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- Aug 28, 2013
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Right now, shotgun arrays of AMCs are the only viable weapon choice for starmade. Single cannons fall behind in DPS, and waste damage on hull. d1000s miss, KBs can hit your allies, and BBs take a while to lock on. Right now we have a lot of rock versus rock.
So why are shotguns so powerful? Because doubling the size of a single cannon doesn't double its DPS. (AMC damage is propotional to the square root.) But adding another cannon does, because the cannons operate independantly.
So here's my suggestion: All weapon damage is : (blocks in group) / (blocks on computer) * (square root of blocks on computer) * (cooldown time) / (1 + (.001 * number of groups on computer)) * constant. Shotguns will have slightly reduced DPS due to the fact that with more shots, they have an increased chance of hitting.
Reloading will change. All groups on a computer will fire at the same rate. In addition, instead of fixed reload time, there will be a "heat" system, which allows burst-firing. All weapons, when fired, will generate heat. Heat dissipates at a constant rate per time. The "cooldown time" in the damage formula above is the time it takes for the weapon to cool down from one shot. It is the rate of continous firing. This is determined by (constant1 - (constant2 / (constant3 + blocks in largest group))) It will increase up to a limit.
Heat capacity is the amount of heat a weapon can take before "overheating" and suffering damage. Weapons on larger ships have increased heat capacity (up to a point), and weapon groups that occupy a larger portion of the ship's mass have a larger heat capacity. So the capacity is (mass of ship) * ((mass of group) / (mass of ship))^2 * constant. This is calculated and summed for all groups on a computer. Players can adjust the firing rate (when the fire button is held down) independatly of all other stats. This means you could set a large cannon up for rapid fire when you do line up a shot, or set the cannon to a lower rate of fire to reduce energy comsumption. This also means it is possible to launch salvos of missles instead of a spreading out the missles.
Range, missile radius, and projectile launch speed will still increase with group size, independatly of other groups, like they do.
Missiles now have an acceleration stat that is inversely propotional to the damage. d1000s will accelerate in a straight line, while KBs and BBs will accelerate like ships instead of traveling at constant speed and just changing direction. Maximum missile speed (not launch speed) will be twice the sever speed.
Missles will now have a flight time instead of a range. At the end of the flight time, missiles will detonate However, players can decide how many missles will be launched from a single group. d1000s and BBs can launch up to 16 missles from one group, while KBs can only launch 4. Splitting the missles gives you reduced damage and radius, but you keep the launch speed and flight time and gain manuvarbility.Increasing the number of missles per pod gives means the missles will launch at slightly different angles. The first missle will always launch straight ahead, but each successive missile will be off slightly more than the last. Each missle will follow the other after about .25 seconds. In addition, BB lock-on time is now dependant on the size of the target, distance to the target, and speed of the target. So locking onto a fighter at the edge of radar range traveling at the max server speed will take a while, while locking onto the titan sitting right in front of you will take no time at all.
However, all this decrease in DPS means that shieds should be reduced to prevent battles from being exersizes in futility. This will also make hull more viable.
So why are shotguns so powerful? Because doubling the size of a single cannon doesn't double its DPS. (AMC damage is propotional to the square root.) But adding another cannon does, because the cannons operate independantly.
So here's my suggestion: All weapon damage is : (blocks in group) / (blocks on computer) * (square root of blocks on computer) * (cooldown time) / (1 + (.001 * number of groups on computer)) * constant. Shotguns will have slightly reduced DPS due to the fact that with more shots, they have an increased chance of hitting.
Reloading will change. All groups on a computer will fire at the same rate. In addition, instead of fixed reload time, there will be a "heat" system, which allows burst-firing. All weapons, when fired, will generate heat. Heat dissipates at a constant rate per time. The "cooldown time" in the damage formula above is the time it takes for the weapon to cool down from one shot. It is the rate of continous firing. This is determined by (constant1 - (constant2 / (constant3 + blocks in largest group))) It will increase up to a limit.
Heat capacity is the amount of heat a weapon can take before "overheating" and suffering damage. Weapons on larger ships have increased heat capacity (up to a point), and weapon groups that occupy a larger portion of the ship's mass have a larger heat capacity. So the capacity is (mass of ship) * ((mass of group) / (mass of ship))^2 * constant. This is calculated and summed for all groups on a computer. Players can adjust the firing rate (when the fire button is held down) independatly of all other stats. This means you could set a large cannon up for rapid fire when you do line up a shot, or set the cannon to a lower rate of fire to reduce energy comsumption. This also means it is possible to launch salvos of missles instead of a spreading out the missles.
Range, missile radius, and projectile launch speed will still increase with group size, independatly of other groups, like they do.
Missiles now have an acceleration stat that is inversely propotional to the damage. d1000s will accelerate in a straight line, while KBs and BBs will accelerate like ships instead of traveling at constant speed and just changing direction. Maximum missile speed (not launch speed) will be twice the sever speed.
Missles will now have a flight time instead of a range. At the end of the flight time, missiles will detonate However, players can decide how many missles will be launched from a single group. d1000s and BBs can launch up to 16 missles from one group, while KBs can only launch 4. Splitting the missles gives you reduced damage and radius, but you keep the launch speed and flight time and gain manuvarbility.Increasing the number of missles per pod gives means the missles will launch at slightly different angles. The first missle will always launch straight ahead, but each successive missile will be off slightly more than the last. Each missle will follow the other after about .25 seconds. In addition, BB lock-on time is now dependant on the size of the target, distance to the target, and speed of the target. So locking onto a fighter at the edge of radar range traveling at the max server speed will take a while, while locking onto the titan sitting right in front of you will take no time at all.
However, all this decrease in DPS means that shieds should be reduced to prevent battles from being exersizes in futility. This will also make hull more viable.