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Damage to Ships

#1
How will damage be applied to ships?

Obviously if a ship gets enough damage we've seen it blow up. How abut when a ship takes damage but wins? Any aesthetic physical damage to the ship? Problems with ship components? e.g. engines, life support, navigation, weapons, communications, FTL (if the ship is large enough) etc.

That then leads to the question of repairs? Self regenerating with no action required as 'repairs' are undertaken by faceless crew? Repair shops? Replacing parts? Getting a tow to a repair shop? Which would open the possibility of being a tugboat as a career path (if such a thing takes your fancy). Thoughts?
“The impact of space activities is nothing less than the galvanizing of hope and imagination for human life continuum into a future of infinite possibility.”
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Re: Damage to Ships

#2
if a small systems taken down you can limp to the next repair shop. if your engens get blown out id figure youd need a tow ship (an ally perhaps) to come bail you out. unless your ship had the capability to preform its own repairs or your in a larger carrier ship and had a smaller repair ship available.
If I've rambled and gone off topic im sorry but i tend to be long winded as you might notice if you stumble across my other post XD. thanks for reading.
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Re: Damage to Ships

#3
Mm, I really do like the idea of being towed or being able to tow an ally to get repaired. Or towing an enemy ship that you have beaten for repairs under your own flag or selling for scraps.

Also, this quote by Josh somewhat answers one of the things I raised.
Targetting/destruction of individual components (turrets, engines, etc.) is already implemented :)
“The impact of space activities is nothing less than the galvanizing of hope and imagination for human life continuum into a future of infinite possibility.”
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Re: Damage to Ships

#4
Full Damage -> Big kaboom
Heavy Damage -> You may lose subsystems (turrets, etc) that have to be replaced (i.e., they may be destroyed and not repairable)
Moderate Damage -> Need to repair at a station/planet, will just cost credits, no replacement parts required (again, unless a module gets completely destroyed)
Light Damage -> Presumably this would mean you have a shield and it didn't get penetrated, so of course it regenerates

Now as for all engines getting destroyed...it's still not clear to me how I want to handle it in the case of the player. Indeed, it would seem you would need a tow, but that adds a lot of complexity. I'm not sure how to handle this one elegantly yet...
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” ~ Henry Ford
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Re: Damage to Ships

#5
JoshParnell wrote:Now as for all engines getting destroyed...it's still not clear to me how I want to handle it in the case of the player. Indeed, it would seem you would need a tow, but that adds a lot of complexity. I'm not sure how to handle this one elegantly yet...
we believe in you you can do it XD. I have to make my living being the intergalactic version of sanford and son XD.
If I've rambled and gone off topic im sorry but i tend to be long winded as you might notice if you stumble across my other post XD. thanks for reading.
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Re: Damage to Ships

#6
JoshParnell wrote:Now as for all engines getting destroyed...it's still not clear to me how I want to handle it in the case of the player. Indeed, it would seem you would need a tow, but that adds a lot of complexity. I'm not sure how to handle this one elegantly yet...
I see a couple of ways and non-ways to handle it:
  1. First, the non-option: Leaving the player helplessly floating wherever they are. Equivalent to the game showing the player the stinky finger. Bad idea.
  2. After 30 seconds display a load screen informing the player that they were drifting dead in space and were in fact towed to somewhere. That spares you the trouble of actually needing to script the towing. If there is a game clock, it could be advanced by a considerable amount (time the player spent while waiting for a tow ship). Possible problem: usually an engine failure would happen during a battle. Thus the NPCs should be expected to somehow directly react to the situation. Also, even in an unmanoeuvrable ship the player may want to continue to fight instead of being taken away from the battle via a load screen. Bottom line: not a preferable option.
  3. Make the engine indestructible. Damageable yes, but not totally destructible. Possible handwavium explanation: a totally destroyed engine would go ka-boom and would therefore automatically result in the total destruction of the ship. This would just be a physical property of the way how the engine works. Downside: you couldn't come across NPC ships with destroyed engines either. Derelict NPCs would have to have another explanation: crew all dead; computer failure; loss of energy.
  4. If your engine is destroyed, the only way out is an escape capsule. You have to abandon your ship and everything on board. What happens next depends on how escape capsules are handled generally. Added bonus: once you have acquired a new ship, you could return and salvage your old ship according to the salvaging mechanism (whatever this may be).
Personally, I think that options 3 and 4 both have merits. I'd be happy with either of them.
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Re: Damage to Ships

#9
Towing as a mechanic itself would potentially allow for salvage and rescue missions in addition to your typical space game fare: assassination, cargo collection (killing an NPC and taking the cargo back to a waypoint), fugitive capture (a variant on the former, where you collect an escape pod), transport escort, mapping/exploring, housecleaning (killing all the ships/an enemy base in a given area), and cargo delivery (literally just a trade mission. Take item X from point A to point B).

