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Ryugi

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About Ryugi

  • Birthday 04/30/1987

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  1. With the Combat Update recently being announced, I wanted to try my hand at discussing things I'd like to see changed or implemented when it comes to combat within the game, and how weapons interact with armor, shields, or standard blocks. I'll also offer some possible new weapon designs, and offer an insight into how I think the torpedoes could be used. This thread won't discuss combat options for salvaging weapons, as this was recently addressed in the last stable update. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PHYSICAL WEAPON SUGGESTIONS Chainguns - Chainguns are good all-round weapons. They have average range, average damage against hull and shield, and are good point-defense weapons. [suggestion] With the advent of Flak Turrets coming to fight more easily against fighters, I think that chainguns could still be useful in this role by giving them a bonus to damage against fighter craft, maybe randomized, allowing them to be universally useful at any point should a captain decide to use them on their ship. Bolters - Bolters are basically just chainguns that deal extra damage to hull and nearly always overheat. In virtually every other instance, they're basically the same. Honestly, I'd consider removing them from the game, as the only time you're using them they function as slightly better chainguns against bare-hulled ships. They're quickly made less great, though, once shields start appearing, meaning chainguns are again a better universal weapon, making these things rare and more or less obsolete unless paired with something like plasma weapons. [suggestion] Replace these with "Autocannons". These would be bigger, slower-firing weapons that don't always overheat, but that deal more damage to hull and shields than standard chainguns, but have no bonus damage or accuracy when firing against fighter craft. This means they don't impede on the universal use of chainguns, or step on the toes of the new flak guns, while still being an upgrade to what you started with. Maybe instead of overheating, they have a "spin up time" where they eventually reach full strength as well. Cannons - Cannons are probably one of my favorite weapons, but they tend to not be very good against shields, which almost all ships have at the point you get them, it seems. Sure, you could pair them with plasma weapons or something to help with that, but they still lack some of the oomph you'd expect against hull, especially compared to later weapons. [suggestion] These things can't be perfect, of course, but we don't have a true armor-busting weapon either. They could do more damage than rockets, and have a larger AoE that shocks an area for damage, similarly to how railguns work now. However, they might only penetrate 2 or 3 blocks at maximum so we don't have a railgun situation all over again. They can still be dodged, but now, if they hit, your armor and bits feel it. Otherwise, they function identically, with overheating, projectile speed, recoil, all that jazz. Rockets - Rockets are also one of my favorite weapons, but their slow projectile speed makes them mostly useless unless firing at stationary targets, or unless "thrown" from your ship at high speed, where their velocity is added to your own. Seeker Missiles are easily one of the most awesome things in the game, since they can home in on enemies, but they require a fast craft to use them effectively in ship to ship trades. [suggestion] Remove the basic dumb-fire missiles to be replaced by the cannon changes from above, since they fill a similar role now. Seeker missiles could then have a wider damage variance (since you can't really dodge them and they can't hit like trucks all the time as a result). Or, their blast radius could vary, and only do surface level damage as opposed to armor penetration damage like the cannons above. This means they still hurt several blocks, and do decent damage overall, but they don't overwhelm someone despite being seekers if they've invested in solid defense. Railguns - Everyone uses these. There is no exception for the most part. I love railguns, but they're too strong as it stands. The way they calculate damage makes them superior to every other weapon in the game when shot against a ship's hull, even if they're using armor, which kind of defeats the purpose of armor to some degree. The armor might stop the penetration, or the shot from damaging components, but that doesn't really matter when it still does the same damage to the vessel's hit points regardless of what it hits. It's still going to ruin your day. [suggestion] Make armor blocks stop railgun shots. Like, actually stop them. Basically, the damage is NOT multiplied if the railgun hits an armor block. It hits the armor, does 1x damage, and halts. If a railgun hits any other block other than armor, it behaves exactly like it does now, until it either "passes through" the target, or hits another armor block. Basically, armor your components to