New Mod: The Art of War Mod

[PirateRob]

Armor penetration has everything to do with the balistic properties of the ARMOR.. when talking about modern firearms. What makes some people think that the ability to penetrate armor increases with range is the fact that modern Kevlar armors are LESS effective against slow moving projectiles. Hence, at point blank range where projectile speeds are highest, Kevlar armor is effective.. Of course, armor penetration is ALSO effected by the cross sectional area of the bullet (which is why a .22 calibur round penetrates better than a .45 calibur round) so speed isnt the only factor to take into account.

So, for a DU Cannon in space, range is going to have no effect on armor penetration.

Now I think the MESON bLaster is the item that should do more damage at range reason being that mesons pass right through normal matter without effecting it.. until the meson decays into a normal particle (neutron? I don't recall the exact physics involved) So, over time, more mesons in the beam decay into high velocity neutrons that DO effect normal matter when they hit the target.. longer range means more time has passed = more mass the beam hits with = more damage. Technicaly, the meson could decay into a neutron IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SHIP and thus skip over any armor. Only a small percentage would though so most of the damage would be to the outer parts of the ship. Shields should be effective against a meson beam though.

Rob

[Talenn]

IIRC from my 'Traveller' days, that's exactly how the Meson Cannons worked. They ignored armor completely but were subject to a 'Meson Screen' that caused the premature decay of the meson before it hit the hull.

The end result was you had a Spinal Mount that basically was a ship killer regardless of the size and armor of the ship. If the shot hit and penetrated the Screen, the ship was essentially dead.

The upshot for fleet design was that even the largest of combatants were very vulnerable to opposing capital ships with spinal mounts. Smaller ships were harder to hit with those mounts, but they couldnt carry a spinal big enough to penetrate the larger ships' screens. Groups of smaller ships, however, could overwhelm the missile defenses on the larger ships and scrape weapons,sensors and screens off of the Caps making them more vulnerable.

Overall, it gave very interesting fleet and ship design mechanics for a game that was primarily a role-playing game.

Talenn

[Taz-in-Space]

While we are talking about things to put in a mod,
I had a thought about a new component. While playing P&N I thought how nice it would be to have a COMPONENT that would store resources. I
haven't checked out it the program will recognize
a COMPONENT with resource storage, but if so it would have been nice to have in a P&N game!
SO YOU GURU'S OUT THERE, IS THIS POSSIBLE?

[Baron Munchausen]

quote:

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Originally posted by Taz-in-Space:
While we are talking about things to put in a mod,
I had a thought about a new component. While playing P&N I thought how nice it would be to have a COMPONENT that would store resources. I
haven't checked out it the program will recognize
a COMPONENT with resource storage, but if so it would have been nice to have in a P&N game!
SO YOU GURU'S OUT THERE, IS THIS POSSIBLE?

---

I believe that it did not work the Last time it was tested. We have been asking for this for ages, since it is necessary to make 'nomadic' races work properly. This, and research/intel from components and a 'habitat' module to grow populations in space. MM needs to know this is wanted. Keep asking.

[geoschmo]

Taelenn, I like the sounds of your ideas. I hope to incorporate some of them. If you still have the files availabel somewhere I would love to see them. You could email me.

Ok, since combat +/- has so much impact on combat, and since all the bonuses add, instead of multiplying, I am looking at some major changes in these areas.

First of all, ECM. I am looking at ten levels of ECM instead of 3, but topping the maximum defense bonus at 10% (Maybe 20) instead of the current 60% for ECM III.

I will also be modifying the racial attack and defense characteristics to make them much more expensive. And I have some thoughts about changes to the training facilities.

The goal of these changes is to slow down the progression and lower the top end of these types of combat modfiers, so that combat doesnt' get so out of whack so early in the game. This will hopefully put more of a premium on the number and overall quality of your ships. You shouldn't be able to destroy 50 enemy ships with 5 of your own and not even get a scratch just because you have a level or two more of ECM tech. At least that's my opinion.

Comments?

Geoschmo

[Gandalph]

quote:

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Originally posted by geoschmo:
You shouldn't be able to destroy 50 enemy ships with 5 of your own and not even get a scratch

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I agree. ECM 3 and religious talisman = victory without a scratch unless extremely outnumbered(20 to 1?).

[Phoenix-D]

Combat bonuses are tricky. They need to be powerful enough to be useful, yet not so much they are an insurmountable advantage, agreed? So researching improved weaponry rather than improved sensors should be a viable option- miss more, but make up for it with better weapon performance. You can't really do that in standard SE4. Extending the ECM/CS tree while lowering the actual benifits sounds good.

Something else I've thought about, inspired by the proportions mod: better sensors/ECM, but they are bigger than the normal type and non-stackable. Again, it becomes a choice between increased accuracy (or defense) and firepower/direct defense. Proportions doesn't go far enough with it IMO; the components are always small enough that except on very small ships you aren't sacrificing much combat capability to go with the best.

Stealth and Scattering armor are a good example here IMO. You get 15% more defense plus a few other stuff- it's not the best cloak, it's not even the best armor. And it's fairly big; sticking both plus ECM on a ship makes you pretty hard to hit, but you pay a nasty price size wise.

Two other thoughts:
-making ships tougher? So that who gets the first shot in matters less.
-should ships really be able to *outrun* missiles? How about running away to give PD more shots?

Phoenix-D