Reforged Galaxy

Discussion in 'Scenarios' started by Vermillion, Dec 24, 2019.

  1. Vermillion

    Vermillion Rear Admiral

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    Well, pulse laser turrets work on planets.
    Flak could be made to work as well.
    The plan is to eventually reach a point that half the CV weapons are enabled, but we're not there yet. It would require considerably more work for that to be fair. The changes to explosion damage haven't been in long enough to determine how fair it would be.
     
    #801
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  2. Scoob

    Scoob Rear Admiral

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    Apologies, I didn't realise Pulse Laser Turrets worked on planets now. When Flak and Rocket (same category of course) didn't work, I assumed the same was true of Laser too.

    You're 100% right of course, the recent changes to explosion damage changes things again. However, I suppose that in part is why I mentioned this. Even a really basic PV can totally decimate the player, one-shotting SV's and HV's quite readily - and they're not just firing one shot - and CV's get picked apart easily too. If it was a more even contest on a Planet, then it'd be ok, but it really isn't.

    Having some weapons only operational in space is fine, though having more weapons available on a planet would be cool. I think if shields are ever allowed to be stackable - or there's some way to boost them - then sacrificing weapons for survivability would be a valid tactic. Shields currently are of course exceedingly valuable, but more in terms that one hit is less likely to kill you outright lol.

    Anyway, thanks for taking the time to respond, and I appreciate all your work so far. The likes of Reforged Galaxy, Project Eden and of course Reforged Eden really make Empyrion that much more enjoyable.

    Cheers,

    Scoob.
     
    #802
  3. Alhira_K

    Alhira_K Captain

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    Its not just the rockets that get completely whacky but your own additions are starting to get out of hand as well. And to me personally they start to make as much sense as some of the stuff Eleon is doing. Sorry, i know this hurts but its the way i see it.

    After having a shielded nighthawk annihilated in an instant by a Rados Refueling Station i did some testing around and tbh what i saw was nothing short of a nightmare. Adding two mp4 clips packed to a .rar and uploaded to Google Drive as the forums doesn't like me to upload mp4.

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BP0GlffjnyMzcnHtp1Mr3-Zcg-FIrCe_/view?usp=sharing

    Ignoring that most of the damage comes from chain reactions there are still a few other things. The clip with the SV shows how your (7000+ dmg dealing) Heavy Plasma Battery takes out about 1/6th of the cargo frog i used as test dummy. The Nighthawk didn't have a chance to escape even with full speed thrust still available.

    I then spawned in my most amateur mini CV to see what effect it would have on it. Well, two shots and the CV was gutted.

    I feel like a simple shield rework wouldn't cut it either as currently every POI has both missiles (which are supposed to not affect shield much and instead wreck armor) and lasers (which are supposed to do the opposite) thus preventing you from counterfitting against the POI.

    And on top of that you add even more weight onto your shoulders with planning to enable more CV weapons on planets? Imo Eleon had the right idea by separating HV/SV for planets and CV for space, maybe you should instead take this even further? Completely remove CV combat abilities (even cannon and minigun turrets) from planets and buff their sentries so they're fine for drone defense. And then split each CV and POI weapon into a planet and a space variant. This way you could reduce a lot of factors you'd have to balance against each other.
     
    #803
  4. Vermillion

    Vermillion Rear Admiral

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    Your ships are both immobile and without shields at point blank range. You think your ship should survive that? I don't. Maybe the first two shots, but not a third at the same point.
    Unfortunately, you'll get more or less the same result in vanilla at this point because the new explosion mechanics don't differentiate between HV/SV and CV/BA anymore. The old system would make an explosion exactly 3x3x3 blocks centered on the impacted block in the same scale. No explosion would ever reach more than 2 blocks deep.
    The new explosion mechanics, which i've already explained happens the same in vanilla as in Reforged, will transfer damage through direct contact up to the maximum range of the explosion's radius setting.
    There is no fix for this. This is not my fault, nor is it my problem. Go play vanilla and you'll see the same thing, only without the chain reaction. Chain reactions only occur when you stick explosive devices next to OTHER explosive devices. That's user error.
    An SV is not a tank. As one would expect, if you shoot any sort of scifi show fighter with a capital vessel's main guns, it gets vaporized. Obviously, that's not good here, but there is no fix for this. I cannot tell a plasma cannon to make a smaller explosion vs SV than a larger one vs CV. Not only would that make no sense both for consistency, it wouldn't be realistic or fair.

