Okay. Firstly, the Riot star ship is... well, a riot! As a modular proof of concept it certainly works from what I've seen so far.
Very much liking the modular aspect but the options probably need to be limited in number perhaps reserving the best combinations/quantity for the higher Marks. A ship with one or two bolt-on extras is probably more than enough per Mark.
You may have a point. I just prefer lots of guns, but there's not really much additional tactical complexity in having 4 peripheral hardpoints on the Riot MkI than 2 peripheral (keeping the 2 internal). But I think it looks a bit cooler
Most of the weapon types seem to do basically the same thing - there are only so many ways you can attack engines!
There is less variety than I would like (and we can improve that through changes), but there's probably a bit more variety than you think:
case ForegroundObjectType.RapidFireMachineGunModuleI:
this.MinHitPercent = 15;
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_Swarmer, 4, 500 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_Melee, 4, 250 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_Stealth, 4, 0 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_UltraLight, 3, 750 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_Light, 3, 500 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_Medium, 1, 500 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_Heavy, 0, 750 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_Artillery, 3, 0 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_AreaOfEffect, 3, 0 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_OtherNonStarshipMilitary, 2, 250 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Starship_All, 0, 500 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Turret_All, 0, 200 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Tractor_Beam, 0, 500 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Heavy_Defense, 0, 200 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Force_Field, 0, 200 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Launched_Missile, 0, 200 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Command_Station, 0, 100 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Command_Post, 0, 100 );
case ForegroundObjectType.LongRangeLazerModuleI:
this.MinHitPercent = 80; // this means an 80 percent chance of hitting AT ANY RANGE within the 20000 limit
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_Swarmer, 1, 0 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_Melee, 1, 0 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_Stealth, 1, 250 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_UltraLight, 1, 0 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_Light, 1, 250 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_Medium, 3, 250 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_Heavy, 4, 250 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_Artillery, 3, 750 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_AreaOfEffect, 3, 500 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Class_OtherNonStarshipMilitary, 3, 250 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Starship_All, 1, 000 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Turret_All, 0, 750 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Tractor_Beam, 0, 750 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Heavy_Defense, 1, 0 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Force_Field, 1, 0 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Launched_Missile, 1, 0 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Command_Station, 0, 100 );
this.SetAttackBonus( ShipType.Command_Post, 0, 100 );
(btw the code isn't laid out quite that way, I left out non-bonus stuff; also, the Class_ ship types are only used for riot balancing right now, most bonuses are set by more specific types which is typically better when you don't actually mean "make this more effective against smaller ships")
That's only those two weapons (the others are in a similar range) but you can see some fairly significant differences in effectiveness.
If you’re going to bolt on Machine Guns you’ll probably stick all four on so I’m not sure if there is a need for four separate hardpoints.
Not necessarily, I'm fond of the 2-and-2 loadout for balanced firepower. Helps against bulletproofs too. A 3L-1M has advantages too.
The graphical placement of the turret GFX is a little wonky. (See the light blue arrows on the below image.)
Yes, I never was quite able to get them lined up perfectly, hopefully that can be sorted out before long, or at least made better.
The Tazer and Forcefield modules still display the ColorMask layer. (See the yellow arrow pointing at six vertical green lines, this is the ColorMask layer of the Forcefield turret GFX.)
Yea, I brutally stole the turret graphics even though they look silly (particularly the tazer), we'll probably go with different graphics altogether for those.
The Forcefield module also doesn’t actually sit in the centre of the ship, not that this is a major issue.
That's because the flippin' hardpoint ain't in the center of the ship
More seriously, this is particularly noticeable when you mount two forcefields (which is a low-firepower setup, but can have advantages in some cases).
They seem to be flippin’ useless at taking on fixed defences. Good thing.
Yes, that was a design goal
They're never, ever going to wrack up any vast kill lists because they seem to be almost entirely non-lethal. Good thing. Let the other ships clean up.
Yea, they do a fair bit of damage with so many guns (particularly if you get close enough that shields aren't a big problem, though the lasers tend to cut through shields pretty well), but they aren't going black-widow on anyone.
They seem to be supremely handy at wrecking the engines of anything that comes within range (especially the shotgun which is a veritable weapon of engine mass destruction). Perhaps a bit on the effective side for just 1,000 Knowledge.
Yea, I almost nerfed their engine damage by half before the prerelease, but wanted to see what people thought.
Noticed that they are super-vulnerable to Vampire Claws; they have no effective defense vs them. Good thing. Everything needs a nemesis.
That's actually totally unintentional, I meant for them to be lumped under Class_Melee and shredded with the rest
But if it's a good counter to have, perhaps it should stay that way.
24 Speed is probably a bit on the rapid side.
Probably. I was going for a fast patrol-boat firefighter sort of thing; perhaps 20?
Their health is initially low (Light Starship sized) but once loaded up with (very cheap to build) modules its effective total health increases dramatically.
Yes, in effect it does work that way. One thing to note is that the base ship is still targettable even with all the modules alive and if the base ship is destroyed the modules go away too.
(And probably more so as I'm suspecting that the turret placements are just as tough as the fixed versions - do you really want to make turrets mobile considering how much tougher they are globally?)
Yea, the turrets were brutally stolen (and significantly buffed, in the RFG's case), but I figured with how much more a Starship costs than the small ships that it could afford to have a few super-small-ships (which turrets basically are) strapped to it.
Again, probably a bit much for only 1,000 Knowledge (and for a MkI model).
Yea, the balance passes are coming, and feedback is quite welcome and necessary. We'll probably push the serious coolness into the MkII and MkIII tiers but the MkI should stay a satisfying little boat.
Are the modules in permanent group formation with base starship?
No, good guess though. I actually added the concept of "ship attachment points" ("hardpoints" in practice) where whole other ships are actually attached. Attached ships are then moved with the parent ship, die with it, etc. Actually not a lot of code had to consider the modules at all. But the AI and the auto-targetting code will need to consider them at some point as right now they totally don't care that they're modules instead of ships (and it's cool that strictly speaking they don't have to care).
Thanks for the feedback, everyone, I'm glad that this change is more popular than the 3.028 munitions boost changes
Keith
