Viable Ship Types

[hellcatv]

there were big reasons for having xtra armor--the biggest being that the game was too hard otherwise.

now that we improved shields we can reduce some armor--but we probably won't take it away completely--the modern AI is a bit brighter than the old one... and it's really hard/silly to dumb it down even more than it has been

 

[Unregistered]

I say definately increase the turn rate and maybe give it the Torp count bonus I had suggested before.

 

[Chemus]

there were big reasons for having xtra armor--the biggest being that the game was too hard otherwise.

now that we improved shields we can reduce some armor--but we probably won't take it away completely--the modern AI is a bit brighter than the old one... and it's really hard/silly to dumb it down even more than it has been

Understandable, but why have hull and armor both? Why not just have beefier armor(or a beefier hull)?

Why not 'dumb down' the non military AI? The Kilrathi were always harder than the pirates and retros. I'm not sure that it was all hardware. I do also remember that fighting was very difficult for me in the original. It didn't matter who I was flying against, Until I could afford upgrades, I was flying dogmeat as often as not.

In interest of discontinuing my hijack of this thread, where did you guys come up with the masses used for the ships? I'm mostly curious. Also, since many upgrades take up cargo space now (so that they'll not be used as 'volumeless' commodities, I guess)...hmm can you make a separate cargo volume rating for upgrades within the ships? Giving the Orion the best, and working down from there?

 

[hellcatv]

We have dumbed down civvie AI
the kilrathi and confed do smarter stuff--though we dubmed 'em down a bit too...but less so... the retros almost never take into account their shields when being attacked--until they're at like 10% armor

 

[MamiyaOtaru]

Understandable, but why have hull and armor both? Why not just have beefier armor(or a beefier hull)?

Because then the NPCs would also have beefier armor/hull. The whole point is that only the player uses hull upgrades. Combining them would take away that needed advantage.

I apparently isn't too obvious, but the non military AI is dumber than the military AI. Military ships use ITTS, occasional shelton slides etc. And they evade better.

Overall though the AI is already of questionable intelligence ("I think I'll turn away and fly in a straight line for a couple seconds!" by design of course). They just have rather good aim.

As for the masses used by the ships: as far as I know, we made them up Official sources would be nice, though then we'd have to tweak the massive thrust ratings they all have to keep the feel somewhat right.