    There are currently only two options left:
    1: Reduce the explosive capacity of thrusters and fixed weapons to reduce the chances of an external detonation causing a chain reaction.
    2: Apply new damage modifiers and material types specifically designed to scale damage vs small blocks. Reduces the damage, not the explosion size vs small blocks so CV/BA weapons don't one-shot HV/SV.

    The problem with doing just #1 is that explosive projectiles will still rip their way half-way through an SV before stopping. Likely hitting a fuel tank or generator, which WILL explode violently. I am not compromising on the explosive capacity of generators further.
    The problem with #2 is that it's a lot of work and will make it harder for Ravien to integrate Project Eden with Reforged Galaxy since there are some issues getting a Config.ecf to combine the two.

    And I repeat, the destructive force of explosive projectiles vs HV/SV is exactly the same as vanilla. I also don't expect them to even attempt to fix the problem, and if they do they'll just break the game.
     
    #804
  5. Alhira_K

    Alhira_K Captain

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    Why do i bother testing and writing down possible solutions when people don't even bother reading? I like that when i write "Ignoring that most of the damage comes from chain reactions there are still a few other things." that it is the only thing you're focusing on.

    I know neither of them should have survived, they were for demonstration purposes. I didn't need any more testing as i knew where it was going but i tested it later anyway just for the funsies and because i wanted to see stuff blow up.

    Its not like a tank has much chance against this POI either. The tank below was once a Demon Mk III from Spanj. What brought it to its knees wasn't the chain reaction. It was the time it took to take down the POI shield, while getting hammered by both shield and armor killing weapons in combination to not being able to have enough thrust due to it needing some armor and thus not being able to outrun missiles.

    Hence i suggested separating all that stuff as using different multipliers just makes it exponentially harder to create balance.

    RE1.4_2021-02-14_09-59-36.png RE1.4_2021-02-14_10-00-05.png
     
    #805
  6. ravien_ff

    ravien_ff Rear Admiral

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    Ideally SVs should be able to dodge most incoming heavy fire such as plasma and artillery. Rockets will still have a good chance of hitting them but shields should absorb that. Lasers can wear down your shields but are consistent, not bursty, so you should have time to withdraw. And depending on projectile speed, many lasers can be dodged as well. Going up against strong point defense like miniguns or flak should be a problem for a SV built for speed, however.
     
    #806
  7. Vermillion

    Vermillion Rear Admiral

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    V1.4-72 Changelog:
    Hotfix+

    • Fixed a missing dialogue entry eaten by a bug that was causing the Hostile Apparatus mission to stall in the Radar Station.
      This will NOT require a fresh game to fix. The problem was that the computer terminal's dialogue had been cut off in the middle and this fix simply pastes it back in from a previous version. So you can continue from where you left off without problems.
    • The Polaris Pilot now accepts cash instead of a bank transfer.
    • Reduced the mass of HV/SV Cockpits by roughly half.
    • Increased the thrust of SV thrusters by 15%
    • Added a new Large Thruster for CVs (1x3x1) that sits between the Medium Thrusters (1x2x1) and the Advanced Thrusters (2x2).
    Manual Download
     
    #807
  8. Stampy

    Stampy Lieutenant

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    Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
     
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  9. Scoob

    Scoob Rear Admiral

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    Hi,

    I'm attacking a POI "[Xen] Anti-Ait Fortification" which has one of the smaller Shields. However, I'm finding it tough to crack because of the insane recharge and short recharge delay. I can take it down to as low as 50% with a decent sequence of hits, but I can literally count 1, 2, 3 and the shields are fully recharged once again.

