrance) but decrease the range the explosive can be thrown to zero quickly. Thus, extremely large explosive items cannot even be thrown and will significantly weigh down the carrier while providing a large punch for taking out doors and ship/station subsystems.
b) Radio Trigger Module - required to remote-detonate the explosive. Communication frequency is set just prior to explosive placement and a remote detonator must be tuned to this frequency to trigger the explosive. Useful for remote-detonated 'grenades' in player-to-player combat. NOTE: if defending players realize an explosive has been set, they can attempt to use the disarm command on their own detonator within range of the explosive to deativate it. However, they would need to tune to the correct frequency...
c) Timer Module - alternative to remote detonation, player will set this parameter before placing the explosive. It will count down and trigger the explosive at timer = 0. If another player encounters the explosive before it goes off, they can attempt to disarm it. This would be a useful module for anti-personnel explosives like 'grenades' that would detonate on a timer after being thrown.
d) Manual Trigger - for all the crazies out there, this would be a last resort...
e) Mining Charge - works just like the thermal charge but converts all destroyed blocks into items that float at the former site of the explosive for collection. For balancing, there would be a chance to destroy items when this is used.
4) Melee Item Modules:
a) Impact Surface Module (I write this because then it wouldn't necessarily have to be called a blade or a bludgeon) - chaining together would increase range (but not necessarily damage). Longer impact surfaces would also decrease the speed with which attacks and parries can be made.
b) Handle/Hilt - where the player holds the item. Similar to a trigger in the firearm, impact surfaces would be bound to the handle, which would always be oriented at the center of the item (like a ship core and so that item rendering in a player's hand doesn't look strange).
5) Cybernetics: Includes internal items such as intradermal slow-release drugs, regulators, and implants. These items may find themselves equipped to the player internally, to be destroyed upon player death. Larger, more complex implants would be very expensive to acquire and alter a player's natural statistics by a greater amount. Simply, cybernetics would add to some of a player's attributes and take away from a player's other attributes equally. This would allow some players to tweak their performance based on the implant they were using. This would also allow RPGers to create their own drug labs and biomedical complexes where they manufacture medicinals and implants (and RP as creepy doctors).
a) Adrenaline Pump: instantly spike a player's speed and temporarily increase player health for duration based on number of modules when player health dips below 30%. After duration when temp. health removed, if player health
