Features Teil 2:
Trading:
Goals
- Simple to use – the actual mechanisms of trading should be easy for the player to grasp. The complexities in trading come from the choices that the player makes.
- Provide interesting choice – trading should provide the player with interesting, but understandable choices.
- Risk/Reward – trading is a risk vs. reward activity and should provide the opportunity for players to balance risk with potential rewards.
- Impact the game world – player actions should have a noticeable effect on the game world. They enable player choices to determine the fate of aspects of the galaxy.
Markets- Markets are where the majority of trading takes place
- They can be space stations, very large ships, or any other suitable structure
- Markets come in a variety of types which determine which goods can potentially be present – ie not all markets include all goods categories
- Space Stations – trades commodities and essential ship supplies
- Shipyards – trades limited commodities, ships, ship modules, ship supplies
- Factories – Specialist markets for particular commodities.
- Black Markets – private markets accessible based on player reputation, trades illegal commodities, requires contact to access, can be part of a legal market
- Pirate Bases – ignore fines and bounties, commodities, trades illegal commodities, requires contact to locate
- Smuggler Bases – ignores fines, but not bounties, trades commodities and illegal commodities, requires contact for location – the background simulation determines some properties of a market
- The list displayed for the market is determined by:
- Legality: Commodities of allowed types only are shown
- Profile: Commodities appropriate to the location are shown
- Supply/Demand: How much is for sale and what the current demand for an item is at the given price
- Some markets will be indicated as specialist in some way. This usually means the availability of rare items.
- Prices shown on the market:
- Prices on the markets are fixed, based on the price for the displayed demand
- Markets will have different modifiers and mark-up values
- Players can attempt to change the offered price (for buy and sell) by contacting a dealer in a specific good. This can also mean that the supply (or demand) values can be exceeded – ie a dealer may be prepared to buy more than the demand level at a lower price. Specialist items that fall into a standardized category should be sold through a dealer as otherwise they will attract the standard price for their category.
- Using the negotiation changes the price by a value derived from the trading reputation too – as long as the amount is worth their while (this will be a settable value – probably if over 50% of the market demand)
- Freight missions available from markets for transporting goods for a reward
- Missions to be discussed in detail in future topic.
- Although a reasonable spread of missions will always be available.
- To determine a market’s properties the background simulation takes into account the following system data:
- Supply and demand based on market location, e.g.
- Agricultural location
- Supplies Food
- Demands Machinery, Fertiliser
- Politics/laws
- Determines which commodities are illegal
- Population size and standard of living
- Increases supply and demand of specific commodities
- Meta events like conflicts and disasters
- Affects commodity availability and prices
- Can be generated by player actions
- Aggregated Player trading in the system
- Market data availability
- When docked all available market data is available
- This may be modified by ranking
- When in system market prices are available
- Outside the system only general information is available
- Player’s trade history is available in detail
- Newsfeeds provide useful economic data for all systems
- Market Data Content
- Historical data will be aggregated
- Full price data for limited time
- Then aggregated for full timeline
- Players can cancel a trade before leaving the trading screen
- Players can dump cargos at substantially reduced value if it cannot be sold through the market normally.
- Some dangerous cargos may need a fee to offload
- Jettisoning cargos within a defined distance of a station is illegal
Commodities
- There is a list of different commodities
- Each commodity has a baseline price
- This is the starting price for the commodity in this market
- This value is modified by background simulation
- This value is modified by player trading
- Buy and selling price is modified by the quantity of a commodity being traded
- Repeated sales of the same commodity by the same player in the same market will be blocked
- There are caps on prices to prevent unrealistic extremes (no negative values)
- Based on background simulation data, rare alternate commodities can be generated
- These commodities’ value increase the further the player is from the origin system
- Value rarity modifiers are capped
- Quantities of commodities that are purchased are limited by the player’s currently active ship’s cargo capacity.
