Weapons Demonstration: News and Discussion

[MrFURB]

This I think is a good way to go but where does this leave turrets? How will turrets and docked ships be affected? will they need their own systems? This is a big factor.

I've always enjoyed the fact that turrets don't inherit the protections of the ship they are mounted to. It provides counterplay to an otherwise win-win boost to your damage versatility.

 

[ghettodexter]

I've always enjoyed the fact that turrets don't inherit the protections of the ship they are mounted to. It provides counterplay to an otherwise win-win boost to your damage versatility.

May thing is aren't turrets part the of ship? I'd like to make smaller turrets and realistic size machineguns turrets but not massive boxes attached to my ship because they need shielding and whatnot turrets shouldn't have to be the size of small fighters.

 

[[email protected]]

Maybe you could just make so turrets are protected by the ship sheild if the ships sheild is at 75% or higher when it goes below the turret isn't protected any more

 

[Crimson-Artist]

i always thought that a good way to balance turrets is to give them a percent shielding of the parent ship based on a how many other turrets are connected. the amount decreases with the more turrets you install as a way to discourage titans with 11 billion turrets and put more emphasis on smaller craft/ specializing of ships/turret types and placement

 

[Thriver]

Most effective combat ship –

It seems the way things are now the most effective combat ship would be a box ship of mostly shields surrounded by docked ships of mostly shields with turrets docked to them. Most mass consisting of shields in the smallest space a box. With ship + ship + turret you get three layers of shields and two outer bodies of mass for protection. This is not very pretty or creative, but most effective at surviving and destroying. Hardened armor is pointless except maybe some around your core.

Kind of dampens the game when you spend all this time making a really cool ship and some dude with nothing but a box of shields and guns blows you out of the water.

 

[Malacodor]

This is a good thing. Someone took information and used it in their shipwrighting in order to fulfill a specific purpose. It's a type of specialization that didn't exist before; something that is not common in Starmade.

The problem I see is that players will use mods or third party tools to get this information, which would make these mandatory.

 

[Draren Thiralas]

"stop -> AntiGravity (less/no gravity from e.g. planets)"

Am I the only one thinking HOVERCRAFTS!!!

 

[ToyotaSupra]

Most effective combat ship –

It seems the way things are now the most effective combat ship would be a box ship of mostly shields surrounded by docked ships of mostly shields with turrets docked to them. Most mass consisting of shields in the smallest space a box. With ship + ship + turret you get three layers of shields and two outer bodies of mass for protection. This is not very pretty or creative, but most effective at surviving and destroying. Hardened armor is pointless except maybe some around your core.

Kind of dampens the game when you spend all this time making a really cool ship and some dude with nothing but a box of shields and guns blows you out of the water.

This is going to be solved with the new weapon systems, when they fully balance it.

Consider, however, tanks and Humvees in real life. They are nothing more than armed boxes and they would easily steamroll anything. Also consider the Borg. However building Doomcubes is a definite sign of terminal noobery in building skill and is usually treated as such.

 

[Thriver]

This is going to be solved with the new weapon systems, when they fully balance it.

Consider, however, tanks and Humvees in real life. They are nothing more than armed boxes and they would easily steamroll anything. Also consider the Borg. However building Doomcubes is a definite sign of terminal noobery in building skill and is usually treated as such.

It is easy to disagree that building “doomcubes” is a sign of “noobery”.

True it is not very creative but new players come into this game wanting so much more than a box. Anyone who is playing PVP and truly wanting to build the most effective combat ships are, by the dynamics of the game, driven to it.

You can call it noobery but that would just be calling an effective strategy a derogatory name because you don’t like the way it looks. Who does? In the end though all those pretty little ships will still get a beat down by the “noob cube of doom”.

This game is almost done, as is, if you just want to make pretty virtual models. Just go look at some videos from the mushroom fleet server and be impressed. Now take the same amount of blocks of any ship you see and convert them into a box of shields and weapons and it will beat the original ship.


You are correct - this Dev does offer hope!

The exciting thing is it appears that the developers are on to this with this new update. Discussing it is a good thing. This game will truly be magnificent if they can implement a complex weapons system like what seems to be taking shape in this dev, but it must be balanced and not over shadowed by shields. So we can successfully combine art and strategy.

I for one don’t want to just sit around painting pretty pictures all day. I want to paint a pretty picture that will tear up your pretty picture.

 

[Calbiri]

This is going to be solved with the new weapon systems, when they fully balance it.

Consider, however, tanks and Humvees in real life. They are nothing more than armed boxes and they would easily steamroll anything. Also consider the Borg. However building Doomcubes is a definite sign of terminal noobery in building skill and is usually treated as such.

