Supermassive Capital Ships (My Wet Dream)

[Hecter94]

Does negative damage actually work to heal?  I've never actually tried that.  It seems the engine can handle some negative values but not others; for instance, you can't use a negative value for projectile drag in order to make a shot that speeds up after launch.

Quick question, though: how would you go from an actual weapon slot to a controllable object in space?  For some reason I thought scripting was linked/locked to just module-type slots and that you couldn't really link one to a weapon or a projectile fired by a weapon.  That's the leap I wasn't able to make in my head; with the 'kamikaze drones' I can see how it'd be easily doable, since you only have one projectile that is dispensing other projectiles, but for actual controllable fighters you'd need to have that launcher spawning actual in-game, ID'd assets (which I assume is part of what the array would handle, keeping track of IDs in addition to current states)

Also, might I add, it's nice to have a large collaboration of ideas (design and coding/technical) flowing here, even if we are rapidly approaching the limits of my javascript ability and understanding.

While I do know Javascript, and can code in it....I already do that at work so I don't feel like going home and doing it for a game too.
I can certainly supply you with design ideas, though...and take a couple of stabs at how the jscript might work, even though it doesn't seem similar to the base Jscript I work with.

So, even if the negative damage doesn't work, the initial idea of a device which simply applies a structure_repair effect when used.
The only thing to do would be to figure out how to code it so that device can be used when targeting another ship or structure.

Of course, the idea of an actual....physical repair drone that flies around targeting allies with a "heal" beam seems to be the more cool solution, though it does take some control away from the player which could be frustrating.
(Choosing to heal a random merchant passing by instead of your nearly-dead friend resulting in his death)

Hell, the "ideal" solution might even be both, have an actual launchable AI-controlled drone for passive repairs, but also a activated "repair drone" device that acts as a rechargeable consumable.
Heals a large amount fairly quickly to a target you're able to manually specify but takes a long time to cool down.

[Hammish]

Targeting at least should be fairly simple on the 'beam' option, and doesn't even require the javascript; just need to change the target filter in the .xml, and if the target doesn't meet the criteria then the script doesn't even execute.

One thing that would be neat is if you actually made it a 'welding beam', if you will, and in the script put a check for friendly, neutral or hostile.  If friendly or neutral, heals the target for some hull.  If hostile, instead does a minor amount of damage to the target as it burns off a little armor.

Also, to toss it out there, this kind of idea is begging for a ship-repair subsection of engineering to make support roles viable when MP is more active.  One could even take a bit of a cue from EVE and make it not just hull repair but with the option mounting shield repair or even energy transfusions (I'm looking at you over there, Osprey.)

[Hecter94]

Targeting at least should be fairly simple on the 'beam' option, and doesn't even require the javascript; just need to change the target filter in the .xml, and if the target doesn't meet the criteria then the script doesn't even execute.

Easy as pie then, assuming...as Belugh says, negative damage modifiers actually work to heal.

One thing that would be neat is if you actually made it a 'welding beam', if you will, and in the script put a check for friendly, neutral or hostile.  If friendly or neutral, heals the target for some hull.  If hostile, instead does a minor amount of damage to the target as it burns off a little armor.

Now that IS neat, though you'd have to find a way for it to prioritize healing friendly targets over dealing minor amounts of damage to an enemy.
(Also, would it work against shields? Since you can't really "weld" energy)

Also, to toss it out there, this kind of idea is begging for a ship-repair subsection of engineering to make support roles viable when MP is more active.  One could even take a bit of a cue from EVE and make it not just hull repair but with the option mounting shield repair or even energy transfusions (I'm looking at you over there, Osprey.)

For a game that's calling itself a mini-mmo in each server, it really is missing ships that fit into a support role.
A Carrier could fill it for the really late-game, but other smaller ships should probably have ways of supporting his allies too.

[BeLugh]

It would be no problem to add supportive ships, boosters, devices and a supportive skilltree
You could aid by temporarily giving them a damage/shield boost. You can heal them or even make them invisible (if this is possible)
Supporting other players and npc would grant xp (and some money, but getting a nice reason how they get money is a little bit difficult. Maybe a humanitary organisation pays them? Or an alliance of rich merchants?)


But when you have a supporter already you can see missiles+mines (like archer type)
->Energy weapons would be similar to mage, but needs special devices with special abilities as well to be cool . And he needs to use up a lot more energy and get higher energy generation
->Melee would be ships with high armor and structure going to be on close combat collision/short range flamethrower/shotgun like weapons
->there is already a class for sneaking and having a high maneuverability, but you do not get a benefit in damage so far.
----->passive evasion could be implemented instead of strafing to improve assassins (and the emp we all were talking about)

[Lurler]

Actually for the support ships we already have "Heretic".
This part of the came is not fleshed our yet, of course. But we want to have a whole separate line of ships for support role. They will have medium hp/armor, lots of devices slots to mount different active stuff, but won't be as powerful or fast as combat ships.

[Hammish]

Actually for the support ships we already have "Heretic".
This part of the came is not fleshed our yet, of course. But we want to have a whole separate line of ships for support role. They will have medium hp/armor, lots of devices slots to mount different active stuff, but won't be as powerful or fast as combat ships.

That's actually what made me comment on the 'expanded role', because I've seen it lurking around and while it doesn't have a niche yet (other than a light mine boat, really)... it makes sense that it would eventually.

Also, for the 'welding beam' idea, the target priorities would actually be done by the player.  All you'd set in the .XML is the list of valid targets, then the script would take over and determine which affect to apply.  If you want to focus more on repair, you'd just make sure you were targeting friendlies with the mouse on-cast, ect.  And no, you can't really weld an energy shield, but I would still apply the damage to the shields; I would assume that any arc capable of actually welding through the void of space would have enough charge to have a disruption effect on an EM field.

One other possible version of the discussed support, BTW, could be the kind of 'nano cloud' you see in other scifi sources.  Basically a pont-blank AoE (PBAoE) on the casting ship, it sets up a field around it that constantly regenerates friendly hulls if for a far, far smaller amount than any sort of targeted ability.  You could make it either an always-on thing or a trigger + cooldown, and scale the amount of hull/shield repair accordingly.  Either would be easier to do than the anything involving drones, but that also deviates away from Carrier idea.