Change Log for 6.40 Discussion

[Steve Walmsley]

Perhaps a single scout ship might not be able to see employee detonations from a billion kilometers

Not sure what employee detonations are but they sound like fun. Would certainly be a more spectacular end than just firing someone.

"Sales are down again this week Mr Smith. I'm sorry but we have no choice but to detonate you. Everyone else stand back please!"

[MarcAFK]

Hah, that's amusing, I believe I was typing AMM but iphone spellcheck did something to it. :p

[Theodidactus]

Not sure what employee detonations are but they sound like fun. Would certainly be a more spectacular end than just firing someone.

"Sales are down again this week Mr Smith. I'm sorry but we have no choice but to detonate you. Everyone else stand back please!"

sounds like some of the places I've worked

[ollobrains]

remove the interrupts off civilian lines not able to load installations, i cant modify this fleets orders, this is a civilan line, the request is to export civilian infrustructure to another colony.
So its pretty well out of my range, theres no way to see how much in the way of cilivian infrustructure is available for export its an annual figure its either to much or the civilian freighter isnt able to load that much in one load but the interrupts get a bit much after a while

[ollobrains]

Not sure what employee detonations are but they sound like fun. Would certainly be a more spectacular end than just firing someone.

"Sales are down again this week Mr Smith. I'm sorry but we have no choice but to detonate you. Everyone else stand back please!"

would be an interesting feature so steve any more plans for 6.4 before it comes out

[DFDelta]

would be an interesting feature so steve any more plans for 6.4 before it comes out

New event message:
"Captain James Whatsyourface was not in any command for 7.9 years. He has been deemed surplus and was detonated."

[ollobrains]

New event message:
"Captain James Whatsyourface was not in any command for 7.9 years. He has been deemed surplus and was detonated."

thats in for 6.3, my interest is in 6.4 and changes to some of the notification system

[Wolfius]

Personally I like the idea of being able to see weapons fire/explosions from anywhere in a system I have a ship, even one with poor sensors. I feel it just adds more to the game to see the weapon impacts of a distant battle than... not seeing anything other than wreck markers occasionally pop up.

Besides, energy weapons - even gauss cannons - are still nuclear-scale firepower. That's going to be pretty easy to spot.

[alex_brunius]

Personally I like the idea of being able to see weapons fire/explosions from anywhere in a system I have a ship, even one with poor sensors. I feel it just adds more to the game to see the weapon impacts of a distant battle than... not seeing anything other than wreck markers occasionally pop up.

I agree that it should not be hard to spot, but I think it would add to the game if you at least need to bring a 1-4 HS thermal sensor to spot them from normal "earth" solar system distances.

When it comes to wrecks it would be pretty cool for them to also not "pop up" but have to be detected through normal active sensors.

Imagine if a wreck is indistinguishable to a powered down undamaged ship? Imagine the tension of having to close to very very near distance to be able to spot minimal thermal signatures added to for example life-support systems to be able to determine this.

Besides, energy weapons - even gauss cannons - are still nuclear-scale firepower. That's going to be pretty easy to spot.

Most of this damage is however transfered to the ship. At least for me I always assumed that a nuke does not actually impact but rather detonate some distance away meaning most of the energy is directed elsewhere (for example towards your sensors).

[Wolfius]

I agree that it should not be hard to spot, but I think it would add to the game if you at least need to bring a 1-4 ton thermal sensor to spot them from normal "earth" solar system distances.

When it comes to wrecks it would be pretty cool for them to also not "pop up" but have to be detected through normal active sensors.

I have to disagree. There's discovering neat things, then there's missing neat things because you had no idea they were there.

A battle in a system you just explored, for example. On the one side, you see distant weapon flashes as the battle rages and ships exchange vollies. On the other you just get lag-lag-lag-oh a wreck-lag-lag-lag - and if wrecks aren't auto-detected then you don't even see that.

Wrecks likewise are fairly uncommon, neat things. Making them harder doesn't seem like it would add much. I suppose I could see maybe a small chance for wrecks to show up as just lifeless ships under the same detection rules and such, but that also complicates combat as it becomes harder to tell if a ship you just shot is really dead or not. Maybe if it was an 'intact wreck' with a boosted chance of salvage?

