The awesome new combat meta

[Snk]

Just use overdrive to outrun the missiles.

 

[Thalanor]

There's a simple solution to this; no pre-charging jumpdrives.
So instead of how it is now, when you click to jump is when it starts charging and then jumps when finished.

This would also give reason to have a fast jump drive, other than to save you 20 seconds of holding the button down (and with this there would be no holding the button down....my god it's a WIN-WIN!).

I think the curve should be changed a little though, so if you have the 5% mass should be much faster than the current 24 or so seconds. It would give a fullsize drive more benefit, and also allow for more in between sizes.

I like this. "Spooling up" the FTL should additionally be a delicate procedure that is disrupted by any sort of damage (even to the shields). Since you would only have to fire it shortly to initiate the automated charging sequence, it would also be less of a pain in the finger to charge up slower drives.

 

[Stakhanov]

None of this would be an issue if jump drives had a reasonable counter , like long range jump disruption pulses and automated jammers for stations. In the meantime , jump drive spooling would allow meaningful combat lasting more than 2 seconds. No charge while firing or being fired at with any kind of weapon or effect.

I find jump drives to be a bad idea in general , making it nearly impossible to follow someone while cloaked. Warp gates should have the emphasis , as they can't be used to flee by anyone but the local station owners. They create choke points to intercept people at , while the jump drive expands escape options immensely.

 

[NeonSturm]

I think the curve should be changed a little though, so if you have the 5% mass should be much faster than the current 24 or so seconds. It would give a fullsize drive more benefit, and also allow for more in between sizes.

Right now you can charge 5 jump drives with just one slot in your escape pod which gets hit very unlikely inside your ship and can jump straight out..

AFAIK, you lose the charge when you receive damage, thus having a drop-able shield plate might be useful to protect you against damage.

 

[Stakhanov]

...I didn't realize you could charge multiple jump drives. Even without shieldplates , that's ridiculously broken. Why allow several ? This begs to be abused as this thread shows.

 

[Lecic]

...I didn't realize you could charge multiple jump drives. Even without shieldplates , that's ridiculously broken. Why allow several ? This begs to be abused as this thread shows.

To allow for instant, long range travel, as opposed to stopping and charging for 20 seconds every 8 sectors. Charge three jump drives and go 24 sectors in a few seconds (after a minute of charging) instead.

Really, though, I'd prefer to be able to set a jump distance, and then it takes a certain amount of time to charge up that distance.

Banning multiple jump drives on ships is not a good idea, in my opinion, because people like to have backup systems. I could have a second auxiliary jump drive to use if my first one was destroyed. A better solution would be to wipe jump drive charge when weapons are fired (including by turrets, to prevent exploits).

 

[Krougal]

I like this. "Spooling up" the FTL should additionally be a delicate procedure that is disrupted by any sort of damage (even to the shields). Since you would only have to fire it shortly to initiate the automated charging sequence, it would also be less of a pain in the finger to charge up slower drives.

Well that would be a little too far. The idea is to prevent scumming, not prevent anyone from escaping. Think of those tense moments on the Millenium Falcon. But say 10 seconds for a 5% mass drive and scaling on down to a minute for that 1 block drive. So ships that want to use the space can escape maybe, but not without taking some return fire. You can still do el cheapo just to have jdrive capability but you aren't going to get out of danger with it.

I don't know how power drain works, haven't tried it out. If it only drains storage it's kinda useless but if it saps reactor recharge as well then power drain would be useful as an interdictor weapon; if you can't charge your drive you ain't getting out. Obviously would have to be on a beam to be of any use, unless it had a DoT (damage over time) effect.

 

[Snk]

Honestly, I am against the idea of having multiple jump drives on a ship at all. It makes distance meaningless, which destroys any future supply/demand economy, makes it so there are no isolated parts of the galaxy, and removes the danger from traveling.

 

[FullMetalFox]

Honestly, I am against the idea of having multiple jump drives on a ship at all. It makes distance meaningless

You might be able to chain jump for some added distance with multiple drives, and use them as cheap hit and run tactic, or a small one for emergency jumps when you end up to close to a sun or right beside a hostile area, but in the end you still have to recharge them all to use them again, for traveling a long distance fast its always faster to use one big jump drive then several smaller ones. Just always pack a charged emergency jump drive, starmade can be trolly.

But yeah, Starmades Jump Drive is propably the worst kind of FTL, and needs some serious redesign in the future. Oh joy, another thing i could write several pages about.

 

[Snk]

You might be able to chain jump for some added distance with multiple drives, and use them as cheap hit and run tactic, or a small one for emergency jumps when you end up to close to a sun or right beside a hostile area, but in the end you still have to recharge them all to use them again, for traveling a long distance fast its always faster to use one big jump drive then several smaller ones. Just always pack a charged emergency jump drive, starmade can be trolly.

But yeah, Starmades Jump Drive is propably the worst kind of FTL, and needs some serious redesign in the future. Oh joy, another thing i could write several pages about.

I'm fine with an extra jump drive for emergencies, but spending 10 minutes at your home base and then insta warping across the galacy is not my idea of fun. Also, if you want to look at some new jump drive mechanics, check out these threads:

http://starmadedock.net/threads/change-ftl-mechanics.3983/

http://starmadedock.net/threads/sustained-warp-vs-schine-engine.5176/

This is what traveling should contribute to the game, in my opinion:

1. Spreads out players that differing regions of space are clearly defined
2. Should contribute to a sense of exploration and vastness
3. Fast enough that multiplayer faction mechanics are viable
4. There should always be a sense of danger
5. Should have an option of doing something else/nothing on long voyages (Using LUA blocks when we get them, repairing the ship, building, etc)

Think 17th century ocean travel, as opposed to 21st air travel, which is what the game resembles right now.

