Softcore, Mediumcore, Hardcore

[Go Seigen]

My suggestion is pretty simple: add softcore and hardcore

Currently, the only game mode is mediumcode (drop all your stuff when you die; run back to your corpse to reclaim it)

I personally have always preferred softcore or hardcore to this game mode.

 

Softcore is pretty obvious. When you die, just teleport back to your home system (with all your stuff) and maybe you lose some money or something (you could keep the insurance mechanic this way)

 

Everyone knows hardcore; when you die, your file is deleted. Nothing to be saved.

 

Also, this seems like it'd be a pretty easy one to implement.

[cepheni]

I disagree with you. Softcore sounds pretty boring to me, part of the challenge is that you never exactly know what you'll find in a new sector. Do I dare to take my ship with me instanly or do I scout ahead first? That would just never come up anymore.

 

Hardcore would be too hard, I think. You die a lot in Avorion. You loose patience while flying to a station and boost to get there faster. So in the end you're too fast and ram the station or a random asteroid. And then everything is gone? Additionally you tend to have mutliple ships, would they keep you from actually dying?

[Kamo]

I have variation ideas for both.

 

"Softcore" idea: I just discovered that when a ship with perma-installed modules is destroyed, the modules are also destroyed.

Softcore would make all modules drop (with no destroyed perma-mods) and insurance work with 30% of the ship's resources as the wreck is "auto-salvaged" (with pretty efficient lasers too), so it'd still be pretty soft :).

 

"Hardcore" idea:

• Your first ship is your personal ship, you can change personal ships at a shipyard.
  
• Save is deleted when the personal ship dies.
  
• Jump range is calculated from the personal ship's perspective (so you're obliged to bring her with you or order her to jump near you for any trip beyond her jumprange), and if you gate/wormhole away you are whisked back into your personal ship.
  
• When switching into sector, gating away or wormholing away the ship you'll switch or stay into will become a temporary personal ship for 15 minutes max to arrange things or spectate distant battles to protect important ships, then you'll be forced to stay in your normal personal ship for twice the time, unless you get back to her jump range (so trade runs and small missions would still be possible).
  
• Temporary personal ship loss also gets rid of some modules and weapons in your inventory in addition to her modules and weapons (they may be looted back), alongside with twice her worth in credits and resources.

Those hardcore rules would usually entice the player to play ships who escort its personal ship, adding some high tension to battles without necessarily putting the player always on the edge (its personal ship may even stay out of the sector, with no threat looming over it and no totalling herself on asteroids thanks to AI prudence and collision damage reduction).

[Go Seigen]

I disagree with you. Softcore sounds pretty boring to me, part of the challenge is that you never exactly know what you'll find in a new sector. Do I dare to take my ship with me instanly or do I scout ahead first? That would just never come up anymore.

 

Hardcore would be too hard, I think. You die a lot in Avorion. You loose patience while flying to a station and boost to get there faster. So in the end you're too fast and ram the station or a random asteroid. And then everything is gone? Additionally you tend to have mutliple ships, would they keep you from actually dying?

 

You simply have a different play style from me. I'm not trying to say you're wrong, but why shouldn't both styles be included, at least in single player, especially when it's like a dozen lines of code to implement?

[DivineEvil]

My own opinion is that Softcore is unnecessary for regular play. I would consider something in the same direction for Creative Mode, to prevent players from losing crew or ships from random attack or in travel.

 

Suggestions for Hardcore:

- When the player's ship is destroyed, all equipped system modules are deleted, and every turret has a 50% to be permanently lost as well. Destroyed NPC ships has 50% chance to drop each of their equipped turrets independent of loot dropped by other means.

- Player cannot switch between ships by any means other than by direct interaction.

- When taking damage, in addition to shield regeneration interference, player's current ship cannot use Engine Boost nor jump into other sectors for several seconds out of combat.

- Shields are given with an additional diminishing return multiplier. DIfferent materials give the same amount of shield points, but greater materials suffer much less from diminishing returns.

- Taking damage past shields has a chance to cause loses and failures within the ship depending on the blocks that has been hit, up to each second in combat (period may vary by chosen difficulty). The chance of that event is equivalent to the percentage of hull the ship is currently missing + the damage taken in that second as percentage from total hull value. The roll happens whether the failure happens or not. If the roll is positive, the next block hit by any weapon will define the character of the failure:

- Decorative, Framework, Reflectors etc : Nothing happens after all.

- Hull, Armor, Crew Quarters : A random crew member is killed in action. May include officers.

- Cargo Bay : Random commodity is lost, amount defined by on-hit damage divided by commodity's volume rating (rounded to integer).

- Engine: Ship loses forward thrust for (hit damage/5) seconds.

- Gyros, Thrusters, Dampeners: Ship loses Flight Assist for (hit damage/3) seconds.

- Energy Batteries: Battery is discharged - its individual energy capacity is subtracted from current energy storage.

- Energy Generators: Generator explodes, dealing damage to all attached blocks equivalent to its unit volume.

- Hangar: Ship loses one stored fighter and one pilot, given the presence of either.

- Turret Block: Installed turret is disabled for (hit damage/4) seconds.

- Hyperspace Core: Ship loses ability to jump for (hit damage/2) seconds.

- Mainframe: One randomly chosen System module is destroyed.

- Torpedo Storage: A random torpedo explodes, applying its damage to the host ship, ignoring shields.

- Intergrity FG: Generator is disabled until the ship shields are full again. No shields = no effect.

Ex. A ship with 82% of its hull intact takes additional burst of 2% hull damage from another ship within a second , which results in a failure chance of 20% + 2%. Critical Hit Chance Roll returns positive. Next hit from an attacking ship's Cannon hits the Engine for 300 dmg. Because critical roll have passed, the target ship losses ability to use all engines and boost for a whole minute.

[cepheni]

That sounds.. evil.. and yet pretty cool, actually.

I guess your name is not just for show, eh?  ;D