Planets cant be damaged from space.

[Daniel L.]

If real ships can burn up in Atmo, Maybe cannons and missiles should be destroyed upon impact with an atmosphere. And beams should be reduced in damage.

It should hopefully reduce flyby griefing, And make it require getting in point blank range to destroy a planet easily exposing the ship to heavy fire.

 

[starhaiden]

I suggest something different. After the flora update is complete I think schine should develop some sort of atmosphere for planets. With the atmosphere I suggest that the lower the percentage of gases that cause global warming the higher % of damage reduction from the atmosphere and the higher the amount of those gases the lower the damage reduction.

 

[Parameter]

I agree. Thick atmosphere should attenuate beams, slow down and eventually fizzle out cannon fire, and burn up fast moving rockets, at least from small craft.

In real life, it would require exorbitantly huge space weapons systems or very massive projectiles to visit destruction on a planetary surface. Look at earth. Large meteors burn up impressively in the atmosphere, and even large asteroids only dent the crust and stir up tremendous dust clouds.

Starmade isn't real life, it's a sandbox game that emulates science fiction. So, I would expect it would sacrifice realism for enjoyable gameplay. I think it would be nice if it took weapons of a certain minimum size to reliably pierce the atmosphere and damage the planet. Weapons in the atmosphere might even do full damage to the planet with no attenuation. That wouldn't be realistic, but could introduce a fun trade-off. Small ships could enter the atmosphere and attack up close, but with damage capped by their size. Large ships likely couldn't maneuver in atmosphere, but would have some amount of stand-off damage they could apply to the planet if need be.

Planets with no atmosphere could be attacked with impunity from space. There IS a reason planet's with no atmosphere look barren, after all. Craters suit them.

 

[killerdude8]

I have no excuse for lasers and the like, but bullets are extremely aerodynamic, designed to fly through an atmosphere at extreme speeds. Ships are not so aerodynamic and also have to slow down enough to stop the people inside from dying, or other fragile cargo from being destroyed. Space rocks, Well, are space rocks, They're about as aerodynamic as an elephant.

Its an interesting idea, But I'd wait to see where planets go in development first.

 

[Dire Venom]

Great idea!
Bear in mind that cannons fire anti-matter though, Im not sure anyone knows how aerodynamic it is.....

 

[thereaverofdarkness]

I like the OP's idea. It can provide a cheap defense to get started, giving someone more time to build a real defense.

 

[Daniel L.]

Great idea!
Bear in mind that cannons fire anti-matter though, Im not sure anyone knows how aerodynamic it is.....

Antimatter is 100% volatile it would completely explode on contact with the atmosphere so cannons are out.

 

[Rixxan]

But there should be some way of orbital bombardment, but yes atmospheres should hamper ship-borne weapon systems outside the atmosphere, but ships inside the atmosphere are fine. Plus, I don't know if we still use antimatter or if it's a kinetic energy weapon. AMC's aren't the name anymore, but what's the ammo?