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Hello
Some of you might have read my last thread about advanced station defense systems.
So I was thinking about it a bit and I had a few other ideas, that you could probably like. I'il also repeat the older ones a little bit more detailed.
New de-/offense-systems
AI-Improvements (or ADA-AI)
The Bobby AI-block needs to be completely overworked. I don't know how he currently gets his target but however, it's way too slow for hitting a moving target. This makes ship-turrets completely useless in a space war. I've already explained how this should work but to quickly repeat: the AI has to be able to calculate where it has to shoot at, that the AMC actually hit's it. Just take the position of the target, the facing direction and it's speed and voila, bobby's actually ablte to hit something!
MAC (Magnetic accelerator cannon)
Again some repetition. The MAC-system consists of 3 different block-types. We have the barrel-, the accelerator- and the control-block. The MAC is just functional on a station because you need to attach the control-block to a station-AI's core! Those blocks need to be placed on a specific shape to build a working MAC. I'il show you this with a quick ASCII-Art where "X"represents a barell-block, "?" is an accelerator and "C" are possible positions for the control-block.
Front:
(C)
?
(C)?X?(C)
?
(C)
Side:
(C)
??????????????????????????????????????????????????
????????(C)???????????????????????????????????????(C)
??????????????????????????????????????????????????
(C)
As you might see the barrel is 50 blocks long. This is the minimum lengt the MAC needs to have (so it doesn't fit into small outposts). The Controller block can be placed anywhere arround but it has to face at least ONE side of the MAC to work. The inner part is a straight line of 50 barrel-blocks everyone of those is surrounded by accelerators. This is the only layout for a working MAC-system, it can just be modified by extending it's lenght by again 50 blocks! This way it can be upgraded but with a lot more space needed.
Faction hub
This adds a bit of control over factions for the server-admins. Every faction needs to be registered and approved by an admin for a price of 100'000 credits. You'il get a station core as soon as your faction is approved or 50% of the money back if not. Why 50%? Well the admin has to go over your request so you could endlessly try registering the same faction if you get everything back and this would be very annoying for admins. Also it prevents idiots from trying to register factions with stupid names.
Warp core
Sci-fi isn't sci-fi without any fast-travel ability. This system let's you set coordinates you want to jump at teleports you there after a charge-up of 30 seconds. After a warp, the power of the ship is completely drained for 1 minute. A player can just jump every 10 minutes. This block needs you to have 100% energy, 80% health and at least 10% shield to get activated. Also the thrust of your ship needs at least to be 10% more than it's whole mass.
Station thruster
A station doesn't need to be movable but for a working MAC-systen (that's just able to fire straight btw.) it is essentially that the AI's able to aim so it needs to be able to turn the station arround. 1 thruster is able to turn a station with 1000 mass. Increasing the count doesn't make the station able to turn faster, it turns at a really slow speed of about 5-10km/h.
Now some stuff about the basic game-mechanics
Collision damage
I know this will probably end up in a flame-war but anyways I don't care, it's my opinion so if you don't agree...gtfo. This doesn't mean that your ship has to explode and fall into pieces if you hit any other structure, but it should do a bit damage depending on how fast you flew into it (maybe 1-5% damage per 10km/h).
Drowsiness (google told me that word
)
Bigger ships don't need to be essentially slower than small ones. But a capital-ship going from 1 to 100 km/h in about 1 second just looks hilarious and unrealistic.
AMC-Arrays
This has already been told, so I don't want to say much. Just a small idea about the size of the "projectile" (antimatter isn't a real projectile, but you know what I mean). What if the "projectile" always is about the size of all blocks of this array placed in a cube (rounded down to the next smaller cube). To explain this let's assume we have 30 AMC's lined up. The "projectile" would be 3x3x3 blocks, because 30 doesn't give a full cube we have to take the next smaller one (27) that's 3x3x3.
Cloaking
It seems like people are very unhappy with the current cloaking-systems. It's pretty impossible to get a functional and nice looking cloak-ship together. So here's how I'd do this: make cloaking limited to smaller ships arround 0-1000 mass, you can still place the modules on bigger ones but they'il be useless. The devices should be powered up so you can actually build a hull arround the ship, also using shields and weapons. Basically the cloak should stay as long as whished by the pilot, but to balance this out it should take 10 seconds to get fully cloaked. While cloaking the weapons are disabled and if you fire your weapons or get hit, the cloak imediately deactivates.