deal with railguns, and don't die anyway even if you have armor because of crazy damage mechanics. This means rails turn lightly armored craft into a new debris field, but give heavily armored ships more of a chance to survive them, as it honestly should be. ENERGY WEAPON SUGGESTIONS Plasma - Plasma weapons are honestly nice weapons. They take energy, but don't overheat, and can evaporate most shielding with enough sustained fire. They have their niche and they do very well in filling it. They're the universal energy weapon against shields as well. [suggestion] I don't think these actually need changes. They're solid weapons to use against shielded craft too. The only thing might be to have them travel a little bit faster to the target, even if they don't increase rate of fire. Laser - Laser weapons are the real universal energy weapon, dealing good damage to both hull and shields, with a trade off being their universal short range. These would also make good anti-fighter weapons, potentially, since they go right to the target. [suggestion] Similar to chainguns, I think these could get a damage boost against fighter craft, especially because of their short range and default greater power and energy requirements. These are sort of like a step up from chainguns with a slight difference in cost, and that fills a good role as well. Tesla - These are basically better lasers with higher energy cost. They're basically like Bolters in that, except that they're even less far-reaching than lasers, requiring you to get close to zap someone. [suggestion] Keep things the same, but make these do more damage to shields, potentially. If you get up close and personal to zap their shields, it puts you at risk for that reward, so I feel this balances things nicely. Lightning - Inaccurate railguns, basically, that hit the surface for a lot of damage, but can be nullified by stone blocks. Arguably a counter to armor blocks, but are rarely used due to their sporadic accuracy. [suggestion] With the changes above implemented, I'd suggest removing them in favor of something else, however, they could be a middle-ground between existing weaponry, and a few new types discussed below if kept in and unaltered. Pulse - What are shields? These things basically pass through them as if they aren't there to be super annoying to decorative ship builders everywhere, and deal chip damage through giant flying shield generators. These are arguably a necessity since it's easier to increase your shields than it is your hull and maneuverability. [suggestion] This might be a little dangerous to suggest, but giving these a higher damage cap might be a decent call, as long as their range stays somewhat on the smaller end. They don't need a huge buff, but as it stands, in early game, chainguns are basically better against hull than these things are late game. While you can also have a lot of these, giving them a small boost to output would make them just a little more appealing endgame. NEW WEAPON SUGGESTIONS Flak - I have no idea how these are intended to work, but I would imagine they're super effective against fighters, dealing lots of damage to them, but are largely ineffective against literally everything else. [suggestion] Since these are specialized weapons, I'm not worried about them being too overpowering. What they will do, of course, is make fighters a little less overbearing, since they have a counter other than other fighters now. Seriously, even homing missiles have problems hitting fighter craft as it stands. Torpedoes - I'm going to take a wild guess and say these will probably be manufactured on your ship similarly to fighters, or purchased and mounted to your ship. They'll be countered by flak turrets, chain guns, or possibly other weapons set to auto-fire. And because they can be shot down and are single use, I imagine they will really, really hurt. [suggestion] Hopefully these will move a little faster than rockets, but slower than cannons, in order to make them hard-hitting, but counterable. Also, having them be anti-factory or anti-station weapons rather than pure ship weapons would be pretty awesome, since it takes forever and a day to take out a station, potentially. WEAPON WISHLIST Capital Class Weapons - So, these would only be capable of being mounted on ships above a certain volume limit, but not the max cap (Maybe 10 slots?), so as to give smaller ships a chance against hulking behemoths, potentially. These weapons would not pivot the way normal turrets do, so, basically, you aim them with your entire ship. They could be mounted forward, backward, or side to side (broadsides whee!), depending on what the captain wanted for their ship, and could be built around with blocks to protect them from being easily stripped off by weapon fire. Also, they would have very high levels of recoil to make them harder to use effectively on smaller ships, despite the volume limitation. Mounting them along your center of mass would help a great deal, for example. Rather than having a "cooldown" period, these weapons would have a "charge up" period before each shot, preventing instant use, and giving an enemy time to try and