    I have one of these small Shields on my own CV and, judging from the attacks I've taken, it takes far longer to recharge (not that it's particularly slow) and the delay before it starts recharging again is longer.

    Has this perhaps been over-buffed for POI's? Making strafing attacks to avoid missile fire should be a fairly valid tactic and I can score solid hits and avoid the missiles (just about) but the shield will be fully charged by my return run. I'm currently testing underground - cheesy perhaps - so I can see the recharge when not having to dodge fire, and it is indeed as speedy as I mention in my first paragraph.

    I'm going to pinch this shield if I can, it's awesome! lol.

    Scoob.
     
    #809
  10. ChumSickle

    ChumSickle Captain

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    What are you shooting it with? Missiles and the like got a nerf with shield damage.
     
    #810
  11. Scoob

    Scoob Rear Admiral

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    Oh, I'm doing the damage just fine. I can take the shield down to ~50% quickly. However, the recharge rate is crazy high and there's minimal delay until it starts recharging. Sure, I'm not using the best weapon for the job or perhaps just not enough of them, but I didn't expect to have to Alpha strike the POI to take the shield down in one go, based on the recharge delay and slower recharge my own shields have.

    Put it this way that POI is recovering from 50% damage faster than my own CV's shield recovers from 2-3% damage when a Drone lands a pot-shot on me as I pass by.

    If this is the intended balance, then so be it, but my query is whether such an incredibly fast recharge with minimal recharge delay is intended. Playing single player attacking these POI's all on my lonesome would be a challenge anyway with the combined Missile / Laser loadout many POI's have now.

    In summary, missile / explosives in general while not the ideal weapon do decent enough damage. It's the fast recharge that makes things tricky. Don't get me wrong, I don't want a return to the days where a light SV with a single Gatling Cannon could neuter ANY POI.

    Perhaps the balance is skewed towards MP, two players with a light SV each would take the shields down on this POI with relative ease as long as they're reasonably fast an nimble. A single player less so, though I don't claim to be particularly skilled so perhaps some can. Note though that I am talking fairly early-game stuff here, I've not secured any Erestrum or Zascosum in this game yet...POI's are guarding every deposit on the planet, so I decided to tackle one a little before I'm particularly well equipped.

    Scoob.
     
    #811
  12. Vermillion

    Vermillion Rear Admiral

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    Those shields are literally just the Light Shield Generator from an SV stuck on a BA. They should be performing the same as a regular SV's shield.
    If they're regenerating that fast, then it sounds like that same complaint i've heard in the past of POI shields having shorter delay than is set on their shield generator. Which would be a game bug.
    Drone Base shields for example should have a 30 second delay between when they're not being hit to when they start recharging. I don't think they do have a 30 second delay, but there's no fix since it game-side.

    It should take 20 SV pulse laser shots to down one of those shields. With a pair of lasers, you're looking at 2.5 seconds of fire to down them. Railgun, Missile and Gatlings will deal almost nothing.
     
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  13. Scoob

    Scoob Rear Admiral

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    Sounds like a game bug then. I did test with planting Explosive Charges on the POI - four at a time - and they'd bring the shield down to sixty-something percent. By the time I planted the second set of four - which takes a couple of seconds - it was already recharging and had hit near full change by the time the count-down was done and the explosive detonated. I did get really efficient at placing explosives, so brought the shield down this way eventually - I had lots of charges on me. If the shield did have a 30 second recharge delay, it would have been no problem.

    Again, I know I had the wrong tools for the job, but it was the super-short recharge delay that surprised me. My own shields - the exact same device on my own CV - does not respond like that. CV shields seem to last mere seconds vs. any POI or CV due to them having a balance of energy and explosive ordinance. Once the shields are down, my CV is super squishy...I need to upgrade the shield ASAP.

    Scoob.
     
