With all the talk these days about items or effects that alter ship appearance long term. I was wondering if it would possible to add persistent damage.
My thought was to simply adjust the current ship damage decals so that they correspond to ship injuries.
So as you pile up ship injuries the appearance of your ship would reflect that damage until those injuries were repaired. You could even leave the existing decal system in place, so that it looks like you can only self repair without components to a certain point, if that makes any sense.
And by tying it to the existing injury system, you do not have to create a new mechanic for it.
I think it would be great after spending 6 missions in b'tran, if you pulled into ESD or flew through sector space looking like you had just left the fight with Khan.
It simply wont happen given the current game mechanics. Now if people had to fly to a SB to repair then what you want to be an inherent thing methinks. However for such a system to be implemented, a lot of mission mechanics and I dare say core system or engine mechanics would have to be change. Consequently, I dont see it happening to be frank.
I think that it is a good idea, and it is possible with current mecanics. Currently damage is visually tied to our hull percentage. Perhaps they could replicate a similar mechanic to the Ship Injury system as the OP stated.
My thought was to not alter the existing damage tied to hull level at all, but simply add the decals to the existing injury system so that the appearance of damage would persist for as long as you left the injuries unrepaired.
Also this would mean that only folks who play on advanced or Elite modes would see a difference.
My thought was to not alter the existing damage tied to hull level at all, but simply add the decals to the existing injury system so that the appearance of damage would persist for as long as you left the injuries unrepaired.
Also this would mean that only folks who play on advanced or Elite modes would see a difference.
Yeah I don't see why this couldn't be done. And it's a good idea. Furthermore. Why are we not yet seeing ship repairs in those floating ship hangers outside ESD and having similar ones added to DS9 and all other hubs including Klingon. Seems like a much better aesthetic solution then beaming down. Pull into a hanger and select your repairs. While it's being worked on enter your interiors and headto sick bay to treat yourself and your BoFFs
It simply wont happen given the current game mechanics. Now if people had to fly to a SB to repair then what you want to be an inherent thing methinks. However for such a system to be implemented, a lot of mission mechanics and I dare say core system or engine mechanics would have to be change. Consequently, I dont see it happening to be frank.
I don't see why they couldn't do this with the existing game mechanics. Just add a separate check to apply the decals that already exist. If you have X amount of ship "injuries", leave the <75% hull decals on, X+Y amount, leave the <50%, etc. etc.
I support this idea. I think it would be awesome to fly through sector space, showing all the damage on your ship after a rough encounter with the Borg Once you fix the damage, the decals go away, be it with components or at a starbase.
To be quite honest, with these new "Kit" modifications released with season 3, i think it is possible.
Kits with the appearance of external damage that refer to "patchwork" repairs done by the crew. For most of them they have overridden safeties to coax out more power for specific items. Plus they will be GREAT for roleplayers.
With all the talk these days about items or effects that alter ship appearance long term. I was wondering if it would possible to add persistent damage.
My thought was to simply adjust the current ship damage decals so that they correspond to ship injuries.
So as you pile up ship injuries the appearance of your ship would reflect that damage until those injuries were repaired. You could even leave the existing decal system in place, so that it looks like you can only self repair without components to a certain point, if that makes any sense.
And by tying it to the existing injury system, you do not have to create a new mechanic for it.
I think it would be great after spending 6 missions in b'tran, if you pulled into ESD or flew through sector space looking like you had just left the fight with Khan.
Question on this though cause injury effects fade over time but they stay in your system to be fixed so would these decals fade with the effect?
Question on this though cause injury effects fade over time but they stay in your system to be fixed so would these decals fade with the effect?
My thought was that "hull damage" decals would fade as normal, but damage decals attached to "injures" would only go away when the injury was removed. either by components or at the repair guy at a starbase.
I liked the other suggestion that came up, of allow us to access the ship repair menu from an empty "drydock" outside of a starbase. That seems like a simple way to add some neat interaction to the orbital space around starbases that are otherwise just eyecandy to fly through. And all they would need to do is add the repair engineer script to the drydock object, and set an appropriate rage for activation.
The jury rigged repairs stuff is interesting, but would take a lot more back end game engine work. Id be happy just with the cosmetic changes
I'm no programmer, but assuming the current Hull damage code is similar to:
If damage=X then display={Damage Graphic}
Then it should be possible to to substitute "damage" with "injury" without too much trouble (assuming. There is already an "injury" variable, which there should be)
The repair system shouldn't be hard to implement, using the existing system, just tie it to a spacedock (like the SWG method of repairing)
In the most simple implementation (and one that is absolutely good enough, IMO), no new graphics need to be added. Just use the existing damage decals that already get applied.
The client should be able to handle any additional load - if any - that involves having to paint on the decals to player ships. If your client can't handle that, I would guess that your client probably can't handle any ground missions (which are much more graphic intensive) or any battles with ships that use a lot of beam weapons.
At the most simple form, just do this (pseudo-code) :
if ((damage > 50 && damage < 75) || injuryCount > 2) // or whatever
{
paintDecals(MINOR);
}
and go up from there.
Leave all repairs and heals exactly the same (for now). I think just adding in this little bit of "persistent" damage would improve the immersion a lot would open the door for additional functionality with damage.