- Modules can be traded (although not when equipped)
- Some commodities require specialist ship equipment
- Attempting to transport commodities of these types without said equipment has effects:
- Spoiling – the commodity is ruined
- Alteration – the commodity changes type
- Contamination – the commodity becomes hazardous
- Packets of information can be obtained and traded like commodities
- Tradable information includes:
- System locations
- Market locations
- Resource gathering locations
- Mission/event locations
- Information packets automatically update the player’s galactic map as needed when they are acquired
- Using a purchased packet means it cannot then be resold.
Player to Player Trading- Players can trade directly with each other
- The player trade interface is available when both players are docked at the same market
- The player trade interface is available when two players dock ships
- The player trade interface is a secure swap allowing players to transfer credits/cargo
- Both players must accept the trade before it occurs
- Acceptance must be redone by both parties after any change in the trade
- Trading occurs in real-time and can be interrupted (for example by being attacked) unless taking place at a space dock
- Either player can cancel the trade at any time up to the point both agree
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Ratings and Reputations:
Reputations- Reputations are numerical values representing the consequences of particular styles of play
- Reputations can go up and down, based on commander actions
- Some reputations can have negative values
- Reputation values are hidden to the player; they just experience the effects on NPC behaviours
- Reputations can affect the following NPC behaviours in either a good or bad way (for the player):
- Tones of response, comprised of:
- (Bad) Hostile
- (Neutral) Neutral
- (Good) Friendly
- Dialogue option availability/likelihood of success of various options
- (Bad) Fewer options if applicable, less chance of options having good results
- (Good) More options if applicable, greater chance of options having good results.
- Note that some options will require specific reputation levels.
- Determining threat level of player actions near NPC archetypes
- Player actions considered are:
- Proximity to NPC
- Scanning the NPC
- Opening weapon bay near NPC
- Firing weapons without hitting the NPC
- (Bad) Having a low reputation in an area the NPC archetype cares about increases the perceived threat from the actions above which could result in a hostile action
- Likewise, a high reputation in an area the NPC archetype cares about in a negative way also increases the perceived threat
- (Good) Having a high reputation in an area the NPC archetype cares about results in a decrease in perceived threat from player actions
- Likewise a low reputation in an area the NPC archetype cares about in a negative fashion also decreases the perceived threat from player actions
- Level of interest in the player, this will affect:
- Likelihood of NPC instigated interactions
- (Bad) Attacking
- (Bad) Scanning
- (Good) Trading if applicable
- (Good) Offering mission if applicable
NPC Archetypes- NPCs use an NPC archetype to determine its responses
- Each NPC archetype only considers a small number of reputations and ignore others
- Each reputation is considered as a positive or negative
- When considered as a positive, the higher the reputation the more friendly the result
- When considered as a negative, the higher the reputation, the more hostile the result
- When multiple reputations are considered, the average value is used
- As well as reputations, all NPC archetypes take into account the appearance of the player’s ship in terms of how well maintained it appears to be
- A high ship appearance gained from a well looked after ship – a low ship appearance is gained from damage/signs of wear and tear
- Some ship docks offer maintenance and repair services, allowing the player to increase their ship appearance at a cost
- Smuggler and pirate space docks offer a “aging” service to lower ship appearance without damaging the vessel
- Ship appearance is treated as a reputation and used by all archetypes to determine response
Example: Police Archetype
- Cares about Ship Appearance, Criminality, Smuggling, and Piracy reputations
- Acts on Ship Appearance before consulting other elements
- All considered as a negative for tone of response
- All considered as a negative for dialogue options
- All considered as a negative for level of threat
- All considered as a negative for level of interest
Example: Dubious Trader Archetype
- Cares about Ship Appearance, Trading, Smuggling and Piracy reputations
- Piracy considered as a negative for tone of response, trading and smuggling considered as a positive
- Piracy considered as a negative for dialogue options, trading and smuggling considered as a positive
- Piracy considered as a negative for level of threat
- Trading and smuggling considered as a positive for level of interest, ship appearance considered as a negative
- Events can be affected by reputation in the following ways:
- Chance of an event occurring
- Type of event
- Severity of event
Reputation Types
Trade
- Increased by: selling cargo at a profit
Decreased by: losing cargo (lost in space or sold at loss)
Smuggling
- Increased by: selling illegal cargo
Decreased by: being detected by authorities whilst carrying illegal cargo
Piracy
- Increased by: acquiring and using or selling booty obtained through a declaration of piracy (an explicit player option)
Decreased by: destroying a ship without first giving the opportunity to surrender by not declaring piracy.
