Forums » Suggestions
Engine Tweaking Thread
I tried REAL hard to find some use out of the Heavy engine, but I failed. I miss its higher boosting speed and higher torque, which is why I want it back so bad. The medium/fast charge combo pretty much dominates the game now. True, boost tapping is gone, but the heavy engine got nerfed in the process. What can we do to fix this problem?
I made a recent proposal about making the torque of the engine be the inverse of its maximum speed. In other words the light engine would have the highest torque, but slowest speed. The efficient and medium engines would have both medium torque and medium maximum speed. And finally the heavy engine would have the highest speed but lowest torque. This makes sense consider how the heavier (or more massive) your engine is, the harder it'll be to turn quickly. The player would have to decide whether to sacrifice speed over agility, or vice versa... or they could simply pick a good balance of both by choosing the medium. All engines would have minimal or no power consumption.
This is only one of many proposals that can help make ALL engines become useful to the player. But maybe the above example is too extreme. Maybe boost tapping wasn't so bad after all. In a way I hated how boost tapping made my fingers get tired after prolonged usage. On the PLUS SIDE I was able to escape rocket rammers easily with boost tapping. So I think maybe the devs could give boost tapping another try before resorting to any major changes to the engines. They can get rid of the binding exploit that would let players boost infinitely, but leave boost tapping in for the time being.
A third proposal I'd like to make is to give each ship its own unique engine that's built-in. Each ship would have a maximum speed and maximum torque. But they will need to be balanced so the Valkyrie, for example, will not dominate the game. Engine swapping would be completely eliminated. Engines would also use up minimal or no energy (goodbye to boost tapping again).
A fourth proposal would be to give every ship the SAME engine. It would be a heavy engine with the efficiency of an efficient or medium engine. Not only would that eliminate boost tapping, but it would also give everyone an equal chance of escaping. The agility difference of each ship will determine who still has better acceleration, however, which will help pirates STILL be able to take down heavy transports. Since everyone pretty much uses a medium/fast charge combo now, I'd say that this proposal would provide the smoothest transition.
And a fifth proposal... would be the same as above but to allow the player to tweak various aspects of their built-in engine. Players would be given a certain amount of "points" that they can use to make their own custom engine. The player would be allowed to distribute their "points" into the torque, cruising speed, and boosting speed of their engine.
So to conclude my post, my proposed fixes are as follows by order of best to worst (in my opinion):
1. Re-enable boost tapping, while leaving the infinite boost exploit fixed.
2. Unique engine per ship, with VERY careful consideration in balance.
3. Customizable engines using a point system (very RPGish).
4. Give the slowest engines high torque, and the fastest engines low torque.
5. Give every player the same engine and let agility/acceleration be the balancing factor of ships.
I made a recent proposal about making the torque of the engine be the inverse of its maximum speed. In other words the light engine would have the highest torque, but slowest speed. The efficient and medium engines would have both medium torque and medium maximum speed. And finally the heavy engine would have the highest speed but lowest torque. This makes sense consider how the heavier (or more massive) your engine is, the harder it'll be to turn quickly. The player would have to decide whether to sacrifice speed over agility, or vice versa... or they could simply pick a good balance of both by choosing the medium. All engines would have minimal or no power consumption.
This is only one of many proposals that can help make ALL engines become useful to the player. But maybe the above example is too extreme. Maybe boost tapping wasn't so bad after all. In a way I hated how boost tapping made my fingers get tired after prolonged usage. On the PLUS SIDE I was able to escape rocket rammers easily with boost tapping. So I think maybe the devs could give boost tapping another try before resorting to any major changes to the engines. They can get rid of the binding exploit that would let players boost infinitely, but leave boost tapping in for the time being.
A third proposal I'd like to make is to give each ship its own unique engine that's built-in. Each ship would have a maximum speed and maximum torque. But they will need to be balanced so the Valkyrie, for example, will not dominate the game. Engine swapping would be completely eliminated. Engines would also use up minimal or no energy (goodbye to boost tapping again).
A fourth proposal would be to give every ship the SAME engine. It would be a heavy engine with the efficiency of an efficient or medium engine. Not only would that eliminate boost tapping, but it would also give everyone an equal chance of escaping. The agility difference of each ship will determine who still has better acceleration, however, which will help pirates STILL be able to take down heavy transports. Since everyone pretty much uses a medium/fast charge combo now, I'd say that this proposal would provide the smoothest transition.