Despite its complexity, I think it would be worth the time to implement it.
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Re: Damage to Ships

#10
Thanks for the idea McLane, you mentioned several things I hadn't even thought of!

Yes, it would be great to see full-blown towing implemented. But I'm not sure if it's feasible in the time frame! Will explore it, though :)
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” ~ Henry Ford
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Re: Damage to Ships

#11
Hopefully towing will be achievable, but if not, I'm sure your solution will be good. :)
“The impact of space activities is nothing less than the galvanizing of hope and imagination for human life continuum into a future of infinite possibility.”
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Re: Damage to Ships

#12
I'm a bit new and haven't read everythread, so forgive me if what I say has been suggested. While I would appreciate the realism of sitting around doing nothing while my engines are dead and I'm being towed back, I think as a realistic gamer I would see it as boring.

I see a few options:

1) Allow for multiple types of engine systems. The "engine" system doesn't have to go down, but maybe each individual thruster could be disabled and you'd have to run at partial power.

2) Allow the pilot to repair systems to a minimum of function. If a critical system is 100% destroyed (O2, Engines) the ship is destroyed, but those systems can be disabled with damage and require repair.

3) If engines can't be repaired and you're sitting dead, just have a "load" screen and you respawn at the closest station with a much lighter wallet (tow fees + repair fees).
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Re: Damage to Ships

#13
I'll just quote myself here from the other thread:
Hardenberg wrote:
Lets say an engine was hit by a medium power missile, instead of just giving slightly less thrust it could give thrust in a slightly different direction or if it has hit by a fairly good laser it could have a hole (a decal applied to it with thrust and fire particles flying out) that could cause your ship to begin spinning when there is too much thrust.
Geez, I dunno. Bascially, you're screwing with the controls in an environment (3-dimensional space with pseudo-newtonian physics) where screwed up controls are seven flavours of unfun already. Same for Josh's idea of having engine damage leave you adrift in a worst-case scenario.

Seriously, players fricking *hate* it when they lose control over their avatar. Doesn't matter whether you're dying in a stunlock or your plane goes into a death spiral, you're basically screwed and the game gives you the finger by unnecessarily dragging out the unavoidable.
Seriously, if my options are to wait 20 minutes real-time for a passing ship to tow me to a station (or a bunch of passing enemies to grant me the coup de grâce ) or trying to navigate to a station when my thrusters are actively working against that idea, then I'll hit reload. Every. Single. Time. That. Happens.

I *seriously* suggest to implement an auto-repair for damaged subsystems, with an actual auto-repair system speeding the process up and providing hull repair as well. Why? Because thrusters, shields and weapons conking out can be somewhat fun if it's temporary. If you're in deep space without any friendly stations around, it's a death sentence without at least the critical subsystems coming back.
Hardenberg was my name
And Terra was my nation
Deep space is my dwelling place
The stars my destination
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Re: Damage to Ships

#14
The ability to speed up time that Josh has revealed in the latest video negates that waiting time boredom a bit.
“The impact of space activities is nothing less than the galvanizing of hope and imagination for human life continuum into a future of infinite possibility.”
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Re: Damage to Ships

#15
jawdan wrote:The ability to speed up time that Josh has revealed in the latest video negates that waiting time boredom a bit.
Interesting, hadn't thought of that, but you're right.

My general sentiment, however, is to agree with Hardenberg. While it sounds cool from a realism/immersion perspective, I'm not sure towing is something that many players would care for...I mean, I can't see myself wanting to go through with it either, reminds me a bit of the go-to-jail mechanic in Elder Scrolls games...I would always just reload instead.
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” ~ Henry Ford

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