Mercenary
- Increased by: successfully completing missions for factional navies
Decreased by: failing to complete missions for factional navies
Bounty Hunting
- Increased by: killing ships that have a bounty
Decays with time
Assassination
- Increased by: successfully completing assassination missions
Decreased by: failing to complete assassination missions
Exploration
- Increased by: selling data (new systems, routes, resources, events)
Decays with time
Espionage
- Increased by: performing data acquisition missions
Decreased by: failing data acquisition missions
Prospecting
- Increased by: selling resources mined/refined from space
Decays with time
Criminality
- Increased by: committing crimes
Decreased by: voluntarily paying fines, successfully completing atonement missions and events
Humanity
- Increased by: successfully performing humanitarian missions and events
Decreased by: successfully performing opportunistic missions and events that ran counter to a humanitarian effort
Factional Allegiance- A faction has both a reputation value and a Faction archetype, comprising of reputations it is interested in
- Faction archetypes comprise of:
- Federation, Empire and Alliance
- Corporations
- Systems (only exist once a player has done something in that system, based on system archetypes: agricultural etc)
- Organisations (exist entirely in the events system)
- A faction’s reputation value increases and decreases based on performing actions within their awareness (jurisdiction, NPC involvement) that the faction is interested in according to their archetype
- Faction reputation ranges from a negative to a positive value
- Factional reputations are considered by NPCs with allegiance to that faction
- The faction reputation value is applied as a modifier to all other reputation values when determining NPC response based on reputation
Becoming Elite - Ratings- The “Elite” rating is a combat rating based on the number of successful pirate kills by a pilot. To get this rating requires a great deal of dedication. Additional routes to an “Elite” rating and that coveted membership were introduced in 3290.
- Three new possible “Elite” rankings, in addition to the combat effectiveness rating (still based on number of kills using a player rating and ship formula) now cover new key areas:
- Wealth: profit over accumulated net worth (though both values are taken into account)
- Influence: based on contacts and successful negotiations or diplomacy.
- Knowledge: acquisition of data, particularly through exploration.
- Getting the Elite rating (in any of the four rankings) automatically gets you into the exclusive “Elite Federation of Pilots” – and being a member of the Elite federation confers many privileges. It is also possible for pilots without the “Elite” rating to gain admission to the EFP, but access to the organisation is extremely difficult: one must show extraordinary promise as a pilot to be admitted.
- The pilot ratings are displayed openly if the pilot selects their rating to be public
- If the player selects their rating to be private then it is only revealed via a scan
- These values never decrease
- Once admitted the pilot will be awarded a badge including the “Elite” logo, but with their current rank below. It is expected the majority of these will be “Elite: Dangerous” and “Elite: Deadly”. Those with an “Elite” rating get the original, unadorned badge.
- The different ratings have their own badge colour
- Once admitted to the EFP, elite missions/events become available to the event generator
- Successful resolution of elite missions/events will increase a hidden elite value
- In general, elite missions/events are not tied to any particular location or gameplay area, and are given context as having come through the EFP’s good offices (see the Pilot’s Federation document for more detail)
- There will be missions available from the EFP to non-members, and will be presented as tests that will help gain admission. Elite missions/events are more likely to be generated for pilots with suitable reputations in specific areas (mercenary, bounty hunting, assassination, smuggling)
- When the elite value is high enough a commander is invited to join the Elite Federation
- Elite level missions will be unlocked once the commander has entered the Elite federation to give them new content to experience
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Hyperspace:
Hyperspace Rules
Before the player can initiate a hyperspace jump they must set the final destination of the journey:
- The player selects a destination using a galactic map navigation interface
- The destination choice is hard-limited by several factors:
- The amount of fuel available determines the maximum distance of a trip
- Ships have an internal fuel capacity – additional fuel can be carried as cargo and transferred to the ship’s tank
- The basic jump range of the ship’s hyperdrive, determines the distance of each step of the trip
- Different hyperdrives have different capabilities
- Jump range
- Fuel efficiency
- Charge time
- Hyperdrives can be replaced with better models to increase capabilities
- Jump locations available to their star map determine the route of the trip
- The player may also have access to additional information that could inform their decisions:
- Activity heat maps for trade, piracy, conflicts etc.
