Locations as terrain effects

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MatGB
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Locations as terrain effects

#1 Post by MatGB »

I've both been watching a bunch of Trek style stuff recently and reading the short stories and first novel by Yoon Ha Lee, both of which use nebulae as terrain in various ways (my favourite being The Battle of Candle Arc author's intro / Read online) Yoon specifically designed an SF background in which "terrain" happens in space battles (explanation) and I love the way it's been done (I also love that Candle Arc is based on a real historical event but the odds difference is toned down as reality wouldn't be believable).

Basically, I'd like it if some nodes had various affects on weapons and other things in the same way that the molecular and ionic clouds wandering around do, with extra differences possible: ideas include a nebula that expands and contracts, when expanding it gives a bonus to plasma weapons (and/or shields) but when contracting it gives a malus to the same, etc.

I like that the accretion disc as a special affects the system, but I think it would be cool if some systems, including with planets, gave affects to what happens there in some way, making them easier or harder to defend/attack, etc.

Getting the balance right would be a challenge, don't want to create too big a defender advantage so would probably want to skew it in favour of the attacker, and the AI would need adjusting but IIRC it already needs work to be able tot ake into account some terrain effects including the solar web and molecular cloud.

What do people think of the idea?

(also, buy Yoon's book, Ninefox Gambit, it's really cool)
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Bromstarzan
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Re: Locations as terrain effects

#2 Post by Bromstarzan »

I like the idea!
However, for us beginners, it is sometimes not easy to know what the effects do already. Hence, I usually play through a game not even noticing the local effects from such features as molecular and ionic clouds.
I probably should, and if there was (maybe there is?) some sort of SitRep telling me when I encounter the bonus/malus (and how it affects my fleet) I would probably consider them more (well, there is the visual clue of course).

As I said, I do like the idea, it just made me more aware of the ingame bonuses/maluses - and that I should pay a little more attention to them.
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MatGB
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Re: Locations as terrain effects

#3 Post by MatGB »

Is a good point actually, I created sitreps for the dampening cloud and new dyson forests for almost the exact same reason, having ships report they're having sensor issues or their shields are failing would make sense, thanks.
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Sloth
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Re: Locations as terrain effects

#4 Post by Sloth »

I would also love to see systems with specials. Especially tacticaly relevant ones.
Bromstarzan wrote:As I said, I do like the idea, it just made me more aware of the ingame bonuses/maluses - and that I should pay a little more attention to them.
It would be a good idea to show system specials in the system view (like the planet specials).
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xlightwavex
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Re: Locations as terrain effects

#5 Post by xlightwavex »

If it makes sense.

Kinda like in star trek 2 "We cant follow them into the nebula are shields and sensors would be useless"

Asteroids in a system might provide natural ship cloak when scanning from far off kind of like a hiding place or default amount if a ship doesn't have cloak.

Diminished cloak and or sensors in some systems might make sense as well depending on the star type like high radiation or a polar positron emitting black hole. You can probably do that with script already for some things. Though im totally lost how you script things that effect battle directly. If there is any way.

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Bromstarzan
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Re: Locations as terrain effects

#6 Post by Bromstarzan »

xlightwavex wrote:Asteroids in a system might provide natural ship cloak when scanning from far off kind of like a hiding place or default amount if a ship doesn't have cloak.
I was going to suggest something like this - a hiding place where you can conceal your entire fleet either by
1. just natural cover
2. using "asteroid nav tech"?
3. Alternatively revealed by "asteroid scan tech"
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MatGB
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Re: Locations as terrain effects

#7 Post by MatGB »

Um,

Or you could just use asteroid hulls which already get a stealth bonus in a system with asteroids?

We also have the resonant moon special which gives the defender a stealth advantage, not a massive one and currently not very useful but I'm hoping to expand on the idea when we do some work on stealth.
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Bromstarzan
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Re: Locations as terrain effects

#8 Post by Bromstarzan »

Yep, I guess it would interfer with the available techs - being too similar.
What about if nodes with 5 or more(?) connectors received a +1 supply bonus?
Just throwing out ideas to inspire further thoughts on this.
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