Okay, someone is going to scream at me for this (an AMC thread)

[NullForceOmega]

Good day StarMade captains, today's useless thought from me is on a subject we all love to hate, AMC mechanics.

First off, I am vehemently opposed to shotgun arrays and waffleboards, I feel they add nothing to the game but aggravation and massive lag. So, my suggestion for a change to AMCs? Nothing. The AMC as a system works fine, the problem is massive lag-inducing, point-blank, dumb as a stone multi-weapon arrays. The fix? Limit the maximum NUMBER of weapons groups linked to a single computer, for a suggestion 20-50 max (I like 20, but considerations for others should be a priority). To be clear I only want this change on weapons computers, not support computers such as repair beams and salvage beams, the intent is to limit (perhaps in a server-configurable fashion) the total number of weapons a human player can discharge simultaneously (special bonus, turrets run by BOBBYs are unaffected, just add more comps).

I would actually love to hear your various thoughts, questions, gripes, and death threats.

 

[D3matt]

Does it matter if you fire 50 shots once per second, or 1 shot 50 times per second?

The idea behind it is that turrets seem utterly incapable of hitting targets with anything less than a huge number of weapons groups.

 

[MrFURB]

SCREEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!

Okay, now to the discussion! I feel that your current \'limit\' idea is actually already a part of the game, although it is a soft limit instead of a hard one. This means that you still CAN have \'waffleboards\' (love that word, by the way) but they aren\'t as efficient as otherwise finding the right balance between quantity and quality.

The current machanics increase the power consumption of AMCs by 10% for each additional group you have, so if you made a big waffleboard with 100 different cannons, you\'d be using 10 times the normal energy to fire.

I\'m not for hard limitations on... Well, anything really. In my mind they just don\'t fit with Starmade. My thoughts lie more along the \'If you want to do that, go for it, but be aware of the consequences\' line.

 

[NullForceOmega]

First, D3matt: The point is that the core system of StarMade is Java, a virtual machine that appropriates some of your computer\'s processing cycles and memory to run itself in a contained environment. When you fire 50 shots in a one second burn, it calculates them individually, when you fire 50 shots in one single depression of the trigger, it has to try to calculate all 50 at once, this leads to lag as the virtual machine appropriates more processing cycles (and memory, sometimes crashing java) for the calculations.

MrFURB, nice to hear from a long time captain: While Schema has introduced a \'soft-cap\' by amplifiying the amount of power used per weapon group with the latest series of patches, the large-scale lag factor is still present and WILL continue to plague servers both public and private until some form of heavier limiting takes place. My WIP 2.5 million block mega-ship has only 12 weapons groups, it can core anything I have aimed it at from nearly 2 sectors away in 2-5 seconds, it causes almost no lag. While it is perfectly fine to say \'live with the consequences\' I can see no reason to remove limiting the number of weapons per comp as an option, I certainly do not advocate a \'hard-coded\' adjustment in this case. Were I running a server, it would be of some comfort to me to know that I could minimize the chances that the server might be brought down by one player\'s actions (admittedly, players, especially dedicated griefers, are an imaginative lot and could find other ways to give me a hard time).

Time for more screaming, if you please.

 

[BeefBacon]

Hard limits limit the creativity of those who play the game. If people want to have shotgun arrays then so be it.Soft limits can and should be implemented, however. A post before me mentioned that each new array adds 10% more power consumption, and that sounds good to me. Maybe that could be a changeable option for servers to allow for fewer or more arrays on ships according to preference.

I also disagree that the AMC system is fine. It isn\'t. I\'ve always been an advocate for the removal of the focus firing system that AMCs use. If you right click to fire, it fires in the way that I think should be the only way these weapons fire, rather than having all the projectiles converge on a single block. Core drilling is horrible. There are many reforms to combat that need to me made, but that\'s for another post.

 

[Izikiel]

I agree, the current mechanics are good, (and a cap could be introduced for lag purposes, I guess), but no changes? It gets annoying to have to fire a shot to take out every single block just to get to the core. Those massive cruisers, for example, usually have room to move around inside, but what if they were completely filled? Even with a mega AMC, you would have to fire hundreds of shots, and that is just if the enemy is sitting still! So at least a little penetration per shot would be nice (it coud increase with the number of blocks). So just one change would pretty much perfect the system.

I mean, seriously, compare an artillary shell with a rifle round. The bullet would go through maybe one wall, depending on the caliber, while the shell could pierce the whole building (and go through any that are next to it). The most obvious difference? The size of the gun. So why would a gun with thousands of blocks only take out one block of the enemy ship?



EDIT: I found a thread after this one. This is precisely what I am talking about. http://star-made.org/content/my-take-new-amc-system?page=1#comment-75894

 

[The Last Baron]

The simple solution here is to remove AMCs and replace them with railgunhalomacguns. Also remove all non-halo player ships \'cuz reasons.

I honestly like the idea, as a public server admin I have to delete waffleboard battlecubes pretty frequently.