- Hyperspace tracking/prediction devices to monitor local ship activity
- A hyperspace journey may comprise of a number of jumps depending on the distance travelled
- When inputting a journey, there may be multiple routes available to choose from
- Once a destination has been inputted the hyperdrive can be engaged
Once a journey has been set, the player can engage the hyperdrive:
- When the hyperdrive is engaged it begins to draw power from the ship’s power plant until it is fully charged:
- The hyperdrive cannot be initiated if its power draw would make the total power draw of the ship exceed the ship’s power plant capacity
- The player can disable power safeguards to enable the plant to run at over 100%, suffering fatigue damage in the process
- The player can turn off other powered systems to free up capacity for the hyperdrive
- The hyperdrive cannot be initiated when the ship is too close to a celestial body or large man-made structure; the ship must use in-system travel to reach a minimum jump distance
- To create a safe transit the hyperdrive must perform real-time changes based on ship’s power draw; changes to the ship’s total power draw (up or down) slow the charge rate by a percentage value for a duration
- The percentage value and duration is based on the quality of the hyperdrive
- The hyperdrive is sensitive to interference caused by incoming attacks; when an attack impacts on the hull or shields, the hyperdrive’s charge rate is slowed by a percentage value for a duration
- This effect cannot stack with itself
- The percentage value and duration is based on the quality of the hyperdrive
- Special exotic modules can be fitted to ships which when activated interfere with a targeted hyperdrive in range, slowing down charge rates by a percentage value whilst active
- This effect cannot stack with itself
- The percentage value and duration is based on the quality of the module versus the quality of the hyperdrive
- A hyperdrive module that has suffered damage may suffer a malfunction when initiated
- The charge rate may be impaired
- The percentage value and duration is based on the severity of the malfunction
- The hyperdrive may misfire, becoming inoperable for a short duration whilst it runs diagnostics, after which it can be initiated again
- The charging process may generate extra heat
- The hyperdrive may misjump
- Whilst charging the hyperdrive generates heat
- Once the hyperdrive is fully charged it activates:
- The appropriate amount of fuel is removed
- The drive discharges all power
- The ship enters hyperspace
- Time-based effects (charging shields etc.) continue as normal during a hyperspace transition
- A residual opening is left, which dissipates over a duration (up to minutes)
- After a delay (a few seconds) the ship exits hyperspace at the destination area
- If the journey consists of more than one jump the hyperdrive automatically begins to charge for the next jump
- The player can cancel/pause the journey at this point
- Certain types of hyperdrive can use fuel upgrades, and modules are available to allow normal hyperdrives to use them
- Fuel upgrades are carried as cargo units and can be committed to a hyperdrive jump whilst a route is being plotted
- Fuel upgrades increase the capabilities of the hyperdrive for a single jump
- Fuel upgrades produce dangerous waste as cargo units
These multiple jumps for a journey can go via dark systems, rogue bodies surrounded by lightless, dust-filled space, which will:
- Support all sorts of interesting encounters in their own right
- Become useful physical star map locations to discover
- Allow multiple routes to a destination
- Allow players to meet each other far from civilization
There are actions that players can take which directly interact with hyperspace jumps:
- Players that have become Allies (an explicit in game selection of a "friends" flag) can slave their ships together and jump as a single entity
- All ships involved must fully charge their hyperdrive before the jump is initiated
- If any of the ships suffers a misjump, all ships misjump together
- Each slave jumping ship must remain within a set range to at least one other slave ship
- If this distance link is broken, the jump is aborted for all slaved ships
- For each additional slaved ship the chance of a malfunction causing a misjump is lowered
- Ally groups enable the strongest match-making rules, prioritizing the integrity of the group over match ups with other players if it would result in splitting the allies group
- Using specialized ship modules a residual opening can be analyzed to determine the exit point of the hyperspace jump
- This analysis takes an amount of time
- It takes at least as long as the time window for tailgating (so you can’t do both)
