Post by Ozzatron on Dec 4, 2012 22:23:12 GMT 10
(Per request of Vancovat, and seeing as I had a lot of ideas on this topic, I... err, made this topic 
)
Most people agree that Blurst Shields, although maybe not overpowered in themselves, can be used to create overpowered ship designs with relative ease. These designs, which I call "Blurst Fortresses", surround a ship on all sides with the shields, making them completely invulnerable to all forms of attack except for Ramming Spikes. They can also move, some better than others, by using thrusters mounted internally.
It's not clear whether we need to nerf the shields themselves or the resulting designs, but I'd say both. If Blurst Shields are supposed to be weird, force-field extruding modules that can reflect lasers, that's exactly what they should do. They should not have much health, but should be completely immune to lasers and torpedoes. Torpedoes can be debated - I always thought they were concentrated spheres of energy rather than physical projectiles. They're much too slow to be anything else, really.
And as for the ship designs, I'd say Farbs could add some logic to Jameson that would make internal thrusters do jack sht. Think about it. Rockets take off because they're pushing off of the ground or the atmosphere to move upwards. A ship in space works via Newton's Third Law, basically. If a ship in space were to try and generate thrust by pushing off of itself, Newton's Third Law wouldn't work anymore, and it would go nowhere. In fact, it might even rip itself apart (this would be very fun to code, at least in my opinion
).
::edit:: Maybe it was the second law. Whatever. I mean the "equal and opposite reaction" law.
Please note this wouldn't apply to Translocators and Transrotators, obviously. I can't hash together a good enough physics argument for things that supply momentum with no acceleration or deceleration.
Although making internal thrusters useless seems like a good idea on the surface, when I reconsidered it I realized that it breaks a lot of cool, non-cheesy designs for large ships that I've seen/thought of. And seeing as we're trying to foster creativity in the players' ship designs rather than having everyone drift around in a box o' Blursts, that wouldn't be a good idea.
This in turn could be helped by having more modules that would be useful to have in the interior of a larger ship. Right now we have Auxiliary Oxygen Tanks, Bubble Shields, and (sort of) Chrono Gears and Repair Modules. Oxygen Tanks and Chrono Gears are rare, and Bubble Shields and Repair Modules only help to a point. I find that I fill all the dead space inside my ship with thrusters (as you can see in my screenshot at the bottom of this page). Maybe we could use something new, like some sort of energy generator.
I alone can't completely solve these problems. But I had some ideas. And I wanted to know what ideas you guys have, too.
TL;DR:
)Most people agree that Blurst Shields, although maybe not overpowered in themselves, can be used to create overpowered ship designs with relative ease. These designs, which I call "Blurst Fortresses", surround a ship on all sides with the shields, making them completely invulnerable to all forms of attack except for Ramming Spikes. They can also move, some better than others, by using thrusters mounted internally.
It's not clear whether we need to nerf the shields themselves or the resulting designs, but I'd say both. If Blurst Shields are supposed to be weird, force-field extruding modules that can reflect lasers, that's exactly what they should do. They should not have much health, but should be completely immune to lasers and torpedoes. Torpedoes can be debated - I always thought they were concentrated spheres of energy rather than physical projectiles. They're much too slow to be anything else, really.
And as for the ship designs, I'd say Farbs could add some logic to Jameson that would make internal thrusters do jack sht. Think about it. Rockets take off because they're pushing off of the ground or the atmosphere to move upwards. A ship in space works via Newton's Third Law, basically. If a ship in space were to try and generate thrust by pushing off of itself, Newton's Third Law wouldn't work anymore, and it would go nowhere. In fact, it might even rip itself apart (this would be very fun to code, at least in my opinion
).::edit:: Maybe it was the second law. Whatever. I mean the "equal and opposite reaction" law.
Please note this wouldn't apply to Translocators and Transrotators, obviously. I can't hash together a good enough physics argument for things that supply momentum with no acceleration or deceleration.
Although making internal thrusters useless seems like a good idea on the surface, when I reconsidered it I realized that it breaks a lot of cool, non-cheesy designs for large ships that I've seen/thought of. And seeing as we're trying to foster creativity in the players' ship designs rather than having everyone drift around in a box o' Blursts, that wouldn't be a good idea.
This in turn could be helped by having more modules that would be useful to have in the interior of a larger ship. Right now we have Auxiliary Oxygen Tanks, Bubble Shields, and (sort of) Chrono Gears and Repair Modules. Oxygen Tanks and Chrono Gears are rare, and Bubble Shields and Repair Modules only help to a point. I find that I fill all the dead space inside my ship with thrusters (as you can see in my screenshot at the bottom of this page). Maybe we could use something new, like some sort of energy generator.
I alone can't completely solve these problems. But I had some ideas. And I wanted to know what ideas you guys have, too.
TL;DR:
- Make Blurst Shields vulnerable to missiles/rockets
- Decrease Blurst Shield health
- Make internal thrusters do nothing or worse (possibly damage the ship)
- Add some new modules to use in the interior of large ships?
