Interface, Avatar, and Balance Questions

posted on October 4th, 2010, 1:10 pm

passive abilities (not weapons) are abilities that make a unit good at a certain task and bad at certain others.

lets take the galaxy class for example, it has tactical weapon arrays (TWA), which makes it good at attacking long range ships.

its weapons do 50% more damage to them.

most passives have a negative aspect, in this case it takes 24% more damage from short range attackers.

this is common in fleetops, if u are good against 1 thing, u are bad against its "opposite" it has a symmetry.

so the galaxy does well against long range, but not so well against short range.

the bomber (with [abbr=fast tracking computers]FTC[/abbr] does welll against short ranged, but not so well against long range.

the intrepid with [abbr=autonomous defence AI]ADAI[/abbr] does well against common ships (with medium range) but bad against uncommon ships (support ships).

special weapons are just an additional weapon a ship has which does something cool. not always a weapon either, Regeneration for the sphere/pyramid is a special weapon, but actually only affects the sphere/pyramid that uses it.

passives are used to make a ship unique, giving it the ability to counter certain ships.

special weapons are just fun things that ships can use. special weapons use special weapons energy. of which each ship has a limited amount that regens over a couple minutes. ships with higher system values can regen special energy faster.

posted on October 4th, 2010, 1:25 pm

How do I program a passive?  I looked in the ODF, but I only found these lines.

Code: Select all

wpnname = "Nano Plates"
tooltip = "Nano Plates"
verbosetooltip = "AUTOTOOLTIP-passive_nanoplates.odf"
classlabel = "UtilityWeapon"
shotdelay = 0


I assume that the nano-plates are a type of hull armor.  But I don't see how that would reduce the damage received.  If I make a passive called "Chroniton Field", how would I get it so that damage from chroniton based weapons are reduced?

posted on October 4th, 2010, 1:28 pm

Make the weapon do less damage to the ship in the weapon odf.

posted on October 4th, 2010, 1:31 pm

If that passive weapon entry in the ship ODF file doesn't do anything, why put it there?

posted on October 4th, 2010, 1:35 pm

To show up on the interface.

posted on October 4th, 2010, 5:28 pm

How are these system values for the destroyers?

10 Offensive
12 Defensive
30 System

I was using the system calculator provided by the Fleet-Ops guide, and the high amount of special energy on board is what caused the high system value.  Oh, and the vessel is short ranged in terms of weapons, but it has the sensor range of a scout vessel.

As a general guideline, in a fleet-vs-fleet battle using only one type of ship, what would be best to counter this destroyer?  The values I've posted are from the un-upgraded version that can't fire through the cloak.  The vessel has no armor except for against the Borg on one avatar only.

[Tyler]

posted on October 4th, 2010, 5:34 pm

Last edited by Tyler on October 4th, 2010, 5:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Something with Pulse or beam weapons with the Fast Tracking Computers passive like the Shrike or Canaveral should be a good bet. Their weapons will do full damage and the FTC increases it by 50%.

Something with Ablative Armor would also take less damage. and also seem mostly beam or pulse armed.

[TChapman500]

posted on October 4th, 2010, 6:06 pm

Last edited by TChapman500 on October 4th, 2010, 6:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Okay.  What about a good counter from the Borg?  With the Destroy Borg avatar, the vessel will take less damage from Borg weapons only because of the armor configuration.  Also, will any long or medium-ranged vessel counter this destroyer?  Or will the vessels ability determine what counters it?  The destroyer is slightly faster than the Saber class, but not by much.  And why wouldn't torpedoes be a good counter?

---

By the way, I figured out how I'm going to proceed with the upgrades for the Tereanan ships.  I'll make it so that the vessel in immobilized on the spot, dismantled, and has a framework constructed around it.  Then, you select which upgrades you want it to have, and hit the build button.  The vessel will be upgraded after a certain amount of time.  How do I make sure that the vessel keeps it's name during all stages of construction?  And how do I make sure that the framework doesn't register as a footprint that would inhibit construction?

[Tyler]

posted on October 4th, 2010, 6:16 pm

Last edited by Tyler on October 4th, 2010, 6:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Passives determine what cause extra/reduced damage to a ship normally, so weapon range will still apply (after applying the Borg reduction). Short range mostly seem to take most damage from long range when passives are involved, but it depends on what passives they have.

Torps are the least effective for countering because of their terrible accuracy against small units.


For the framework, I'm not sure.

posted on October 4th, 2010, 10:20 pm

I did some experiments with the Borg.  Their framework changes the name of the vessel once construction is complete.  Which means, I'm going to have to make the upgrade so that it's done instantaneous.  I do not want a ship to just change it's name because of a small upgrade.  Then again, it could be an interesting bug for the developers to fix.  Maybe add a "transferName" boolean for the construction stations like the Borg framework.

posted on October 5th, 2010, 6:12 pm

Okay, I've figured out how I'm going to balance out the lack of Dilithium usage and the stations that will be available.  Dilithium will be used excessively in research, to replicate supplies, open and maintain transwarp conduits, and to upgrade vessels.  Also, the cloak counter avatar renders cloak useless.

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Starbase
Mining Station
Supply Replicator
A-Class Shipyard
Research Center
Technology Center
Sensor Relay
Defence Platform

---

Singularity Generator - Special Station
Defense Station - Special Station

---

Shield Modulator - Cloak Counter Avatar Only
Omega Generator - Perimeter Guard Avatar Only (the Federation wants to destroy it for some reason)
Defense Outpost - Destroy Borg Avatar Only
Transwarp Network - Wartime Production Only (much more efficient than the starbase transwarp system)

---

B-Class Shipyard - Builds ships only granted by Destroy Borg avatar.
C-Class Shipyard - Builds ships only granted by Wartime Production avatar.
D-Class Shipyard - Builds ships only granted by Perimeter Guard avatar.
E-Class Shipyard - Builds ships only granted by Cloak Counter avatar

---

Stations highlighted in red are probably most likely game-enders.  If you can build them fast enough!  You can only have 1 avatar-specific station.  The Defence Station and Sinulatity Generator stations take up some special station slots.  So use them wisely.  Each avatar has 4 avatar-specific ships.

posted on October 5th, 2010, 6:17 pm

this doesnt look like it will be very balanced, i mean a whole avatar that makes cloak useless.

posted on October 5th, 2010, 6:23 pm

Well, just stations, construction ships, and support vessels.  Mining freighters, repair ships, cruisers, destroyers, battleships, assault ships, and turrets will not have cloak detect.  So you will need at least a few support vessels to keep a moving fleet safe from a cloaked fleet.

One more thing, how do I texture a phaser?

posted on October 5th, 2010, 6:26 pm

Well, just stations, construction ships, and support vessels.  Mining freighters, repair ships, cruisers, destroyers, battleships, assault ships, and turrets will not have cloak detect.  So you will need at least a few support vessels to keep a moving fleet safe from a cloaked fleet.

One more thing, how do I texture a phaser?

so any base or fleet has cloak detect lol. build a support ship and you're fine. as u said, cloak will be useless.

no idea about the phaser.

posted on October 5th, 2010, 6:32 pm

Phasers are just sprites, so they should be done the same way as the Ion Cannon Overload special; copy and modify the textures, then give them an entry in the sprite file.