Splash damage.

posted on September 5th, 2010, 11:26 pm

I was wondering, if it is possible, and if it is, id like to request that splash damage be put into fleetops.

Basically what im saying is when a big space station blows up and you got a bunch of ships right next to it, i doubt they are going to be perfectly fine, i would at least think that a shockwave would push them back, and some damage would occur to the ships, maybe even disable some subsystems for a little bit, i just think this would give a more realistic feel.

Same thing when ships blow up, cept on a smaller scale, obviously because the ship would be smaller.

posted on September 5th, 2010, 11:37 pm

hmm id like to see this too but wouldnt it b bad if lots of ships blowing up all over the place in big (or medium) sized fleets 

posted on September 5th, 2010, 11:56 pm

Yeah but thats the point.... if theres an explosion your not just gonna go straight through it without taking some damage

posted on September 6th, 2010, 2:13 am

... or (to hijack a little), have some ships do splash damage (as a way of countering mass amounts of certain ships - this would work with ship passives)

posted on September 6th, 2010, 4:18 am

Do. Not. Like.

I think there are three reasons against this.

1) Scale in A2/FleetOps has to be considered a little off.  Ships, even short range ones would not be so close to a target in "reality".  Its only because of the scaling of the game and how it works that you have ships so close to targets. 

2) You don't really need to completely destroy a station to take it completely out of action.  It could just be completely gutted so it makes no sense for anyone to repair it.  Again, this is just A2 where things are designed to go "boom" when they are taken out.

3) This one is gameplay.  When you are attacking with a large fleet then ships move all over the place, especially the short ranged ones trying to find a position from which to attack, especially if the enemy base is crowded.  This make microing your ships difficult enough with in-base combat.  If you then had to worry about stations blowing up your ships when they go boom then taking short (and maybe even medium) range ships into an enemy base would simply become suicidal.

I think you just have to use a little suspension of disbelief here and consider that any ships in the immediate vicinity would be clever enough to move outside of the blast radius when the station goes boom.  Imagine the conversion on the bridge of a Defiant.

Helm: "Sir, the station is close to being destroyed"
Captain: "Very good."
Helm: "Erm, Captain, if we stay here we run the risk of being caught in the station's blast radius"
Captain: "Ensign, i said very good.  Hold position."
Helm:

posted on September 6th, 2010, 12:29 pm

lol we can use a little thought and assume that a fleet would never engage in a battle in such extremely close range where explosions would splash like that.

in the dominion war battles this only happened once.

when a dread exploded and killed a couple bop.

also a borg cube did it once.

so if explosion splash every came in i would only want it for borg cubes and dreads (and maybe tavara) killing short ranged ships with weak hulls (bop level) other stuff taking shield damage.

posted on September 6th, 2010, 1:07 pm

Don't the Spatial Charges on the Dominion HWP already do this?

posted on September 6th, 2010, 1:10 pm

In the show, ships weren't that far from an exploding Cube and seemed ok. The only one seen destroyed was almost on the hull. Giving the blast 'Dogfight' range similar to the Descents special should be too hazardous.

posted on September 6th, 2010, 1:11 pm

this thread is about explosions of destroyed units doing damage.

not about weapons doing splash damage.

and you're right. at charges on perimeters do splash, as do quadcobalts and several special weapons.

posted on September 6th, 2010, 1:12 pm

Speaking about Perimeters, does that mean they're supposed to kill my own fleet and miners?

posted on September 6th, 2010, 1:13 pm

Speaking about Perimeters, does that mean they're supposed to kill my own fleet and miners?

probably not, i think thats a bug, but its already been reported.

[Professor J]

posted on September 6th, 2010, 1:20 pm

Last edited by Professor J on September 6th, 2010, 1:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I was wondering, if it is possible, and if it is, id like to request that splash damage be put into fleetops.

-The thesis statement of this topic.

  But yeah, I guess I agree that large explosions (cubes, structures..) would have an area-of-effect..  Though it would need a bit of play-testing to ensure that it doesn't just destroy the balance for large confrontations (chain-reactions, suicide runs, etc..)  This sounds a lot like the auto-destruct/death-explosion from stock Armada, which they did remove...

posted on September 6th, 2010, 1:24 pm

Basically what im saying is when a big space station blows up and you got a bunch of ships right next to it, i doubt they are going to be perfectly fine, i would at least think that a shockwave would push them back, and some damage would occur to the ships, maybe even disable some subsystems for a little bit, i just think this would give a more realistic feel.

Same thing when ships blow up, cept on a smaller scale, obviously because the ship would be smaller.

i can quote too. there is no mention of splash damage from weapons fire, as that is already in the game. your partial quote took words out of context to support a flawed position.

posted on September 6th, 2010, 1:28 pm

Splash damage for certain ships like disruptor rhienns, e2s and other ships that are too powerful once a critical mass is reached can benefit balance-wise from this. Maybe its not exactly splash damage but some kind of chain reaction suffering. E.g. an e2 spreads some wreckage on other ships damageing hull. Or other things could include sensor blackout or weapon disabling for own ships when a certain ship explodes.

posted on September 6th, 2010, 1:59 pm

Speaking about Perimeters, does that mean they're supposed to kill my own fleet and miners?

Hell, I discovered this nasty issue when i built 3 perimeters close together in a game against the AI (Asteroid Halma so natural chokepoint).  When i had some loose cash i upgraded them all with their special.  I saw the enemy approaching and positioned my fleet in front of the perimters.  As soon as the enemy were in range of the perimeters and flying through the middle of my fleet i suddenly found half my fleet destroyed by my own defenses... nevermore will i pay for that "upgrade".