And a fifth proposal... would be the same as above but to allow the player to tweak various aspects of their built-in engine. Players would be given a certain amount of "points" that they can use to make their own custom engine. The player would be allowed to distribute their "points" into the torque, cruising speed, and boosting speed of their engine.
So to conclude my post, my proposed fixes are as follows by order of best to worst (in my opinion):
1. Re-enable boost tapping, while leaving the infinite boost exploit fixed.
2. Unique engine per ship, with VERY careful consideration in balance.
3. Customizable engines using a point system (very RPGish).
4. Give the slowest engines high torque, and the fastest engines low torque.
5. Give every player the same engine and let agility/acceleration be the balancing factor of ships.
Too tired to read big post right now.
Personally, what i think we need is an engine with out turbo that will be perfect for a fighter outfit, it would excel in strafing and it could get up to 95 m/s (remember, light engine goes 140 m\s) it also would turn the light craft very quickly, but not the heavy craft.
The rail gun still needs some tweaking, right now it is the worst energy\dmg weapon, and the worst reload/dmg weapon. it goes fast though, if it doesn't get more dmg it should go faster, maybe 500 m/s... please?!?!
hijacking threads, bad me, i might add something about battery's to make the rail gun part make sense...
Personally, what i think we need is an engine with out turbo that will be perfect for a fighter outfit, it would excel in strafing and it could get up to 95 m/s (remember, light engine goes 140 m\s) it also would turn the light craft very quickly, but not the heavy craft.
The rail gun still needs some tweaking, right now it is the worst energy\dmg weapon, and the worst reload/dmg weapon. it goes fast though, if it doesn't get more dmg it should go faster, maybe 500 m/s... please?!?!
hijacking threads, bad me, i might add something about battery's to make the rail gun part make sense...
1. Re-enable boost tapping, while leaving the infinite boost exploit fixed.
*shudder*
2. Unique engine per ship, with VERY careful consideration in balance.
5. Give every player the same engine and let agility/acceleration be the balancing factor of ships.
These two suggestions are very similar. Basically what you are saying is to remove the option of choosing your own engine. I personally think this is a bad idea because it removes a great deal of customizability (is that a word?) which is one of the final goals of this game (check the main website).
The engines aren't the real problem, the ships are. Each ship is given a specific mass, and each engine a specific thrust. The laws of physics take over from there. There's nothing wrong with allowing ships of different masses to experiment with different thrust configurations. I could say a lot more on this but I'm already late for class.
4. Give the slowest engines high torque, and the fastest engines low torque.
Very interesting idea. /me likes it but it doesn't make sense physically. An engine with a higher forward thrust would probably have a higher torque. Torque is a force which has nothing to do with mass. Angular accelleration has everything to do with mass, and that is what defines turn rate.
*shudder*
2. Unique engine per ship, with VERY careful consideration in balance.
5. Give every player the same engine and let agility/acceleration be the balancing factor of ships.
These two suggestions are very similar. Basically what you are saying is to remove the option of choosing your own engine. I personally think this is a bad idea because it removes a great deal of customizability (is that a word?) which is one of the final goals of this game (check the main website).
The engines aren't the real problem, the ships are. Each ship is given a specific mass, and each engine a specific thrust. The laws of physics take over from there. There's nothing wrong with allowing ships of different masses to experiment with different thrust configurations. I could say a lot more on this but I'm already late for class.
4. Give the slowest engines high torque, and the fastest engines low torque.
Very interesting idea. /me likes it but it doesn't make sense physically. An engine with a higher forward thrust would probably have a higher torque. Torque is a force which has nothing to do with mass. Angular accelleration has everything to do with mass, and that is what defines turn rate.
>The engines aren't the real problem, the ships are. Each ship is given a specific
> mass, and each engine a specific thrust. The laws of physics take over from
> there. There's nothing wrong with allowing ships of different masses to
> experiment with different thrust configurations. I could say a lot more on this
> but I'm already late for class.
If engines aren't the problem, why isn't anyone buying a light or heavy engine? They're both practically useless now. It's my belief that every engine should have advantages and disadvantages, much like weapons and ships (even though more tweaking on these is needed). The light engine is too damn slow to get you anywhere safely and has a horrid torque rate. The heavy engine drains too fast, and despite its high max speed a medium/fast charge combo can EASILY catch up to it since boost tapping is gone. That basically leaves only two useful engines in the game--the efficient engine and the medium engine.