maneuver away. As of right now, I've come up with two potential weapons of this class. [Rail Cannon] Take the slow-firing properties of cannons and railguns, then combine them into one, huge, fast-moving shot of destruction. These things would have a bad day if they hit a ship's shield, but would potentially deal a good chunk of damage to them. If they hit hull, however, well, much pain would descend upon your enemies. If they hit armor, they'd explode similarly to the cannon suggestion above, dealing shock damage to the blocks hit in the AoE and even slightly behind them. If it hit hull or anything that wasn't armor, it would act like a railgun, with a limited penetration of course (4 or 5 blocks max, maybe?), but multiply the damage accordingly. These weapons would never have a shield penetration chance, and travel more similarly to a cannon projectile than a railgun projectile, so they could potentially be avoided to help balance their power. [Particle Cannon] The energy version of things tears through shields like a plasma weapon, has a chance to penetrate shields entirely, and deals surface-level damage in an AoE if it strikes the ship itself, with components below stone blocks being untouched. These aren't as useful against hull, though they would still hurt, but if they hit a ship's shields, they deal a large burst of damage. They'd deal bonus damage to shields, but not to hull, as these are specifically aimed at stripping a ship's defenses. These weapons would have a shield penetration chance of some kind, maybe 30%, and also travel more similarly to a cannon projectile than a lightning projectile, so they could potentially be avoided to help balance their power out and prevent too much abuse. Uses of Capital Class Weapons Basically, these things are designed to be used to siege stations, or attack huge targets. They'd have very little use against fast-moving ships, but would give people a reason to have a fleet instead of one big uber ship, aka one big target to shoot. I don't know how torpedoes are meant to be implemented, but in particular, having weapons like these would not only be a really cool addition to the game in general by adding a new type of fixed weapon for people who like to build big, but also create a counter to almost any playstyle one might face in a PvP scenario by making large ships more of an approachable target, and give people new tools to build their empire through might in the single-player sandbox experience. IN CLOSING I feel that these suggestions add a lot of new dynamic means to play the game, and makes almost any weapon choice a meaningful one if played well. All ships of all sizes, and equipped with any set of weapons, can be tailored to create the experience a person wants, and to fulfill their space fantasies as never before. Big ships are now a choice, rather than the norm. Small ships are still awesome and useful, even later on. Armor feels impactful, shields feel impactful, but not overpowering. Overpowered mechanics have been addressed to provide a multitude of weapon combinations that can fit any choice a person makes, and to make sure that any decision and playstyle has its pros and cons. And, most of all, the game feels dynamic, challenging, and different depending on how you decide to play, or what weapons you decide to use, with none tuned to just be "the best choice" at all times. Anyway, I apologize for the text wall, but I hope some people take the time to read it. Till next time, see you all out there.
  2. This is pretty self-explanatory. As it stands, it's hard enough to trade components among players, basically having to drop so many from your bay and the other person flies over and picks them up after the window expires. But, when you have many people working together toward a common goal, and with this new inventory bank through the Alliance, it just seems natural to allow for storage of trade goods and components. One could argue it would make trading easier, and cargo bays somewhat redundant, but being able to at least have access to such things through the menu would be very beneficial. If abuse could possibly be an issue, you might look into being able to only store turret components in the bank so as not to make it easy to abuse the alliance storage as an almost infinite cargo bay for such things. At the very least, I think the trading of components and trade goods between players could be improved significantly from its current form in the future, regardless of the alliance banking capabilities.
  3. My Steam name has/had a space in it. As such, it was impossible for any commands to work correctly with it. If possible, it would be nice for the game to be patched or updated to allow a way for names with spaces to be handled by the game's various commands, including the group commands, and other features.
  4. This is true. However, it's also possible that people might be using the same ranged weapons depending on the stats of the factory weapons on the server. It could turn into a range game, but at the least they would buy you time to start jumping across the galaxy to fight off the invaders attacking your stations.
