(A) When you're designing for this, is the final damage state of a ship intended to reflect specific damage? (For example, is the tail/cargo section being destroyed because that's where it was hit?) (B) Is the intention that we'll be able to survive something like that if we're not in the damaged section of the ship and have a spacesuit on? (C) And thirdly, do you have to consider the repair mechanic when designing damage states?asked by Eschatos

Yes. That is pretty much exactly how it works. What we're doing on the tech design side and this is going to get more in depth as we go too. You hit a specific location damage can transfer from that location to another location. There's probabilities. So if you hit like a wing and there's components under there, like shield generators or something. That can be damage and that creates a rippling explosion that goes and blows up something else.So we're trying to create a very dynamic damage system. So at a base level things break off, wings snap off, tails snap off, body snaps in half, three main parts well three or four is like nose, neck, body, tail. So when your ship is finally 100 percent destroyed if your neck is destroyed you're just boom! You just kind of blow up. But if your tail broke off you might still you know airlock, thunk, and try and coast back to base. It depends on how it's going. If you have a critical series of events that happen that might destroy your whole ship.

Yeah. I mean if you trigger catastrophic damage it's game over!

Yeah it's game over your whole ship's going to blow up. So at the end yes there should be areas that you can see, especially like in non 100 percent destroyed state. You should be able to see exactly where you got hit during your fight. But at the end when your ship is blown up you know you got shot in the wing but it's listing, you didn't get shot in the tail.And then 100 percent is a complete model swap into the husk chunks at the moment with an overlay VFX that bursts out. It's all blended together so you can't really tell. But unless you're going back for repairs. You don't really need to see that one area where you got shot in the wing. It's all about performance. How can we keep realistic yet persistent damage?

The next part of this question is: Is the intention that we'll be able to something like that if we're not in the damaged section of the ship if we have a space suit on? I think you kind of touched on that?

I did kind of touch on that. Yes it is in the design board. Right now you just blow up and die. Your spaceship's blown up right? As the damage and how it transfers get more in depth we can end up just probably saying "Airlock door closed you're all safe". I don't know honestly I don't really have 100 percent specifics on that. But I do know conceptually it's possible and it's what we're leaning towards 'cause that's realistic right?

Yeah. I think that's ultimately the goal. Obviously game design is still working on the specifics of how that functions. Because as per the example the back of your ship gets blown off and that's where all your power plants are, and you're stuck in the front but you've got no power does that mean you're basically stuck on a floating husk? So there's more than just the realistic aspect of the game, we have to worry about what the implications for the gameplay are as well.Okay so the last part of Eschatos question is and thirdly, do you have to consider the repair mechanic when designing Damage States.EB/PS: Yes.

Yes you do because you have to think of what's going to need to be repaired, what's going to be left behind even if the mechanic isn't full implemented, you should still think how is the player going to repair this, which of the player will see, what tools are at his disposal. It's a big difference, just think conceptually, okay this isn't how it is or anything, but if you have a spaceship and it just flies into a hangar and a bunch of nanobots repair it or something that's one way where you don't have to be too interactive, but if you're a dude with a blowtorch and you're up there, the ship is a completely different spot; you're getting completely different visual, all sorts of stuff is going on.

Yeah. That repair mechanic is still being fleshed out.

Right.

I think it's going to be really cool. It's a lot more dynamic than what we had before. It's important to keep in mind our damage system is not what we started with. So we use the term damage states, but it doesn't actually reflect what it is anymore.

Right.

Right, It's a lot more organic than that. So previously we did have something called damage states where you'd shoot the wing and there would be four different version of the wing and different states of damage.

25/50/70 and 100.

Exactly, that's gone. So the way we're doing it now is we're actually building the internal supports for that wing and when we shoot the whole surface it will blow a hole to through it to reveal the interior. There's no damage state, it's just how much damage has that part taken.

Correct and the only damage state is the really the 100 percent at this point. Are you destroyed or not?

Right.

And that's when you get the detach command and then boom the wing or tail goes flying off, but until then, it's mainly just the shader doing the work and it's hitting and it's rippling out and it's tearing apart and then it's transparent and you can see the metal ribbing of the inside of the ship and then that shows a more visual version of the wear. So it's less memory because you don't have four different models per separate part of the ship anymore that just has to do damage.

Right.

And it creates a better visual due to the way the shader works.

Yeah.

So I mean we're working on the pipeline all the time, optimizing the tech, coming up with new tech, implementing that and so far it's looking really cool.

Yeah it's very awesome and it's also a lot more satisfying to see the damage happen where you shoot.

Yes.

Whereas previously that wasn't the case. You could shoot the tip and the base of the piece would start to break off.