General docking
What if we can actually dock our ships and turrets out of the capital? Just invert the docking beam so the beam comes out of the docking-module and NOT the core. The pilot of the carrier can switch to a docking-cameraview placed on the module and he can point the beam like a "tractor"-beam to dock ships of the same faction. This actually would speed up the docking process for turrets because you don't need to dock every piece manually by entering it and flying it to the right position.
Turret docking
Currently turrets can turn arround full 180 degrees. Even if there're blocks in their way they're just "ghosting" through them. This could be prevented by simply taking the "sizebox" (the blue box arround a ship that appears if a turret or ship is too big for a docking area) and set this box as colission-proxy arround the turret. That might be a bit too much for some turrets, but it's still better than the current state.
So to complete this, I'il now list all new blocks I thought about. I added some that are not closer explained, feel free to ask if you're interested.
New blocks
Faction hub
Description: A server-wide list of all active factions. You need to pay 100'000 credits to register your faction on a server. Unregistered factions can't build a station.
Reason: The ADA-AI needs all friendly factions to be set. Otherwhise it attacks ships of them too.
Price: Not available in the shop. Automatically placed on shops.
Warp core
Description: Let's the ship jump to other sectors by entering the coordinates.
Reason: Sci-Fi needs a possibility to travel faster than 50km/h (or 150...depends on server settings)
Price: 500 credits
Special: Does not increase the ships speed. Can also get activated on all ship that are docked to the ship the block is placed on.
MAC barrel
Description: Paired with 4 MAC-Accelerators gives one MAC-Element. Detailed description above at "MAC-System".
Reason: Stations need effective defense systems because they can't be bought so if yours gets destroyed you have to build it from scratch.
Price: 400 credits
MAC accelerator
Description: Read "MAC barrel".
Reason: Read "MAC barrel".
Price: 400 credits
MAC control
Description: Heats up all linked MAC-Elements and fires them if again activated at 100%.
Reason: Read "MAC barrel".
Price: 5000 credits
ADA (Advanced Defense AI)
Description: A new programmed AI specially for station-defense purposes. Features precise shooting at targeted enemies from stationary positions.
Reason: The current bobbyAI is unable to hit moving targets. So it cannot really protect you.
Price: 500 credits
AAA (Advanced Attack AI)
Description: A very agressive version of ADA, it always shoots first and attacks every enemy or unknown ship.
Reason: Some people might want to attack everything they don't know.
Price: 500 credits
Bobby2 AI Module
Description: A recycled BobbyAI module featuring improved piloting skills. Includes an auto-pilot.
Reason: Smarter AI-enemies = more fun killing them.
Price: 500 credits
Station thruster
Description: Correctly placed makes an ADA-AI able to turn the station arround.
Reason: The MAC-system is just able to fire straight forward. Would be pretty useless if the platform it fires from is unable to aim.
Price: 1000 credits
Station core
Description: Build block for stations.
Reason: The ADA core needs a station core to operate.
Price: 100'000 credits
ADA core (Station AI)
Description: Linked to the core it includes a basic programable ADA-AI to the station that can take orders from control panel.
Reason: Just an AI can control the stations weaponary.
Price: 500 credits
ADA control panel
Description: Used to give orders to the station AI (like: "attack this enemy", "rotate the station" aso.).
Reason: ADA needs to be controlable from various points of the station.
Price: 100 credits
Automatic plex door
Description: A door block that opens automatically for members of the same faction as the ship is (very good usable as hangar doors). Alerts the pilot if attacked by someone.
Reason: Can hold off enemy intruders for a few seconds.
Price: 200 credits
Tractor beam
Description: A beam that slowly pulls an enemy and finally docks it to the ship. Just works if the enemies shields and energy are down.
Reason: Tractor beams rock!
Price: 200 credits
Docking module hacker
Description: Makes a ship able to dock on an enemies docking module. Also undocks other ships.
Reason: Makes pirates able to get into a ship without loosing their own.
Price: 300 credits
Special items
Ladders
Description: Let's you climb up without turning of gravity.
Reason: Currently players can just move up and down with disabled gravity and if the ship isn't moving.
Price: 100 credits
Captains chair
Description: Second spot where you can enter the core, also spawns a player-object on the seat if someone's inside.
Reason: Intruders need to have a point, where they can actually kill the pilot than first have to shoot the shields down.
Price: 500 credits
Gunner chair
Description: Special looking seat for turret operators. Same features as the "captains chair".
Reason: Turrets cannot have blocks below the core. So the docking modules make it sometimes very hard to enter a turret. This seat would solve this, because it can be placed anywhere on a turret.
