Greetings!

I haven't posted in a great while, but when i have I have gotten valuable responses and insight. So I'm back again-

My game has advanced much(thanks to said feedback) but now I have a wild hair about redesigning the ship defensive weapons... As the current setup may be too simplified to make missile defense classed ship significantly different from other classes.

(shameless plug, playlist of videos of game so you can see what i have been up too and spare me from explaining everything)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5VSPxg5ImI_H9hmMp5Fruk5iaozVQaif

Currently you can place as many radar units on a ship as you like, but only the strongest one counts. Radar performance is based on a range factor, pulse rate, and number of intercept tracks the system can handle. So right now you can just throw on a class 5 radar and forget about it.

What I have a wild hair about is separating those factors into different units, Namely "area" radar (for finding large objects/ship at range) akin to navigational rotating mast type, target designation radars (tracking missiles/fighters, ect) and combat control modules that would additive boost the number of hostile tracks the total system could engage. I could further complement this by having the designation type have directional arcs of cover ala fixed AESA panels. The fun part about doing all this would be the potential of having much finer ability to impair said systems when modules are disabled/destroyed.

The cons that comes to mind with this setup is that the minimum number of modules needed for a viable air defense system goes up quite a bit. The added complexity of the system might throw new players off some as well. The pros that come to mind are I could have a much wider variety of real unit builds between classes (especially between Command & Control class and AA Defense class) Where basic enemy detection and strong intercept capability could be wildly different builds. I could mix and match the capabilities of the modules between super specialized and generally poor all round performers.

The minimum modules a single ship would need to be viable would jump from 5 to 10 or so though...

^ Circus comes to town! Missile design with a dozen plus VLS packs ^

Had you been doing a turn-based game I would have suggested to go hard at it with full out distinctions between gear and heavy specialization. I'm not so sure that's appropriate for a real-time game, even with pausing.

The most critical thing during a battle seems to be knowing why things are going right or wrong. If you have lots of individual specializations I wonder if there will be difficulty accounting for why things are going wrong. Mileage may vary, though, on the pace of the battle, of course. Slow and stately capital ship battles I think can stand lots of specialization because there's more time to react when things start going south. Another big factor might be in interface tells: Does a specific effect, such as obscuring snow or interface flickers, happen when a specific component gets damaged? That might help a lot even if things are fast paced.

Sweet looking game by the way! Love the explody fx

Thanks you replying! I was starting to think my fixation on defensive sensors and systems was out of place heh. Since I made the previous post I have re-coded my radar system and now support a much more realistic model, as well as supporting 3 distant types of radar, navigational(longer wave) rotating mast type, directional (90 degree arcs) specialized defense system radars modeled on phased array panel types, and a mixed mode type that gives both types of functionality but at much degraded performance at cost equivalence to the other two. I also made a separate class of "combat computer" s that add to the total defensive tracks a ship can support.

The most critical thing during a battle seems to be knowing why things are going right or wrong. If you have lots of individual specializations I wonder if there will be difficulty accounting for why things are going wrong. Mileage may vary, though, on the pace of the battle, of course. Slow and stately capital ship battles I think can stand lots of specialization because there's more time to react when things start going south. Another big factor might be in interface tells: Does a specific effect, such as obscuring snow or interface flickers, happen when a specific component gets damaged? That might help a lot even if things are fast paced.

Things in the video happen very fast due to the enemy ships being legacy and being generally unable to survive under the heavy fire of the ships I built. Screen obscuring effects don't make too much sense beyond the mothership(as that is supposedly your point of command). There is another view you can switch too that pauses the action, but I was thinking of doing another more indepth and informative version.

Maybe you could have both? Have a newbie "combo" radar that could make a ship viable. But if you wanted to get serious, you'd be better off allocating slots to more specialized detection.

You seem to be very far along and the game looks awesome. :)

- Eck

There is always the old Countermeasure complexity if you want to add more ECM countermeasures features and ECCM countercounter measures (for weapons).

Also there can be specializing search radar versus weapon control/guidance radar and point defense systemry .

with differentiations like that then there can be a resource balance issue between the different types and allowing specialization of some ships (small picket ships versus main-force weapon platforms and like wise if you delve into 'fighter' craft their balance of their sensor systems to weapons.

Except for a missile warhead that that interupts all C&C functions, I haven't put any ECM system in. What I have considered is allowing you to turn the radars one and off, with the radars vastly increasing the chance of detection when active. It would be possible to to create a jamming effect though (Radar code works by applying energy, energy bleed-off rate could be increased). All this could mean allot more though if one idea I had came to fruition. A proper battlegroup/fleet cooperative engagement system. This way a flag or C&C ship could coordinate defenses without fires overlapping. That and one ship could have its radars's radiating(and this taking a massive detection penalty) while the others remain on standby but able to fire on that ships contacts..