Ship Explosions: How we should handle dead ships

[Andem]

Maybe not completely attack proof, but at least attack resistant. like maybe you need to hit the port before you can damage the rest of it.

 

[jayman38]

Maybe not completely attack proof, but at least attack resistant. like maybe you need to hit the port before you can damage the rest of it.

Or give it a really, really high innate shield storage maximum (like how the ship core has an innate shield storage of 220), so that it will build up a huge shield supply from the host ship while docked, without any recharge of its own. (The escape pods should only receive shield charges when there is surplus shield recharge on the host ship. They should not inhibit the host ship's normal shielding operations.) The escape pod could be detonated, but only after wearing down its shield supply.

A 2 million shield maximum would make it virtually impervious to small threats like default pirates and handheld weapons, while allowing it to safely clear the blast zone in a regular engagement.

 

[Andem]

Escape pods shouldn't be attack proof.

Not attack proof, tha would be too easy... maybe you wouldn't be able to damage the hull until you destroyed the adapter,which would need to be on the outside of the ship. then all the hulls and other materials would respond like any other. BUT! you would not be able to put shields on escape pods.
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Or give it a really, really high innate shield storage maximum (like how the ship core has an innate shield storage of 220), so that it will build up a huge shield supply from the host ship while docked, without any recharge of its own. (The escape pods should only receive shield charges when there is surplus shield recharge on the host ship. They should not inhibit the host ship's normal shielding operations.) The escape pod could be detonated, but only after wearing down its shield supply.

A 2 million shield maximum would make it virtually impervious to small threats like default pirates and handheld weapons, while allowing it to safely clear the blast zone in a regular engagement.

That is agreat idea. i expanded on my previous idea in a response to Lelic.

 

[Lecic]

You can already design escape pods, though. Seriously, try catching something that's tiny, jammed, has max overdrive, and has a logic charged JD. Even if the enemy is using inhibitors, they're unlikely to catch you.

 

[tn44]

Yeah it's already possible to build a good escape pod with the systems available. It is a nice idea, but if you set one up like Lecic suggests you'll get away no problem.

 

[MacThule]

I like the idea of a large damage pulse as a possibility; though I'd base it on reactor blocks, not total mass, since hull is unlikely to be very reactive.

 

[tn44]

Well the original idea I posted was for the big final pulse to be based on the amount of system blocks remaining, not hull. :P

 

[Dire Venom]

Escape pods shouldn't be attack proof.

Maybe have an in-built jammer and high speed?

 

[Andem]

I know, but what about your crew? check out systems.22058/http://starmadedock.net/threads/crew-escape-systems.22058/

 

[GRHayes]

Ok so, after thinking about it and discussing it on the chat, I'm pretty sure I have a solid suggestion for handling dead ships, and I don't believe it would be too hard to implement it.

When a ship starts to overheat, during the duration of the overheat countdown random damage pulses would generate from areas with system blocks, with strength depending on the size of the system that caused the explosion. The explosions stop when the ship completes it's reboot and then things are back to normal. If the overheat countdown stops, the ship can do one of two things.

One, it could explode, causing a large damage pulse based on the size of the ship! BOOOOOM! This would happen if the ship passes another hp % barrier below the initial overheat %
Two, the ship dies and is left in space as a free floating object that can be salvaged for scrap, this is if it doesn't take enough damage to put it below the second % barrier.

The explosions could just look like an orange damage pulse.

I tend to be of the mind we should be more able to salvage ship parts.
Granted I know this is a game but explosions like we see in movies dealing with space are pretty much far fetch.
It really comes down to the system and if you have something under pressure. The explosion on Apollo 13 was do to the O2 tank. O2 being under pressure. The reactors we send on space craft aren't of a type that would explode. In general what you might get are fires do to electrical and if you do have a system that uses pressurized gas then potentially an explosion. However when it vents to space it isn't the same as we see here on earth. Now if you had munitions that could be a great source of an explosion or any other explosive.

Give that ships have to loose 50% or more to overheat. You are already loosing a massive amount of ship.
From what I seen testing against different builds the armor outlast the interior of the ship for the most part. Things like shielding and so on that would be a decent grab tend to end up blown away. I see no need to further reduce that.

I think having it go to a dead or cold core where it can't be restarted after X amount of time would make more sense then it becomes a salvage operation for both sides to squabble over.

