Ammunition Tweaks

[Draco18s]

Slightly faster doesn't seem fast enough to catch up to Raid starships. They usually get to their target, destroy it, and go through a wormhole before any of the innumerable shots reach it.

That is its role tho, quick in, kill, quick out.

Yes, but it travels so fast you can't hurt it.  There's a difference between "good at a job" and "impossible to defend against."

[Ozymandiaz]

Slightly faster doesn't seem fast enough to catch up to Raid starships. They usually get to their target, destroy it, and go through a wormhole before any of the innumerable shots reach it.

That is its role tho, quick in, kill, quick out.

Yes, but it travels so fast you can't hurt it.  There's a difference between "good at a job" and "impossible to defend against."

Yes... thats what I said in my post as well

[rubikscube]

it's very easy to defend against it.

1 instant weapons beam cannons and such
2 hit it headon : Don't freaking chase it, let it come to you so your shots basically run into it headon.

[Draco18s]

1 instant weapons beam cannons and such

Expensive (knowledge and resource wise) and limited in number.

2 hit it headon : Don't freaking chase it, let it come to you so your shots basically run into it headon.

That only works for so long.

[rubikscube]

I often see my transport diving to safety, I guess it is kinda broken, even as my transport run to the wormhole headon, it still dodges a lot of them, sheerly due to the fact it's kinda difficult to get a direct hit if YOU'RE AIMING for the ships current location, not where it will be.

[Frozen Critical]

wait,  Ain't Homing Weapons Enough?

I Disagree , while AI war's Space could be Small to us , it May be quite Big to those Units down there , and thus , Projectiles Fired Can't Traverse Space That Quick to catch up to Ships Designed to Move Faster Then a Speeding Bullet

(But again , I Should Shut up so that i don't get anymore Fail Warnings)

[Volatar]

I like having certain ships able to outsmart bullet outrun lasers. Its fun

[Kalzarius]

wait,  Ain't Homing Weapons Enough?

I Disagree , while AI war's Space could be Small to us , it May be quite Big to those Units down there , and thus , Projectiles Fired Can't Traverse Space That Quick to catch up to Ships Designed to Move Faster Then a Speeding Bullet

(But again , I Should Shut up so that i don't get anymore Fail Warnings)

Relativity states that if a ship travelling 200 m/s fires a bullet that travels at 200 m/s, the bullet will be travelling at 400 m/s.

Plus, at least with missiles, we know they continue to have enough propulsion to turn, so they should be able to continue accelerating. There's no friction in space, nor is there drag. The only reason for them to reach a maximum velocity is to be able to maneuver as necessary.

[rubikscube]

I suggest ammo should not be able to do a u turn, or we can add a "steering ability" on ships, describing the radius of their turn, making raid starships essentially able to outmaneuver a bullet when running away from it but not headon. This will make a lot of things easier.

[Volatar]

Ships already have to take time to accelerate and decelerate for turning. Maybe we could make the raid starships have a lower acceleration?

[Draco18s]

I suggest ammo should not be able to do a u turn, or we can add a "steering ability" on ships, describing the radius of their turn, making raid starships fast ships essentially able to outmaneuver a bullet when running away from it but not headon when facing shots headon. This will make a lot of things easier harder.

Fixed that for you.  By giving a large turn radius to bullets it means that all fast ships (speed 80+?) would be able to out maneuver bullets especially ones headed strait for them, but less so when running away.

If a ship is headed in the direct opposite direction of a bullet, that bullet has to make a 180 degree turn around (difficult by your suggestion).

If a ship is headed away from a bullet and turns 90 degrees, that bullet only has to turn 30 degrees (much easier than the ship's turn, even at the same turn radius).

[x4000]

A few points:

There is 0% chance of:
1. Making custom accelerations for ships beyond what is already set based on their sped (that makes for all sorts of complexity, and I already changed the game away from doing that for good reason).
2. Making shots unable to turn in various ways (this just introduces a ton of micro, and would be game-breaking in a lot of ways).
3. Making ships have a bunch of specialized "dodge" abilities (this also introduces nothing but micro).

[rubikscube]

what about predicting flight path?

[x4000]

That involves way too much CPU usage, and doesn't really add anything to gameplay in an RTS title.  For an action title, sure, and stuff that shoots at you in Alden Ridge does use that sort of technique, if I recall (plants shoot these little pods).  But in terms of an RTS, it's a waste of CPU and programming time. 

I'm not looking to make things more complex here, or to massive reinvent the mechanics of shooting in any particular fashion.  Right now it works, it's clear, it's simple, and the game is balanced properly with it.  Why reinvent things to add bugs, make it more complicated to use, make things unbalanced, and worsen the performance?

[rubikscube]

your great tips and tricks for destroying ships that outrun ammo?