the last choice

posted on September 19th, 2009, 6:55 am

so these are my ideas for making the last stand..
1. warp core ejection and targeting
2. nebula targeting
3. selfdestract to all ships
they all will have basiclly the some effect, just different methods.. any of these are planned?

posted on September 19th, 2009, 9:26 am

1 and 3 are basically the same. Fed ships (and possibly other races) have the option of ejecting the warp core. And those races/ship designs that don't eject it, can use it as a self destruct mechanism.

In both cases, the result is a huge explosion that, if we take into account canon, would wipe out the entirety of most FO maps. If we reduce the explosion and the shockwave that a warp core detonation/ejection causes to more manageable levels, as ships in FO don't use warp, they would be unable to vacate the area before detonation. So, ejected or not, triggering the warp core is suicide for the ship doing it.

Besides that, it would make multiplayer basically pointless or it would shift the "balance of power" quite dramatically. An approaching attack fleet could be detected way before getting to the base and sending one or two ships ready for warp core detonation/ejection could clean the fleet before they got even in sight of the base. This puts non-cloaking races at a disadvantage or makes races with cloaking to have slightly more chances of succesfully pulling a base attack. I said "slightly" because judicious use of tachyon detection grid tech can negate this advantage.

As for idea number 2, I have no idea of what are you trying to say with "nebula targeting". Something about the targeting systems of a Nebula class? Targeting nebulae and shooting at them? I don't know what you suggest about the Nebulas and their targeting systems, but in the second case, not all nebulae are explosive. Just one or two types, actually. From ST2: Wrath of Khan, we know that Mutaras are NOT explosive, for example.

posted on September 19th, 2009, 5:45 pm

To add onto that, I believe that some factions will get the ability to target nebulae (as in use nebulae as weapons etc)... but I believe those sort of weapons are reserved for future factions (probably the Noxter).

posted on September 19th, 2009, 5:58 pm

My choice for a last stand is all or nothing. "TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE!"

posted on September 20th, 2009, 8:22 am

To add onto that, I believe that some factions will get the ability to target nebulae (as in use nebulae as weapons etc)... but I believe those sort of weapons are reserved for future factions (probably the Noxter).

yes that's what i ment, nebulas aren't common so it will be cool to draw your enemies into ignitable nebulas but i think it need to be for flagships only like the ent-e did with the deflector thing in star trek 9.
and one other thing why when ship explode, the explosion doesn't effect on ships near by? (selfdestract aside)

posted on September 20th, 2009, 9:02 am

On the nebulae subject, well, I have no opinion, so I leave the devs to deal with that one.

As for why nearby ships don't explode when a ship gets destroyed, well... Call it "artisitic license", or that the screen doesn't show the real distances between ships ( in actual ST battles, they talk about thousands of kilometers as firing range ), or you can make up a reason why space explosions don't affect nearby ships.