AccuNut
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Everything posted by AccuNut
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There is a saying: "The only stupid question is the one you didn't ask."
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This might be fine, the only problem I see is what I mentioned before; if someone is doing something that needs to stop, it leaves the possibility that authorities will be unable to communicate with them and be forced to move directly to punishment after failed attempts to warn that person. However, it was also mentioned that if you continue to turn down hails to communicate, it will be your own fault if something happens to you as a result. I actually kind of agree with that. With one condition: the person should be aware that it is an authority figure attempting to contact them. Maybe the request to "connect" could have a prefix to denote different people, or just be a different color, or both. For example, if they were to use the "prefix" method: ~Player (or no prefix) = normal player ~T-Owner = Territory owner. This would only show up if you are on their property. ~C-Owner = Construct owner. This would only appear if you are on / in / near their construct. ~Org Auth = Organization Authority. Only appears on organization land or on / in / near one of their constructs. Basically a trusted Organization official. ~T-Police = Same as T-Owner, only these would be the police hired / authorized by the owner. ~C-Police = Same as T-Police, just for constructs. ~Org Police = Same as Org Auth, but their job is specifically rule enforcement, and as such have greater discretion and authority in dealing with violators.
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The thread I was referring to is here: https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/10213-ship-designs/ Although, after looking through it a second time, it seems there are not as many designs as I originally thought. Also, they are more like blueprints than actual builds. Some of them are kinda neat though! Also here: https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/1207-thoughts-on-these-designs/?view=findpost&p=16109&hl=%2Bship+%2Bdesign Again, more 3D model-ish instead of functional construct. But it shows that there are creative people out there already involved in the game.
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I concurr with the majority here, take a look at some of the "ship design" threads here and you will see a few pretty slick concepts! On a side note, something they might consider doing is seeking out the creative players who already will be testing during Alpha, and if they have a really nifty ship or building design, ask to borrow it for an advertising video. You could end up with 5 really cool ships being flown into / around an awesome spaceport or docking station, for example. The ships were all made by different people, as was the spaceport, but they were all borrowed at the same time to make the video.
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That's not bad, but maybe they could make that an option instead of the only way to communicate. So those who want "normal" voice communication(talk and everyone in range hears you,) can still have that while those who don't could use something like you suggest, where you have to approve an incoming "call". If they decide to go that route and NOT have "normal" voice chat, they need to give property owners / authorized individuals the ability to force a connection. That way property owners / organization police can still communicate with people to let them know they need to stop doing XYZ action or there will be consequences, instead of being forced to just punish someone because there was no way to ask nicely!
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You bring up some good points Volkier. The biggest reason I would like to see it in the game is the ability to communicate with other players easily. I will be honest, if I have to send you a text-chat message to get the IP address of a TeamSpeak channel I can talk to you on, wait for you to respond, then open teamspeak and type in the jumble of letters and numbers you gave me; I just won't. I did this once while playing Arma, and was less than impressed. Sure, the audio was clearer than using Side Channel in-game, but I could have solved that by using Group Channel or even the local chat.(For those unfamiliar with Arma, Side Channel is everyone on your "team", Group Channel is a selected group from that, and local is just speaking out loud.) I agree there would be some challenges implementing it, especially if they went the whole nine yards: multiple channels, ship radio, intercom, etc. Personally, I would be happy with local chat and ship radio/intercom. Anything above and beyond that is icing on the cake! This game's primary focus is working with other players and being creative. This will require some kind of streamlined way to communicate with strangers in order to be efficient at all.
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From what I have heard, the developers are still working out the details of Construct vs. Construct (ship / building vs. ship / building,) and Construct vs. Avatar combat, including what kind of weapons will be available for it. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say; Yes, we will have small weapons available for ships. We will already have portable weapons for our avatars, so it would be silly for them to only make weapons that could be operated on a large ship.
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I also like the "IKEA" concept, in fact it is one I was thinking of myself! As far as pirates scouting out potential targets: if I understand you correctly, you are saying they will choose the weakest ship to target based on their observations of it being built. Or maybe that they will find weaknesses in a design because they can see it being built? If that is what you meant, there are a couple ideas I should mention: #1: You could just bring the materials to a "secured" shipyard for construction, where the ship and surrounding area are only accessible by you. This could be done by building individual hangars for each ship to be constructed in. This would of course be more expensive, but much safer. #2: If the pirates are smart, they will simply purchase their own ship, and study its weaknesses as they construct it themselves. When they are done, they can then sell the ship for a profit, then steal it back because they know how to immobilize it/penetrate its defenses. If I misunderstood you, I apologize in advance, but this sounds like what you are concerned about.
