Devnull Mod Gold: updates and discussion

[Devin D.Bass]

Does the current Version of devnull (ver1.63)take advantage of the new patch?
If so, can or how does the AI take advatage of the new mounts?

[Toryin]

The current Version of Devnull 1.63 doesn't take into account the new mounts from the latest patch. So no need to worry about the AI right now.

Rollo is however making a new Version that will take advantage of the new patch. Its just taking him a little while cause he has to edit all those pesky AI files.

If you want to play a game using the Devnull mod, go ahead however, as 1.63 is compatible enough to play .

Cheers

[Rollo]

I am considering using shield mounts that will make shields more effective on smaller hulls and less effective on big hulls. Kind of a QNP-system for shield generators. Not sure, yet, if that will be part of the next Version or not (or used at all ). Any opinions whether that is a good idea or not?

Rollo

[Spoo]

I am considering using shield mounts that will make shields more effective on smaller hulls and less effective on big hulls

I don't know if that makes much sense. Bigger ships should be able to take a beating. The advantage of big ships is they Last longer. Little ships should be able swarm in large numbers, but they should go "poof" when they get hit by the bigger ships. Perhaps shields should be cheaper on smaller ships. This would compliment the strategy of building large numbers of small, expendable ships.

It would seem odd to me to have smaller ships that are better shielded than their larger counterparts.

[Toryin]

I like that idea...

Smaller, Cheaper, less powerful shields for the smaller ships...
Larger, More Expensive, more powerful shields for the larger ships and bases...

Similar to shielding on fighters.

Either that or a higher regen rate on the larger ships.

[TerranC]

If possible, maybe institute a weapon that will balance the shields?

A weapon that does some kind of percentage based on ship hull, maybe?

IE:

Dreadnought 1000kt has 750 Shields
Escort 150kt has 300 shields

A weapon is fired at the two ships that deals damage half of the hull size.

Dreadnought takes 500, and left with 250 shields
Escort takes 150 and left with 150 shields

And the escort survives longer than the dreadnought.

... if it could be done...

[Rollo]

Spoo - the reasoning behind this is that the shield generator's strength would be diluted more on a bigger ship. I won't use the dreaded R-word, but it kinda makes sense to me. Bigger ships would still be able to take more pounding, simply because they can carry more generators. I just thought it would be cool to have smaller ship's shields more 'concentrated'. I haven't completely made up my mind about the actual numbers, but the plan is to balance the mounts and the shield components in such a way that a battleship with maxed out shields will not actually have weaker shields (still something close to 400), and the shields on a LC with medium tech shields would also be roughly the same as now. But if you stick a max tech shield on a LC or DS, it would have a greater shield strength (maybe 500 on a LC or CR, and 600 on a DS). Making shields cheaper on the smaller ships is a good idea and would go along with my plans.

Toryin - welcome to the forum btw . The sizes of the shield components would always be the same, simply because it causes less headaches with existing AI designs. More powerful shields on the larger ships is not so good IMO. Bigger ships already have the better weapon mounts. What I like to do is giving the player a choice whether he likes to go for the better weapon mounts or stick to smaller hulls for some ships and use more effective shields.

Overall I do not want to make the changes and differnces too drastic and disadvantage the bigger hulls too much. That would just weaken the AI too much, since it usually uses the biggest hull available.

TerranC - that is a very cool idea. I am not aware of any method to change the weapon damage based on the target, though.

Rollo