Matrix Games Forums

I started to put this in the 'Lets talk tactics ' topic, but realized I am talking about wishlist stuff rather than tactics for the existing game. As far as I can tell, the current tactics are limited, at least in capital ship combat. Don't get me wrong, I think the game is great in its current state and worth every penny.

That said, I would like a little more tactical depth, such as:

-adjustable power for shield facings
-overloadable weapons/reinforced shields
-more varied firing arcs (are all ships forward firing?)
-more advanced electronic warfare, including both offensive and defensive options

Basically i want Starfleet Command 2 functionality in the Starshatter engine.

Also -it would be helpful to (1) know how much energy is produced by each system and (2) how much energy is needed for each system. That would help to know what you need to take offline in order to support critical systems.

As a 3rd item, if you could set energy profiles, it would be great (so if someone takes out your fusion reactor you can maintain shield integrity by switching to a profile (with one button press) that powers the shields and other vitals from the aux reactor, for example).

If any of these items can currently be implemented in game, please let me know.

You can overload systems with the overload button in the engineering screen, it gives a %20 boost to the systems maximum power draw with a risk of damaging the system's components.

yeah, i know but it doens't seem to last very long. In fact it seems that it goes off before I even leave the energy management screen.
How do I know if it is still in effect?

Well, whatever's overloaded should charge 20% faster if there's enough power available.

i just checked it out in game, and if you hit override on say shields, it goes to 120 from 100 and then immediately goes back down to 100. If you start at 80 it goes to 100 and then back down to 80 (in about 1-2 secs). I don't see the usefulness in this. Perhaps it is better to override weapons or thruster, where such a short boost 'may' have an impact.

ORIGINAL: altmunster

As a 3rd item, if you could set energy profiles, it would be great (so if someone takes out your fusion reactor you can maintain shield integrity by switching to a profile (with one button press) that powers the shields and other vitals from the aux reactor, for example).

If any of these items can currently be implemented in game, please let me know.

Well, as far as I can tell, if the primary reactor is taken out, its items automatically shift to the next power supply down, this could be another fusion, an aux reactor or a battery. I dont know how much more complex you'd want than this.

ORIGINAL: altmunster
more varied firing arcs (are all ships forward firing?)

Yes, but this is solely due to milo's design concept for his SS universe. You could make a mod with primarily broadside weapons (An honor harrington type mod, for example).

As for more varied shield arcs, the only way I could think of doing it ATM would be to have several shield subsystems (not 100% positive this is supported) and give them different strengths and make non-overlapping shield .mag's for them. However, i dont think you could put them at different charge levels without going to the engineering screen.

ORIGINAL: altmunster

-more varied firing arcs (are all ships forward firing?)

Many starships have rear PDBs. I think all starships have at least 1 PDB or Phalanx in rear.

so the power management automatically decides what is the best config? Maybe if I took the auto repair off then it wouldn't do that automatically. I will need to check next time to see what is pushed into backup status. it raises the question of what if I wanted full power to certain weapons at one crucial moment and the auto config putting shields and thrusters onto aux took some of the 'oomph' out of my weapons. might cost me the fight.
of course, might keep me alive longer...suppose i could go into energy and self select, but by then i'm afraid i would be dead.
As far as rear firing pdbs, I would only resort to them if I absolutely had to - exposing the rear of my ship never seems like a good move unless it is to a completely defanged opponent. Torpedos and forward lasers seem to be the offensive workhorses in game. That is why battles seem to devolve into a face off slug fest. Some rear firing torps would be exactly what the dr ordered. I supposed I could design ships and put in new hardpoints and shield arcs, but I am more of the playing sort rather than the modding sort. Thouhg I am very impressed with the work that others have put into their mods.

The game will only switch systems to another reactor if the one they're connected to is disabled.

ATM,Power management is mostly a balance between engines and shields- the problem with power management in SS is that it requires a ludicrous amount of fine tuning, design wise, to give you any good options... and then the AI will probably suck it up at that ship. *G*

More stuff on ships would be good, rear facing torps...yeah. The only real problem is that the subsystem targeting is relatively clunky, so if you tack a truely impressive number of subsystems on a ship, it gets unmanageable to target subsystems.