Noob Cubes!
We should encourage these players to improve their building skills. In the long run the advantages of Noob Cubes will be minimal compared to more intricately designed ships, and I believe community pressure will push newer players to develope building styles more complex than merely spamming chunks of blocks.

 

[ToyotaSupra]

Noob Cubes!
and I believe community pressure will push newer players to develope building styles more complex than merely spamming chunks of blocks.

Oh no doubt, this is what I meant by 'noobery'. And yes, I do have faith that you and your ragtag bunch of misfit loose cannons that play by their own rules and frequently piss off the Commissioner will eventually fixify it very soon with the weapon update that will force creative decisions and tactics.

In reply to you Thriver indeed a combination of community pressure, dev updates and the occasional gentle 'get the f* off my server NOOBCUBER' will rid us of the cub-shaped menace. Still, like you also said this is a tactic, albeit an irritating one like the UMP in BF BC 2 or the Noobtube in MW.

 

[Malacodor]

I think cubes are a legitimate way of learning the game mechanics, especially with the new, more complex weapon system.

the occasional gentle 'get the f* off my server NOOBCUBER'

How about: "Nice, you made an efficient ship! Now shape that into something non-ugly."

 

[MrTuborgDK]

That is good! :D

 

[Byamarro]

Noob Cubes!
We should encourage these players to improve their building skills. In the long run the advantages of Noob Cubes will be minimal compared to more intricately designed ships, and I believe community pressure will push newer players to develope building styles more complex than merely spamming chunks of blocks.

Hope so :D

 

[ToyotaSupra]

So when the time comes will the weapons have their values calculated by block number or by user-defenition (like the old system, where you can modify the values) Because it seems difficult to balance using blocks, too many d100s and you can't hit anything too many Antimatter blocks and you get artillery shot.

 

[Wolfiy]

Beam weapons? FINALLY, the covenant will be pleased XD

 

[flpsantoss]

The new dev builds that comes with new insaths have a little bug with only missile one, as he is connected to a slave missile he get the missiles enter the heatseak mode. (dam my english today is awful)

 

[ghettodexter]

Yea all I got was missiles new insanth and bugged heat seek? umm yea you lost me... They forgot to connect the computer? uhh?

 

[Calbiri]

The new dev builds that comes with new insaths have a little bug with only missile one, as he is connected to a slave missile he get the missiles enter the heatseak mode. (dam my english today is awful)

Awesome, thanks, I see what happened. Slave computers with no blocks dont modify damage, that was a bug before, but apparently they do still modify the AI behavior, I'll get this on the buglist to get fixed, nice catch!

 

[Borr]

It is easy to disagree that building “doomcubes” is a sign of “noobery”.

True it is not very creative but new players come into this game wanting so much more than a box. Anyone who is playing PVP and truly wanting to build the most effective combat ships are, by the dynamics of the game, driven to it.

You can call it noobery but that would just be calling an effective strategy a derogatory name because you don’t like the way it looks. Who does? In the end though all those pretty little ships will still get a beat down by the “noob cube of doom”.

This game is almost done, as is, if you just want to make pretty virtual models. Just go look at some videos from the mushroom fleet server and be impressed. Now take the same amount of blocks of any ship you see and convert them into a box of shields and weapons and it will beat the original ship.


You are correct - this Dev does offer hope!

The exciting thing is it appears that the developers are on to this with this new update. Discussing it is a good thing. This game will truly be magnificent if they can implement a complex weapons system like what seems to be taking shape in this dev, but it must be balanced and not over shadowed by shields. So we can successfully combine art and strategy.

I for one don’t want to just sit around painting pretty pictures all day. I want to paint a pretty picture that will tear up your pretty picture.

I think it will be hard to force lazy users to not make cube ships. There is no purpose to use any other shape. In real life, shaped armor/hull can reduce damage, because bullets or missiles have more chances to slide sideways than penetrate.
Also shields are really broken in this game, and whatever you do to balance it, there will be always a way around it. I would see something like regenerating hull rather than magic aura around entire ship and it should be relatively easy to implement. Simply add some regeneration to hull heath. Old shield block could be used for temporary shield, hull regeneration or health boost. Bigger amount, stronger effect, but also bigger power usage and longer countdown time before you can use it again. Sometimes I think Devs are lacking creativity, and only copy ideas from Sci Fi movies... If it were up to me, I would delete shields entirely and redo armor functionality, which I did partially once as an experiment using block config file (get rid of shields, boost armor value in hull blocks and ship core), and fights were far more enjoyable.