It could be only possible to target from one side of the ship though, so that you could shield your PP when fighting defensively.
I got blown up by AI last night when I had 47% hull
- Thread starter stevesideas
- Start date
It could be only possible to target from one side of the ship though, so that you could shield your PP when fighting defensively.
I'll just say current build (in test only) PC Anaconda vs Elite AI Vulture targeting PP... hull down to 25% before ship goes bang.My new code in the works (much, much better AI accuracy etc)... I sill had 75% hull before my PP went bang!
More specifically, many of us find power plant sniping a deeply flawed mechanic and would prefer not to have it forced into our PvE.
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Realistically, something which produces power, if damaged, should lead to an increasing number of systems shutting down, more than heat management issues: Less and less energy being shown as available. Or systems randomly fluctuating all over the board - interruptions increasing with damage?
Why not? Submarines and aircraft carriers do with nuclear reactors. In fact, they need to, because of all the shielding to make them safe for their personnel, radiation-wise. Putting a reactor either on or near the outside of the hull, is just painting a big neon sign saying 'SHOOT HERE'.
Civilian ones might do it a different way, but ships designed for combat would never do. Too much unnecessary risk. In fact, the same could really be said for civilian ships, too, because you can accidentally hit an asteroid or landing pad with far too much ease.
So, I don't think cooling would be an issue with where to put one. In fact, while space is cold, it's actually a relatively poor conductor of heat, compared to water.
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A carrier is more like a Capital ship (in mass, weapons, energy, armor), than an Anaconda.
There definitely needs to be some sort of indicator on the HUD for critical systems like the powerplant. We NEED to know if it is being targeted and what the damage is like. Perhaps a MFD like in the original Wing Commander that sits on the upfront display we can keep an eye on while fighting--one that can be changed to view stuff like weapon ammo/subsystem status/damage report etc.?
Isn't there meant to be a one-ship hanger bay module planned for it?
1. Don't let shields fail.
2. If your shields fail, or are about to fail, disengage.
3. If you insist on ignoring 1 and 2, orient your ship so your target cannot fire directly at your power plant or drives.
It's not terribly difficult to find out which angles the power plant of a given ship is vulnerable and not vulnerable from.
Anytime a new ship is released, or there is a significant patch to combat, I go find some NPCs and do some experimenting to make sure I know where the subsystems are and how to hit them.
I won't complain it's not fair because even 1.3 AI isn't good enough to be a threat to my shields.
But you don't really want Elite AI ships that deadly, do you?
Sure I do. As long as the deadliness doesn't involve AI only cheats or superhuman levels of accuracy.
I want it to be hard for me to tell higher ranked AI from experienced PvP CMDRs without looking at the name.
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I'll just say current build (in test only) PC Anaconda vs Elite AI Vulture targeting PP... hull down to 25% before ship goes bang.
Sarah, if you can convince Evans and Sandro to make power plants a bit more protected - at this point it is serious flawed ship design having standard hull around them - then it would be even worth it - t.i. give guys a fighting chance before go bum.
I'll just say current build (in test only) PC Anaconda vs Elite AI Vulture targeting PP... hull down to 25% before ship goes bang.
Depends on who you're asking: the 5% jobless types that play the game 10+ hours/day, or everyone else that is happy with things, only has a couple hours a day and doesn't visit the forums?
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Ohhh please cut this out. I don't believe those who have just two hours to play care about that much of so called 'progression', 'completition' or 'creds per hour'. In fact, they want better AI, more interesting interaction, etc. Because their time is short, experience is what matters. Not do I have Anaconda or not.
Just you all wait... (wicked evil grin) Hehehehe...
Hehe, go for the powerplant, go for it
Maybe let some Elite NPCs target it, but we really need a warning system then with sound and alarms on the hud.
I think the argument is that while the reactor itself is protected within the hull, cooling functions must ultimately become external somewhere and would therefore be more vulnerable than the energy producing portion of the system. That would make the targeting of heat vents/radiators the most effective method of compromising and damaging the power plant for ships.
I'm a fan of both ideas personally. Give us a visible subsystem for our heat vents that has standard vulnerability and leads to cooling problems. Have overheating reduce PP output by a reasonable % and start ticking away at related subsystem health. Then they can up-armor the PP (to reflect the division of power and cooling) to the degree that it's only reliable to take it out with high penetration weapons like rail guns and cannons.
I would argue that losing your power plant should leave you dead in the water with maybe 10-30% power rather than causing a catastrophic explosion (though a small % chance of that would be cool), but if it was just a little harder to kill I certainly wouldn't be b****ing about it.
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I'll just say current build (in test only) PC Anaconda vs Elite AI Vulture targeting PP... hull down to 25% before ship goes bang.
