Here is a list of some of the changes that will be done for the next update.

Structural integrity

Issue

Imagine how battles of large spaceships look in various sci-fi movies. Usually theres a firefight with projectiles that hit the hull, but do not cause any significant damage to it, until a certain point. Then, when ships take enough damage, there are explosions in different places and they fall apart. That looks epic, but in CC it isnt. Currently, projectiles are literally digging their way through the ship, immediately destroying its modules. As a result, even if the ship survives the battle, it looks like a gnawed apple, completely devoid of its original shape.. Of course, shields can solve this problem, but in that case, we would be forced to make the shields account for 90% of the ship's durability, which could reduce the visual variety of battleships, because we would like the hull to also seem like strong armor, as its often shown in sci-fi movies. In addition, different modules may have very different HP values. For example, if you want to place a lot of small decor on the surface of some large module, then all of it will be blown away by the explosion of the first rocket.

Solution

Now ships will have a single HP pool, which is calculated from their size. Any hit on the ship will reduce this pool. When the value reaches zero, then the modules themselves will start receiving damage directly, just as it is currently implemented. However, modules will have much less HP of their own, so they can be destroyed very quickly. You can think of this new system as a structural integrity of sorts.
Thus, the problem described above is solved, while maintaining this interesting effect where ships may physically lose their parts during combat. Also, repairing a ship after each battle will no longer be an annoyance, because the HP pool can be easily replenished at the shipyard. Furthermore, it will be much easier to keep track of the current status of the ship's durability, and how much damage it receives during battle.

A single inventory for the entire ship

Issue

At first it seemed that individual storage in each container was a fun idea. But over time, it turned out not to be meaningful, but annoying, especially for a larger ship, with a huge amount of containers. It's not convenient to work with all these icons all over the screen. Of course, it's an interesting concept for some kind of first-person survival game where youd walk between different chests and sort everything. But in a game like CC it just doesn't work.

Solution

So now each ship will have only one inventory window, the maximum size of which is determined by the number of containers on the ship.
Simple and convenient.

Limited amount of armament per ship

Issue

Currently you can build something like this.
Such ships are very effective in combat, but they look cheesy and so are the battles between them. Remember the various ships from sci-fi movies. Usually, their weapons occupy only 10-20% of a given ship. In real battleships it is similar, because below each weapon there is a large and complex system for servicing and controlling the weapon.

Solution

There are no simulations of internal logistics in CC, so we will achieve that in a simpler way. Now each weapon will require a specific amount of "weapon points", and the larger the ship, the more of these weapon points will be available.
Such a system will encourage building sophisticated ships instead of "a cube with cannons on each side"

[ 2022-01-25 16:03:32 CET ] [ Original post ]