Page 4 of 11
Posted: 2007-09-23 07:42am
by Stark
Being able to generate a ship-value based on sections/guns/modules to compare capability might be useful. Not useful ingame, but it'd allow ships to be distinguished by how outrageous they are: 20 sections and 500 guns tells it's own story.
I don't think the shipbuilder itself should ever have any real restrictions placed on it.
Posted: 2007-09-23 12:23pm
by Einhander Sn0m4n
th15 wrote:Minimum rate of fire is still one, weapons will not fire more than once per frame.
Considering that's thirty rounds a second, or 1800 rounds per minute per barrel...
All you really need to do to get a murderoud rate of fire is clone the weapon and mount them in clusters. I tend to like Vierling mounts, myself.
Posted: 2007-09-23 12:44pm
by Ariphaos
th15 wrote:Minimum rate of fire is still one, weapons will not fire more than once per frame.
Actually bugs out if you try, at least in .77
What I'd like to see is speed being based on engines and mass, not arbitrarily defined.
Posted: 2007-09-23 04:17pm
by Einhander Sn0m4n
Cylon Basestar. I smell trouble for any battlestars around...

Posted: 2007-09-23 04:36pm
by Andrew_Fireborn
Yeah, found that, and it's where I started from with the weapons.
But without having toyed around with anything other than the beam line, I couldn't say where I should put them at... Currently, the vast majority, excepting ones I know were for smaller ships, are sitting at a 2/4/6 spread...
Then there's the fun of assigning point values to custom adjustments. Obviously a single point increase clip or damage is worth more to a beamer than a projectile, given their DoT pattern. Not to start on firing arcs...
Posted: 2007-09-23 09:51pm
by th15
Yea that's why game systems with customizable weapons such as Fleet Action 2 fell apart. Most game systems with customizable weapons restrict you to simply choosing which type of weapon to place on a point and giving you a list of pre-made weapons of varying classes (like Battletech).
Posted: 2007-09-24 06:53pm
by Einhander Sn0m4n
Repost from Wyrdysm. Shep'll love this.
New weapon idea: Nuclear Missile.
Largeish, hard to destroy, rather slow missile with slight homing capability that explodes with a blinding flash and shock wave (exactly like a battleship Core explosion, just bluish tinged and can be much bigger) and does instant damage to _everything_ with a line of sight to the initiation, which decreases at the square of the distance from the detonation, just like nukes in real life. Affects smaller components and modules more than larger ones to simulate lesser heat-rejection; range adjustment affects the yield/blast size (and therefore damage and distance falloff) exactly like Plasma Charges.
Fuze Mode can be toggled to initiate upon hull impact or after HP of missile reaches 50% due to interceptor fire. Interceptor fire weakens the blast yield scaled to the HP, and nuclear missiles can be targeted by any weapon in the game just like a regular ship.
I even have an idea for the missile sprite (note: this won't be actual size, it'll likely only be the size of the Small Core ingame; size could vary as per yield).
No, it doesn't have to be this color, but it would be hilarious. Silo/launcher would be a large weapon component instantly recognizeable for what it is, and have a long reload time.
Can this be done?
Posted: 2007-09-24 07:32pm
by Qwerty 42
Has anyone tried an ISD?
Posted: 2007-09-24 07:33pm
by Einhander Sn0m4n
Qwerty 42 wrote:Has anyone tried an ISD?
That's the basic concept of my Destroyer.
Posted: 2007-09-24 08:25pm
by Lancer
*raises eyebrow*
Weaponized candy corn?
Posted: 2007-09-24 09:15pm
by Einhander Sn0m4n
Matt Huang wrote:
*raises eyebrow*
Weaponized candy corn?
...Yeah.
Long story short, Dave bought some candy corn. I squinted just the right way at it and saw potential for the shape as an elliptical-cross-section maneuvering reentry vehicle with a power-law forebody (read: nuclear warhead that can move around, that I made a fancy nose-cone curve for with a graphing calculator and a math equation). Could someone get Stuart please? Oh, and don't forget the candy corn.

