I'm not sure if I mentioned in this thread, but the new target date for beta testing is the Last week of April. I have two weeks off between school and full time work, so I will use them most wisely.
Below is a topic that I'm brought up in the Star Trek mod's other forum
(That would be here):
After discussing with Fyron about his implementation of leaky armor and shields into his Adamant Mod...I realized that some adjustments had to be made in the Star Trek mod. Before I discuss those changes, I though I would explain what are leaky armor and leaky shields in terms of the Star Trek mod.
Leaky armor is armor without the ‘damaged first’ ability. In this case, a hit that strikes the ship’s components does not necessarily hit the armor first and may damage other components like the bridge or engines. However, by increasing the hitpoints per kT of armor and decreasing the hitpoints per kT of other internals, you can increase the probability that damage will hit the armor first but not always. Specifically in the mod, most internal components have about 1 hitpoint per 10kT of structure. Armor can have anywhere from 20 to 50 hitpoints per 10kT and in a typical design represents about 75-85% of the total hitpoints. In essence, this number represents the probability that a hit that strikes the hull will hit the armor first. About 15-25% of the time, another component will be hit. In the Star Trek mod, most internal components have only 1 or 2 hitpoints while weapons can do between 15-100+ hitpoints of damage. However, the likelihood of several internal components being destroyed at one time (as you might think due to their low hitpoints) is not that bad. In fact, during testing today when most armor is intact, only the odd hit ever took out more than one internal. The adjustments I made were to tweak the hitpoint per kT ratio for all armors to have them in the 75-85% range in most designs. One point though, when your shields and armor are toast, better launch those escape pods!
Leaky shields are regular shields with the ‘shields from damage’ or commonly known as the ‘crystalline armor’ ability from the component that uses it in standard SE4. This ability takes the prescribed amount of damage (the shields from damage amount) from the weapon and channels it back into the shields when any component takes damage. This creates ‘leaky’ shields when they are low enough to let damage pass through. For example, shields are at 50 with a total of 75 in crystalline ability before taking 100 damage points. The shields would drop to 0, 50 damage points would be done to the hull, and then the shields would charge back to 50 points. Of course, damage that squeaks by the shields might end up leaking through the armor and damaging other components in which Suicide Junkie refers to as the ‘exploding panel’ effect. I adjusted some of the values for the shields at lower levels to make them worthwhile, as their shield point levels were too low. I think more testing is going to be needed to determine the best crystalline armor amounts for balance.
Overall, these two items combine to create far more interesting ship battles. A few lucky strikes can really cause chaos or turn the tables on any force. It should get more interesting once the mod is ready for real testing.
[ March 31, 2003, 12:54: Message edited by: Captain Kwok ]