Imagine if a wreck is indistinguishable to a powered down undamaged ship? Imagine the tension of having to close to very very near distance to be able to spot minimal thermal signatures added to for example life-support systems to be able to determine this.

Most of this damage is however transfered to the ship. At least for me I always assumed that a nuke does not actually impact but rather detonate some distance away meaning most of the energy is directed elsewhere (for example towards your sensors).

Much of the energy is still radiated away indurectly from things like swaths of hull being flashes to star-hot plasma and flashes of hard radiation as phenominal energy densities rip atoms apart enmass.

And there's the fact that modern tech is good enough to spot the space shuttle's engines firing from the orbit of Pluto.

If you don't want to handwave things, Aurora sensors are either incredibly, phenominally bad, or transnewtonian ships have some pretty major innate stealth characteristics.

I tend to go with the later, as more believable and in line with the ability to see every planet, moon, asteroid and comet in a system as you jump into it without having to conduct an in-depth survey. I also imagine that wrecked ships have been torn open and these stealth qualities lost.

[Bgreman]

remove the interrupts off civilian lines not able to load installations, i cant modify this fleets orders, this is a civilan line, the request is to export civilian infrustructure to another colony.
So its pretty well out of my range, theres no way to see how much in the way of cilivian infrustructure is available for export its an annual figure its either to much or the civilian freighter isnt able to load that much in one load but the interrupts get a bit much after a while

The "Current Import Requirement" and "Available for Export" columns on the trade sheet indicate how much a given population needs of that trade item right now or is sitting available to be shipped out right now.  It is not an annual figure, but if you can't export it faster than it gets produced, it will not change.

[Steve Walmsley]

In earlier versions, you used to detect Wrecks on active sensors. I changed this to always visible primarily because its more fun rather than more realistic. Having to search an entire system to check for wrecks is no fun. Be able to detect them anywhere reduces micromanagement and makes the game more interesting. I had the same internal debate about distant planets or small moons. You would get pretty bored of "Asteroid Found!" messages.

Plus, at the moment there are no sensor checks in a system unless there are two different races. Adding sensor checks for every system in which there was one race plus wrecks would slow down the game.

The same applies to weapons fire. Seeing the weapon fire from a distant battle adds fun and suspense to the game, even if it would be more realistic to make it difficult to detect at great distances.

[Bremen]

In earlier versions, you used to detect Wrecks on active sensors. I changed this to always visible primarily because its more fun rather than more realistic. Having to search an entire system to check for wrecks is no fun. Be able to detect them anywhere reduces micromanagement and makes the game more interesting. I had the same internal debate about distant planets or small moons. You would get pretty bored of "Asteroid Found!" messages.

Plus, at the moment there are no sensor checks in a system unless there are two different races. Adding sensor checks for every system in which there was one race plus wrecks would slow down the game.

The same applies to weapons fire. Seeing the weapon fire from a distant battle adds fun and suspense to the game, even if it would be more realistic to make it difficult to detect at great distances.

I've got no problem with that. If they're inflicting similar damage to missile detonations, one assumes they're within an order of magnitude of the power level involved, so I have no problem with getting to see them. And it is fun to watch the NPRs duke it out sometimes

I'm really excited at all the AI and NPR improvements so far, they should allow for much more challenging games.

[Theodidactus]

And there's the fact that modern tech is good enough to spot the space shuttle's engines firing from the orbit of Pluto.

A common misconception that is repeated on military sci-fi forums a lot.
Modern technology is this good if you know exactly where to look.

Assuming a poorly outfitted spaceship's scanners are doing an all-sky survey by spherically sweeping the entire visual field, say, once a minute, it's totally possible they'd miss something small and hot.

[Wolfius]

NPR Home Systems

I've run into a problem in my own v6.40 test campaign. I've encountered a second NPR home-world system within two jumps of Sol. Unfortunately it's identical to the first NPR home-world system - oops!

I look forward to reading the In Character reaction to that. :3