Release notes for the DEV build?

[Bannta]

question...where does starmade put the DEV build release notes at now?

thanks

 

[therimmer96]

they dont.

 

[Nebulon-B_Frigate_FTW]

You must be thinking of prerelease builds, which are more stable than dev builds. I don't think the dev builds have ever had release notes.

 

[Bannta]

You must be thinking of prerelease builds, which are more stable than dev builds. I don't think the dev builds have ever had release notes.

apples oranges...yes, prerelease builds notes.

 

[Ithirahad]

I kinda wish they did, though, so I actually know what to test...

 

[fire219]

The major things are dodecahedron planets the new weapon system, and significant performance increases.

 

[schema]

the current dev build is a pure test, and it will most likely crash.

The weapon system is about 90% done.

Basically every configuration value has been exposed to make balancing possible. the config is in data/config/blockBehavior.xml

you can change everything from shield recharge to what weapon combinations do.

Also effects are now a thing, so additional to a combination of the main weapons you can also add an effect to it. I'll write a longer article about it when I finished some clean-up and initial bugtesting.

 

[schema]

A little more info:

Systems are now categorised in main (weapon systems), support (salvage, etc), and effect (new type with new blocks).

support and main can be hooked up to main systems. so you can hook up a cannon to a cannon/missile/etc, and you can hook up a salvage beam to a main.
Effects can be hooked up to mains additionally.

hoocking up a main to a main or a support will affect the output style: e.g. cannon+cannon = machine gun. the ratio of the blocks connected will affect the buff/debuff of what that weapon gains from the combination. For example a machine gut shoots faster but does less damage per shot. if you only connect a cannon that has half the blocks to another, you get a weapon that shoots 1/2 of the effect you'd get for 1:1, but you also do more damage/shot. the dps will always be the same. For beams you can shoot multiple beams at once in a cone shape for example, and you can do that with all beam weapons you have a combination for.

Effects modify the style of damage: there is anything from more block damage, more shield damage, and explosive damage, to push effect (shoot at the enemy will push him back), pull, and a stop effect. so basically with this update a tractor beam and a push beam are included.

As said all values are now inside a config and can be changed at will. in further builds that config will also be distributed to clients in multiplayer like the basic blockConfig.xml

I even plan to make those configs region/sector based. so an admin can load in configs. This can be used for the quest system, and the sandbox (e.g. in a nebular, make weapons cut their range by half), but also for minigames that just apply to one sector

 

[schema]

oh and the effects if not used for a weapon buff can be used for defense, like hardened armor, shield bonus etc (basically like an rpg status buff)

 

[schema]

oh another thing: please note that the config is basically just some random values right now. so playing with the build without changing it will most likely not give a full view of what there is

 

[rece ktore leczo]

the dps will always be the same.

So if i got this right, once i connect 200 AMC blocks to 200 AMCs, my gun would have the same dps as 200 blocks gun, but will shoot faster with less tick damage?

If i'm right then the best dps output would be without connecting these two groups and with twice as many dps than if i connected them.
As long as i very like the idea of changing stats of the guns with this slave system, i wouldn't probably do this, because it would result with my ships having much less dps as they could have.

Maybe half of the slave weapons blocks also could be counted as a master weapon, so with 200 master AMCs and 200 slave AMCs i would have a gun with 300 AMCs dps, shooting much faster and with little projectile damage?


If i didn't understood the system properly then i'm sorry. If i could i would just test it by myself instead of asking


And btw, it's great to hear that this system is almost finished! Can't wait to play with it

 

[schema]

if you connect 200amc to 200amc you get the equivalent of 400amc dps, they do 1/8 of the total damage but shoot 8 times faster. The value "8" depends on what the max buff in the config is.
the buffs and defuffs are according to the total size that is in that whole system.

if you connect 300amc(master) to 100amc(slave), you get also the equivalent of 400amc dps. the difference is that the reload speed is only increased by 1/3 of 8 while the damage per shot is still 3/8 of the total damage.

 

[schema]

the idea is to make only the way the weapon behaves modifiable, so there is no op combination, but, in certain situations different types are preferable: for fast targets if you may want to have have a machinegun style weapon, while in other situations a higher damage but single shot is prefferred. Also the range and velocity of the projectile is a factor

 

[rece ktore leczo]

Thanks for the answer

Yeah, the whole system of keeping the same dps, but only adjusting other stats is great, i've just seen a problem with dps of slave system not counting to master system but it was just mine misconception and thank You for clarifying this

And damn, these effects system! SO MANY POSSIBILITIES, CAN'T WAIT

 

[schema]

the effects will have the same kind of balancing.

For example adding a piercing effects (being able to damage blocks that are behind the block that is hit) is very powerful. But the config has options for a tradeoff like more power consumption, less overall damage, less damage against shields/blocks, and many more.

The effects are also applied by ration. E.g. if you apply the pull block (name is just a placeholder), which sets the damage to 0 and the pull to max, if you connect this effect in a block ratio of 50% (e.g. connect a system with 50 pull effect blocks to a beam with 100 blocks) the pull effect will be half as strong, but the beam will still do 50% damage

 

[Yaodin]

Is there any where we can get the current dev build? I would like to test some things with regards to the logic.

 

[therimmer96]

Basically every configuration value has been exposed to make balancing possible. the config is in data/config/blockBehavior.xml

you can change everything from shield recharge to what weapon combinations do.

When you say everything, do you mean things like what the block will do when you press R on it, so we can add custom doors and stuff?

 

[flpsantoss]

based on the looks of the file, single player can test some massive overpower weapons. if you really can make it use a diferent file per sector basis it can get really fun minigames or space events

 

[Ithirahad]

Woo, infinite diversity (And apparently customization support) in infinite combinations... I'll tool around with the build some more, and post a bit more feedback soon!

(Btw, the Beam with a Pulse slave system causes a crash... is the effect not implemented yet? Dunno about other ones yet)

EDIT1: Beam + Beam causes a crash too... Going to start trying cannon combos
EDIT2: Cannon + any modifiers causes a ClassCastException on hit, testing against an asteroid. Cannon + Cannon works nicely. All other combinations just result in a crash.

 

[ltmauve]

Yeah, I'm getting a bunch of stuff crashing. This is the dev build, stop worrying about it so much.