Price: 200 credits
So those are just some IDEAS.
cya
Some of you might have read my last thread about advanced station defense systems.
So I was thinking about it a bit and I had a few other ideas, that you could probably like. I'il also repeat the older ones a little bit more detailed.
New de-/offense-systems
AI-Improvements (or ADA-AI)
The Bobby AI-block needs to be completely overworked. I don't know how he currently gets his target but however, it's way too slow for hitting a moving target. This makes ship-turrets completely useless in a space war. I've already explained how this should work but to quickly repeat: the AI has to be able to calculate where it has to shoot at, that the AMC actually hit's it. Just take the position of the target, the facing direction and it's speed and voila, bobby's actually ablte to hit something!
MAC (Magnetic accelerator cannon)
Again some repetition. The MAC-system consists of 3 different block-types. We have the barrel-, the accelerator- and the control-block. The MAC is just functional on a station because you need to attach the control-block to a station-AI's core! Those blocks need to be placed on a specific shape to build a working MAC. I'il show you this with a quick ASCII-Art where "X"represents a barell-block, "?" is an accelerator and "C" are possible positions for the control-block.
Front:
(C)
?
(C)?X?(C)
?
(C)
Side:
(C)
??????????????????????????????????????????????????
????????(C)???????????????????????????????????????(C)
??????????????????????????????????????????????????
(C)
As you might see the barrel is 50 blocks long. This is the minimum lengt the MAC needs to have (so it doesn't fit into small outposts). The Controller block can be placed anywhere arround but it has to face at least ONE side of the MAC to work. The inner part is a straight line of 50 barrel-blocks everyone of those is surrounded by accelerators. This is the only layout for a working MAC-system, it can just be modified by extending it's lenght by again 50 blocks! This way it can be upgraded but with a lot more space needed.
Faction hub
This adds a bit of control over factions for the server-admins. Every faction needs to be registered and approved by an admin for a price of 100'000 credits. You'il get a station core as soon as your faction is approved or 50% of the money back if not. Why 50%? Well the admin has to go over your request so you could endlessly try registering the same faction if you get everything back and this would be very annoying for admins. Also it prevents idiots from trying to register factions with stupid names.
Warp core
Sci-fi isn't sci-fi without any fast-travel ability. This system let's you set coordinates you want to jump at teleports you there after a charge-up of 30 seconds. After a warp, the power of the ship is completely drained for 1 minute. A player can just jump every 10 minutes. This block needs you to have 100% energy, 80% health and at least 10% shield to get activated. Also the thrust of your ship needs at least to be 10% more than it's whole mass.
Station thruster
A station doesn't need to be movable but for a working MAC-systen (that's just able to fire straight btw.) it is essentially that the AI's able to aim so it needs to be able to turn the station arround. 1 thruster is able to turn a station with 1000 mass. Increasing the count doesn't make the station able to turn faster, it turns at a really slow speed of about 5-10km/h.
Now some stuff about the basic game-mechanics
Collision damage
I know this will probably end up in a flame-war but anyways I don't care, it's my opinion so if you don't agree...gtfo. This doesn't mean that your ship has to explode and fall into pieces if you hit any other structure, but it should do a bit damage depending on how fast you flew into it (maybe 1-5% damage per 10km/h).
Drowsiness (google told me that word
)Bigger ships don't need to be essentially slower than small ones. But a capital-ship going from 1 to 100 km/h in about 1 second just looks hilarious and unrealistic.
AMC-Arrays
This has already been told, so I don't want to say much. Just a small idea about the size of the "projectile" (antimatter isn't a real projectile, but you know what I mean). What if the "projectile" always is about the size of all blocks of this array placed in a cube (rounded down to the next smaller cube). To explain this let's assume we have 30 AMC's lined up. The "projectile" would be 3x3x3 blocks, because 30 doesn't give a full cube we have to take the next smaller one (27) that's 3x3x3.
Cloaking
It seems like people are very unhappy with the current cloaking-systems. It's pretty impossible to get a functional and nice looking cloak-ship together. So here's how I'd do this: make cloaking limited to smaller ships arround 0-1000 mass, you can still place the modules on bigger ones but they'il be useless. The devices should be powered up so you can actually build a hull arround the ship, also using shields and weapons. Basically the cloak should stay as long as whished by the pilot, but to balance this out it should take 10 seconds to get fully cloaked. While cloaking the weapons are disabled and if you fire your weapons or get hit, the cloak imediately deactivates.
