Thank you guys! I'm glad to see all you are still here after so much time, such a nice community to get back to
As for this:
Baile nam Fonn wrote: ↑Fri Oct 06, 2017 8:51 am
What are some specific things you have in mind regarding ship's signature simulation and weapon types?
Basically, I want to simulate target lock of weapons, as in space weapon range is not really limited so I try to use other values to determine engagement ranges. So to determine how far the weapon can reach I'll use next values (if you played tabletop game DropFleet Commander you will see some similarities):
+ Basic weapon reach by design (e.g. 50 km)
+ Ship's sensors (+ 50% range to all weapons, this number is high to simulate how hard it is to lock on target far away if sensors are damaged)
+ Ship's weapon coordination sub-systems (e.g. +10% range to all weapons)
+ If target is highlighted by some source (firing powerful spinal-weapon, highlighted by friendly target painters etc.)
+ ECCM (works only if enemy has ECM)
+ Basic signature of the target
// signature is a combination of radar cross-section, thermal and EM dissipation and any other thing that can make it easier to lock on target in the void of space. All installed modules add to the signature (e.g. powerful engines, gigantic drilling platform for mobile miner)
- stealth sub-systems (e.g. "Cloaking modules" decrease total signature by 20% before first shot is fired)
- stealth modifications for other modules (e.g. armour, engines)
- ECM (e.g. - 15% to basic weapons reach)
- environment (e.g. dense asteroid field, nebula)
As for weapon types - they are quite standard: Kinetic (from simple cannons to railguns), missiles (can lead target even if attacking ship lost the target), torpedoes (short ranged and armoured to overcome PD), energy bolt weapons (short ranged due to disintegration of "bolt capsule" but high damage), energy beam weapons (very high-tech, rare, mostly spinal-type weapons). Some of them have different additional characteristics in regards to signature//range, but still follow the general concept.
I do also plan to add "point-blank" special weapons that require small amount of power to operate but have very limited weapon's reach that cannot be modified by anything.
There is a
small presentation for the game that I created during my Game Design courses, but It can be lacking without my comments. I know that there are a lot of features in it for one-man team, that's why I will start from small combat prototype to see if it'll work.
I'm not sure to be proud that I re-invented the wheel at 17, or disappointed that all I did was re-invent the wheel. Anyway, was interesting to make. Many challenges and whatever. No external libraries used.
