PDT system in starfury.

[Dejavuproned]

I was thinking that rather then the current system for point defense in starfury thats too much like SEIV with turrets that shoot a couple high powered shots towards the incoming missile/fighter, since starfury should beable to support high ROF weapons then wouldent it be better to have the PDT's have low damage but really high rate of fire. It seems to me this would be more balanced if done properly (would have to be tested to find right ROF and damage) rather then the do or die system that starfury PDT's are now where at certain angles the PDT's always hit and are very effective making it hard to hit with torpedos/missiles or at other angles they always miss getting you pummled with shots. If balanced properly missles could still get through if the PDT's dont do enough damage to destroy them but you wouldent get overwhelmed so easily because all the PDT shots missed.

What im suggesting is just what is used on navel vessels today, chainguns unload massive bullets to shred incoming missles. Just makes more sense to me.

Thoughts?

[Campeador]

What you ask is very easy to do; this is what I did to see how it works:
On the 'Components.txt' I changed this fields on the "Point Defense Cannons":

Energy Consumption := 15
Weapon Damage Point Blank := 10 (20 points of damage)
Weapon Reload Rate MS := 1500
Weapon Display Effect Name := Bolt 3
(I will not change the range (distance) for this test)

to this:
Energy Consumption := 1.5 (this is amost = 0)
Weapon Damage Point Blank := 1 (2 points of damage)
Weapon Reload Rate MS := 150
Weapon Display Effect Name := Fast PDF (I just created a new name)

on the 'BitmatEffects.txt'
Speed := 1.2
to:
Speed := 12

All this will make the Point Defense Cannons fire at 10 times faster rate, causing 2 points of damage instead of the present 20.

How it works once implemented on the game:
Realistic factor:
You get the desired machine gun effect.
They may miss 10 times less, since they go 10 times faster.
The damage resistance of a torpedo or missile is 5 ("Weapon Tonnage Structure := 5"), that means that before it was destroyed with one hit (20 vs. 5), now it will require 3 hits (3 hits 2 points/each vs. 5)....good or bad I do not know, but over all seems to have the same results as the original (on the slow torpedoes/missiles).

Fun un-realistic factor (In my opinion (based only on 10 min of play)):
They go really fast, you can hear them, but can barely see them.
Yes, more realistic, but the original slow rate of fire seems to match better the slow speed of torpedoes and missiles.
Not sure against fighters...fighters may have a better chance of survival if they keep moving fast out of the way.
All the fighters on the game are much bigger than the scale of the other ships. If they were the right proportional scale, they would be really hard to see (no fun, IMO), but at the same time even harder to hit (not so bad!)

Will I use this on my next mod?...I do not know, I like the possibility of fighters lasting longer, but on every hit there is sound, and a little graphic effect on the hit that goes 10 times more than before, which in turn will be more graphic intense on the computer, may tend to slow down things a bit and I like to have a lot of ships on the screen.

I hope that this helps; you can play with the settings to make it as you wish. By the way the new mod I am working on will have a lot of variations on weapons, some look very impressive, all by the end of summer (I hope!)

[Phoenix-D]

Keep in mind if you up the speed too much projectiles tend to explode in mid-flight. Never was able to pin down why.

[Dejavuproned]

Hmm interesting. I wasent really going for realism, just brainstorming a way to fix the IMO flawed PDT system in the game. It really bugs me how at certain angles your PDT's will ALWAYS miss and at other angles will always hit. How did you think this system fared in that department, was it better or the same?

[the_tick_rules]

Don't forget that even with multiple PDC's no more than 1 missle can be shot down. But that might be for balance, stick about 3 on a ship and they always hit you have a nigh impervious missle shield.