Damage type question
 

I think I understand this but I'm asking anyway:

When you select a damage type like 'Shields Only' it damages components with the ability 'generates shield points' right? The component is targeted because of its ability, not its name or some other factor, correct?

If so, do weapons that target 'security stations' destroy 'boarding defense' components, and therefore can be used to destroy Crew Quarters?

Re: Damage type question
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">No, crew quarters do not have the boarding defense ability. They do assist in boardign defenese, we know this from testing. But they do not have the actual ability listed in their component file entry. It's a hard coded invisible exception. If you give the crew quarters the boarding defense ability in the components.txt file though you should be able to destroy them with a weapon using the "Only Security Stations" ability.

Geoschmo

[ August 12, 2003, 18:43: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: Damage type question
 

Also:
"Shields only" dosen't destroy shield generators - it saps shield points, but dosen't harm components at all.

"Shield Generators Only" does what you were thinking of.

If you add boarding defense to crew quarters, that defense ability will fully stack with the built in 4 points of defense. ("16 troops" worth)

Re: Damage type question
 

If you make the ability "0" can you just use it as a marker so those weapons will hit it?

Re: Damage type question
 

That does work for shields, so probably.
Be sure to test it before you distribute a mod using it.

Re: Damage type question
 

You want it to specifically take hits when the crew defense stuff take hits? Yeah that'll work.

[edit: I think he's talking about putting Boarding Defense on Crew Quarters.]

[ August 12, 2003, 20:27: Message edited by: Loser ]

Re: Damage type question
 

That works for some damage types, yes. Shields Only and similar ones (not specific component types, just changes to how the hit is affected by shields, like skips shields, 4x to shields, etc) will not be affected, as they work against the shield points, not components.

Re: Damage type question
 

My idea is some kind of Deathwand device that only kills crews. I'm hoping that if I add a "0" Boarding Defense ability to Crew Quarters and Bridge than it will destroy the "crew" parts of the ship. It will also have the bonus of killing Security Stations.

Re: Damage type question
 

Or a toxin injector missile, perhaps.

But I wouldn't worry about adding one point of boarding defense to a few components.
The attackers can always just include one more boarding party.

BTW, you will probably want to add the defense ability to boarding parties as well. They currently will provide defense just like the crew quarters without being hit by Boarding-defense-only weapons.
You can comment on the "Home turf advantage" of the boarding parties to explain it if you want.

Re: Damage type question
 

Tested the Death Ray device. It doesn't work with an ability of "0' so I tested it with "1" and it worked fine. Skips armor, but hits shields.

How many "marines" does 1 point of Boarding Defense give? I could just bump up boarding parties by a few points to compensate. I intend to have Bridge, Crew Quarters, Boarding Paries, and Auxiliary Bridges have the ability. That way the Death Ray (I have to think of a better name) kills all the lifeforms on the ship. I'd thought about adding it cargo bays, too, to simulate slaughtering passengers, but it would also destroy sats, mines, etc, so I won't.

I suppose I could also leave Boarding Parties alone. They would get a minor boost to Boarding Defense, and I doubt having 3 extra points of Boarding Defense on their victim is going to change much.

Of course, this lead me to think of Shielded Bridge, Crew, etc. that doesn't have that ability (is immune to Death Ray) and possibly generates shields or something. And a Huge Death Ray for bLasting planets (Population Only).

Re: Damage type question
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Perhaps you should add the ability to Organic Components as well.

Re: Damage type question
 

Add this ability to Colonization module. Now you can irradiate colonists http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Also, some mods - Proportions and AIC - use very large population mass and have special modules specifically designed for population transports. That would be a good target as well !

Re: Damage type question
 

Excellent ideas.

I was intending to add this to the Bio-Psych Mod. A new tech area like Xenobiology lets you understand alien physiology so you can make things that screw it up. I originally was going to make it a niche weapon like shield depleters, but with so many uses (kills Organics/Bugs dead!) maybe it needs a 5-10 level field.

Also, how is Death Ray as a name? The idea was inspired by the Deathwand weapons from the Hyperion books, but I think Death Ray is pretty generic and Sci-Fi at the same time. Neural Shredder would have been good, but they've already got one. Synaptic Scrambler? Neural Whip/Lance?

Re: Damage type question
 

It is 4 marines per boarding defense point in stock SE4. But, it is a wholey arbitrary number, and IMO it would be better to list various levels of training and/or equipment with similar numbers of marines instead of just more and more of them (mods like P&N and Adamant do this).

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The more specific you get, the fewer races it will make sense to work on. Synaptic Scramblers might kill organic lifeforms, but what about robotic ones? or energy ones? They don't really have synapses to scramble. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ August 13, 2003, 19:34: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: Damage type question
 

Maybe you should focus on the degree to which the target is self-aware. Like Organic Components are more self-aware than a Master Computer, but mechanical life forms are self-aware enough to catch the damage as well.

Oblivion Ray

Focus of unusual energy that causes self-aware patterns to fail in a catastrophic and destructive manner.