If customization is the ultimate goal, a point distribution system should be in place. A player will automatically receive an engine with the ship that they buy, and a new "engine" tab in the station menu will allow you distribute a certain amount of points to various specs of the engine. The amount of points may or may not vary with the type of ship that you buy, so I'm not sure yet how much you are given exactly. But basically you need to choose how much torque, what cruising speed, and what maximum speed you want for your engine.
Now of course the mass of the ship will still factor into whether a ship is agile or not. But the type of engine you customize may determine whether your ship behaves in a stable manner or not. Nobody will really have a huge advantage either. If someone decides to be a smartass and give their engine a HUGE maximum speed but low cruising speed, they will be totally screwed when they run out of energy. Giving yourself too much agility will also make your ship slow. Default values can be left in as a well balanced engine config so newbies won't have to mess with it if they don't want to.
The menu itself will be easy to use. A series of greyed out bars will appear horizontally next to the name of the engine's specification (agility, cruising speed, maximum speed, etc.). A plus sign and a minus sign button will appear at both ends of this horizontal line of bars, to add and deduct points. And the total number of points will be displayed off to the side. The whole idea of this is very RPGish, which would fit in very well with Vendetta's future. And maybe as you gain experience or win missions, engine points will be given to you as a reward. When you die, however, you will lose all those additional points with the new ship that you'll buy.
> mass, and each engine a specific thrust. The laws of physics take over from
> there. There's nothing wrong with allowing ships of different masses to
> experiment with different thrust configurations. I could say a lot more on this
> but I'm already late for class.
If engines aren't the problem, why isn't anyone buying a light or heavy engine? They're both practically useless now. It's my belief that every engine should have advantages and disadvantages, much like weapons and ships (even though more tweaking on these is needed). The light engine is too damn slow to get you anywhere safely and has a horrid torque rate. The heavy engine drains too fast, and despite its high max speed a medium/fast charge combo can EASILY catch up to it since boost tapping is gone. That basically leaves only two useful engines in the game--the efficient engine and the medium engine.
If customization is the ultimate goal, a point distribution system should be in place. A player will automatically receive an engine with the ship that they buy, and a new "engine" tab in the station menu will allow you distribute a certain amount of points to various specs of the engine. The amount of points may or may not vary with the type of ship that you buy, so I'm not sure yet how much you are given exactly. But basically you need to choose how much torque, what cruising speed, and what maximum speed you want for your engine.
Now of course the mass of the ship will still factor into whether a ship is agile or not. But the type of engine you customize may determine whether your ship behaves in a stable manner or not. Nobody will really have a huge advantage either. If someone decides to be a smartass and give their engine a HUGE maximum speed but low cruising speed, they will be totally screwed when they run out of energy. Giving yourself too much agility will also make your ship slow. Default values can be left in as a well balanced engine config so newbies won't have to mess with it if they don't want to.
The menu itself will be easy to use. A series of greyed out bars will appear horizontally next to the name of the engine's specification (agility, cruising speed, maximum speed, etc.). A plus sign and a minus sign button will appear at both ends of this horizontal line of bars, to add and deduct points. And the total number of points will be displayed off to the side. The whole idea of this is very RPGish, which would fit in very well with Vendetta's future. And maybe as you gain experience or win missions, engine points will be given to you as a reward. When you die, however, you will lose all those additional points with the new ship that you'll buy.
I think that the engines should control the acceleration.
IE a lgiht engine has a lower top speed, but an incredible acceleration (this shouln't affect agility since each ship has it's own turn rate) and the heavy engine should have a high top speed but a slow acceleration.
IE a lgiht engine has a lower top speed, but an incredible acceleration (this shouln't affect agility since each ship has it's own turn rate) and the heavy engine should have a high top speed but a slow acceleration.
/me applauds Arolte's point system idea enthusiastically!
Me also votes for point system.
By the way, i do use the heavy engine, precisely to get more agility, though it drains the battery too fast making it unusable to hunt anyone.
By the way, i do use the heavy engine, precisely to get more agility, though it drains the battery too fast making it unusable to hunt anyone.
I use heavy any time I think I won't have to sectorjump (hvy bat recharges too slow, fast-charge can't hold enough)