- It must fully complete before the residual opening dissipates to give a result
- Analysis of a miss jump gives the original target as the result, with a probability of a misjump based on how quickly the analysis was started after the jump occured
- Ships can target a residual opening and attempt to “tailgate” after the ship that jumped
- The tailgater must be in close proximity to the residual opening and activate the hyperdrive
- The time window for tailgating is a fraction of residual opening’s total existence time
- There is a significant reduction in charge time for tailgating
- Fuel is expended for the jump as normal
- If the tailgater does not have enough fuel to reach the destination they misjump
- If the actual jump range is greater than the tailgater’s hyperdrive capability they misjump
- The closer the residual opening is to dissipating when the tailgate jump is initiated the greater the chance of a misjump
- The tailgater suffers an amount of hull/module damage during the jump based on how close the residual opening is to dissipating
- If successful, the tailgater appears very close to arrival point of the tailgated vessel
- Special ship modules exist that when active can give brief forewarning of ships about to arrive nearby at a location
- Specialised munitions can be obtained which disrupt residual openings, preventing tailgating and analysis
Misjumps have their own set of rules:
- Misjumps can result from a number of scenarios
- A hyperdrive malfunction can result in a misjump
- A galactic map malfunction can result in a misjump
- Activating the hyperdrive inside certain space phenomena can result in a misjump
- Attempting to tail-gate another ship’s jump can result in a misjump
- A misjump transports the ship to a new destination
- This distance between the new destination and the target destination is a random value based on the distance travelled (the longer the jump, the greater the misjump range potential)
- The misjump destination may be the outer limits of an inhabited system, or a dark system
- Such systems may not yet be in the player’s galactic map
- Very rarely, a misjump can result in turning up somewhere else
- After a misjump, the hyperdrive automatically runs a diagnostics test for a duration before it can be charged again
- There is no way to force a misjump other than directly sabotaging the hyperdrive module to guarantee a malfunction
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Background Simulation:
GOALS
The goals of the background simulation are as follows:
- Politics
- Create a dynamic, evolving galaxy
- Generate interesting events
- These can then be used to create missions
- Respond to player activities
- Player activities should have greater impact
- Respond to injected events
- Respond to generated events (chain effect)
- Economy
- Create a dynamic economy
- Populate markets (quantities and prices)
- Be relatively predictable (to aid player understanding)
- Generate interesting events
- These events can be used to create missions
- Respond to player activities
- Player activities should have greater impact
- Respond to injected events
- Respond to generated effects (chain effects)
The requirements for both the political and economic simulations are similar, potentially similar enough that they can be driven by the same system, which is something we will explore with this design
The simulation also provides data for NPC traffic generation, modified by local conditions.
From a technical perspective the following goals are also required:
- Low overhead for processing
- Low overhead for data storage
- Low data access requirements
WHAT THE SIMULATION IS NOT - It does not provide faction command; this will be done by designers by injecting events.
- Although the system should provide aggregated data to help guide these events.
- It does not provide a fine detailed simulation of human space in the galaxy.
- Note that it does provide the framework for a living galaxy as required in the goals.
WHAT DEFINES A SIMULATION ENTITY
A simulation entity is the lowest unit to which the simulation applies, this will typically mean a system or a world within a system. Note that an entity can support multiple markets.
A system can include multiple entities
New entities can be added or destroyed at any time via events.
All of the simulation needs to be instrumented, so that we can track such events and override them if appropriate.
An entity has a number of variables. Each of those variables defines what events the simulation creates.
- Government type
- The government type is one of a list of predetermined types. The types apply a range of modifiers to the base values for system. For example communism, or democracy.
- Government types provide inherent modifiers for issues like corruption and distribution of wealth..
