Killer Debris....

posted on December 23rd, 2009, 2:34 pm

In many DS9 battle scenes when bugs were being blown up, the living Jem'Hadar probably aimed their drifting hulks at ships to at least do some damage. What I ask is, how come debris that fly at you doesn't damage you? Can it be done where debris can actually damage ships that they happen to hit? Even in Nemesis there was a great example (an entire blazing wing of a warbird bounced across the Enterprise hull.) Can this be done?

posted on December 23rd, 2009, 2:42 pm

I like the idea, but think of it like this: Fleet of 30 bugs attacking say 20 mixed fed vessels.

The ability to have separate parts of debris hitting those 20 vessels is way beyond the ability of the A2 engine, at least thats what I've been lead to believe.

posted on December 23rd, 2009, 3:56 pm

yeah i don't see that happening either.

posted on December 23rd, 2009, 5:41 pm

I don't think it can be done because the debris isn't actually "there". You could simulate that ships get damaged (like when you use auto destruct) but to actually show debris bouncing off a hull/shields would be incredibly difficult - you'd have to make a LOT of sprites.

posted on December 23rd, 2009, 5:53 pm

it would be doable, at least something similar, but i dont like debris or explosions damaging vessels that leads to strange gameplay, just think of the latinum bombers

posted on December 23rd, 2009, 5:55 pm

Aww, but those latinum bombers were so fun: I just loved destroying people with huge fleets of those things 

Sounds best to me as a system for a more "personal" Star Trek games - 1 on 1 ship fights, not Fleet Operations I think 

Still, occasionally I get the hankering to see Cubes or Starbases explode and damage nearby vessels as they are just so honking big

posted on December 23rd, 2009, 5:57 pm

yep i could think of something for starbases or cubes

posted on December 23rd, 2009, 6:01 pm

Most excellent - just gotta love that scene in First Contact where the Cube explodes, taking out the Akiras nearby  . Plus the explosions sound big enough to certainly do some damage (and with all that screen shaking....)

posted on December 24th, 2009, 4:04 am

Space is supposed to be silent.

For a more on-topic response, I think it could be done well if it only applied to big ships, but even then it would lead to some strange gameplay.  "Oh, look, my cube is about to die!  Let's charge their fleet so I can damage some of their ships!"

posted on December 24th, 2009, 4:20 am

Could be bad, I don't know - maybe just static starbases then as you can stay out of the way from those   :sweatdrop: . Then again, what am I saying, Cubes are sloooooow

posted on December 24th, 2009, 9:53 am

Could be bad, I don't know - maybe just static starbases then as you can stay out of the way from those   :sweatdrop: . Then again, what am I saying, Cubes are sloooooow

  Slow perhaps, but with no need to turn around their maneuverability gains a distinct advantage when it comes to rapid course changes.

posted on December 24th, 2009, 11:33 am

when does a cube need to change course or manoeuvre? just fly in a straight line b**ch-slapping anything in your way, weapons on all four combat faces of the cube mean it dont need to steer except when deciding which of your enemies to attack 

but on a more canon (wet-flannel) note, in tng the cube there (bigger and possibly older than the FO cube) was fast, it could easily catch the enterprise.

posted on December 24th, 2009, 12:03 pm

Not really at impulse though, only faster at high warp from what I could tell. I mean the enterprise always accelerated away quicker but when they got to warp there was nothing they could do.

posted on December 24th, 2009, 3:38 pm

when does a cube need to change course or manoeuvre? just fly in a straight line b**ch-slapping anything in your way, weapons on all four combat faces of the cube mean it dont need to steer except when deciding which of your enemies to attack 

Well for instance. I like to at least get 2 cubes before I attack so that one can take damage, then the other can go forward, and the damaged one can go back. The healthy one will block the ships.

but on a more canon (wet-flannel) note, in tng the cube there (bigger and possibly older than the FO cube) was fast, it could easily catch the enterprise.

That was warp

posted on December 24th, 2009, 3:47 pm

i acknowledge the cube was chasing at warp

but the fact that the warp engines are advanced means that the cube most likely has advanced sublight engines to complement them. they probably assimilated a species with good engines. i'd wager that a cube could keep up with most large starfleet ships at impulse. its a shame we didnt see much chasing at impulse.

a little insight may come from VGR: Scorpion, where a fleet of cubes passed voyager at speed at what appeared to be high impulse, before moving off at high warp. the speed at which they travelled threw voyager around like a toy ship.