Perhaps it would just be possible to have the Iocrym stop firing when it can't hit you with the QD?
My first choice: Make the planet disintegrate after 100 hits or so. This is a good reason *not* to wait on top of the stargate.
More QDS
-
Fossaman
- Militia Captain
- Posts: 556
- Joined: Tue Mar 07, 2006 12:56 am
- Location: Traveling to the galactic core
I think, for gameplay purposes, making it so you can't hide on planets would be really, really annoying. I don't do it very often myself, but I like being able to do it when my shields go kaput.
Perhaps it would just be possible to have the Iocrym stop firing when it can't hit you with the QD?
My first choice: Make the planet disintegrate after 100 hits or so. This is a good reason *not* to wait on top of the stargate.
Perhaps it would just be possible to have the Iocrym stop firing when it can't hit you with the QD?
My first choice: Make the planet disintegrate after 100 hits or so. This is a good reason *not* to wait on top of the stargate.
X-ray laser! Pew, pew pew!
> = = = = ۞
> = = = = ۞
No weapon in transcendence has the power to destroy a planet - any such weapon would easily destroy a starship in less than a glancing blow. The amount of energy required to destroy a planet completely is tremendous (although interestingly enough the amount of energy required to just kill everything on it is considerably less )
I have hidden on top of planets before as well, and I still think it shouldn't be allowed. There is no hiding in space. I'm all for hiding behind a planet but the enemy should be able to come round the other side and get you. All the times I've needed to hide behind a planet it was my own fault for advancing too fast.
An no-risk invincible shield that you may use at your leisure doesn't sound balanced to me. Now if the game so hard that it is currently not playable with this tactic then I would say it is not balanced at all*. But it is, you can hide near friendly stations, hiding on one side of a planet blocks half the fire, you have sustain.
*Or I would say it's balanced just fine for a game based on roguelikes. Easy is no fun. However, this is not the case, the game is perfectly playable without planet hiding.
I have hidden on top of planets before as well, and I still think it shouldn't be allowed. There is no hiding in space. I'm all for hiding behind a planet but the enemy should be able to come round the other side and get you. All the times I've needed to hide behind a planet it was my own fault for advancing too fast.
An no-risk invincible shield that you may use at your leisure doesn't sound balanced to me. Now if the game so hard that it is currently not playable with this tactic then I would say it is not balanced at all*. But it is, you can hide near friendly stations, hiding on one side of a planet blocks half the fire, you have sustain.
*Or I would say it's balanced just fine for a game based on roguelikes. Easy is no fun. However, this is not the case, the game is perfectly playable without planet hiding.
What about just having the edges of the planet intercept projectiles? Shots would still work within the planets so a ship that decides to fly *over* the planet (having its guns within the edges of it) would give you a mouthful of weaponry (ie. plasma).
No but circling capships aren't a big deal. If hiding doesn't make practical sense in any other situation it makes sense with circling capships. And you can do that with wreaks anyways. behind The iocrym command ship and all gunships will be able to get you and I think that is what matters. I also assume it wouldn't be hard to implement (changing an equation from the whole of an object to its circumference?) and it would not reduce the size of cover a planet would provide.
Not just capships will circle, I was mistaken. MOST ships will just circle if you hide on a planet.
Those that do attack runs will hit you once, and then have to circle around again to get back inside the planet, by which time your shield has regenerated - you are effectively getting a 90% or more damage reduction depending on the speed of the attacking ship. Anything which can overcome your shield regen at 10% damage is going to kill you regerdless.
Don't get me wrong this is better than nothing and the easiest to implement (in fact I believe you can mod it - just change the bitmask) but I still believe it does not address the problem.
Another possible solution may be to allow passthrough at a rate such that when a projectile is just reaching the object the probability of passthrough is 100% but by the time it comes out the other end the probability is 0%, possibly weighted so that the center gets something like 75%.
Those that do attack runs will hit you once, and then have to circle around again to get back inside the planet, by which time your shield has regenerated - you are effectively getting a 90% or more damage reduction depending on the speed of the attacking ship. Anything which can overcome your shield regen at 10% damage is going to kill you regerdless.
Don't get me wrong this is better than nothing and the easiest to implement (in fact I believe you can mod it - just change the bitmask) but I still believe it does not address the problem.
Another possible solution may be to allow passthrough at a rate such that when a projectile is just reaching the object the probability of passthrough is 100% but by the time it comes out the other end the probability is 0%, possibly weighted so that the center gets something like 75%.
I think the best solution would be to make the QS ammoless, but, also make it virtual. That'd stop the park-on-planet-N-wait safe haven in Heretic. After all, who would really want a weapon that disintegrates a ship especially once you've passed Heretic? Miss out on possible new loot-abilities at the sake of a God weapon? I think not.
But that's just me as I'd prefer to shoot-N-loot rather than fry-N-fly. Anyway, what good would the QS do you once that last shell has been fired and no others are available? And we don't know if there'll be any more Iocrym cap ships after jumping past Heretic and if there were, would you not have to fight them anyway in order to replenish your stock of shells?
Although I never park on the planet to wait out the QSD's, I do like having a place where I can retreat when in dire need.
But that's just me as I'd prefer to shoot-N-loot rather than fry-N-fly. Anyway, what good would the QS do you once that last shell has been fired and no others are available? And we don't know if there'll be any more Iocrym cap ships after jumping past Heretic and if there were, would you not have to fight them anyway in order to replenish your stock of shells?
Although I never park on the planet to wait out the QSD's, I do like having a place where I can retreat when in dire need.