ship scarring & weathering.

skollulfr · March 2013

for me anyway in using a ship much more than i am running around, and as much as i like the shiny-new-ships i get to fly into battle, occasionally id like to add some of the effects from the character creator matched in the ship customisation.

like varying degrees of scorching & striations, the odd torpedo impact or beam slash, maybe a plasma fire or venting effect topped off with a dimming/flickering warp nacelle.

i figure it would help with the atmosphere of running into the borg more often that the pizza delivery.

corbinwolf · March 2013

I would love this as well!

I think it would be, ore realistic than just constant shiny. One day perhaps?! It is not like they havent already rendered the ships as damaged when they are attacked or blown to bits.

crusty8mac · March 2013

My ships are run under the British system utilized during the Age of Sail. Decks are scrubbed daily - weather permitting, repairs made immediately, and the hull scraped, repaired, and painted regularly and for special occasions. With EVA suits, repairs can be made while in transit and without a shipyard. Unfortunately, the effects of keelhauling are minimized.

Hull damage, barnacles, and other fouling create unacceptable drag, problems with trim and balance and combat fitness. Therefore it cannot be allowed to exist for any length of time.

But yeah, it would be kinda neat to have such skins, though I doubt they would be cost effective for Cryptic.

capnmanx · March 2013

Being able to dress our ships up with battle scars would be a nice touch.

I'd also quite like an 'aged' hull material to go with some of the older ships; y'know, hull plating that doesn't quite match because 'they just don't make it like that any more', sooty streaks around engines and plasma vents, scorch marks around weapons, and maybe the occasional rusty stain here and there, as though something had leaked through the seams.

While I accept the need to keep us looking like a fleet, and not a bunch of personalized hot rods, there should still be a few ways to add 'character' to our ships IHMO.

doffingcomrade · March 2013

I don't think ships can actually rust in space. There's no oxygen to combine with to get rust. And there are already damage skins that result when your ship gets shot up and hull goes down. Unfortunately, due to the sheer amount of yoyo-healing in the game, you will either quickly heal back to 100% health, or just as quickly die, so this effect is rarely seen outside of low-level play.

matridunadan1 · March 2013

I wouldn't mind having the ability to add some visible ship scarring. To add character to our otherwise cloned ships. I would like to place a long gouge along the hull of my cruiser, and worn-out nacelles from all the constant venting of plasma.

We already have toons who can have scars, despite having medical regenerators that can fix everything from paper cuts to full-body dismemberments to deep-plasma-diving.

capnmanx · March 2013

doffingcomrade wrote: »

I don't think ships can actually rust in space. There's no oxygen to combine with to get rust. And there are already damage skins that result when your ship gets shot up and hull goes down. Unfortunately, due to the sheer amount of yoyo-healing in the game, you will either quickly heal back to 100% health, or just as quickly die, so this effect is rarely seen outside of low-level play.

I was thinking more that something might have leaked and rusted inside the hull, then eaten through a seam somewhere. Ever looked at sea-going ships that have been around the block a few times, and seen what looks like a really bloated bad weld with rusty streaks running down from it? Like that. After getting smacked around for a couple of decades, I'm sure they'd have bust a pipe or two at some point.

lordmalak1 · March 2013

The SIF repels dirt, the alloys and composites don't 'rust' (no oxygen in space), and touch-up paint is applied while the crew and I relax at the pub by the maintenance droids.

lordmalak1 · March 2013

Ummm the deflector is a sensor antennae silly man. SIF is your standard issue Structural Integrity Field that keeps all those unglued and improperly welded pieces of your ship from falling off and getting pulled into the nearest gravity well, but I'll assume that it also doesn't keep non-structural items bound in it's field (like dust,ash, soot, and other free-floating space objects). Besides, canon proved walls on starships are optional as forcefields are enough to contain a breathable atmosphere so perhaps the SIF field also contains an inverse that keeps the corrosives out of the seams and welds of the ships skin.

maxvitor · March 2013

SIF keeps the ship from flopping around like a half inflated balloon, it has nothing to do with the exterior of the ship at all.
Supposedly the exterior coatings on the hull are ablative, ie meant to wear off, the ship doesn't operate with it's shields up all the time and no sane captain is going to detail crewman to scrub and paint the hull for minor nicks and scratches that have no bearing on ship performance other than appearances, so I could see microparticle scoring, weapon scorching, exhaust streaking around thrusters and vents and a ton of other things that could "age" and "weather" the ship to give it the look of a working machine in the middle of it's service life.
That said to have this look would require the graphic artists to create a custom skin for every player ship in the game to make it viable as even a purchasable option and that would be no small undertaking.

centersolace · March 2013

The injury system could be revamped so various injuries cause visible effects on your ship.

kalvorax · March 2013

I would rather see Battle damage pop up like as your hull goes down it shows the battle damage...i would love to see it as a on/off feature instead of it vanishing when we heal.

pretty much as what centersolace is saying, except without all the stacking injuries

rickpell · May 2013

I wouldn't mind seeing pitting, scarring, and general fouling of the hull show up gradually over time. Like when you first get the ship, it's shinny and new looking, but as you play over the course of a few days or so, the hull starts to get more and more grungy and damaged looking, and the only way to get it looking new again is to repair it. Maybe go to Jupiter Station for a wash and a wax.

