Surprise Dev Update

[Winterhome]

This is the part I disagree with:

However, a Drone v Turret contest is no contest at all if that Turret is sharing 100% of the big ship's total shields. That's why I think a system like the one proposed by @Inspired2150 (Turrets get an increased % of total shield with increasing mass relative to the ship) is a good idea.

Turret shield capacity should be something like ((TurretMass/TotalMass)*MothershipShieldCapacity)+TurretShields
...With NO recharge bonus beyond the in-turret rechargers. Otherwise you risk turrets being entirely invulnerable against ships 30x the size of said turrets.

As for drones... A Drone should be roughly equal in combat effectiveness to an equal mass Turret on a ship, I think, but this rests on the assumption that the battle stays in range of the drones. I've seen fights turn into running battles that cross 6-10 sectors before someone even loses shields, then another 4 sectors before anyone gets cored. Until Drones can use the entirety of their thrust to mass ratio and their passive overdrive effects, in addition to tracking hostile targets at any distance in nav map, they're going to be almost worthless, as the enemy ship will generally be out of their seeking range in seconds otherwise.

Mered4 seems to be under the impression that capital ships should never need to try to focus their forward guns on their targets, and that drones are OMG INVULNERABLE. Pretty far from the truth in serverside PVP combat, to be honest.

 

[Blodge]

Turret shield capacity should be something like ((TurretMass/TotalMass)*MothershipShieldCapacity)+TurretShields
...With NO recharge bonus beyond the in-turret rechargers. Otherwise you risk turrets being entirely invulnerable against ships 30x the size of said turrets.

Why not apply the same formula to shied rejen instead of shield capacity? That way everything repairs at the same rate but there are effectively weak spots in the shields which smaller craft can exploit with their manoeuvrability?

As for drones... A Drone should be roughly equal in combat effectiveness to an equal mass Turret on a ship, I think, but this rests on the assumption that the battle stays in range of the drones. I've seen fights turn into running battles that cross 6-10 sectors before someone even loses shields, then another 4 sectors before anyone gets cored. Until Drones can use the entirety of their thrust to mass ratio and their passive overdrive effects, in addition to tracking hostile targets at any distance in nav map, they're going to be almost worthless, as the enemy ship will generally be out of their seeking range in seconds otherwise.

Agreed, except about the tracking distance. I once left a group of Pirates behind by several sectors just by outrunning them on standard thrusters (no hyperdive back then). They tracked me all the way back to my home base and caught-up with me several minutes later. Gave my turrets a bit of a surprise
These issues could be fixed with an AI update. In the mean time I'd hope manned Fighters would be smart enough to activate their overdrive engines

Mered4 seems to be under the impression that capital ships should never need to try to focus their forward guns on their targets, and that drones are OMG INVULNERABLE. Pretty far from the truth in serverside PVP combat, to be honest.

I see his point. 1 Drone which is too small and manoeuvrable to be hit by your huge Dreadnought weapons is effectively invulnerable (see Speed Tanking). Being surrounded by 1000 invulnerable Drones with enough combined firepower to topple your shields puts you in trouble. It's basically ZOMG ZERG RUSH!
But, if Dreadnoughts can only be taken out by other Dreadnoughts then battles get a little predictable. The solution is simple: If you know you're going into a Drone fight then don't take a Dreadnought. Or if you do take a Dreadnought, take a swarm of Fighters/Corvettes/Frigates as an escort. This is exactly how it works in real life. Remember the sinking of the Bismarck? No lone big ship can take on the entire world at once.

 

[Mered4]

Mered4 seems to be under the impression that capital ships should never need to try to focus their forward guns on their targets, and that drones are OMG INVULNERABLE. Pretty far from the truth in serverside PVP combat, to be honest.

I'm not saying they shouldn't have to - Massive railguns are actually pretty good at killing things they can actually hit, after all.

What I am saying is those weapons are beyond useless against ships with a faster turning speed. Drones aren't invulnerable - missiles help keep them honest. In my tests, turrets have a very hard time keeping up with drones in the current build, especially if the drones stick around at max range.

 

[Winterhome]

I'm not saying they shouldn't have to - Massive railguns are actually pretty good at killing things they can actually hit, after all.

What I am saying is those weapons are beyond useless against ships with a faster turning speed. Drones aren't invulnerable - missiles help keep them honest. In my tests, turrets have a very hard time keeping up with drones in the current build, especially if the drones stick around at max range.

Turrets have trouble keeping up with anything moving in a straight line. That's not a drone issue so much as a turret issue - their aimpoint is off lately for some reason. Case in point: Point defense turret shots always lag a split second behind missiles in motion and can only effectively shoot down missiles headed straight towards the ship when their accuracy is turned way up.

I'd say that it's a matter of ten or so meters or less, so missiles are missed and so are very very small drones and fighters - but larger ships are nailed perfectly.

