So, I recently upgraded my game to the current beta version, and had a go of combat with directional thrusters and the altered maneuvering system. I managed to get my designs into functional states and they can work well enough, however, I also very quickly started to miss the high-octane sorts of maneuvers and flying I used to be able to get out of fighting in a small, fast ship. And, after having a high speed mock fight with my friend on the current live build (not the beta), and having a blast (and also realizing I could not do this in the beta build), I came up with the idea for this module.
Obviously, the old flight system was in no way realistic for a space game. It was rather silly to have a massive ship flying around as effectively as a smaller one just by turning and burning and all that. However, as a fan of dogfighting games, and not just space sims, I got a real thrill out of jockeying for position and looping and spinning to get a bead on my enemies, and firing off a salvo of weapon fire and veering away to start again. I enjoyed flying around to avoid enemy fire and taking a serpentine path out of a fight.
The beta flight system currently allows none of that, really. You either orbit your enemy, firing until they die, or you ram into something or someone, or they do, and that's more or less it. Forward thrust arguably means very little, and turning rate is arguably the most useful stat. If you want to do an attack run, you speed by, hopefully avoiding enemy fire, or hitting anything, launch your salvo, turn retrograde, burn to change direction slightly, and do it again, all while being fairly vulnerable. What this does is make bigger=better as far as ship design, since being larger lets you soak more damage, mount more weapons and modules, and still manage to turn well enough if you add enough thrusters.
In the old system, a smaller, faster ship could, arguably, effectively combat a larger ship if they stayed fast and kept moving to stay in blind spots, but that kind of gameplay, which I understand was something of a niche, is now more or less defunct.
The "AMDU" or "Active Momentum Dispersal Unit" would effectively add a little of the old flight system into the game, that is to say make it more "flying sim" than "space sim" and linked to a module you can equip. The catch, though, is that it would specifically, hopefully, be designed with a high curve of diminishing returns for ships as their volume increased, as well as a maximum benefit as their volume decreased. This way, battleships will not be able to handle like smaller "fighter-style" craft, but smaller craft will still hit a limit as to how effective the system is.
This module would very quickly introduce a clear difference between "battleship" combat and combat between smaller craft. And, because it takes up a module slot, you're still paying a price for that ability, much like you do for any other upgrade, especially at lower tiers of volume. Stacking the module would, theoretically, not really give any additional bonuses, since it should be linked to volume which is a static thing, and only apply the bonus once. However, if it were allowed to stack, it would still be taking up slots that could be used for more weapons, or shields, or any other upgrades, meaning you'd have to make those modules count, and the higher your volume, the smaller the bonus would be anyway, meaning you'd need more modules to get it to work as effectively as a smaller ship regardless.
I understand that this system is 100% unrealistic, but so are lots of the other systems in the game. It's a game, first and foremost, and should be fun. I don't think Avorion was meant to be a true space simulator, else we'd have a lot more gravity and orbits to consider, along with fuel for our engines, radiators for cooling, life support systems for crew, even waste storage and disposal, along with radiation hazards.
A little unrealistic flying (in space) for the sake of fun probably wouldn't hurt anyone, and would open up a new (or old?) style of gameplay between different sizes of ships moving forward. As with all suggestions, this is based on something that I believe would add to the enjoyment of the game, as well as strategic depth and more differentiation between different sizes of ships beyond "bigger=better", at least for myself personally. Thank you for your consideration!
Suggestion
Ryugi
So, I recently upgraded my game to the current beta version, and had a go of combat with directional thrusters and the altered maneuvering system. I managed to get my designs into functional states and they can work well enough, however, I also very quickly started to miss the high-octane sorts of maneuvers and flying I used to be able to get out of fighting in a small, fast ship. And, after having a high speed mock fight with my friend on the current live build (not the beta), and having a blast (and also realizing I could not do this in the beta build), I came up with the idea for this module.
Obviously, the old flight system was in no way realistic for a space game. It was rather silly to have a massive ship flying around as effectively as a smaller one just by turning and burning and all that. However, as a fan of dogfighting games, and not just space sims, I got a real thrill out of jockeying for position and looping and spinning to get a bead on my enemies, and firing off a salvo of weapon fire and veering away to start again. I enjoyed flying around to avoid enemy fire and taking a serpentine path out of a fight.
The beta flight system currently allows none of that, really. You either orbit your enemy, firing until they die, or you ram into something or someone, or they do, and that's more or less it. Forward thrust arguably means very little, and turning rate is arguably the most useful stat. If you want to do an attack run, you speed by, hopefully avoiding enemy fire, or hitting anything, launch your salvo, turn retrograde, burn to change direction slightly, and do it again, all while being fairly vulnerable. What this does is make bigger=better as far as ship design, since being larger lets you soak more damage, mount more weapons and modules, and still manage to turn well enough if you add enough thrusters.
In the old system, a smaller, faster ship could, arguably, effectively combat a larger ship if they stayed fast and kept moving to stay in blind spots, but that kind of gameplay, which I understand was something of a niche, is now more or less defunct.
The "AMDU" or "Active Momentum Dispersal Unit" would effectively add a little of the old flight system into the game, that is to say make it more "flying sim" than "space sim" and linked to a module you can equip. The catch, though, is that it would specifically, hopefully, be designed with a high curve of diminishing returns for ships as their volume increased, as well as a maximum benefit as their volume decreased. This way, battleships will not be able to handle like smaller "fighter-style" craft, but smaller craft will still hit a limit as to how effective the system is.
This module would very quickly introduce a clear difference between "battleship" combat and combat between smaller craft. And, because it takes up a module slot, you're still paying a price for that ability, much like you do for any other upgrade, especially at lower tiers of volume. Stacking the module would, theoretically, not really give any additional bonuses, since it should be linked to volume which is a static thing, and only apply the bonus once. However, if it were allowed to stack, it would still be taking up slots that could be used for more weapons, or shields, or any other upgrades, meaning you'd have to make those modules count, and the higher your volume, the smaller the bonus would be anyway, meaning you'd need more modules to get it to work as effectively as a smaller ship regardless.
I understand that this system is 100% unrealistic, but so are lots of the other systems in the game. It's a game, first and foremost, and should be fun. I don't think Avorion was meant to be a true space simulator, else we'd have a lot more gravity and orbits to consider, along with fuel for our engines, radiators for cooling, life support systems for crew, even waste storage and disposal, along with radiation hazards.
A little unrealistic flying (in space) for the sake of fun probably wouldn't hurt anyone, and would open up a new (or old?) style of gameplay between different sizes of ships moving forward. As with all suggestions, this is based on something that I believe would add to the enjoyment of the game, as well as strategic depth and more differentiation between different sizes of ships beyond "bigger=better", at least for myself personally. Thank you for your consideration!
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