Some New Player Ships

[Aeonic]

I've read that player ships are the easiest thing to create for this game, so that's where I decided to start. These ships probably aren't all that balanced, but being as the whole game is random anyway, I don't think that balance really matters all that much in comparison to fun.

I'd like to turn them into non-player ships, but I'm not really sure how to do that yet.

Templar-class armed cargo transport
Slow lumbering cargo ship equipped with an omni laser and ICX defense turret, should be sufficient to ward off most attackers in the Eridani system giving the player time to purchase a deflecter. Uses plasteel armor on the broad sides and ceramic armor in the front and rear.

Starlight-class defender
Nimble mid-range ship with a trident cannon and class 1 deflector standard. Comes equipped with heavy titanium plate all around.

Stalwart-class gunship
Fast although somewhat difficult to maneuverable gunship equipped with fast-fire laser and class 1 deflector. Heavy titanium plate all around, although I'd recommend upgrading the front armor segment as soon as you get the chance as that's where most of the damage tends to fall.

All ships come with 40 frames along with their own shield, armor and selection menu graphics.

Constructive criticism is welcome.

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I've pondered the idea of making some armor segments of these ships nonCritical, since with that setting the ship will continue intact, even after the armor is depleted, for some unpredictable amount of time before taking hits in those areas will destroy it. While some portions of the ship are obviously critical: the bridge/cockpit, drives, etc... Other parts, like the cargo bay or "wings", just don't seem critically important.

For example, looking at the Templar, it has the bridge up front (which is narrow and hard to hit), and the single engine in the rear. So the front and rear segments are obviously critical, but I can see it taking significant damage to the wings on either side without anything exploding.

The other two ships have engines on either side and the bridge up front, so those sections are critical, but the rear segments are only protecting the cargo bay.

Of course, creating nonCritical sections for player ships would be totally unbalancing...

It would be cool if the nonCritical setting would define what happen to the ship when taking damage there without any armor, such as damaging cargo or causing a massive drive-overloading explosion.

[alterecco]

Constructive criticism is welcome.

I'm not sure how constructive this is, but I just wanted to say the graphics look awesome! Well done!

As for the adding of non-critical sections, I'm not sure that is possible at the moment. It's a good idea, but Transcendence is a bit limited in the area of controlling the damage dealt. You might be able to add a <OnDamage> event to ships and then scan for which armors have been hit (they would have taken damage since last time you checked) and modify the damage returned depending on them being critical or non-critical segments. Not a totally simple task (and in the end I'm not sure it would work).

Anyways, keep up the good work. It's a pleasure seeing new cool new graphics. If you do start on the scripting and run into any snags, just post your questions or drop by on IRC.

.]

[digdug]

It would be cool if the nonCritical setting would define what happen to the ship when taking damage there without any armor, such as damaging cargo or causing a massive drive-overloading explosion.

I don't really tested nonCritical segments but we have:
nonCritical="cargo" (could do what you want)
nonCritical="scanners"
nonCritical="general"
nonCritical="tactical"
nonCritical="drive"
nonCritical="dev0" (possibly, the main weapon of the ship)

[Aeonic]

Glad you like the graphics.

I tested onCritical a little bit, but for player ships I couldn't find that any of the settings did anything other than prolong the point at which the player dies when getting hit on a depleted armor segment. Sometimes it would kill you, sometimes it wouldn't. But no effects other than that.

[Aury]

The graphics are beautiful (since not only do you have detail, but textures too!)

As to non-critical segments, on small ships like those you've made, they'd probably be rather unbalanced, but on a large or long playership that is a big target, generally non-critical segments are needed to compensate for the fact the ship is a ridiculously large target.