  5. So, I stumbled upon this idea after making my first few stations and seeing they weren't capable of mounting many defenses of their own. That, and after seeing a little bit of action unfold in a multiplayer server and learning more about interactions, I started thinking of ways to defend my interests from attacking enemies or possibly other players that might get a little shooty. In short, I want to get opinions on "Defense Stations." Now, as most people know, "Stations" in the base game can't do a lot for themselves in the way of defenses. You need system defenders or some means to protect them, either that or dump tons of money on making them blocks of HP and Shields so it would take ages for anyone to break through them. However, ship AI is notoriously hard to manage, and in some servers, fighters seem to cause a lot of lag. So your options are limited when fighters are pests at worst, and your AI ship captains are pants-on-head silly sometimes and could be kited away from stations by another player attacking them. Enter the "Defense Station." I use quotes because a "Defense Station" isn't technically a "Station" in game terms. What it actually is, however, is a small to medium-sized ship that lacks any main engines, outside of possibly thrusters, is made of tough, durable materials, carries gyros for turning to face enemies, and is a pool of HP and Shields that will sit diligently around your stations to shoot down baddies that get too close. You crew them with Gunners, Engineers, and Mechanics, equip them with shield upgrades and weapon upgrades, and whatever weapons you desire. Then, you place them near your actual stations to provide fire where it matters most. Because you don't have to worry much about maneuverability, they can be made of tough materials like Ogonite Armor, and you can have more room for shield generators and other such things to make sure these things are pretty tough to crack for their size compared to any standard ship. Also, since you don't need as much crew, they're cheaper than a defense ship of the same size, or any ship of the same size, technically. They'd lose the defense of mobility, but gain the defense of...well, more HP and shields than a standard ship, and their slots could be used for more weapons and shields as well. After all, one of these things doesn't really need to warp around after you place it somewhere. So, I wanted to present this concept to you guys to get your take on it. They definitely have downsides. They aren't designed to move around like a ship, so they'd be hard to reposition without a refit, and an enemy could potentially use that immobility to target weaker parts of them. And, for all I know, they might simply ignore other players attacking your stuff since I'm not familiar with how the AI Captains deal with that factor without you in-system with them, even after giving them orders to follow. But they'd be very useful against pirates or hostile NPC factions for less than the cost of a standard ship. All that said, what do you guys think?
  6. Use Seeker Missiles. They get a speed boost from your own speed and can home in on enemies quite easily. Late game, though, shields make most weapons largely useless unless they have a decent shield piercing chance. That fast-paced style of combat, though, is how I played the game until I upgraded to a larger ship for kicks. I love it as well.
  7. Ultimately this did turn out to be true, but only barely. Honestly, if possible, it would feel better if gyros scaled in various dimensions added slightly more or less rotational torque depending on their shape. For example, perhaps a long gyro block would fit better for a long ship, as more of the rotational toque is spread out along the mass of the ship, or allow gyros to have markers similar to directional thrusters to show how the rotational toque is applied, and have them behave in a way similar to the directional thrusters, so you could place a few different gyros to help pick up the slack if your thrusters can't do the job very well. As it stands now, I feel like gyros need to feel a little love in that department, particularly for larger vessels, else it'll only push the designs of ships to be more cube-shaped, or something like that. Either that, or have them scale a little more effectively in their stats as they get larger to compensate for some of the larger ship designs, where it's hard to have large portions of your ship not be other internal types of blocks.
  8. Maybe it's just me, but when I have built my ships, I like to give them little lights similar to shipping or aviation lights. As a result, I place glow blocks in various places and recolor them accordingly, but it came to my attention that what we don't have is blinking or strobe lights. While it's a minor thing, all things considered, I feel it would add a lot to player-controlled, or even generated ships to have blinking light sections for navigation in space at a glance, much like we have for aviation now.
  9. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like the gyroscope blocks only add to my Roll stat in any appreciable way when designing larger ships. Even if intended more for smaller vessels, you would think that they would still add their rotational torque to different stats more equally, or change depending on block size and orientation, much like a real gyroscope, or even like the thrusters we now have. Thrusters, in my book, are by no means obsolete with the introduction of gyros and Inertial Dampeners, though the dampeners really help with break thrust. But side-to-side motion, strafing, moving up and down, are all handled by thrusters. I like that mechanic, but I still feel larger ships should still be able to benefit somewhat in other categories outside of roll from using gyroscopes.