Posted: 2007-09-24 09:57pm
by Vendetta
th15 wrote:Yea that's why game systems with customizable weapons such as Fleet Action 2 fell apart. Most game systems with customizable weapons restrict you to simply choosing which type of weapon to place on a point and giving you a list of pre-made weapons of varying classes (like Battletech).
Possibly the most interesting way to deal with it would be to introduce an internally consistent budgeting system balancing, say, energy requirement, mass, and efficiency.
For example, for a beam weapon, increasing the optical cavity size increases mass, but also increases range, whereas increasing energy input increases damage, but also increases heat waste and adds some mass (tracking a waste heat value for beam weapon would allow their refire rates to be auto-governing)
Then, it's not simply a case of "points value", but letting people decide what they want that gun to do. High refire, low damage, short range for interceptors, or low refire long range for main guns, and the mass value that goes along with those variables governs just how many you can bolt onto a given ship section.
Likewise with warheads, you can track their warhead size and counter intercept protection, but those again increase mass, slowing the missile and making it easier to intercept, and reduce the combat load of the launcher, again adding refire delay as the launch tubes are reloaded.
Posted: 2007-09-24 10:38pm
by Andrew_Fireborn
Well, I decided to go ahead and post the tourny over there.
http://www.wyrdysm.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=346
See that for info if you're interested.
Posted: 2007-09-24 11:14pm
by Executor32
Qwerty 42 wrote:Has anyone tried an ISD?
The Infamous RayCav made an ISD, but I couldn't get it to work. A pity, since it looks more like an ISD than the ones in the SW ships pack.
PS: Yes,
that RayCav.
Posted: 2007-09-25 12:13am
by DogsOfWar
Anyone else notice a lot more bugs in this latest version? Like whenever you try to exit a level it crashes, and when a certain ship appears in skirmish it throws up errors?
Posted: 2007-09-25 12:16am
by SilverWingedSeraph
DogsOfWar wrote:Anyone else notice a lot more bugs in this latest version? Like whenever you try to exit a level it crashes, and when a certain ship appears in skirmish it throws up errors?
I haven't had these issues, except for once or twice when my ship did something the game didn't like for some reason. Although the Ctrl+F3 (Spawn Normal Enemy Ship thingy) function in the Sandbox mode doesn't seem to work for me... which is a little annoying.
Posted: 2007-09-25 12:58am
by DogsOfWar
Another thing I forgot to mention before: does anyone else get a "converting data" message when they try to load a custom ship? That didn't happen to me in .77 but now it always happens... takes a while and gets annoying.
Otherwise the game runs perfectly

Posted: 2007-09-25 03:24am
by The Yosemite Bear
Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:Matt Huang wrote:
*raises eyebrow*
Weaponized candy corn?
...Yeah.
Long story short, Dave bought some candy corn. I squinted just the right way at it and saw potential for the shape as an elliptical-cross-section maneuvering reentry vehicle with a power-law forebody (read: nuclear warhead that can move around, that I made a fancy nose-cone curve for with a graphing calculator and a math equation). Could someone get Stuart please? Oh, and don't forget the candy corn.

yes, here in SDN we celebrate Halloween by making more ghosts. Should I mention that the "Hiroshima Wraiths" are specterial carbonized ash.
Posted: 2007-09-26 10:34am
by th15
Go ahead and get in that custom ship tourny!
New version released!
Get it here:
http://www.wyrdysm.com/games.php
I think a lot of you are going to be pleasantly surprised with this version.
Major new features:
-Waypointing! You can now queue up orders by holding the shift key down when issuing an order
-GUI for Sandbox mode. No more hunting for the right key combination to spawn ships, everything is now displayed in a neat little set of buttons at the bottom right of the screen.
-Missile turret! Launch guided missiles at your enemy!
-Thruster module. When destroyed, the ship loses some of its thrust. Now you can make ships that have their engines represented.
-Fixed a bunch of silly bugs in the missions and engine
-Optimized the turret code. You should experience better performance in-game
Note: The way the Missile works in the shipmaker is a little odd. The turning speed of the missile launched is determined
by the second decimal of the missile turret's assigned turnspeed. This means that a missile turret with a turnspeed of 0.73 (default) rotates at that speed but the missile itself turns at a rate of 3 degrees.
Note2: The thruster is also unique. The amount of thrust deducted from the ship when destroyed is determined by the total energy set for the thruster. If the energy for the thruster is set to 0.02 (default) it will deduct 0.02 from the ship's thrust value when destroyed.
Posted: 2007-09-27 07:19pm
by Nephtys
Hrrm. I've actually made some pretty fun Honorverse ships. By giving them a shield generator or two to put on big broadside arcs, it makes maneuver work out somewhat. Crossing the T presents a lot of small, easilly destroyed segments which are hard to shield. But broadside v broadside engagements present large single sections that can be protected by shields more easilly, though saturation fire can overwhelm.
Now, gotta see if these new 'non-dumbfire' missiles are any good...
Posted: 2007-09-28 03:19pm
by Einhander Sn0m4n
Posted: 2007-09-28 03:39pm
by Vanas
Nephtys wrote:Now, gotta see if these new 'non-dumbfire' missiles are any good...
I'm rather fond of them. Set a respectable clip size of about 4, set shot deviation to something like 30, and it lobs a decent looking missile volley. made my Kushan Missile Destroyers a hell of a lot better, and if you boost the range they're decent bombardment guns.
Posted: 2007-09-28 04:40pm
by Darkevilme
I like them as well. my modded missile launcher is called a ripple launcher.
damage:20, rate of fire: 3 a sec Clipsize:12 reload:5seconds deviation:45 degrees.
Missile salvo is a go go!
Posted: 2007-09-28 05:33pm
by Rogue 9
I haven't tried them yet, but my roommate informs me that the engine sections don't actually affect the ship's movement in the slightest; they just look cool. He could, of course, be wrong, but it raises the question.
Posted: 2007-09-28 11:58pm
by th15
The thrusters don't increase the thrust of the ship they're added to, but when they're destroyed they subtract an amount of thrust from the ship. They're just there to give some representation to the engines of the ships.