SEV shipset instructions?

[Phoenix-D]

Directional damage but unlimited firing arcs. An interesting combination.

[Kana]

So I guess there is no backward engineering on this arcs thing? I mean if we can track damage coming in, why cant we track damage going out...?

[Captain Kwok]

Introducing weapon arcs makes for a difficult balancing act among shipsets.

[Q]

I still don't understand how directional damage in combination with armor/outer/inner hull compartment works:
if the ship has lost all armor in the front but still has armor on the sides and rear what will be destroyed by the next hit in the front?

[Phoenix-D]

Q said:
I still don't understand how directional damage in combination with armor/outer/inner hull compartment works:
if the ship has lost all armor in the front but still has armor on the sides and rear what will be destroyed by the next hit in the front?

One of the internal components in the front, in the Outer Hull.

[Q]

Phoenix-D said:

One of the internal components in the front, in the Outer Hull.

Doesn't this make (strategic) combat quite unpredictable and ship design complicated?
If all enemy fire comes from one side (as often the case) your ship is soon destroyed unless the AI reacts clever enough and turns the ship around to cover the weakend side. In Starfury the AI could not handle this situation well.

[Ed Kolis]

Yeah, I was thinking that if there's no firing arcs, then why even bother with the slot-based layout and directional damage? Seems like a lot of work to put shipset designers through for little or no gain, having to design the slot layouts for all their ships...
Though, Kwok, are you *sure* there are no firing arcs? The Terran_Ships_XFileClasses.txt that Aaron posted in the shipset specs referred to them... are those lines just ignored or something?
Code:

---

Number Of Firing Points                              := 6

Firing Point 1 X                                     := 112.319191

Firing Point 1 Y                                     := 413.506592

Firing Point 1 Z                                     := 27.873138

Firing Point 1 Arc Start                             := 315

Firing Point 1 Arc End                               := 45

---

[Kana]

Captain Kwok said:
Introducing weapon arcs makes for a difficult balancing act among shipsets.

I guess that is a problem, if its tied into the shipsets as apposed to the components...

As for balancing...not many problems in SFB due to arcs, it just makes certain ships more interesting to battle with than others...