Tactical Sectors

[jangsy5]

Don't know if anyone thought of this but would it be interesting to have some kind of tactical depth to sectors? It's like elevations or tree coverings in normal planar RTS. The difference would be that each sectors would have their own tactical advantages/disadvantages .Not all sectors will have these 'tactical effects'. It’s just an idea. But let's not make it complicated for the developers. Hope this will give new ways of strategising for commanders.

Some examples might be (Don't argue with the values):

-Dense Dust Nebula
Sector is in a dense nebula that is radioactive will reduce scanning ability by 0.8 and acceleration (ALL, inc. Missiles) will decrease to 0.85. Great for hiding outposts but also might help the opponent hide their scouts. For special effects there needs to be cloud effects that you might see in other space games.

-EM storm
Sector is in a Electro Magnetic storm and causes systems to fluctuate (ie. can randomly be an advantage or disadvantage. This is not dynamic, it's preset/static). {Possible effects} energy 1.2, shield 1.1, energy & shield regen 0.5, energy weapon dm 0.9

-Twilight Nebula
Sector is in an extremely dangerous radioactive zone/nebula (probably a recently dead 3rd gen star). If shield is not above 10% and hull is lower than 50% dangerous levels of radiation will start to leak in, reducing hull by 1% each second. Nebula cloud effect. Scanner 0.6.

[TurkeyXIII]

Would be a good option for map-makers (or possibly the GC), certainly. It's been brought up before, but nobody has had the time, skill and motivation to do it.

[KGJV]

adding existing GAsto sector is not difficult to code. It could be random or custom map only or tied to the special rocks or to new special rocks with 'distance of effect' instead of been sector wide.

Damage over time with complex conditions (if < 10% shield and < 50% hull then 1% hull /sec ) is less worthy to code, I think. Unless we add scripting to alleg server (but that's another story...)

I already thought about similar 'tactical' effects in sectors some years ago but it was more team/base oriented than global : basically you could do more dmg or take less dmg in a sector where you own a garrison for instance (think this as "you're stronger in your home/starting sector for instance").

This is very related to your idea, at least seen from the code changes required: it's about "altering GAs" based on some (simple) conditions.

I think it's worth discussing this more, may be other ideas can be merged.

[Makida]

Does this mean it is possible to change the GAs that apply to a ship based on its proximity to a certain object? If so would it be possible to create ships that give GA-type bonuses to nearby friendly craft -- or better yet, ships that produce a disadvantage in these areas for nearby enemies? (For example, "area cloak" ships that reduce the signature of all friendly ships within X meters, or "interdiction" ships that dramatically increase rip-cording time for all nearby enemies? Cuz that would be cool. )

[Zero_Falcon]

I think it's a cool idea, jangsy.

I have another idea:

***Semi-Atmospheric Space Region***

Ship acceleration, Turn Rate and Turn Torque is increased as they can make use of air particles to more effectively maneuver themselves. However, the maximum speed is decreased due to air resistance.

[beeman]

QUOTE (girlyboy @ Apr 16 2010, 02:17 PM) Does this mean it is possible to change the GAs that apply to a ship based on its proximity to a certain object? If so would it be possible to create ships that give GA-type bonuses to nearby friendly craft -- or better yet, ships that produce a disadvantage in these areas for nearby enemies? (For example, "area cloak" ships that reduce the signature of all friendly ships within X meters, or "interdiction" ships that dramatically increase rip-cording time for all nearby enemies? Cuz that would be cool. )

Reminds me of the electronic warfare fighter/bombers we use today like the EA-18G...could add a whole new role to the game.

[Raveen]

QUOTE (KGJV @ Apr 16 2010, 04:14 PM) Damage over time with complex conditions (if < 10% shield and < 50% hull then 1% hull /sec ) is less worthy to code, I think. Unless we add scripting to alleg server (but that's another story...)

Would it be simpler to create an asteroid type object that uses the minfield code (with less flashes and bangs ideally) to make a very large, weak minefield?

That wouldn't have the complex effects defined but could liven things up a bit at least. With a different damage class could it damage only shields?

[Dracus_Prime]

Wewt, these sound like they are taken right from startrek armada, and they worked really well in that game, I say go for it, but this will be (as always) a pain in the ass to code.