The code may be simple, but the adverse effect of the client having to render the graphic on screen, amongst many ships/players, under load...
Lets not forget the graphic work has to be done first off. That in itself requires a lot of time.
Well I know this has been suggested before or something Luke it to include internal views of you ship as you walk around it. Persally I'd like to see it.
you also need to consider the load when there are a lot of people in system at the same time.
if you had 50 people in a zone (its max) and all of them had battledamage then the server would have to transmit 50x number of battledamage decals to every other ship out there, that would be quite a large payload on the server to be dealing with for basically eye candy.
it would have been better if they had made ships modular in terms of damage but even then your increasing server load for effectilvy eye candy.
the galaxy retrofit shows that your ship model can seamlessly and on the fly be swapped for just the star drive section and a sauser pet. seems like as you take damage, parts of your ships model could be swapped out for more damaged looking sections. and i mean with visible holes and chunks blown out. the current damage skin looks pretty atrocious, it looks like you got hit with a doomsday machine beam, not a torpedo or two.
Comments
My thought was to not alter the existing damage tied to hull level at all, but simply add the decals to the existing injury system so that the appearance of damage would persist for as long as you left the injuries unrepaired.
Also this would mean that only folks who play on advanced or Elite modes would see a difference.
Yeah I don't see why this couldn't be done. And it's a good idea. Furthermore. Why are we not yet seeing ship repairs in those floating ship hangers outside ESD and having similar ones added to DS9 and all other hubs including Klingon. Seems like a much better aesthetic solution then beaming down. Pull into a hanger and select your repairs. While it's being worked on enter your interiors and headto sick bay to treat yourself and your BoFFs
I don't see why they couldn't do this with the existing game mechanics. Just add a separate check to apply the decals that already exist. If you have X amount of ship "injuries", leave the <75% hull decals on, X+Y amount, leave the <50%, etc. etc.
I support this idea. I think it would be awesome to fly through sector space, showing all the damage on your ship after a rough encounter with the Borg
Kits with the appearance of external damage that refer to "patchwork" repairs done by the crew. For most of them they have overridden safeties to coax out more power for specific items. Plus they will be GREAT for roleplayers.
They can be Jury rigged systems!
For Example:
EPS Bypass:
+20 Beam Weapon Damage
-10 Crew
-10 Cannon Damage
-10 Heavy Cannon Damage
This can take the physical form of crumpled panelling, hull scarring in one section of the ship.
Emergency Forcefields:
+35 Hull Strength
+15 Hazard System
-10 Shield Strength
-10 Starship Emitters
This can be small forcefields dotted around he ship containing the exposed sections.
Fused Warp Coil Shunt:
+20 Impulse Speed
+5 Turn Rate
-15 Deflector Dish
-15 Deflector Field
This can have a visual effect of one warp nacelle flickering and dimmed bussard collector plus flickering lights in that region.
One can argue, Why would someone choose to have damage on their ship? Well why do people have borg pieces on their ship!?
Whaddya think?
Question on this though cause injury effects fade over time but they stay in your system to be fixed so would these decals fade with the effect?
My thought was that "hull damage" decals would fade as normal, but damage decals attached to "injures" would only go away when the injury was removed. either by components or at the repair guy at a starbase.
I liked the other suggestion that came up, of allow us to access the ship repair menu from an empty "drydock" outside of a starbase. That seems like a simple way to add some neat interaction to the orbital space around starbases that are otherwise just eyecandy to fly through. And all they would need to do is add the repair engineer script to the drydock object, and set an appropriate rage for activation.
The jury rigged repairs stuff is interesting, but would take a lot more back end game engine work. Id be happy just with the cosmetic changes
If damage=X then display={Damage Graphic}
Then it should be possible to to substitute "damage" with "injury" without too much trouble (assuming. There is already an "injury" variable, which there should be)
The repair system shouldn't be hard to implement, using the existing system, just tie it to a spacedock (like the SWG method of repairing)
The code may be simple, but the adverse effect of the client having to render the graphic on screen, amongst many ships/players, under load...
Lets not forget the graphic work has to be done first off. That in itself requires a lot of time.
The client should be able to handle any additional load - if any - that involves having to paint on the decals to player ships. If your client can't handle that, I would guess that your client probably can't handle any ground missions (which are much more graphic intensive) or any battles with ships that use a lot of beam weapons.
At the most simple form, just do this (pseudo-code) :
if ((damage > 50 && damage < 75) || injuryCount > 2) // or whatever
{
paintDecals(MINOR);
}
and go up from there.
Leave all repairs and heals exactly the same (for now). I think just adding in this little bit of "persistent" damage would improve the immersion a lot would open the door for additional functionality with damage.
Well I know this has been suggested before or something Luke it to include internal views of you ship as you walk around it. Persally I'd like to see it.
if you had 50 people in a zone (its max) and all of them had battledamage then the server would have to transmit 50x number of battledamage decals to every other ship out there, that would be quite a large payload on the server to be dealing with for basically eye candy.
it would have been better if they had made ships modular in terms of damage but even then your increasing server load for effectilvy eye candy.