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The big log on / log off question
AccuNut replied to Gerald_Deemer's topic in The Gameplay Mechanics Assembly
Sorry Lethys, guess I misunderstood your post. I also forgot that my concern had been clarified by JC. -
The big log on / log off question
AccuNut replied to Gerald_Deemer's topic in The Gameplay Mechanics Assembly
The only problem I see with avatars remaining physical when the player is offline is something Lethys said: If your pilot/gunner logs off or their game crashes, they are stuck in that position. The pilot is taking up the pilot seat, so you are not only without a pilot, but NOBODY CAN TAKE OVER FOR HIM, short of killing him to vacate the chair. Same with a gunner, you will be down a gun until he is killed. That would make it pretty tough to run any type of large ship that requires a large amount of crew, since I guarantee not all of them will be able to stay online the entire time you may need their positions filled. -
Just a thought on the damage dealt from a self-destruct via core overload: the damage radius will be smaller in space than in an atmosphere. The reason is that in space there will be a minimal shockwave because there are very few particles in space for the force to be imparted to. A big part of the damage done from an explosion is caused by the concussive shockwave it produces, so, less shockwave, smaller damage bubble. In space, the damage will be primarily based on the heat and energy released by the explosion, with perhaps some shock damage if you are close to the ship, since the ships explosion is adding some particles to the immediate area that could support a comcussive wave. In the atmosphere, the oxygen and other gasses that compose it allow for a greater reach in terms of concussive shock, since they are a form of particulate matter, making for a larger/more powerful shockwave. Anyway, that is how I see it, but I am by no means a particle physicist, so take it for what it's worth.
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Wow, you guys posted like...three posts in the time it took me to write one!
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Guys, I think we have gotten a bit off topic...the reasons behind the logic that has been used is of little consequence if the logic is sound. Wanna be a pirate, so you don't want self-destruct? Fine. As long as you bring more to the table than "that makes it hard". Don't want to be a pirate and still against self-destruct? No problem, just explain why. Intend to steal stuff, but like self-destruct? Give a good reason. Wanna hunt pirates, and like self-destruct? Go for it, but have a better reason than "easy way to kill 'em". I believe most of the posters here fall into one of these categories, and they all have made valid arguments for their position. Whether they admit their real reason for holding the position they do is not the point, the point is that their arguments make sense! (And I am not suggesting anyone is hiding their real reason.) So...could we focus a bit more on the ideas behind the self-destruct apparatus, instead of each others opinion differences please?
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Agreed!
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I think just pure involvement with the DU community is the best form of advertising. If someone (like many of those posting here,) actually takes the time to make posts and be interested in what people think on the forums, that gets my attention. I get to know a little about them, whether or not they think carefully before posting, or if they just react to what is said, etc. Like Briarthorn said, if I enjoy someones posts, I will be more apt to check out their organization, especially if they don't talk about their org every other post! (Note: obviously this does not apply to threads devoted to discussing orgs, such as this one. )
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Thanks for the explanation on the sensors Captain! I can definitely see how those type could sense movement of an invisible object! I too hope that they don't make everyone's names automatically visible, and that there is a way to block them from showing up to others, be it a stealth suit or other means. From an immersion perspective, the names could be something that is assigned to the cerebral implant, then just displayed via the "mind's eye" if you will. That would make it possible to limit the number of names you choose to see, (only from same org, only X piloting skill, etc.) or the ability to simply "turn off" your name transponder.
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Gentlemen, lets try to stay civil shall we? There is a lot to consider on both sides of the issue, with pros and cons both ways. There is no such thing as a one-sided coin. Regardless of whether we agree on if it is a good idea, it sounds as though the developers have said self-destructs will be possible. So now the only question is how they will be implemented to avoid overuse.
