Suggestion: Systems damage

rememberme · Post by **rememberme** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:28 pm

Here's something that might change the dynamic completely and make the game even more interesting:

You might want to allow certain aspects of a ship to be damaged/destroyed before the entire ship blowing up once the hull armor is out. For instance any of all of these might become damaged and work intermittently or completely destroyed:
1) HUD
2) Guns
3) Missles
4) Cargo/reload mechanism
5) Booster destroyed/fuel jammed
6) Shield generator
7) Radar
8) Autopilot (but autopilot should probably always work to save the noobs)
9) Side thruster malfunction
10) Main thrust malfunction - slows you down to pod speed.
etc. etc.

Nans could repair such damage as well.

This is one aspect of good flight sims I always enjoyed. Limping home on your last legs without being shot down is kinda exciting. You could have a server setting where this type of damage can be toggled as well. Implementation-wise, there's nothing new to render externally, but you would have to manage an extra set of data on each ship while they're out on a sortie, but that's already done because you have ammo counts and paylods and whatnot. You would probably need to add a new HUD display to show the various systems. If you want to go all out, having a cracked windshield was always funny to see.

I think there's alot of examples of this out there. From what I remember, there's Falcon 3, Apache Longbow, and most of all, good 'ol Star Raiders on the Atari 800. Man, that game was classic and it started this whole space sim genre. What can I say, I'm old school. I still play it sometimes. /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

EDIT: Come to think of it, you can have this type of damage happening once peops start getting into your hull damage. You would make it so chances are that it happens more toward the end of your hull. I.E. A lucky shot on a cap ship might knock out it's HUD but keep the ships radar working so they can still bomb or some other damage causes them to fire their bombs at a slower rate. But it just makes their lives a little more interesting.

careon · Post by **careon** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:02 pm

sounds like a good idea.... alltho you might want to have stronger cap ships for this to work well... anyway this would be a good idea.... heck you can make weapons made for attacking systems to capture the ship /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />

rememberme · Post by **rememberme** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:50 pm

That I dunno about. IMO, it's enough with having gatts, dis, and galv's doing similar things but in a much broader sense. Might get a little too technical if you want to open up that can of worms. I'm good with just overall general damage just to make life more interesting like I said. It can be interesting if you're playing in a big group and some of your fellow attackers get sent home with weapon jams. I suppose you can try ramming stuff or resorting to becoming a flying decoy for your buddies.

I should add that I do think with the lighter armored ships you do get blown up a little too easily. Shields sometimes don't last at all. But hey if thats how the game needs to be to stay balanced, I'm all for it.

rememberme · Post by **rememberme** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 12:41 am

One more quick point: Of all the old flight WWII sims I used to play, one of my favorites was LucasFilm's Battle of Britain. What was so great about it was that the game was very simple, just guns and bombs. You could have squads of planes, give them waypoints, and AI would take over the rest. You get to fly escort or be one of the bombers or even a tailgunner. You could switch positions or planes on a whim. Allegiance reminds me alot about that game and the beauty of Allegiance was in it's simplicity. Just guns and bombs. I think you did get plane damage in BoB, but it didn't detract from the simplicity. Beyond strategy, there's not much to think about. Just line up your lead with the target and pull the trigger. That's what keeps it fun and not getting bedazzled by the number of different weapons to choose from.

Food for thought. I love Allegiance the way it is now. To whoever developed and continue to maintain the balance of the game: Excellent job. /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

Adaven · Post by **Adaven** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 12:48 am

Yeah, those are all great ideas. A lot of them have been discussed numerous times in different variations. A lot of people would like to see this, but there is a lot involved in it and I think the devs have been trying to do the more simple or pressing things first. However, I do think someone is working on a new, more flexible core format, which would make it easier to create the option for core designers to turn system damage on or off in the future.

It'd be nice if there was a system damage entry on Bugzilla (the "official" to do list) if there isn't one already.

On another note: Even though as you said, there is no pressing need to code in visual changes to ships, the original MS Dev's did make some damage texture overlays for a number of the original ships and stations. So we at least have some of the artwork to do visual damage.

Schwartz · Post by **Schwartz** » Fri May 04, 2007 11:36 pm

i think that the, sheilds, engines, boosters, radar, guns, and missles should show up on the HUD to be targetable by guns

beeman · Post by **beeman** » Sat May 05, 2007 12:41 am

Dog:
I like the damage systems idea as well...though I think targeting systems is a bit much except maybe for cap ships (It would be nice to take out the guns on a cap ship...but fighters...I dunno). BTW...I remember Star Raiders! How cool was that when it came out! I remember thinkin' "It will never get any better than this!". Now Alleg is by far the BEST overall game in the genre. I still would like to see a total graphics makeover (I know, I've heard the arguments against...but in a few years, the slowest computer should be able to handle quite a bit more graphics-wise than what the game offers now.). Anywho, ur post brought back some good memories!

Camaro · Post by **Camaro** » Sat May 05, 2007 12:43 am

well this lends to one problem.

if any of you have ever played any of the star wars games, you know its a hell of a lot easier just to get a ship with lasers/ions link t hem up and just fire till they are disabled.

theycant do anything, and they are still worthless to their team.

this would make the EMP ints the dominate force in the game, you just disable your hapless victims and leave them sitting alone until their oxygen runs out while you bomb... unhindered by any defense.

beeman · Post by **beeman** » Sat May 05, 2007 5:36 pm

Camaro wrote:QUOTE (Camaro @ May 4 2007, 07:43 PM) well this lends to one problem.

if any of you have ever played any of the star wars games, you know its a hell of a lot easier just to get a ship with lasers/ions link t hem up and just fire till they are disabled.

theycant do anything, and they are still worthless to their team.

this would make the EMP ints the dominate force in the game, you just disable your hapless victims and leave them sitting alone until their oxygen runs out while you bomb... unhindered by any defense.

Power ups would heal all damage?

beeman · Post by **beeman** » Sat May 05, 2007 9:51 pm

fishbone wrote:QUOTE (fishbone @ May 5 2007, 12:36 PM) Power ups would heal all damage?

oh...and you could have a repair bot as a loadout selection....repairs a system in about 5-10 secs - but does not effect shield or armor.