I also think that if your ship takes injuries, there should be corresponding visible damage to the ship until its repaired. If you had a couple of critical injuries, how cool would it be to see your ship limping along with a nacelle blown off? And a giant hole clear through the saucer section?

pyrophile · May 2013

doffingcomrade wrote: »

I don't think ships can actually rust in space. There's no oxygen to combine with to get rust. And there are already damage skins that result when your ship gets shot up and hull goes down. Unfortunately, due to the sheer amount of yoyo-healing in the game, you will either quickly heal back to 100% health, or just as quickly die, so this effect is rarely seen outside of low-level play.

There's plenty of bad stuff in space that can cause damage. At the least, I'd expect the paint to flake or wear off, revealing grey hull material underneath, and yellowing or fading from constant extreme sun exposure.

jetwtf · May 2013

The only way i would agree with this concept is if it is tied in with the damage you get from doing elite and is removed when you do the repairs or as a choice to add scaring when you cutomize. For myself i do not want my ship looking like a badly maintained garbage truck and I do not want to spend money or time to fix a cosmetic just because someone thinks it would look cool to have scars on a ship. Once I am done customizing my ships look I do not ever want to have to maintain that.

grylak · May 2013

cynder2012 wrote: »

I would rather see Battle damage pop up like as your hull goes down it shows the battle damage...i would love to see it as a on/off feature instead of it vanishing when we heal.

pretty much as what centersolace is saying, except without all the stacking injuries

This. I would be happy to just use the damage skins we already see, but they remain after a battle until we go to a starbase and fix it (use the guy who fixes our ship injuries?). But obviously have this as a toggle feature so those who dont want to fly around like that can keep their ships shiny after a fight.

sampa4 · May 2013

rickpell wrote: »

I wouldn't mind seeing pitting, scarring, and general fouling of the hull show up gradually over time. Like when you first get the ship, it's shinny and new looking, but as you play over the course of a few days or so, the hull starts to get more and more grungy and damaged looking, and the only way to get it looking new again is to repair it. Maybe go to Jupiter Station for a wash and a wax.

I also think that if your ship takes injuries, there should be corresponding visible damage to the ship until its repaired. If you had a couple of critical injuries, how cool would it be to see your ship limping along with a nacelle blown off? And a giant hole clear through the saucer section?

Lol, then EVERYONE would know that you were just in a tough scrape!

rinkster · May 2013

Easy way to do this would also find an actual use for holo emitters....

Create a holo emitter that simply activates the 'damaged' skin for your ship.

spend a little GPL, get to look like you just got dragged through a space hedge backwards.......

cyberfoxx01 · May 2013

I would love to have an option for this. Flying around in a "squeaky clean" ship all the time just seems wrong. Some scorch marks, maybe a nacelle venting drive plasma from time to time... Maybe even a hole blasted through the saucer section? (OK, that might require some modeling work)

All purely aesthetic stuff mind you. And hey, I would gladly buy it if it was a "Damaged Ship Costume Pack" in the Z-Store.

sampa4 · May 2013

rinkster wrote: »

Easy way to do this would also find an actual use for holo emitters....

Create a holo emitter that simply activates the 'damaged' skin for your ship.

spend a little GPL, get to look like you just got dragged through a space hedge backwards.......

cyberfoxx01 wrote: »

I would love to have an option for this. Flying around in a "squeaky clean" ship all the time just seems wrong. Some scorch marks, maybe a nacelle venting drive plasma from time to time... Maybe even a hole blasted through the saucer section? (OK, that might require some modeling work)

All purely aesthetic stuff mind you. And hey, I would gladly buy it if it was a "Damaged Ship Costume Pack" in the Z-Store.

I actually think that this should be added as a toggle-able, default game mechanic (especially for you Elite STF players who suffer from getting your ship "sunk" by the borg most of the time! (since in elite space STFs, your ship receives a random injury when it gets destroyed))

crusty8mac · May 2013

I want to see little people flying out of the holes in my outer hull.

red01999 · May 2013

crusty8mac wrote: »

I want to see little people flying out of the holes in my outer hull.

That would be a problem for most escorts in an extended battle. Considering how quickly the computer counts them as 'disabled' or 'dead,' I could easily see there being far more 'casualties' coming out of the hull breaches than were actually supposed to be on the ships.

I suppose it would make the Defiant the Starfleet equivalent of a clown car... except with more phasers.

loading159 · May 2013

id pay 500 Zen for a couple SEPERATE customization options for my ships hull to look damaged. eg: not hull material, not paint, not actual ship parts, but seperate options in the ship tailor.

-leaking nacelle (already in game)
-damaged hull (already in game when you have low hull)
-nacelles sort of "sparkle" or have "lightening" on them (already in game)
-hole in saucer section
-missing nacelle
-nacelle half blown off
-marks from "weathering" like marks on the hull from the thrusters, impulse engines etc etc
-damage from weapons fire (would be cool if it worked like scars in the character creator, pick the one you want, scale it, move it around, choose its color etc etc. don't even need to show interior hull.)

just some things I think would be cool.

for sure would use weathering affects, weapon scaring, and everyonce in a while nacelle damage. as they say...it adds character!

kpg1usa · May 2013

Yeah, can we have the "Sledge Hammer" option too for our starship/shuttle hulls?

http://youtu.be/Q7E1C1G2fuE?t=23m30s

furlong359 · May 2013

I would love to see constant battle damage, **** i fly around with major sickbay damage, just to slow down the " super healing" of my crew inside and outside of combat.

but yes, the black marks on warp nacelles and torpedo ports would be great!
i wouldnt mind buying a skin pack or having a toggle switch, would keep up with rping just fine thank you

ship scarring & weathering.

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