 

[Andem]

I tend to be of the mind we should be more able to salvage ship parts.
Granted I know this is a game but explosions like we see in movies dealing with space are pretty much far fetch.
It really comes down to the system and if you have something under pressure. The explosion on Apollo 13 was do to the O2 tank. O2 being under pressure. The reactors we send on space craft aren't of a type that would explode. In general what you might get are fires do to electrical and if you do have a system that uses pressurized gas then potentially an explosion. However when it vents to space it isn't the same as we see here on earth. Now if you had munitions that could be a great source of an explosion or any other explosive.

Give that ships have to loose 50% or more to overheat. You are already loosing a massive amount of ship.
From what I seen testing against different builds the armor outlast the interior of the ship for the most part. Things like shielding and so on that would be a decent grab tend to end up blown away. I see no need to further reduce that.

I think having it go to a dead or cold core where it can't be restarted after X amount of time would make more sense then it becomes a salvage operation for both sides to squabble over.

That's a neat idea, but those "cold cores" should remain volatile for say, 30 min. so you can't just sit in your overheating ship until it comes back online.

 

[Nickizzy]

I would advise against the random damage pulses during overheat countdown. Your going to have a hard enough time trying to escape from your dying ship while someone is trying to kill you as it is. Also its even more unlikely for someone to then try to board a ship and reset it. As you have a chance of dying and leaving your own ship floating around unoccupied. I like the idea of the visual effect though. Maybe with 100% push instead of damage instead.

That would be so cool! Exacty what would be nice.
It would give an incentive to have systemless parts of your ship for them to be protected. You could have a firefight in the middle of a dieing titain that is exploding all around you. Maybe the pulses would both push you back and damage you a bit(any ships or stations or astronauts in the explosion).

 

[PizzaPress]

I tend to be of the mind we should be more able to salvage ship parts.
Granted I know this is a game but explosions like we see in movies dealing with space are pretty much far fetch.
It really comes down to the system and if you have something under pressure. The explosion on Apollo 13 was do to the O2 tank. O2 being under pressure. The reactors we send on space craft aren't of a type that would explode. In general what you might get are fires do to electrical and if you do have a system that uses pressurized gas then potentially an explosion. However when it vents to space it isn't the same as we see here on earth. Now if you had munitions that could be a great source of an explosion or any other explosive.

Give that ships have to loose 50% or more to overheat. You are already loosing a massive amount of ship.
From what I seen testing against different builds the armor outlast the interior of the ship for the most part. Things like shielding and so on that would be a decent grab tend to end up blown away. I see no need to further reduce that.

I think having it go to a dead or cold core where it can't be restarted after X amount of time would make more sense then it becomes a salvage operation for both sides to squabble over.

We can't rule out the possibility of the reactors someday possibly using...
*WARNING! WARNING!*
*AHEEEEEM*
fuel.

Besides, mess with the fabric of space-time to get energy(I assume the current reactors do this?), and blow up the reactor in the middle of said process? I can imagine that being highly volatile...

 

[GaeasSon]

*AHEEEEEM*
fuel.

Hurrah for fuel! (dodges incoming fire)

 

[Andem]

Hurrah for fuel! (dodges incoming fire)

FUEL FOR EVERYONE!
*Rage and Hatred spawns within the community*

 

[PizzaPress]

please don't hand out ak47's willy nilly

As for ship death, I really wanna see some wrecks floating about. Especially in nebulae...

Off topic slightly, but dead ships generated as the result of a war in NPC backstory would be cool.

A 2 million shield maximum would make it virtually impervious to small threats like default pirates and handheld weapons, while allowing it to safely clear the blast zone in a regular engagement.

That's a tad high, I feel. I think small ships should just be difficult to effectively target for big ships/big turrets, and they should be good at escaping and evading.

Maybe add a bonus to core shields(and perhaps a low-number boost, not to be confused with large-scale dropoff), too.

 

[Andem]

please don't hand out ak47's willy nilly

As for ship death, I really wanna see some wrecks floating about. Especially in nebulae...

Off topic slightly, but dead ships generated as the result of a war in NPC backstory would be cool.

That's a tad high, I feel. I think small ships should just be difficult to effectively target for big ships/big turrets, and they should be good at escaping and evading.

Maybe add a bonus to core shields(and perhaps a low-number boost, not to be confused with large-scale dropoff), too.

That is something that needs to be addressed. When Nebulae are implemented an effect they may have on ships is that none of there blocks work. you would need to push it out of the nebula (somehow) before you can use it or cannibalize it. or steal its fuel.

 

[Nickizzy]

steal its fuel.

Thats biofuel to you!(Starpower!)