 

[Knack]

Some said, firing weapons should trigger a jump-drive cooldown, I would say the opposite.

Let jump-drive use trigger a global weapon cooldown of 15 seconds or so, also for all docked entities.
So you can troll-jump if you want, but no stupid hit and run.

Also if a jump would additionally require an actual amount of energy that would be more balanced.

But that belongs to the suggestion forum

 

[Thalanor]

Krougal hm I do think that jump drives should not be escape mechanisms (at all) though. Charging a jump drive requires careful calculations and stable system output (in my lore :p). If you get hit by a weapon with hostile intent, I don't see why you should be able to jump at all until you either evaded the shots for 30-60s (should give you the thrills) or otherwise escape all hostile signatures.

 

[FullMetalFox]

I'm fine with an extra jump drive for emergencies, but spending 10 minutes at your home base and then insta warping across the galacy is not my idea of fun.

Smallest Galaxy ive seen so far was 160 jumps to across. (80 system from shortest edge to edge crossing the core, 1 jump = 8 sectors, 8 sectors = half a system, 80x2=160) So that warping across the galaxy is "slightly" exaggerated...

Also, if you want to look at some new jump drive mechanics, check out these threads. This is what traveling should contribute to the game, in my opinion.

Read those, but they all sound compromises, i my personal view FTL should either be some kind of Super Cruise with countermeasures and dangers, or location based network generated by the game, think Hyperspace Jumps only from Lagrang Points.
Pretty much started yet another chapter on my suggestion thread draft exactly about that yesterday, yes im insane, already 23 pages.

 

[Snk]

Smallest Galaxy ive seen so far was 160 jumps to across. (80 system from shortest edge to edge crossing the core, 1 jump = 8 sectors, 8 sectors = half a system, 80x2=160) So that warping across the galaxy is "slightly" exaggerated...

Eh, still. Ten warps will get you far, and using black holes and warp gates you could make it pretty far without encountering any danger.

Read those, but they all sound compromises, i my personal view FTL should either be some kind of Super Cruise with countermeasures and dangers, or location based network generated by the game, think Hyperspace Jumps only from Lagrang Points.
Pretty much started yet another chapter on my suggestion thread draft exactly about that yesterday, yes im insane, already 23 pages.

I'll be looking forward to reading it.

 

[NeonSturm]

Read those, but they all sound compromises, i my personal view FTL should either be some kind of Super Cruise with countermeasures and dangers, or location based network generated by the game, think Hyperspace Jumps only from Lagrang Points.

+1+1+1+1+1+1 :D
Lagrangian_point is a very good idea!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point#/media/File:Lagrangian_points_equipotential.jpg

 

[Thalanor]

Well we have wormholes for location based natural networks and warpgates for artificial ones. FTL should be usable anywhere, but come at higher risk. A "super cruise" mode would actually be more fun.

 

[FullMetalFox]

I'll be looking forward to reading it.

Will still take some time, i keep overthinking stuff and try to base all analyses and suggestion on as many tests and calculations as possible with the current game, dont want to suggest stuff thats gamebreaking or not possible in the end.

+1+1+1+1+1+1 :D
Lagrangian_point is a very good idea!

Damn, the day we two agree on something, that just happend.

Well we have wormholes for location based natural networks and warpgates for artificial ones. FTL should be usable anywhere, but come at higher risk. A "super cruise" mode would actually be more fun.

Well Wormholes are a limited fixed network, and Warpgates are artificial as you said. Lagrangian Points would be in pretty much any system with a star and other celestial bodies, they way i imagine it you could use a L-Point to enter Hyperspace and emerge at the L-Point youve selected as destination, range and time depending on the power of your Jump Drive. Ill explain the idea, process, advantages, disadvantages and possible ways of using it for additional gameplay mechanics in my future suggestion thread.

 

[NeonSturm]

Well Wormholes are a limited fixed network, and Warpgates are artificial as you said. Lagrangian Points would be in pretty much any system with a star and other celestial bodies,

Perhaps there are inter-system Lagrange-points. The L1..5 ones only respect the sun,moon,planet.

If you have to jump from inter-planetary to inter-system LPs, you gonna need a route-plotter tool.

 

[Keptick]

Just use overdrive to outrun the missiles.

Overdrive won't let you accelerate fast enough to get out of range before the missiles hit. Most likely they'll hit before you even get over the speed limit and into the overdrive's boost zone.
[DOUBLEPOST=1429629110,1429628764][/DOUBLEPOST]

Instead, what if jumping triggered cooldowns itself (and refreshed upon subsequent jumps)? You wouldn't have to worry about oversized turrets/docked ships getting around the system if even turrets had to reload after a jump.

I didn't think of that, I really like the idea! Reminds me of FTL actually.

 

[aceface]

This alpha damage thing is no problem to me and is just another tactic, since your ship has to have lots of power capacity so it balances out that way.
my solution: make swarmers target the nearest heat signature (like they would in real life). thus one could undock a core or two to distract all of them.