Whoot, Shockwave!

posted on October 29th, 2004, 9:15 am

Here's my thoughts about the Shockwaves...

First of all, Explosion and Shockwave effects look awesome in FleetOps, far better than anything I saw from any other modder (including me).
I think the shockwaves were a bit too short-lasting, though. I'd have given them the double max radius and half expansion speed, giving them more screen time; all the better to admire them. But that's me.

Now, for my questions.
> Could we have damage attached to the bigger waves (if it isn't so now...)? Just a bit? I tried adding damage to big shockwaves in the past, but they always killed too much crew. With the improved damage models found in FO, that should not be a problem, though.
> Can you write repulsion forces into a normal exlosion shockwave? I've only seen it working on weapons so far, but if working, it would be rather cool-looking, I think... A large ship blowing up in an impressive explosion, smaller ones being pushed away by the shockwave...

(Yes, I know there are no shockwaves in space. Let's call them subspace shockwaves and all will be fine, okay?)

Anyone's thoughts on this?

posted on October 29th, 2004, 9:50 am

we have quite developed explosion animations in v3. they last a good time longer than the old ones from v2 with an slight afterglow in space so i think that obejective was hit already.

the other thing you mention, should shockwaves do damage or push vessels away from it's spot - i think that should be discussed by other members as i believe this is quite a good idea

DOCa Cola

posted on October 30th, 2004, 1:41 am

Small ships should explode without much effect. Although they should also be able to crash into other ships, causig significant damage.

When large ships explode, it should be a real show. Yes, the shockwave should knock other ships back. But also, sometimes the shockwave should knock out weapons or shields of nearby ships. Sometimes when a large ship explodes, a nacelle should go flying off and possibly cause damage to another ship. And sometime, when a ship is hit it should careen out of control, potentially destroying another ship in its path.

Meanwhle there shoud be some escape pods that come off. These might hold both people and materials if reincorporated back into their side.

Ship to ship battles can be a bit stale in Armada, and I think this is a place that could bring back some unpredictability and excitement.

posted on October 30th, 2004, 9:36 am

We already had a few talks about escape pods here... Doesn't seem like they're gonna make it in the game. I don't mind that, it would be too much micro-management and I can only remember Federation ships having them. (Klingons will gladly die with their ships, Borg don't mind either and Romulans have been largely overlooked by the ST authors so anything could be the truth with them.)

Now debris from exploding ships flying around doing some real damage, that's a great idea. Sadly, i'ts also one that is not supported by Armada's very limited physics engine. Were this Homeworld, I think it could be done. But that's another story.

Another question to the FO staff: About debris: Have you tried playing with the chunk generation parameters in art_cfg.h? With the right numbers you can have big chunks of ship when one breaks up, like nacelles, accompanied by dozens of smaller pieces, adding some of that BOOM feeling to dying ships.

And sorry for being such a know-it-all smartass

posted on October 30th, 2004, 10:18 am

well i'm not a big fan of debris, cause in star trek most destroyed ships were just small fields of mini debris (besiodes wolf 359 cause that had to look dramatic ;-) ) but i think we will improve the explosions in a future version a bit, maybe with debris, yep

posted on October 30th, 2004, 11:13 am

Well I think debris should be in but not to much, cause that would look ugly in big battles with one debris over another, so good for 1vs1 battle but not for big ones .

And about the damage thing I think that should be in, but only the biggest ships should do damage. And to improve the idea, the artillery ships shoud do A BIG BANG u know with all the high-explosiv torps and stuff and so they should damage the ships around them also, maybe even more than the capital ships

posted on October 30th, 2004, 11:58 am

well there should be an cap about the damage of an explosion of a ship. i mean if you made a big fleet and your biggest ship explodes, does that mean bye bye fleet or is it then a chain reaction?

if that happens, then space battles would be obsolete and make just kamicazi ships

posted on October 30th, 2004, 11:58 am

I agree with some debris, but not all of the time. A good example of debris is when the Romulan warbird had a piece fly off and hit the enterprise. In DS9, in the big battles, there seemed to a FEW pieces of debris that shook things up.

I think and hope the goal is to add some flair to the battles (I do wish the shipped moved when they attacked), and also some unpredictability.

I know a lot of this is not possible with Armada, and I am so impressed with how far the fleetops team has pushed the engine as is!

posted on November 25th, 2004, 1:36 am

(I am still trying to find the right role for turrets (because gosh darn it I just don't see them on the shows very often), so it comes as no surprise that I suggest) Turrets could have an especially big shockwave, taking out other turrets in a cascading explosion if built too close together, and bases as well.

posted on November 25th, 2004, 9:34 am

i thought about a damaging shockwave for vessels, too, but i don't like cascade explosions.. i don't want a player to get punished for building one kind of vessel. every vessel or station should be something the player can trust on

posted on November 25th, 2004, 12:38 pm

I would restrict the threat of cascading shockwaves to turrets built too close to one another, but also there could be a random, say one in five, chance that a ship would produce a shockwave. That seems consistant with the armada invasions of DS9.

posted on November 25th, 2004, 2:43 pm

What if it would be done like in A1, where if u self destruct a ship it would cause some damage to other ships, but if it was destroyed it didnt do any damage.
That could work to, and there is no problem that people would just build ships to do this as this option would only be possible for capital ships.

posted on November 26th, 2004, 5:01 pm

I don't like the idea of chain-reaction explosions either, not even with turrets. But I think the damage should be about enough to blow a small ship's shields if a large one (or a station) explodes right next to it and maybe do some damage to eniges or whatever.

When I modded myself, I attached a bright blue shockwave with damage to stations and ships where you'd expect unstable material, like research stations, superweapon stations (before I removed them), large Romulan ships (Singularity drives), ...

And the Self-destruct is cool, too, it just never was really effective.

posted on November 26th, 2004, 8:04 pm

just keep in mind the graphic lode is allredy hevy.

posted on November 26th, 2004, 8:21 pm

Hey all I just thought I would say that I am also in disagreal (SP?) with the idea of a chain reaciton explosion, but like we have seen in the past with the wave, (altough that was a moon) hit the exclcior it shook the ship, and although I have always thought that a ship exploding next to you should hurt, it would probably take away from game play. :cry: and that would be bad. But the pushing idea, assumning that the Engine can handle it

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