Change Log for 6.00 discussion

[sloanjh (OP)]

I'm not sure how you would balance Beam wepaons short of maybe giving them more range, kinda like PT's...but then how would you show that on screen between 5sec intervals...light coming at you??lol

This is a major reason why beams have the max range they do - Steve didn't want to have to deal with delayed impact beam shots, i.e. fire one pulse and hit on the next pulse 5s later.

John

[Bgreman]

This is a major reason why beams have the max range they do - Steve didn't want to have to deal with delayed impact beam shots, i.e. fire one pulse and hit on the next pulse 5s later.

John

Handwavium: TNE-based beam weapons are not restricted to light speed. 

[TheDeadlyShoe]

I think to the extent beam range is a problem, its mostly on the low end/ on the curve / has to do with fire controls as much as beam weapons. /shrug/. 

[Steve Walmsley]

I'm leaning toward upping the beam fire control speed techs a little. That would be the simplest way to improve beam weapons in response to improved missiles and wouldn't require any coding changes.

Steve

[Lav]

Although with these changes, I see short-term minefields being a prime weapon of mine.  Fire it ahead of the enemy, either in the planet's orbital path or between my ship and theirs, and let the missiles' own sensors do the painting.

I was thinking of something like that, although it'd be hard to calculate intercept points without a ruler.

When you say 'short-term', what kind of design do you have in mind? One limited by fuel, with slow engines?

[Girlinhat]

"Short-term minefield" would be measured in hours, and wouldn't be a buoy type but instead a cluster of missiles that sit in front of the enemy with some active sensors.  Or in assaulting planets, it may be days and use a buoy type "infinite lifespan mine" style.

[Steve Walmsley]

Just a quick note to say that development of v5.70 is progressing. I'm spending a lot of time at the moment on adjusting the automated NPR ship design to take account of the rule changes. Even though NPRs don't use fuel (for the moment, anyway), their designs will allocate a suitable amount of space for fuel and crew quarters. I've spent most of the weekend looking at the design of NPR missiles. The changes to missile design mean more flexibility for players but a lot more factors to consider during automated missile design.

Steve

[Girlinhat]

By all means the AI is one of the most important factors.  It's entertaining watching your ships flitter about, but the NPR are your opponent and if they're lame, then there's no way to show off your game mechanics because there's no suitable enemy to use those fancy new missiles against!

[madpraxis]

*cough cough* Something seems to be missing...specialized companies...because I'm rather sure that no matter what year or where, the financial and legal reasons for having baby corps under a big one will never change. But I can forgive you for this since you are working on the NPR ship design thinkums...Which would be nice for a somewhat realistic (as in following the rules realistic...) NPR design would be nice so they would be more...er..'borrowable'. Borrowing designs that *work* is good...borrowing with having to follow around with a tanker so you can get it home to gut it 100% so it operates under the same rules you do is not good...

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Cheers Steve... hopefully the code for NPRs designing missile engines and engines is reusable... I guess first you have to figure out what makes an effective AMM engine etc., heh.

[madpraxis]

Buy blue emu a beer and get him to do it. I was amazed at his sheer brain sexyness on the paradox forums...and he keeps it up here. I learned long ago just to pretend what he writes after reading PAGES of it, I find it makes my brain want to cry less.....and I can't believe I forgot bay12...Capital idea, get blue emu to do it. Apparently too much time on his hands. Help him to help you.

[Girlinhat]

There would be plenty of people willing to delegate the AI routine coding if you opened up that to modders.

[xeryon]

Several other open-source project games I like to play have AI personalities set up as a separate module that players can make themselves and distribute and then mix and match their play experience to suit their style.

So you want a challenge?  Put three instances of the invader personality into your game.  Like things a little slower? put in a couple corporation themed empires.  The possibilities are endless.  Someday this might be a nice addition to Aurora.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Teehee. Playing against an AI that uses Steve's NATO or Russian designs (or a selection of designs of my own development) is one of my pet hopes.

[UnLimiTeD]

Why was the size for Jump Engines changed again?
I always liked having to think about how to get ships through jumppoints.
Aside from the part where a fleet consisting of 50% jumpships that can take 2 each with them can't traverse a point until I split them into subgroups.

The Missile Design is obviously lovely, great changes there; But I have to agree with byrons sentiment.
There should be a switch "buoy/missile" that, if set to missile, further halves generator size, but limits maximum time of the missile to a certain number, say, (flight time at full power)*2.
Because otherwise I see missiles being fired at certain places, opponent dies, and they just stay there forever just in case something comes around.
That'd be too easy, and a serious drag on performance.