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  14. Scoob

    Scoob Rear Admiral

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    Lol, explosion damage is still a little ott isn't it? I took one hit from a Missile launched by a Zirax Destroyer after my shields dropped. That missile hit a non-sensitive area of the Bridge - if you don't count the Pilot's Seat lol - yet it still propagated through many blocks, eventually hitting the Generators. It must be them that left the 10x10x10 hole in the ship.

    Is there any value in using Combat Steel to protect sensitive areas of the ship? Will that prevent explosions propagating? My generators were all separate, but only shielded by normal steel blocks. I was planning to reinforced various areas, but don't want to add too much weight.

    Oh, I did upgrade my shield but the Xirax Destroyer ripped through it in no time. My own pair of Laser Turrets (and 2x Flak and 2x Missile and numerous Cannons and Miniguns) did precisely 3% damage during the engagement. I need moare lazors! lol.

    Edit: Something is a bit broken. Continuing the role-play with this save, I started to repair the CV. Then the Destroyer returned as started shooting it up again. It wasn't aiming for the newly replaced generators, but something at the rear of my ship, perhaps one of the Thrusters. For the fun, I jumped into my unshielded SV and fled - easily outrunning the Destroyers missile and dodging any laser fire. I was in the external view, so I could see I was outrunning the Missiles and dodging the Lasers just fine. However, suddenly, my SV started taking damage to the rear, yet nothing was hitting i - I was still in external view, and had the destroyer in sight too. Most odd!

    Lol. I then just randomly died while watching the Destroyer finish off my CV at a safe distance. No visual fire in my direction at all. Weird!

    Scoob.
     
    #814
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2021
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  15. Scoob

    Scoob Rear Admiral

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    Me again :)

    I might have spotted a problem with the Laser Turret. It appears to shoot at anything within it's maximum range even if the target is not within its current range.

    I.e. on the current Planet, it has an effective range of just 90 Metres - pretty poor - yet it's potential max range is 925 Metres. I just flew past a POI that was just under 900 Metres away, and my Starboard-side Laser Turrets started shooting at it. The projectile tracked towards the POI, but vanished shortly afterward - one assumes 90 Metres out - yet the Turret just kept on firing, wasting ammo.

    I've noticed this several times vs. POI's this evening. So something isn't quite right. Perhaps it's a vanilla issue, but as you make changes to turrets I thought it worth mentioning here.

    Note: The Laser Turrets don't appear to behave this way vs. Drones, and it won't engage until the are really close - within the 90 Metres range.

    Scoob.
     
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  16. Vermillion

    Vermillion Rear Admiral

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    I think I saw a bug report somewhere about turrets engaging at their maximum (space) range on planets, even though they can't shoot that far. There's nothing I can do to fix it, since it's running space numbers where it shouldn't.

    Side note: Zirax Destroyers are iirc equipped with T2 player laser turrets on each wing. They are hitscan. The votes were for hitscan, and this was one of the downsides to having hitscan weapons. Where they look like they hit and where they actually hit are two different things.
     
    #816
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  17. Alhira_K

    Alhira_K Captain

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    Please have a look at your reworked Abandoned Drone Base.

    The puzzle isn't working correctly for me and the final lever stays invisible, i can't even place a block there when spawning it in to test it. Also shouldn't the second set of blast doors be hooked up?
     
    #817
  18. Scoob

    Scoob Rear Admiral

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    Hi,

    When jumping between Stars using a CV, how much Pentaxid is supposed to be used per Light Year? I'm assuming it's not a 1:1 ratio as I just jumped 22.9 LY and it used 90 Pentaxid, all that was in my tank. I have plenty more, but evidently I had the numbers per LY wrong, so just wondering what they're supposed to be.

    Cheers,

    Scoob.
     
    #818
  19. Vermillion

    Vermillion Rear Admiral

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    4 Pentaxid per LY, 1 Pentaxid per AU
    The Advanced Warp Drive costs 2 per LY and 0.5 per AU.
     
    #819
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  20. Scoob

    Scoob Rear Admiral

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    Thank you. Thought I'd read it somewhere, but couldn't really where or what the exact numbers were.

    Scoob.
     
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