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MRog40

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  1. With the current PvP discussions, I wanted to bump this post and also again say that I think going to radar detection based on ship mass is an excellent solution if determining radar cross section is deemed to be too challenging.
  2. Quick and dirty temporary radar adjustment to change the PvP meta - remove the core size radar ranges and replace them to be dependent on ship tonnage. Easier than radar cross section and other solutions here, but is a quick nerf to XS steel cubes.
  3. Yeah, classic game design level solution instead of the readily available and simple real world solutions.
  4. A radar needs an inconsequential amount of power to function. Adding a power limit making it impossible to put an L radar on an XS ship is an arbitrary, lazy solution to the problem. Values aren't really arbitrary if they at least have a relationship similar to reality. A longer range radar is going to be physically larger because the wavelength is going to be longer - the relationship of size and range being tuned without following the radar range equation doesn't make it arbitrary. I'm not against a power system as a temporary fix, but I think changing fundamentally how radar works in the game to be more rooted in reality is the best solution and will allow for simple long term balancing.
  5. I want something even simpler/cheaper. Something that everyone will have that doesn't show you where or who is out there, just that somebody has you on their radar so you know there is a chance you are being hunted. It doesn't even really need to be an element, it could be built into the seat or core, but adding a gyro like element would be good too.
  6. I agree that power management is a simple 1 off solution, but to me it isn't any different than something like gunner seat capacity which they could adjust, or add core capacity in the same way as a temporary fix. These are arbitrary solutions that work in a game design sense, but I think other more realistic tweaks could be made that would totally remove the XS core cube with L guns and L radar - force radar to be unobstructed and face the direction of the target. Give radar very low hitpoints or reduce their accuracy as they take damage. An XS with one radar would get smoked by an M core with 3 radars. Redundancy in weapons systems would give big ships advantages. Stopping high G rocket powered XS cubes by making them have constant velocity vectors to be accurate from range would also make them more killable instead of just glancing blows as they boost around.
  7. Thanks for the excellent reply Kezzle, adding some thoughts onto that: AFAIK almost all aviation radars are phased arrays as they are lighter, scan faster (almost instantaneously), and have no mechanical components to wear and fail over time compared to rotating arrays. couple this with: and I think there is another even better solution to the problem: have a vast array of radar systems that are for different things. Phased arrays can lockon faster and account for high G acceleration in both the attacker and defender, but have less range and no ability to rotate (can't see sides and back at all). Have rotating arrays (don't need to be animated) that acquire much more slowly, have much higher range, and cannot account for high G acceleration, but can see in all directions. This way a railgun sniper would have to act like an actual sniper to be accurate, and fighters could be agile but with less range and no omnidirectional awareness. Building a specialized vessel with weapons and radar to fill a specific role will help turn the game into rock paper scissors for two cores of the same size instead of having a meta. More radar options and radar parameters opens up a lot more numbers for tuning. Larger ships will have advantages with the ability to have multiple weapon types and multiple radars for redundancy and to be able to withstand multiple types of attackers. 6 values that are interpolated between would be perfectly effective, and I'm sure NQ already has the code base or at least knowledge for doing this because of their atmospheric drag systems. It is important that the 6 values are not purely cross sectional area though, they need to account for the normality of a surface and the material used to really push designs to be realistic and not wireframe cubes. Actual RCS computation is way beyond feasible for DU. I absolutely love the idea of the emissions/active elements of a vessel affecting the detection range and targeting difficulty, but this might be too computational difficult. Rolling through a dangerous area with a stealth designed hauler full of precious ore, being careful not to use an adjustor or an engine to try and go undetected by pirates sounds like a great DU only experience, and it sure as hell beats the stealth mechanics talked about by Entropy in a previous Q&A livestream. Fun fact about the "hole in space" note: There is such a thing as too stealthy, as a stealth ship will block out the background noise and this ultra quiet point can actually be identified for it's stealthiness. There was a navy ship design that had this problem. The first designs were invisible to radar, but it was way too quiet relative to the ocean waves around the vessel so was easily identifiable. Novaquark - the best solutions to problems are natural, physical solutions, not arbitrary ones. Arbitrary (classic game design) solutions, while they can be effective, leave a bad taste in the mouths of people who know they are arbitrary. There are a few decisions like this in game, but core size targeting range, core size docking limitations, really anything that is core size specific seems like an arbitrary cop-out that I hope is temporary to simplify the computational load.
  8. I’d be okay with an augmented display, but it should be different than the normal advanced hud. I’m thinking something like a red wireframe box around the target to be less obstructive, different colors for friends/allies. This is a solution but is equally arbitrary. Better and more natural solutions exist. Making radar limitations closer to reality would be plenty of nerfing for now, and adjustments can be made to them even more in the future to steer ship designs towards reality.
