Subset Games Forum

Sleeper Service wrote:Planetary Defence Satellites
Planetary Defense Weapons
minefields

As much as I'm looking forward to Advanced Edition, these are even more features that (probably?) only you are giving us. Thanks for being so awesome.

I found a funny ion storm auto-turret today: She had shields, but for some bizarre reason decided she should start with them compeltely turned off and concentrate power on two heavy lasers instead. She tried to power them up when her weapons system got damaged, but the system got damaged before the bubble could charge.

Could it be beacuse she was using the power on the FTL generator instead? Not that it would do her any good, at leat not prior to declaring self-destructive intentions.

Would you happen to know the algorythm by which they decide what to concentrate power on, when their generator is lacking?

Also, how can you make stations unable to dodge while still having engines and cockpit? I'm curious.

Turrents have very little starting power. This is part of balancing them, because I feel like they get faster upgraded to max systems later, maybe because they don't have so many systems.

FTL charging requires no power beside the bars ships put into engines. Suicide-capable stations have very little engine power, end their engines remain disabled till they start to charge their FTL. That is achieved via the same function that disables player ship systems in events.

They turrets actually can dodge while charging their FTL, their engines are cleared the moment the self-destruct event starts. But they only have one engine bar, so it's unlikely you miss a lot... if you do then just imagine it's your weapon crew screwing stuff up because the situation gets so tense.

Last time I checked, stations that *do* have controls and engines were able to dodge. It might have changed in latest version, though.

I noticed funny thing - swarm rockets are supposed to damage only hull, yeah? I'm asking, as currently, they're damaging systems too, making them pretty OP (3 damage to hull and system, ~10 seconds recharge...).

/Estel

Swarm missiles and heavy scatter lasers do half damage to systems. Mines do only hull damage.

Swarm missiles have similar reload time and DPS than conventional missile launchers, with the advantage that they are harder to intercept and cost less power. On the downside, they do less sys damage and cause less breaches and fires. They are as OP as Hull and Hermes missiles.

Found a humorous typo a few minutes ago. I went to a store and was looking at the augments. The little description box for the AI Avatar Generator said:

Can create infinite amounts of partly holographic crew members. Requires an empty bacon.

So, while the staggering breakthrough in pork exploration is worth noting, one wonders how a strip of bacon can be “empty.”

—Tyson

Yeah, swarm missile launchers are like a class of their own, and have trade-offs with other weapon types. I really, really like the variety they add.

That said, I should mention that in sMPK they can only pierce through two shields (and they deplete a bubble if they can't get through). I think it makes them more balanced, both for the player and specially enemies, since hull damage is a far bigger deal for the player ship than system damage is.


I'm curious (and not going to go through this thread's archive to see if it's been answered already): what were the sad, sad drone supposed to do and why did they end up discarded? I can suppose the orange one is a bio-beam which probably was almost useless due to random aiming (anti-crew laser drones have the advantage of hitting the whole room and breaches), two effector drones which would be really funny in ships with lotsa rooms (and that if tele-bomb projectyles can even be assigned to drones), and another two mine-laying drones, which I'm at a loss. Maybe you considered they were too similar to the approved ones?

Apart from cloaked mines, have you considered adding another type of mines?


Also, include in one of those tips you get shown at a new game the fact that you should remember to de-power engines or get the pilot outta the cockpit before firing healing/repairing bombs on your ship, lest you miss.


EDIT: Why the hell does the Healing Cluster Bomb have a fire chance?

The anti-bio drone was pretty fast, so it actually did some good damage to crew. The problem was how the AI targets rooms with beams. It always targets the exact middle of a random room and then draws the beam towards the exact middle of a another room. Some positions on some ships that where frequently take by crew (helm and weapon console on the Rebel fighter for example) can not be hit by this targeting pattern. The drone just beams and beams, but even if it hit the rooms, it never draws the beam over the tile the crew is at. This made it less useful and obviously glitched.

The mine drones where original planed to be bomb-teleporter drones. Bomb weapons on drones did not work out, but as mines later became a thing and some of the drones got reused for that and are happy now.

The effector drones also need bomb weapons to work. Anything with ion effects on can not pierce shields (ion always ionizes shields first if they are up), so they could not rely on another weapon typ to do their thing. On a sidenote: The light missile drones only exist because bombs on drones did not work, they basically do what the bomb drones would have done.

More types of mines are difficult, because what sets them apart is that they just do hull damage. Giving them other effects would blur out this weapon category. But currently there are still plans for two more other weapons and one more drone. Maybe they even make it into the next update.

Healing Cluster Bomb fire chance is not intended, but might be a nice perk for now, if you board with rock.

Sleeper Service wrote:Healing Cluster Bomb fire chance is not intended, but might be a nice perk for now, if you board with rock.

It isn't in the Stormwalker, that's for sure, specially if you're firing it at your own ship.

@ effector drone.

Why not have an invisible super fast projectile coming from the drone that pierces all shield and the explosion animation is the usual effector messages and such? would that work out fine?

Edit: possible to make mines that do no hull damage but only do hull breaches? Breach Mines? those make logical sense. I noticed you had/ have a "Breach Mine drone" or what have you, that idea does work and it gives you a reason to actually aim where the mine should go.

another idea = similar idea to burst laser III, maybe a mine launcher that fires quite a bit of mines that do low-mid damage, for the appropriate energy cost.

Also, is there going to be any player ships being as cruisers enemies in this mod?...