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If you want to discuss/read ideas about construct stealth tech, and you have lots of time, check out this thread: https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/637-some-thoughts-on-stealth-ships/?view=findpost&p=6426&hl=stealth But you will need LOTS of time! As far as avatar stealth goes, I like the idea! In addition to using a smoke grenade to hide from standard NV, what about having a "thermal" smoke grenade? It would create a cloud of heated smoke that will block both visual and thermal optics, at least until the smoke cools, then you have just the visual block. The downside(s) could be: they are more expensive/larger, so you can't afford/carry as many, and the cloud is smaller and/or shorter-lived than a standard smoke grenade. Also, a question: wouldn't a motion sensor need to "see" movement in order to detect it? And since visual stealth absorbs/redirects ALL incoming light, how will the sensor pick out movement when it can't even see the object moving? Unless of course you had a type of sensor for each style of stealth suit: thermal detects "invisibility" suits, and visual detects "thermal stealth"? Maybe I just missed it, or have misunderstood the concept of what kind of sensors were being discussed.
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Perhaps they could make it so that you can only overload the power core if you have a physical link to it, like wires. No remote detonation. (Unless you strung wires across open space to your mines, of course. ) "But what about the whole optional countdown thing? You can leave the ship, hence, no physical link!" True, but you had to be ON the ship to START the countdown, and the timer DOES have a physical link. Also, I think it would be awesome to see a huge ship go into overload! Maybe it starts to distort the space/objects around it due to the energy buildup, then a big flash, and a cloud of lightning/fire expanding rapidly into space, eventually dissipating as it loses energy! It might not look anything like that, but I can always hope.
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I like the idea of renewable power, well-balanced of course. I understand that you don't want to be able to have players either become hermits because they don't need fuel, or super-powerful for the same reason. But as a temporary power source or a way to very slowly charge something, I think it should be an option. It would be strange to think that in the future, humans would dump the renewable power sources that already exist for ones that require fuel.
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I do hope they find a way to keep that from happening! But I also don't want to have to find someone who is testing, convince them to invite me, get a full background check, donate a kidney... My brother was invited because they knew him, but he still had a lot of stuff to do to get approved. I am not saying the process should be easy, but it shouldn't be as involved as it was for him.
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There seem to be several ideas that could work from what has been discussed here, with multiple grades of performance being suggested a few times. Maybe the "tech tree" of the inertial dumpers/dampeners would look something like this: -Liquid: least expensive, decent performance, easieast to manufacture. -Liquid-Tech Hybrid: more expensive, takes less space than just liquid, also lighter. -Tech: expensive, smaller than Liquid-Tech and lighter, but requires more power to run than either of the previous. -Tech-Kyrium Hybrid: very expensive and hard to obtain, lightest/smallest yet with stellar performance, requires less power than just Tech. -Kyrium: insanely expensive and rare, but the best of the best! Now, I am sure some you creative minds out there could come up with a way to give each type an advantage/disadvantage over the others, instead of a straight tech tree like I did, (worst-to-best,) like maybe Liquid could have an advantage somehow, other than price? Or Kyrium could have a weakness? Then you would end up with other combos too, like Liquid-Kyrium! Edit: Ooh! Here's an idea! As you move up the tech tree, each level is effective for a smaller area than the type before! So while a Liquid dumper protects the entire crew/ship, by the time you get to the Tech level, it only protects one room in the ship, or can be split for less effectiveness over several rooms, and so on.
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How about virtual cargo mapping? You would need a scanner capable of producing a detailed 3-dimensional scan of a given object, including exact dimensions, (basically a rudimentary blueprint,) and a program that allows you to arrange said object in a virtual scan of your cargo bay.Then, you use the schematic generated by this program as a "blueprint" to load the ship! Maybe, if they incorporate tractor beams into the game, you could open the schematic in the beam-control program, and use it to tweak the position of the cargo as you load it to be sure it fits right. All verified by frequent cargo-bay scans that compare the cargo placement to the schematic. Yes, this will still take piloting skills, but it could make the logistics of transport a little less of a headache.
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I am not trying to make waves here, just stating what limited experience I have with expansion testing. I sincerely hope that I won't have to jump through the hoops my brother did to test his game. As far as development, the game in question allows the testers access to some of the game coding, so it might be to make sure nobody programs themselves an advantage/sabatoges the game as it is to keep it secret. Again, limited experience, second-hand knowledge. All I know is he is actually under LEGAL obligation to keep it secret. Crazy? I think so too, but hey, these people make a pretty good game!
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Yeah, probably so. The game my brother tests has a lot of market competition though, so they like to keep everything under wraps. That way nobody steals their ideas and releases them before the original developers.