Nah, it should behave intelligent, but not Terminator AI intelligent^^
If it raises to aimbot-levels, then its too much xD
I second that , but like to ad a concept.
what if you do not just go pop but get a warning the power plant is failing in a certain time.
leaving you to your repair kit or rushing to a landing pad.
or maybe to be able to eject the soon to explode power plant.
if you could then only make it to inner system hubs this would ad great game play.
I was thinking more about about Hull Reinforcement Armor points being distributed in an interface to selectable areas on the ship that pertain to where certain modules lie beneath that hull area.
This mechanic could pertain to the base armor. Allow players to choose which areas to increase/decrease hull plating. Vulture has 160 base armor points. If outfitting has a hull map breaking down the area into sections pertaining to subsystems, and if there was some interface like a armor point value slider to increase certain areas by some specified degree. Obviously you couldn't make the Powerplant hull area 100% and 0% to the rest of the hull areas. Obviously there would be some minimum default for the sections.
Adding Hull Reinforcement Packs would increase the total Armor points to assign to hull sections. Vulture with 160 base points and 4D HR of 120 points would increase the amounts armor points to work with. Again some base value would have to be decided that each area could not dip below based on the new total of available armor? IDK.
Seem like a good idea. Players would have to strategize. There would be balance. You harden the PP with more armor points for instance and you weaken other areas. Opponents could target weaker areas instead. Not sure if the amount of armor per area could/should be reflected in a scan and made known to an opponent. Maybe/maybe not.
ED seem intent on mechanics that balance, with trade-offs. A Pro here = a Con somewhere else. Make the PP Hull stronger at the expense of Drives, or Power Distributor, etc..
Sounds like it could help solve some problems, or maybe create other ones, who knows.
This mechanic could pertain to the base armor. Allow players to choose which areas to increase/decrease hull plating. Vulture has 160 base armor points. If outfitting has a hull map breaking down the area into sections pertaining to subsystems, and if there was some interface like a armor point value slider to increase certain areas by some specified degree. Obviously you couldn't make the Powerplant hull area 100% and 0% to the rest of the hull areas. Obviously there would be some minimum default for the sections.
Adding Hull Reinforcement Packs would increase the total Armor points to assign to hull sections. Vulture with 160 base points and 4D HR of 120 points would increase the amounts armor points to work with. Again some base value would have to be decided that each area could not dip below based on the new total of available armor? IDK.
Seem like a good idea. Players would have to strategize. There would be balance. You harden the PP with more armor points for instance and you weaken other areas. Opponents could target weaker areas instead. Not sure if the amount of armor per area could/should be reflected in a scan and made known to an opponent. Maybe/maybe not.
ED seem intent on mechanics that balance, with trade-offs. A Pro here = a Con somewhere else. Make the PP Hull stronger at the expense of Drives, or Power Distributor, etc..
Sounds like it could help solve some problems, or maybe create other ones, who knows.
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I'll just say current build (in test only) PC Anaconda vs Elite AI Vulture targeting PP... hull down to 25% before ship goes bang.
Yes, I really do want Elite AI ships that deadly...
Such an improvement would shine a light on the discrepancies between "PvP build centric" combat and "NPC build centric" combat, the imbalance between SCB and subsystem-focused dogfighting (currently "Player" style and "normal" PvE style dogfighting.
If every Deadly/Elite NPC smoked your powerplant, the armour/subsystem issues would get addressed in a jiffy.
If every Deadly/Elite NPC stacked three SCBs and disabled/enabled them to chain-quaff cells, that area would get a long, hard look too.
After the riots, of course.
You are awesome! Keep improving the hate your babies bring to us. You know you are getting it right when players start complaining about the NPC's griefing them! The only thing that could be better is if there was some way to a ship look 'smug' after destroying a player!
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Nope, because as you are obviously a member of the vocal minority, you can have NO idea what the casual player wants. You can imagine he/she is just like you, but you couldn't be farther from the truth.
So, the question still stands.
Currently flying the fdl one of the reasons I like speed is that running separates the big ships allowing me to pick off the little ones in the wing first. Even with that being said railgun users are scary if they land shots.
I kinda like how the game is currently if shields go down, run. I even think that banks should be limited to one.
I kinda like how the game is currently if shields go down, run. I even think that banks should be limited to one.
To be honest, I've never quite understood how ship power plants generally can get hit with such ease. A ship's reactor (especially as the hull type increases with size) should be the most heavily protected/shielded part of the craft. A weapon should have to penetrate through the hull (which is still typically getting scanned as being at 30-40%), in order to get at and damage it. It's not like it's sitting outside of the ship.
IMO, a reactor should be the most difficult part of a ship to damage (but possibly able to be interfered with at range by a revamped, more realistic, offensive ECM 'hacking' module - think of what EDI, from 'Mass Effect 2', describes being able to do).
Adding my voice to this. But exterior modules and weapons should be a lot easier to kill, then SJA's minions can have a good time choosing which exposed module to knock out. Overall combat could be a lot more about maintaining shields.