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Topics - Hecter94

#1
General Discussions / When space gets a bit /too/ close.
September 12, 2014, 07:40:01 AM
From one of the other forums I frequent:

Quote
Yesteray, Sun made an X1.6 class flare. Unfortunately, the flare happened right in the center of the visible Sun disk, and the accompanying CME (coronal mass ejection) is heading towards Earth as we speak, and is found to be "strong" one (in relation to the flare class related to it). In other words, billions tons of plasma flies at the speed of several hundreds miles per second towards Earth.

http://www.thecelestialconvergence.com/solar-watch-sunspot-2158-erupts-major-x1-6-solar-flare-strong-earth-facing-cme-g2-geomagnetic-solar-storm-currently-progress/ .

And in general, there are lots of messages about it, and lots of them truncate lots of important details about it. In order not to worry people too much - those people who do not know what powerful CME is capable of, of course. Which is vast majority.

If the data (which i am so far able to get) is correct, the plasma front will hit the Earth tomorrow, Friday, 12th of September, at about 14:00...19:00 GMT (sorry but that's as precise as i am able to get, at this time). This data is from one of sources in my own country, not from above linked page.

One model for the cloud so far reports that Earth will be hit by nearly the center of hte cloud. The other reports it will be a "glancing blow" - however, i am quite sure that many, if not most, of public messages would read "glancing blow", or even wouldn't mention any possible damage at all - even if ALL models would actually predict direct impact. Because panic won't help, and many people in the media know it well. Too little time to do anything global about it, anyways.

Anything similar has only happened as far back in the past as 1859 (iirc). Mankind didn't have thousands of giant electric transformators back then, - ones which are absolutely required for our electric power grids to function; ones which will likely be completely destroyed by induction currents' flow if some strong CME manages to overpower Earth's ionosphere and magnetic field; ones which can't be repaired nor replaced any fast, since there are only few of those big transformators in reserve at any given time - too expensive to have any more in reserve, - and those can't be made in any large quantity any fast. But back then in 1859, mankind already had one significant electric system in use: telegraph. The CME effect on telegraph lines in 1859 was, quote: "... intense geomagnetic storms viewed from the Arctic to Cuba that triggered global telegraph lines to spark, setting fire to some telegraph offices." (from: http://www.dailynewsen.com/politics/a-giant-magnetic-explosion-on-the-sun-h2619744.html ). I can imagine what will happen with massive and thick conductors and transformators several dozens tons heavy (most of it being wires, literally), should similar effect hit the Earth tomorrow.

There is some chance models are wrong, but it's little. There is some chance that this CME and/or plasma distribution within the cloud won't result in strong enough hit in terms of how much of that plasma actually ends up hitting Earth, and as a result of this, the equipment - including those huge transformers, which literally power up our societies, - won't suffer that much, or even at all. Nobody knows right know - for _sure_ - how much of the plasma will end up hitting Earth, nor how intense the peak will be, and whether Earth's magnetic field would be overloaded, or not. Yet there is also quite real chance that tomorrow, more than half of the world will lose its electric grid for months on end.

And if you think it's no big deal - then it means you most likely didn't watch this BBC film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uObV-AJDb98 . Ironically, perhaps tonight is the last chance for you to see it, eh.

P.S. I find myself strangely calm about tomorrow. Even if SHTF... In fact, i'd be even glad if it would. This "modern" "civilization" of ours is quite ugly, anyways. Last few decades, overall, it quite is. Well, we'll know in less than 24 hours whether it'll go on for some more while, or not. In case we'll never communicate after tomorrow, let me wish all of you guys here best of luck, and let your gunpowder never get wet.

Seems pretty interesting, doesn't it?
I wonder what will happen (if anything)
#2
So here's a crash report that happened after.....4-5 hours of continuous playtime.
Only reason I'm posting it, is that I was thinking it might help you to pinpoint the memory leak bug.

Game Version was 0.97c
This was a clean save that I had made the same day
I was running the BTC mod

System specs:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ofprn1xqwl5l6zd/DxDiag.txt (https://www.dropbox.com/s/ofprn1xqwl5l6zd/DxDiag.txt)
Crash Report:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sshwpa4k2uoawsk/2014-08-21_183736.rar (https://www.dropbox.com/s/sshwpa4k2uoawsk/2014-08-21_183736.rar)

Just send a message if you want anything else and I'll upload it or tell you.
#3
Hello again, everyone. This isn't going to be a well-written post juuuust yet as I haven't fully fleshed out my "idea" yet....really just a page full of notes that I've been jotting down as I was playing. But wouldn't it be extremely cool to have several supermassive capital ships that are very hard to get but just....epicly powerful? I think so, and so I've thought about what some of these ships might be like and what their stats might be.  Note: This is just a "for fun" idea and not something that could be added into the game.