  10. I had a chance to play with the Gyroscope and Inertial Dampener blocks on my ships for a couple hours, and there was, as expected, a stark contrast between Iron Tier and Avorion Tier Dampeners. I can understand the intention behind the beginning and end-tier resource blocks for the Dampeners, however, with such a massive difference in strength, I felt a middle ground could be useful for mid-game. As it currently stands now, Xanion offers very little in terms of uniqueness compared to the other materials, other than it mimics Avorion's inability to be used for crafting armor blocks, and offers a little more HP and durability than Trinium at the cost of being slightly heavier. It's also a "technological material" which honestly makes it an ideal candidate for a mid-range buff to Dampener materials. Trinium could also technically work, since it is directly in the middle of the material chart, but Trinium is already an amazing material for its tier, granting access to hangars and computer core blocks, as well as being the lightest material in the game and universally useful in building any block, except Dampeners. In addition, many players will stay in the Trinium/Xanion tier of ship materials for some time as they collect artifacts to open the core or build a small base of operations before entering. I'm certain the devs had a reason for choosing the two materials on opposite ends of the spectrum, perhaps to test effectiveness and see how things shaped up. But given Xanion's odd place on the material tree and what it offers compared to other materials, I believe it would be an excellent candidate for the addition of an Inertial Dampener block.
  11. I'm excited to try the Intertial Dampener blocks to see how they behave on my ship, especially since this block is almost exactly the sort of thing I'd wanted in my suggestion a couple days ago! Hopefully it scales in such a way where smaller ships can make a better use of it than large ships too, because smaller ships should still have some advantages over big ships when it comes to movement. Can't wait to try this out!
  12. I'm very happy to hear that, although I'm confused as to what that really means. Technically speaking, gyroscopes should provide torque to keep a craft steady or to help it rotate along an axis, a lot like thrusters do currently. Basically, gyros would add to stabilization, and to pitch, yaw, roll, and all that. My suggestion wasn't aimed at the idea that thrusters are somehow lacking, I think they're pretty solid, really. But the flight mechanics of the game itself were changed in the beta update in such a way that removed some of the "flight simulator" aspects that I personally enjoyed in the previous system. So, by adding my suggested module, some of that "flight simulator" maneuverability and flying might be added back into the game, tied to the module, and linked to vessel volume to help prevent abuse cases or things from being a little too silly. However, if you're saying that the devs are working on a new block type that will effectively allow a more "flight simulator" style of movement over a "space sim" style movement, that would be almost exactly the type of thing I'd be looking for. Space dogfights might not be at all realistic, but they sure are fun.