 

[Mered4]

Turrets have trouble keeping up with anything moving in a straight line. That's not a drone issue so much as a turret issue - their aimpoint is off lately for some reason. Case in point: Point defense turret shots always lag a split second behind missiles in motion and can only effectively shoot down missiles headed straight towards the ship when their accuracy is turned way up.

I'd say that it's a matter of ten or so meters or less, so missiles are missed and so are very very small drones and fighters - but larger ships are nailed perfectly.

Its a ~10 block spread around the core at 2km. The shots are (in general) fired behind the target by 4-5 blocks at 2km.

Doing the math, a 7^3 drone will do just fine if it stays at 2km. :D

 

[Blodge]

Doing the math, a 7^3 drone will do just fine if it stays at 2km. :D

In that case, prepare for RAMMING SPEED!

 

[Mered4]

In that case, prepare for RAMMING SPEED!

Have you seen the AI? It's deathly afraid of getting near your ship. It isn't perfect, but it likes to run away....

 

[Blodge]

Have you seen the AI? It's deathly afraid of getting near your ship. It isn't perfect, but it likes to run away....

I've not really noticed that. Maybe they just run away from your ships because they're covered in Turrets?

 

[iceman6491]

Anyone played with the latest Dev update? (0.19185)

I've seen a few things and want to know more now!

http://imgur.com/5quC7Yj - starmade twitter

and

- Criss the Nightbringer on youtube

 

[Byamarro]

Anyone played with the latest Dev update? (0.19185)

I've seen a few things and want to know more now!

http://imgur.com/5quC7Yj - starmade twitter

and

- Criss the Nightbringer on youtube

In latest dev u can controll rails by using logic.


Here I made small gif for You to show.
You place rail block next to activator block, so activator block will know how to rotate connected blocks.

https://mega.co.nz/#!OlgHUCZR!SCIE2a4-Gzs6PRP4R0Hj8nHi6pirBuBGJW8cJeGGHMs

 

[Blodge]

I wish to marry this update and have many many beautiful children with it.

 

[Mered4]

I've not really noticed that. Maybe they just run away from your ships because they're covered in Turrets?

Any ship. I remember sitting in God Mode in a core a few weeks ago just for the laughs. I spawned ~5 or so pirates, and within 5 minutes, all five were at least a sector away and at max speed.

They did have long range weapons equipped, so you can expect similar behavior from all AI: They flee to the maximum range of their weapons in an attempt to *toe the line* as many good missile players do.

 

[The Judge]

Ahem, OMFGTHISISSOGOODIWANTITPLEASEGIVEITTOMEEARLYPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEOMGRAILSANDADVANCEDTURRETSIWANTITPLEASEPRETTYPLEASEWITHSUGARONTOPPLEASE?
Thank you for reading this horrendous episode of spouting absolutely nothing but gibberish.

 

[iceman6491]

In latest dev u can controll rails by using logic.


Here I made small gif for You to show.
You place rail block next to activator block, so activator block will know how to rotate connected blocks.

https://mega.co.nz/#!OlgHUCZR!SCIE2a4-Gzs6PRP4R0Hj8nHi6pirBuBGJW8cJeGGHMs

Cheers that was helpful. Do you know if the rails emit logic signals yet? I forgot to test it in my haste to make ridiculous blast doors...

 

[Blodge]

ridiculous blast doors...

Intriguing. Got any videos?

 

[iceman6491]

Intriguing. Got any videos?

There you are

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B71I0gwSvvPxeXBKTzd1QTQzTUU/view?usp=sharing

 

[Blodge]

There you are

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B71I0gwSvvPxeXBKTzd1QTQzTUU/view?usp=sharing

Oh nice! How did you get the doors to "pop up" before sliding to the sides?

 

[iceman6491]

Oh nice! How did you get the doors to "pop up" before sliding to the sides?

Spoiler: Like This

The core you see on the picture is the core of the door. The door itself is then built in free space in the position relative to the core that matches the hole. If that makes sense.

This is the bottom of the plate / station if you will, with the door on top of this layer when in the open state

 

[Blodge]

Spoiler: Like This

The core you see on the picture is the core of the door. The door itself is then built in free space in the position relative to the core that matches the hole. If that makes sense.

This is the bottom of the plate / station if you will, with the door on top of this layer when in the open state

Ah, gotcha! Very creative. Can't wait for this build to get released

 

[iceman6491]

Does anyone happen to know if items on a rail will transfer on to an adjacent rail if said adjacent rail is built on another structure which is docked to the original structure? If that makes sense...

Spoiler: Probably not so...

i.e two plates docked to each other making one big flat plate. Both plates have a line of rails running across them. These rails meet each other at the seem of the plates, visually making one long rail. Would something then docked to the rail treat it as one long rail or two individual rails?