Capital ship destruction...

[Maarschalk]

Problem is, if you add more weapons, they will be invulnerable (the weapons, not the cap ships). In most games, you can take out the weapons ... pulling the ship's teeth, as it were.

Just to be curious and I don't want to sound rude but is there some specific reason in the first place that there aren't some destructable elements on cap ships in Evochron since it's pretty common on most space sims ? Was it the case in previous Starwraith games ?

The destructable elements are Shields, Hull, and the 3 nodes of systems, Engines, Navigation and Weapons!.....

[DennyMala]

I think some variables to the cap ship "level" and behaviour should be a good addon as it will spice up the fights somehow.

Not drastic changes, but some differentiation in the way even same class ships will react would be nice and fun.

I guess we're not talking about modification but about an entire rework of the cap ship in game concept.... maybe we're well past the line.

[Rubber Chicken]

True, a Cap ship has no real weaknesses in it's hull, or Critical Hit areas (besides subtargets), but there are some gaps in the anti-fighter defenses that are rather large. In essence the ability to 'Park and Pound' being present is a Critical Hit area of sorts in it's own right.

In older games like RiftSpace, Cap ships did have individual defense turrets which had to be eliminated first, which I liked - sort of.
If if was not an absolute requirement to eliminate them, but worthwhile to kill some in the zone you wanted to attack, I would be all for it.

That was a single-player game though. I really don't know anything about programming, but my guess why the turrets were eliminated would be this: For each turret to operate independently and do it's job properly, it would have to have it's own AI routine, which would greatly consume MP resources. That's just a guess though. I'm probably completely wrong.

Mainly though, I do agree with most players who think Caps no longer have the challenge to kill them as they used to.
I also agree that some tweaking, not a major overhaul, is probably the best way to get some truly menacing Cap ships going on in-game.

Oh and is it just me or has anybody else noticed sometimes the Caps fire missiles that hit themselves even though the obviously predictable outcome for launching from that particular side would be the missiles would hit the Cap and not you?

I've had a few Cap ships 'help' me do damage to them in that manner.

[Zach]

I dunno..

If these are just turrets I would think a few simple Target, Range and amidead? checks would probably suffice as far as "A.I" goes.

[Zach]

Last night I had a bit of insomnia, so I logged on to Ceti Alpha where everyone else was.

I had never attempted it before, but I rode up to the back of a Vonari Cap ship, and started firing. After not making a scratch with my missles, laser, or particle weapons, I started moving in closer. Got spammed with a couple missles which I took care of pretty easily, and eventually found a spot where it couldn't really do anything to me (wedged between its engines).

To my surprise, I started unloading with just my particle cannons and its health started dropping like a rock, until it went boom. VERY fast.

I was pleased with my first Cap Ship Kill, but at the same time it felt very dirty and wrong.

[Nubarus]

Last night I had a bit of insomnia, so I logged on to Ceti Alpha where everyone else was.

I had never attempted it before, but I rode up to the back of a Vonari Cap ship, and started firing. After not making a scratch with my missles, laser, or particle weapons, I started moving in closer. Got spammed with a couple missles which I took care of pretty easily, and eventually found a spot where it couldn't really do anything to me (wedged between its engines).

To my surprise, I started unloading with just my particle cannons and its health started dropping like a rock, until it went boom. VERY fast.

I was pleased with my first Cap Ship Kill, but at the same time it felt very dirty and wrong.

As soon as you get in range where your weapons lock onto the core of the ship your beam cannons chew up the shields like a snowcone in the desert.
After that you scatter that hunk of junk in a wide area before you can say "I like blueberry pie".