Battleship(Heavy Bombardment Vehicle)
Nickname:     Devastator
Health:          Large structure, high armor
Speed:          Very slow but high maneuverability.
Design:         Similar to an Ironclad (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Uss_Cairo_h61568.jpg).
Weapons:     Four level 3 fixed ballistic mounts all facing to one side (~40 degrees)
-                    One level 2 energy mount facing forwards. (~120 degrees)
Special:         Ramming damage increased by 70% to target ship and decreased by 120% to player ship.
-                    Greatly increased max ammo count
-                    Slowly regenerates ammo and consumables (mass replicator)
-                    Every ballistic weapon mounted shoots double the projectile



Carrier (Landing platform and drone deployer)

Nickname:      Dethroner(might change this name)
Health:           Medium structure, decent armor
Speed            Decent speed, low maneuverability
Design:          Something similar to this (http://www.myfreewallpapers.net/fantasy/wallpapers/airborne-aircraft-carrier.jpg) (No real definitive ideas yet though)
Weapons:      Two level 1 forward mounted laser turrets (~30 degrees)
-                     One level 2 ballistic turret mounted near the rear, facing forward. (~160 degrees)
Special:         Carries smaller AI-controlled ships and many disposable drones.
-                     Uses small interceptor planes for self-defense while dispensing bombers to attack
-                     Uses small mining shuttles instead of mining lasers
-                   Can launch repair drones to fix allied ships, turrets and stations. (including itself)



Planet Cracker (Mining/factory ship)

Nickname:      Devourer
Health:           Very large structure, low armor
Speed:           Fast speed, decent maneuverability
Design:          Entire ship is built around one massive mining laser. (like the Battlecruiser's  (http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090708231024/starcraft/images/0/03/BattlecruiserMissile_SC2_DevRend1.jpg)Yamato cannon from Starcraft)
Weapons:     Mining laser must spend time charging before firing, every 5 seconds charging translates to 1 second of firing time.
-                     If charged for thirty seconds, beam will immediately discharge for a full 10 seconds.
-                     Mining laser will completely mine asteroids with 2-3 seconds of firing.
-                     Does massive damage on a successful hit, capable of destroying most smaller ships within 1-2 seconds.
-                     Two level 2 mines located near the rear
Special:          Massive cargo bay (~3,000)
-                    5-6 slots for mining lasers
-                    gains random amounts of ores for every ship killed with mining laser
-                    can use ores to repair the ship.



Superheavy Fighter(Fighter/Interceptor)

Nickname:       Dominator
Health             small structure, very high armor
Speed             decent speed, very high maneuverability
Weapons:       One level 3 energy mount facing forward (~60 degrees)
-                      two level 3 ballistic mounts near the rear, facing forward (~270 degrees)
-                     Two level 2 missile mounts, one on each side...facing forward. (~40 degrees)
Special:           Shots that hit the shield have a small chance (~20%) of being absorbed and replenishing ammo or energy
-                      Hull slowly regenerates as long as energy is available




Only one ship obtainable per game.
Requires completion of main campaign and secondary quest chain
Upon acquiring ship, new skill tab is unlocked...allowing you to spend skill points to unlock new features of your ship.
All ships would have a unique "docking animation" parking next to the station and sending a small shuttle to dock with the station.
Repairing the ships at a space station should either require a specific station (only 1-2 on the map), or not be possible at all.

Backstory: The federation invasion of the Alien homeworld was led by four generals, each one using one of these massive capital ships.
When it was clear that the battle could not be won, these four generals turned tail and ran....staying hidden in Void Expanse while waiting for comms from earth that never came.
In order to gain one of these ships for yourself, you must join one of the four generals and destroy the other three ships for him, at which point he will reward you with his ship.


annnd, that's about it for my ideas. If you think that sounds epic, feel free to comment...or share your own if you'd like.
#4
Game discussion / What's your favorite ship and why?
August 15, 2014, 01:39:49 PM
Hello everyone! You know what this forum needs? More "game-related" discussion when compared to bug reports, modding documentation and other technical stuff.

So...what's your favorite ship and why do you like it?
My favorite is the Fang, I love it's playstyle and it has incredible damage for a low-tier ship when loaded with 4 MLRS units.
It's my go-to fighter and I like it even more than some of the really heavy ones...which is great considering the lack of serious skill requirements to use it.

All in all, it's a pretty fun ship and I enjoy it a lot. ^.^
#5
Hello Everyone, just bought the game yesterday and according to Steam have clocked ~12 hours into it, so I guess you could say I'm hooked.  ;)

I had an interesting idea as I was playing earlier today and thought I would share it with you all.
I'll write a short summary below, and if it interests you....I'll write a full explanation a little lower for you to check out.