General docking
What if we can actually dock our ships and turrets out of the capital? Just invert the docking beam so the beam comes out of the docking-module and NOT the core. The pilot of the carrier can switch to a docking-cameraview placed on the module and he can point the beam like a "tractor"-beam to dock ships of the same faction. This actually would speed up the docking process for turrets because you don't need to dock every piece manually by entering it and flying it to the right position.
Turret docking
Currently turrets can turn arround full 180 degrees. Even if there're blocks in their way they're just "ghosting" through them. This could be prevented by simply taking the "sizebox" (the blue box arround a ship that appears if a turret or ship is too big for a docking area) and set this box as colission-proxy arround the turret. That might be a bit too much for some turrets, but it's still better than the current state.
So to complete this, I'il now list all new blocks I thought about. I added some that are not closer explained, feel free to ask if you're interested.
New blocks
Faction hub
Description: A server-wide list of all active factions. You need to pay 100'000 credits to register your faction on a server. Unregistered factions can't build a station.
Reason: The ADA-AI needs all friendly factions to be set. Otherwhise it attacks ships of them too.
Price: Not available in the shop. Automatically placed on shops.
Warp core
Description: Let's the ship jump to other sectors by entering the coordinates.
Reason: Sci-Fi needs a possibility to travel faster than 50km/h (or 150...depends on server settings)
Price: 500 credits
Special: Does not increase the ships speed. Can also get activated on all ship that are docked to the ship the block is placed on.
MAC barrel
Description: Paired with 4 MAC-Accelerators gives one MAC-Element. Detailed description above at "MAC-System".
Reason: Stations need effective defense systems because they can't be bought so if yours gets destroyed you have to build it from scratch.
Price: 400 credits
MAC accelerator
Description: Read "MAC barrel".
Reason: Read "MAC barrel".
Price: 400 credits
MAC control
Description: Heats up all linked MAC-Elements and fires them if again activated at 100%.
Reason: Read "MAC barrel".
Price: 5000 credits
ADA (Advanced Defense AI)
Description: A new programmed AI specially for station-defense purposes. Features precise shooting at targeted enemies from stationary positions.
Reason: The current bobbyAI is unable to hit moving targets. So it cannot really protect you.
Price: 500 credits
AAA (Advanced Attack AI)
Description: A very agressive version of ADA, it always shoots first and attacks every enemy or unknown ship.
Reason: Some people might want to attack everything they don't know.
Price: 500 credits
Bobby2 AI Module
Description: A recycled BobbyAI module featuring improved piloting skills. Includes an auto-pilot.
Reason: Smarter AI-enemies = more fun killing them.
Price: 500 credits
Station thruster
Description: Correctly placed makes an ADA-AI able to turn the station arround.
Reason: The MAC-system is just able to fire straight forward. Would be pretty useless if the platform it fires from is unable to aim.
Price: 1000 credits
Station core
Description: Build block for stations.
Reason: The ADA core needs a station core to operate.
Price: 100'000 credits
ADA core (Station AI)
Description: Linked to the core it includes a basic programable ADA-AI to the station that can take orders from control panel.
Reason: Just an AI can control the stations weaponary.
Price: 500 credits
ADA control panel
Description: Used to give orders to the station AI (like: "attack this enemy", "rotate the station" aso.).
Reason: ADA needs to be controlable from various points of the station.
Price: 100 credits
Automatic plex door
Description: A door block that opens automatically for members of the same faction as the ship is (very good usable as hangar doors). Alerts the pilot if attacked by someone.
Reason: Can hold off enemy intruders for a few seconds.
Price: 200 credits
Tractor beam
Description: A beam that slowly pulls an enemy and finally docks it to the ship. Just works if the enemies shields and energy are down.
Reason: Tractor beams rock!
Price: 200 credits
Docking module hacker
Description: Makes a ship able to dock on an enemies docking module. Also undocks other ships.
Reason: Makes pirates able to get into a ship without loosing their own.
Price: 300 credits
Special items
Ladders
Description: Let's you climb up without turning of gravity.
Reason: Currently players can just move up and down with disabled gravity and if the ship isn't moving.
Price: 100 credits
Captains chair
Description: Second spot where you can enter the core, also spawns a player-object on the seat if someone's inside.
Reason: Intruders need to have a point, where they can actually kill the pilot than first have to shoot the shields down.
Price: 500 credits
Gunner chair
Description: Special looking seat for turret operators. Same features as the "captains chair".
Reason: Turrets cannot have blocks below the core. So the docking modules make it sometimes very hard to enter a turret. This seat would solve this, because it can be placed anywhere on a turret.
Price: 200 credits
So those are just some IDEAS.
cya
