- Joined
- Jul 12, 2013
- Messages
- 295
- Reaction score
- 112
I personally want a way to boost the performance of a system by routing more power into it. Plain and simple.
Let's be clear from the start. I'm not touching weapons at all. That includes salvage. We already have a mechanic that changes the attributes of weapons through system linking and any new power mechanic that messes with damage or rate of fire would be redundant.
Also of note, any numbers you see are only there for illustration. I'm not savvy enough to give you concrete examples, so keep that in mind.
So, if we're not going to modify how weapons behave, what are we going to modify? Shields, thrust, defensive effects, jump drives and jump inhibitors are ripe for customization. Some other systems that could possibly work would be astrotech, scanners, cloak and jam but they really need to be updated before we discuss them.
I thought about incorporating a way to divert power from one system to another but the only 'always on' system is the shields and it only uses power when its regenerating. If you're power starved and need more power going to a system then turn off the systems you're using to free up some energy.
Unless you're wanting a way to take a percentage of power from a system and give it to another while keeping both active. In which case I'm open to suggestions.
Let's be clear from the start. I'm not touching weapons at all. That includes salvage. We already have a mechanic that changes the attributes of weapons through system linking and any new power mechanic that messes with damage or rate of fire would be redundant.
Also of note, any numbers you see are only there for illustration. I'm not savvy enough to give you concrete examples, so keep that in mind.
So, if we're not going to modify how weapons behave, what are we going to modify? Shields, thrust, defensive effects, jump drives and jump inhibitors are ripe for customization. Some other systems that could possibly work would be astrotech, scanners, cloak and jam but they really need to be updated before we discuss them.
We already have a mechanic in place that can be adapted to work here and that is angle selection on rail rotators. To give those that don't know a visual of how it might work, Bench's tutorial on rotators is here. Take the system computer you want to boost, hit C. Go to a group of reactors or capacitors, press V or SHIFT-V. When you do this, it will dedicate the reactors or capacitors to that system, but only if said system is being boosted. If you are not boosting, the reactors and caps will behave as normal, delivering power shipwide.
Now, lay down ten activation modules and slave them to the reactors or caps from earlier. Activate one and your system will be boosted an additional 10%, five = +50%, ten = +100%. Ten being the max.
Use inner ship remotes to control the boost. Im thinking one ISR to increase the boost in increments and another to reset the system to no boost.
Now, lay down ten activation modules and slave them to the reactors or caps from earlier. Activate one and your system will be boosted an additional 10%, five = +50%, ten = +100%. Ten being the max.
Use inner ship remotes to control the boost. Im thinking one ISR to increase the boost in increments and another to reset the system to no boost.
- Shipwide power is reduced. The reactors or caps are dedicated to delivering extra power to that system only and do not contribute to the rest of the ship for as long as the boost is as active.
- Damage occurs to the system while being boosted. As far as I'm concerned this has to happen. It puts a time limit on the boost and ensures people wont be flying around with their systems operating at 150%. Effectively giving them the capabilities of a larger ship without the mass.
Thrusters
I'm torn on this. On one hand we already have a great deal of control with ship maneuverability through the overdrive effect and thrust management menu. On the other, it would be nice to temporarily increase output when in a jam. If it is going to be affected by this new power mechanic I propose that it influence over-all acceleration and or turning speed.
Shields
Only shield rechargers will be influenced due to the fact that shield caps don't use power. Instead of a flat increase in regen it will counteract the 'under fire' regen debuff. When at 100% boost the debuff is completely negated.
Jump drives
Increasing charge speed seems obvious here but due to how this new system is balanced (boosted systems taking damage and modules being destroyed eventually), destroyed jump drive modules wont completely reset your jump charge. It will set you back some but wont fully reset the charge. How much takes from the charge is dependent on boost percent.
Jump inhibitors
Faster jump charge draining. Additionally, an aoe that damages 'charging' jump drives. If you are not charging your jump drive, no damage will take place.
Overdrive
Nothing unique here. Just a straight up increase to speed cap. Ideas?
Ion
Increase it's defensive bonus up to 75% at max boost with 100% ION effect.
Punch-through
Reduce armor hp loss even further.
Piercing
Further increase damage absorbed by armor.
EMP
Increase it's defensive bonus up to 75% at max boost with 100% EMP effect.