Short Summary
The addition of new weapon types that deal EMP damage instead of conventional damage, EMP damage would disable ships instead of destroying them, allowing you to board them to receive more and better loot (as opposed to destroying them) or even drag the now-empty hull back to the nearest station to sell for a decent profit.

Full Explanation
Overview

The basic premise behind this idea is the addition of 6-10 new weapons.
Energy EMP I
Energy EMP II
Energy EMP III

Ballistic EMP I
Ballistic EMP II
Ballistic EMP III

Missile EMP I
Missile EMP II
Missile EMP III
(names subject to change)
Mines have not been included as they are primarily defensive weapons carried by miners and traders which would generally not be used in such an offensive manner.

These new weapons, as the name implies, would deal EMP damage to enemy ships instead of conventional damage.
EMP damage would damage the shield as normal, but upon impacting the hull would not damage it but instead fill up a secondary "EMP Bar" on the target ship.
This "EMP Bar" would range from 0%-100% and represents what majority of the ship's electronics have been fried by the EMP.
Every 10% of the bar that gets filled would cause a certain system on the target ship to cease functioning...starting with the least important system first.

10%: Grappler ceases to function entirely.
20%: RCS ceases to function
30%: Devices no longer work
40%: Radar loses tracking ability and is reduced to 30% range
50%: Fuel intake fails, remaining parts must be run off energy
60%: Weapon systems fail
70%: Shield no longer recharges
80%: Engine functions at 15% total power
90%: Generator no longer produces energy
100%: Life support systems fail
(Again, subject to change as balancing requires.
Included only as an example.)

As the ship sustains progressively more EMP damage, it becomes more and more crippled, until ultimately.....life support fails.
At this stage, the target ship would be considered "dead", unable to do anything besides float aimlessly in space.
Now the ship may be approached and grappled on to, allowing you to open it's inventory similar to a crate and take whatever cargo it may have had as well as any weapons or other parts you can scavenge off of it.

The final action that the player may take at this point, is to grapple on to the enemy ship and manually drag it back to a friendly space station. A journey that could potentially be very long and very tedious without a good grapple (which creates more incentive to upgrade the more or less useless part)1 where the hull may be sold to the station at a reduced price...considering that the majority of electronic systems on the ship would need to be replaced before it could be made usable again.

This adds a new, unique element to gameplay2 and possibly solves the issue of pure fighter builds requiring much more effort to gain money when compared to miners or traders.3

Skills4
The skill requirements would be two-fold, requiring a new branch in the engineering submenu dealing with EMP weapons in general as well as the existing combat branches for the differing weapon types.

For example, a medium missile based EMP would require both Medium EMP weapons from the engineering skill tree and medium missiles from the combat skill tree.
This is to prevent miners or traders from easily adding a couple of EMP weapons to their ships and reaping all of the benefits of them in addition to the mining or trading benefits they already have.

In addition to that, EMP weapons would benefit from any perks chosen in both the Engineering EMP branch and the Combat branch unique to that weapon.
For example, a missile based EMP would benefit from Missile Casing in the combat tree and also whatever specialized perks the Engineering EMP branch might have.

Defense

Ships could defend themselves from EMP based attacks in a variety of ways.
The simplest being a good shield, as all shields would inherently block a large portion of EMP damage.
This requires players to use combined arms and advanced tactics to successfully pull of an EMP attack5
Such as lowering a targets shields with a conventional weapon before targeting the hull with their EMP weapons.

In addition to this, each and every hull would have a unique "EMP Defense" stat, higher percentages would block a higher value of EMP damage, while lower percentages would block less.
This means that a high-level hull with good EMP defense combined with a high-level shield would make EMP attacks virtually useless, but very rewarding if successful.6

Additional boosters could also be added, such as an EMP Dampener.
+xx% EMP Defense
-xx% EMP Damage
(Included only as an example)

Finally, any tactics that work against conventional weapons would also work to defend against EMP weapons.
Such as shooting down missiles before they hit you, dodging ballistic weapons or staying out of range of energy weapons.

Conclusion
The addition of EMP weapons:

       
  • An incentive to upgrade the grappler.
  • Provides a new and interesting gameplay mechanic.
  • Allows pure fighter builds to compete with traders and miners in income.
  • New skills, weapons and other items.
  • Requires advanced tactics to generate better rewards.
  • Optional difficulty increase for better rewards.
  • New mission possibilities. (ie: Disable this freighter and bring it's cargo back to me.)
  • Possibly more
As such, I believe it is an idea that is at least worthy of some consideration.
If implementing such an idea would simply not be possible at this stage in devolpment, it is my hope that an aspiring modder might see this thread and be intrigued enough to work on it.


Well, if you've made it this far, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read through my topic and ask that you leave any questions, comments or concerns you may have had below and I will do my best to get back to you in a timely manner.  ;D
Regards, Hecter94