StarMade 0.09282: New recharge calculation & fixes

[schema]

Hello and welcome to StarMade,

this update is the next step for a new power system. And probably the most important one.

New power recharge calculation

The new system now uses a logarithmic function that will grow against 1 million.

This is how the system behaves (or should behave)

• Fast grow at first
• Slower grow the more recharge blocks are added
• on the maximum, the grow will be constant (+10 per power recharge block)

These are all experimental values, and they will very likely change in the future.

I also plan to make all the static variables moddable by the server admins.



Other fixes

- improved beam drawing to be visible through windows. beams started in front of windows (by absolute pos) can now be seen
- fixed sorting issue
- fixed floating text in space
- implemented default for mouse wheel to change the slot in the bottom bar (can be switched to old style in the options)
- fixed texture flicker in some cases
- selected object now always visible in the HUD
- dedicated keyboard options for ship controls implemented
- fixed bug where capacity from tanks wasn't provided
- decreased (for the transferperiod) capacity per block
- added fixed base capacity of 5000
- keyboard option for rotation implemented
- redesigned code for the weapon bottom bar (visible change: icons for weapons are now their computers)

Thanks for playing StarMade,

- schema

 

[DrKingShultz]

This last update killed all of my ships. None of them can be powered now. I beg of you I have spent time making these ships and thier power supplies. Revert it and change it when you have a more refined system. Please!

 

[VariousArtist]

Finally, the advent of the S-curves... Hooray! =)

 

[Zweistein000]

While I agree with the new power system, I find it a bit too punishing (Yes I prepared my ships for the transition). Cloaking and Jaming were really hard to pull off before, but now they are impossible. Ships can hardly regenerate power while they are moving and it feels like power storage is still broken, hell I had to rip all the hull off my fighters (ships with 30-55 mass) and replace them with regeneration to even make them remotely viable, which is the exact oposite of what you were expecting with the new system.

I like that you can\'t just put 9000 shields on your ship anymore. But currently this is the onl thing that feels right.



My reccomendation on a fix: make the curve steeper (cube or square the funcion) and if power storage is working as intended, increase the capasity by 5x or 10x. As for shilds: make their oper drain curve increase exponentially with more generators added. that way a fighter can easily sustain 5-10 of them, but it\'s impossible to mount 50 000 of them on a cruiser.

 

[Alb]

SO, my two cents about the new system:

1) Ghaaaah! My carefully planned power system on my motheship came from 70 millions down to 1.5 million! And all my \"interceptors\" based on a large gun and power system are just motionless scrap !

What I was expecting was something like the same power system, but with the addition of \"fuel\" (rare ressource, expensive in stations) and an exponential consumption with power. That way, you could still have powerful large and light ships, but the latter would have little autonomy (need for support ships) and the former would be really expensive to use (hard to have a whole fleet of very large ships, more common use of shuttles/fighters to save up ressources).

2)For a more constructive comment, I\'m aware that:

The power system obviously needed to be nerfed.
Power management is a system that isn\'t fully implemented and values have to be tweaked so I\'m waiting for it\'s completion
Gameplay mechanics can need this kind of limitations (emphasis on supply ships)
I\'m of course a fish in the ocean, so if a majority of players like the new system, then it\'s the good direction.

But I have to say that I\'m not totally enthousiastic with the new system as it is.

-I used to like designing efficient power system and playing with different patterns/combinaisons of patterns. So I was disappointed to realize that on my capital ship, the best setup was to delete all the patterns, put a few crosses for reaching near 1 million e/s and then just fill the room with 10x10x10 blocks.

-It\'s maybe because of my merchant navy job (powerful is beautiful and less than 75,000 bhp is for babies\' bath toys) but having only 1,5 millions e/s on a large ship while having added 50,000 power blocks (added to a few crosses for reaching near 1 million) feels weird. Especialy when a tiny 50 meters/600kg ship has a 400,000 e/s rate.

-I also used to like the way you could do some efficient but lightweight ships with careful planning. You could create powerful fighters built around an efficient power system and efficient cannons, while creating a shuttle of the same size with inside compartments and normal shape would limit the power and forbid the use of large cannons/shield. Now, the power of efficient ships is divided by 2 or 3 and if I want to build the same type of ship, I will have to build bulky square ship or large ships.

-My conception of capital ship was large ships with huge shield, power and firepower, the kind of beast you don\'t want to meet in frontal attack and you don\'t try to destroy alone with a light fighter. Now, even with a little fighter, due to power limitation, you can easily disable the shield, then a few shots are sufficient to hit the core and blow up the whole thing. I have the sensation of destroying a nimitz aircraft carrier with a few shots of slingshot.

But as I wrote before, the mechanics are not toally implemented, gameplay has some needs and it\'s maybe a matter of getting new habits, so I\'m just looking forward to new updates!

 

[Yeppol]

\"These are all experimental values, and they will very likely change in the future.\"

Can you please give the values used today ?