  9. I don't want XS Borg Cubes to be the meta. Here are my Problem/Solution suggestions. Disclaimer: I don't fully understand the current state of PvP/RADAR. The problems listed here are primarily what I have heard from others and some points may not be accurate. I will edit the post to reflect any corrections or suggestions from commenters. Radars are isotropic (the range is the same in all directions) In reality a radar cannot be isotropic and an array is going to need to physically spin (even if it's a phased array). Radars staying isotropic wouldn't be a huge problem, but it'd be better if the range was longest in the forward direction so placement matters and having multiple is a strong benefit. Maybe have full range in 30 degrees, then half power beamwidth at 60 degrees, then -10 dB at 120 degrees and greater. Having discrete radar beam steps will combat desync problems with tracking someone at range. They are not obstructed by voxels surrounding them Radars should have to be either unobstructed or require a weak material as a radome to cover it. Each material could have a reflectivity factor that attenuates at a fixed loss/voxel thickness. This would have to be simplified as to make the calculations simple, but it shouldn't be anything much more complex than how wings are obstructed by voxels. Performance is not degraded as damage is taken An XS ship with a Large radar, unobstructed, is much more likely to have the radar take damage than the same ship with a small radar. If they degrade as they take damage, and since redundancy in radar systems is almost impossible with such a small ship, it wouldn't be risky to put such a large radar on an XS ship. Have redundant L radars on an M or L core battleship should be a necessity. Performance is not affected by the acceleration of the construct they're on Rocket boosted borg cubes should have their accuracy greatly affected by how quickly they are change velocity (doppler affect affecting signal strength). A railgun XS borg should need to maintain a constant velocity vector to be accurate at long ranges. Only core size affects detection range, not the radar cross section A cube of steel is going to have a massive normal surface that is highly reflective, and such would be identifiable from much farther ranges and be much easier to hit with radar targeting. Cross section calculations like for drag should be used here. More accurately, have the normality of the surface to the radar beam multiplied by some material reflectivity scalar define the radar cross section and thus targetable radar range of any vessel. Core size shouldn't matter in this regard. http://www.rfcafe.com/references/electrical/dielectric-constants-strengths.htm and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_cross-section Computing the real RCS is not feasible, but even just a cross sectional area calculation for now would be a good nerf to full volume cubes. Also, having a larger radar should increase the radar cross section, as an antenna will reflect very large amounts of energy. There is no passive radar detector An ultra cheap radar detector for passive ships would be great. Something similar to the Gyro you slap on your ship, and an alarm sounds and warning pops up when someone is shining a radar at you. Ideally it would have more range than a radar, so you could be warned that there is someone with a radar nearby. This would simply alert you to the existence of radar, and would only be useful on ships without any radar (otherwise it would always be on because of your own radar) Radar doesn't work in the safe zone I should be able to detect ships outside the safe zone from inside the safe zone, and vice versa. Having a magical boundary where it instantly stops working doesn't make sense. Same thing with atmosphere, performance should be attenuated by atmosphere not instantly lost. UI changes Disable advanced HUD while radar targeting and implement something else. The UI is ugly and breaks immersion, but you pretty much need it on to know where the ship you're targeting is. Maybe have a wireframe box so you know where to look, but less available info. Change the box color from red for enemy to blue or green for friends and allies.
  10. This game is not, will not, and should not be easy. The most rewarding part of this game is succeeding through the difficulty not because the game got easier but because you got better.
  11. If you want to play a game where you as a lone player can compete with a group of 20+ players, go find a new game. Maybe one exists. If you are committed to being a lone wolf your ships aren't going to be as cool, you aren't going to have as much knowledge, and it is going to take you a lot longer to get anything done. That's the way was designed and it is a good thing. This isn't like other MMOs where you solo grind to max level before thinking about joining a group.
  12. https://dual.sh/codex/ There is an industry API there
  13. Don't bother with concrete, mine and make honeycomb voxels to build with. Buy a Medium container for your base and fill it with all the T1 ore types, sell the extra on the market. Use the money to buy ship parts and upgrade your ship, or go watch an industry tutorial on youtube to learn how to start crafting stuff.
  14. This is what I struggle with right now. I don't know if I'm missing an existing feature, but I haven't found a good way to orient myself in space besides pointing at the destination and hitting the throttle. Being able to see a 3d map with my position relative to other planets, and a line of my current orbit/trajectory would really take space flight to another level for me. Does anybody know of a programming board setup like this so I could have a navigator viewing 3d positioning data in real time?
  15. Is there a market API available that allows for a player to obtain price tracking and volume data from the markets? If not, NQ it would be great to be able to see bid/ask spreads and volumes (units sold per day) on the markets over time, in the form of a candlestick chart with volume bars tracking daily prices. Once of the advertised points of this game is trading, and being an effective trader is not really feasible without some basic statistics of how the markets are running. It would also help players know what items to work towards crafting to get the economy running - identify something with a high bid/ask or something with high volume and get your factory running on that item.
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