The developers explain the 2.9 flight model rebalance, where designers tune ship parameters such as halved SCM speeds, afterburner fuel and weapon ranges. They also cover the first-pass pulse scanning, stealth by IR, EM and cross-section, and scanner tiers.
hey're not making changes to the flight model per-say, the flight model is realistic physics based as much as it can be. It's about opening up the flight model to designers to change some parameters of ships, to more easily modify some aspects of ships, speeds, stop times, etc… The model is the program that takes all the numbers, crunches them, and outputs results. They're changing the numbers that go into the flight model, not the flight model itself. They're doing everything live, changing things around to see what works best. They try to get a lot of the testing out of the way in studio. They're not changing the work that John Pritchett and others have done on the flight model; they're changing stats that go into the model; speeds, stop times, weapon damages and such.
No. Everything'll be the same across all modes. Something they didn't have before was cruise speeds in Arena Commander; with the changes, making things slower, and making AC areas bigger eventually, cruise speeds will be important, as will spawn points. They don't want to have much of a disconnect between the two modules.
They've halved the SCM speeds, but you still have access to afterburner speeds, you can still cruise, they'll have to playtest missile speeds. They don't want people to be able to escape from missiles too easily. They'll probably come down a bit, but they'll have to do testing.
They are making some changes to how boost and afterburner work. They want to give more fuel so you can use afterburner a bit longer; they want it to be more important in a combat situation. They'll probably give it less of a draw rate and a slow climb back up.
Not so much, because of the sheer mass of the ships. When they've had them flying it's been 'lets push it to the extreme', longest acceleration, slowest rotation, etc… it's still like moving a juggernaut through space.
No; they're still where they were. Afterburner covers those areas. You'll still black out if you're pushing too hard. They want to make it more playable. It's a normal part of game dev. They're trying it out; they'll get it out to Evocati, PTU, and live, and they'll get feedback from everyone, and if changes are still necessary, they'll make them. Nothing is final.
In general they'll change on a per weapon basis. Weapons used to have very similar fire rates and ranges. Range wise, Cannons are long-range options, they'll be increased, repeaters are in the middle, and gattlings are at the lower end. They're still going back and forth on the ranges required; they're putting the values in and testing them today. Ranges were coming down; combat is slowing so they're trying out ranges lowered to test if they still feel right. The Cannon's still 4-5000 range, and that'll get larger as the gun gets larger as well. s5 cannons would have greater range for example.
TL;DRThe golf-swing scan is only a first-pass implementation; the intent is a radar that builds energy the longer it's held, widening what it finds but risking failure, so detection isn't a guaranteed one-press ping.
The 'golf swing' is a first-pass implementation. The thinking is they want a way of exposing hidden ships. You've got a sabre hiding, the idea is to charge a pulse and release it, and you can find the ship for a few seconds, then the ship fades. There needs to be some gameplay where the hunting ship can expose the hiding ship. The system shown yesterday is a first pass. What they want is a system that will build the energy you're putting into a radar, and the longer you hold it the more it'll generate and the wider it'll fetch information from, but there's a risk of it blowing up in your face. They want a system where you can fail. You thought you were the hunter, but you've just blown your radar, and can't see anything for two minutes. They want a system where it's not a done deal; you don't just press 'ping' and everyone's available.
TL;DRStealth will be driven by equipment and ship traits (size, heat, power draw, hull plating) with trade-offs, while radar detects contacts and scanners get information, which items placed on cargo can slow.
Stealth – They covered it a bit on AtV. In space, infrared, electromagnetic and cross-section will make you visible. How large your ship is is a factor in that. Maybe you have hull plating that, even though you're a big ship, it disguises you. Same with heat-masking your equipment, same with power draw. Buying the specific stealth items, tailored for stealth but maybe they don't pack the biggest punch. Powerplants that are shielded but don't put out as much power, so you can't run as much. Lots of trade-off in the equipment for ships. Stealth will be driven by items. For anti-scan stuff, when you get a contact; before the scanner was 'everything', radar now detects contacts and scanner allows you to get information from it, it's why staying quiet is so important. You'll be able to place sub items so that it takes longer to scan the item. If you don't want someone to know about your cargo container, you can put items on it that will slow down the penetration of scans.
Depends who's scanning you. If there's a ship hovering above, maybe not. If the scanner has eyes on you, they'll have an easy time. But if you hide behind things, if you're not getting seen, then it's about hardening the gear you have, etc… maybe they can scan you, see your name, but they can't tell if you've got a criminal record or a weapon. There are ways to get around getting scanned.
Cross section would be harder to do; it's physical size. EM is definitely possible; lots of items have pools they fill up. EM is normally a multiplayer of how much is in those pools. If you emptied and filled those pools repeatedly, you'd look like you have a big pulsing EM. Same with heat. Shields and power plant are the biggest EM signatures. If you toggled them on and off, you'd be lit up in EM.
Asteroids have a huge cross-section. Stars and things will have heat. You'll already be able to detect them, then it's a case of getting them lined up and scanning their information. You look at an asteroid, and you scan it. If you're in a fighter with a standard scanner, you'll see it's an asteroid. But if you get a mining scanner upgrade or exploration, you'll get more signals, because this is a mineral, this is a gas, etc… you can specialise your ship to scan asteroids or other things.
Definitely within their ship. If you're in the same party very likely. They've been talking with matt Sherman the idea of transferring info between ships (working on the Herald). they want players to be able to transfer information. They want to be able to have two ships each scanning an area, and seeing each other's areas, even if there' s a bit of a delay.
es. They haven't talked much about it, but there are different 'grade's, a-d grade, and they have different categories as well; military, stealth, competition, etc… Stealth shields would have less emissions, but less power. Industrial would have large output but large emissions. Competition would be for racing and such; best of what they do. Competition thrusters are great for racing. They want to use the same universal system for scanning.