Forums » Suggestions

Destructible roid compromise

Nov 17, 2004 tomfoolry link
I have read some of the other threads on destructible roids, and it seems like the general consensus is that while it's a cool idea, it would be very difficult to implement properly if possible at all.

But, I just had a thought about a possible compromise. What if the roids spewed out temporary micro-roids when struck with enough force. These small rocks would not subtract from the substance/mass of the main roid and would have a limited life-span. This could add some interesting combat strategies. Imagine fleeing from a pursuer past a large asteroid... then spinning around and firing a volley of rockets, not at the enemy ship, but at the asteroid. The enemy ship would be caught in a shower of ferric death. And, we wouldn't have to worry about entire asteroid fields being obliterated.

Anyway, I don't think this is an *OMG must have feature* but it seems like it might add some more dynamism to the environment, and I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to implement without upsetting the delicate balance of the game (of course I could be *completely* wrong about that).

edit: changed weird punctuation.
Nov 17, 2004 Spellcast link
hmmm, This seems to be a pretty good idea, if the "microroids" were limited in number and only lasted a few seconds, (5?) they wouldnt cause too much server slowdown, and might potentially add some interesting combat possibilities.
They could be used to make mining more interesting as well, perhaps when mining there could be a chance that some of them would break off and force you to dodge. that would stop a lot of the miners who park a ship by a roid and set up an auto-jettison alias, then walk away.
Nov 18, 2004 Shapenaji link
bump
Nov 18, 2004 ananzi link
dude its in their plan document that roids will be depleted , when they get 'exploration' working
Nov 18, 2004 Eldrad link
ananzi, depleted means they won't have anything left to mine in them, not that they will disappear.
Nov 18, 2004 tomfoolry link
quote from the in progress log:
"Asteroids should become depleted by the process of mining. There are multiple possibilities to deal with the shortage this will eventually cause. Ideally, the depletion of asteroids should not be possible until the Exploration addon is in place, causing miners to venture further afield in search of their ores, and pushing people to explore. Asteroid regeneration and other options are also obvious."

The mention of asteroid regeneration makes me think they might actually be talking about shrinking/disappearing asteroids. So you might be right, ananzi, but I'm not sure. If they do have a plan, then combat and impact based fragmentation of asteroids might be a possible extension. But, depletion through mining is a slow process and would probably be much easier to balance. There might be room for the two concepts to live side-by-side.