  13. So, I recently upgraded my game to the current beta version, and had a go of combat with directional thrusters and the altered maneuvering system. I managed to get my designs into functional states and they can work well enough, however, I also very quickly started to miss the high-octane sorts of maneuvers and flying I used to be able to get out of fighting in a small, fast ship. And, after having a high speed mock fight with my friend on the current live build (not the beta), and having a blast (and also realizing I could not do this in the beta build), I came up with the idea for this module. Obviously, the old flight system was in no way realistic for a space game. It was rather silly to have a massive ship flying around as effectively as a smaller one just by turning and burning and all that. However, as a fan of dogfighting games, and not just space sims, I got a real thrill out of jockeying for position and looping and spinning to get a bead on my enemies, and firing off a salvo of weapon fire and veering away to start again. I enjoyed flying around to avoid enemy fire and taking a serpentine path out of a fight. The beta flight system currently allows none of that, really. You either orbit your enemy, firing until they die, or you ram into something or someone, or they do, and that's more or less it. Forward thrust arguably means very little, and turning rate is arguably the most useful stat. If you want to do an attack run, you speed by, hopefully avoiding enemy fire, or hitting anything, launch your salvo, turn retrograde, burn to change direction slightly, and do it again, all while being fairly vulnerable. What this does is make bigger=better as far as ship design, since being larger lets you soak more damage, mount more weapons and modules, and still manage to turn well enough if you add enough thrusters. In the old system, a smaller, faster ship could, arguably, effectively combat a larger ship if they stayed fast and kept moving to stay in blind spots, but that kind of gameplay, which I understand was something of a niche, is now more or less defunct. The "AMDU" or "Active Momentum Dispersal Unit" would effectively add a little of the old flight system into the game, that is to say make it more "flying sim" than "space sim" and linked to a module you can equip. The catch, though, is that it would specifically, hopefully, be designed with a high curve of diminishing returns for ships as their volume increased, as well as a maximum benefit as their volume decreased. This way, battleships will not be able to handle like smaller "fighter-style" craft, but smaller craft will still hit a limit as to how effective the system is. This module would very quickly introduce a clear difference between "battleship" combat and combat between smaller craft. And, because it takes up a module slot, you're still paying a price for that ability, much like you do for any other upgrade, especially at lower tiers of volume. Stacking the module would, theoretically, not really give any additional bonuses, since it should be linked to volume which is a static thing, and only apply the bonus once. However, if it were allowed to stack, it would still be taking up slots that could be used for more weapons, or shields, or any other upgrades, meaning you'd have to make those modules count, and the higher your volume, the smaller the bonus would be anyway, meaning you'd need more modules to get it to work as effectively as a smaller ship regardless. I understand that this system is 100% unrealistic, but so are lots of the other systems in the game. It's a game, first and foremost, and should be fun. I don't think Avorion was meant to be a true space simulator, else we'd have a lot more gravity and orbits to consider, along with fuel for our engines, radiators for cooling, life support systems for crew, even waste storage and disposal, along with radiation hazards. A little unrealistic flying (in space) for the sake of fun probably wouldn't hurt anyone, and would open up a new (or old?) style of gameplay between different sizes of ships moving forward. As with all suggestions, this is based on something that I believe would add to the enjoyment of the game, as well as strategic depth and more differentiation between different sizes of ships beyond "bigger=better", at least for myself personally. Thank you for your consideration!
  14. One thing I've learned in playing the game is that size is great, but it isn't the only factor in combat. Largely, the most defining factor of a weapon comes down to its damage, and effective range. Accuracy also plays a part, but we'll get to that in a minute. The farther away you can hit a target without him hitting you, the better. Combine this with speed and ability to stay out of range of his weapons, and you'll slowly pick away at him until you overcome him, or he gets tired of trying and leaves. Right now, large ships can almost zip around as effectively as smaller ships, thanks to the way size scaling works. But they are still limited by other factors, like not being able to sit within or fly through an asteroid field to break a pursuit, or whatever else. As was mentioned earlier, large ships, slot for slot, have less firepower than a group of smaller vessels totaling their combined hull, material, and shield value. As powerful as that battleship might be, and imposing, his weapons can only fire on so many targets at once, and with so much accuracy, and when you can out-range his weapons, or outfly their tracking capabilities, you can concentrate fire and break him down piece by piece. Size is a favorable stat in the game right now, true, but there are ways to combat large ships as well. Even one outfitted with railguns can only be firing at so many enemies at a time, and when seeker missiles can be boosted to track in at high speed and long range, there isn't a lot that big ship will be able to do to stop you, since, at the end of the day, he's a much bigger target, and you, probably, have superior numbers. In the end, one type of ship isn't necessarily better than another depending on circumstances. 1v1, expect a small ship to probably lose to a battleship, unless he can avoid being shot and stay in blind spots. But in ideal circumstances, a small ship should never be forced to 1v1 a battleship either, and, ideally, should bring a group of friends. Admittedly, I have yet to play this game PvP, but based on what I know of the system so far, and a little bit of logic, I can see these points being things to keep in mind when considering how bigger ships scale into combating other ships.
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