Explosive
Full explosive effect negates push, pull and stop weapons without being boosted. When boosted, a percent of the movement debuff is applied to the firing ship. Not sure about this one. It's quite situational.
Push and Pull
Their effects accelerate your ship x% beyond server max speed.
Stop
I don't know what to do here. Maybe apply an aoe slowdown debuff to ships near a boosting ship.
I'm torn on this. On one hand we already have a great deal of control with ship maneuverability through the overdrive effect and thrust management menu. On the other, it would be nice to temporarily increase output when in a jam. If it is going to be affected by this new power mechanic I propose that it influence over-all acceleration and or turning speed.
Shields
Only shield rechargers will be influenced due to the fact that shield caps don't use power. Instead of a flat increase in regen it will counteract the 'under fire' regen debuff. When at 100% boost the debuff is completely negated.
Jump drives
Increasing charge speed seems obvious here but due to how this new system is balanced (boosted systems taking damage and modules being destroyed eventually), destroyed jump drive modules wont completely reset your jump charge. It will set you back some but wont fully reset the charge. How much takes from the charge is dependent on boost percent.
Jump inhibitors
Faster jump charge draining. Additionally, an aoe that damages 'charging' jump drives. If you are not charging your jump drive, no damage will take place.
Overdrive
Nothing unique here. Just a straight up increase to speed cap. Ideas?
Ion
Increase it's defensive bonus up to 75% at max boost with 100% ION effect.
Punch-through
Reduce armor hp loss even further.
Piercing
Further increase damage absorbed by armor.
EMP
Increase it's defensive bonus up to 75% at max boost with 100% EMP effect.
Explosive
Full explosive effect negates push, pull and stop weapons without being boosted. When boosted, a percent of the movement debuff is applied to the firing ship. Not sure about this one. It's quite situational.
Push and Pull
Their effects accelerate your ship x% beyond server max speed.
Stop
I don't know what to do here. Maybe apply an aoe slowdown debuff to ships near a boosting ship.
Shields and thrusters don't have a controlling computer.
We use the same system we settled on with shields and thrusters.
Often times shields and thrusters are placed sporadically throughout the ship. I don't want to go searching for them all just to link them to this new computer.
I suggest you only need to find one module and link it through SHIFT-V to slave all modules on the ship to the computer.
So now shields and thrusters require a computer to operate?
It's only a requirement if you plan on boosting these systems and only during the boost. Otherwise they function as normal.
Some of these proposals are op.
The main balancing factor is the damage done to the system while being boosted. System blocks will be destroyed which will put you at a further disadvantage when the boost is over. It's meant to be a hail Mary so make sure you know what you are doing.
- We could add new computer blocks for them.
- We could use the existing decorative computers. Any decorative computer would work, just choose the color you like and link it up.
- We could make it so each module in the system could act as a pseudo-computer. It's contribution to the ship would be nullified as a result.
We use the same system we settled on with shields and thrusters.
Often times shields and thrusters are placed sporadically throughout the ship. I don't want to go searching for them all just to link them to this new computer.
I suggest you only need to find one module and link it through SHIFT-V to slave all modules on the ship to the computer.
So now shields and thrusters require a computer to operate?
It's only a requirement if you plan on boosting these systems and only during the boost. Otherwise they function as normal.
Some of these proposals are op.
The main balancing factor is the damage done to the system while being boosted. System blocks will be destroyed which will put you at a further disadvantage when the boost is over. It's meant to be a hail Mary so make sure you know what you are doing.
- While boosted, the system will still draw 100% of it's normal energy requirements from the main ship. The additional energy will come from the reactors you linked to it.
- If you don't have enough additional energy for a specific boost percent you wont achieve it.
- When using capacitors for the additional energy they will not refill their capacity while being used to boost a system. This will allow you to have an auto shutoff. When they are drained, no more boost.
- A boost cannot last forever. You could potentially destroy the entire system if you tried. I have no idea how long a boost should last nor how quickly the system modules take damage. It's up for debate
- An alternative to module damage could be computer damage.
- 50% boost doesn't mean it needs 50% more energy. Power efficiency should drop the higher the boost goes.
I thought about incorporating a way to divert power from one system to another but the only 'always on' system is the shields and it only uses power when its regenerating. If you're power starved and need more power going to a system then turn off the systems you're using to free up some energy.
Unless you're wanting a way to take a percentage of power from a system and give it to another while keeping both active. In which case I'm open to suggestions.