- The list of government types is listed below:
- None (There is not a significant population to require governance)
- Anarchy
- Corporate State
- Religious Cult
- Independent Democracy
- Federal Democracy (ie Federal State)
- Theocratic Dictatorship
- Autocratic Dictatorship
- Communist Dictatorship
- Feudal
- Imperial Colony
- Imperial Protectorate
- State
- The entity’s state applies special modifiers, depending on the state.
- Changes in state are created via events – usually injected events.
- An entity’s state will sometimes modify events and associated missions that are generated.
- This needs to be data-driven and the list below is non-exhaustive
- We may want the extreme category to be only triggered by human moderation
- A list of states and their effects are shown below (the magnitude of the effects can be varied on a case by case basis):
- Peace – this is the default state, there are no modifiers.
- Economy (Positive) – there has been an upsurge in the economy
- Has a positive effect on Standard of Living, Production and Wealth
- Economy (Negative) – there is a downturn in the economy
- Has a negative effect on Production, Standard of Living and Wealth
- Unrest – this state indicates internal conflict with no other named entity involvement
- Has a negative effect on Standard of Living, Security and Wealth
- Civil war – this state indicates internal civil war without an external named entity (note that civil war with named entities is simply a war)
- Has a negative effect on Standard of Living, Security and Wealth
- Development level is frozen while in civil war.
- Threat of War – Entities prepare for a possible conflict with other entities
- Markets require weapons and medical items even if not normally stocked
- War – the entity is at war with another entity
- Has a negative effect on Standard of Living, Security and Wealth
- Markets require weapons and medical items even if not normally stocked
- War (Losing) – Entity is losing a war against another entity
- Has a negative effect on Standard of Living, Security, Population, Development Level and Wealth
- Markets require weapons and medical items even if not normally stocked
- War (Winning) – The entity is winning a war against another entity.
- Has a negative effect on Security and Wealth
- Markets require weapons and medical items even if not normally stocked
- Famine – The entity is not able to support its own population through normal means – typically only affects agricultural worlds, although other worlds that are not importing enough food can slip into this state
- All food production is removed
- Market requirements for food increased
- Has a negative effect on Standard of Living, Wealth and Population
- Drought – The entity is not able to support its own population through normal means – typically only affects desert worlds, although other worlds that are not importing enough food can slip into this state
- All water production is removed
- Market requirements for water increased
- Has a negative effect on Standard of Living, Wealth and Population
- Outbreak (Minor) – A minor pandemic has broken out in the entity’s environment.
- Markets cannot export food or medical items (except machinery if applicable)
- Has a negative influence on Standard of Living and Wealth.
- Outbreak (Major) – major and lethal pandemic breaks out in the entity’s location.
- Markets cannot export food or medical items (except machinery if applicable)
- Markets demand for medical items increased
- Has a negative influence on Standard of Living, Population and Wealth.
- Development level is frozen
- Entity will be quarantined
- Outbreak (Apocalyptic) – extremely lethal and contagious disease widespread in entity’s location.
- Markets cannot export anything
- Markets demand for medical items increased
- Has a negative influence on Standard of Living, Population, Development Level and Wealth.
- Development level is frozen
- Weather (Severe) – Severe weather (includes earthquakes, stellar flare events and other natural disasters)
- Has a negative influence on Standard of Living and Wealth.
- Elections – The entity is in the process of elections.
- Special events – these are determined on a case by case basis, for example space weather)
- Economy type
- The economy type is a broad indication of the primary income generation for the system. This usually reflects what the main exports are. They also determine what items are generally available in the markets.
- Agricultural
- Industrial (Civilian)
- Industrial (Military)
- Government
- Mineral
- Service
- Tourist
- Criminal
- Population
- The population size of a planet is used to measure the effects of changes or player activities. It is also used to modify the availability of items in associated markets.
- Population size can be affected by events.
- Development Level
- This a broad indicator for how advanced the colony is. It provides modifiers for the various variables of the entity. In a broad sense it is an indicator of how well the entity can absorb change, shortfalls and so forth. It also represents the entities ability to support itself through contact via other entities.
- Standard of Living (SOL)
- The standard of living variable indicates how good life is for the average member of the entity’s population. A high standard of living requires adequate essentials (such as food) as well as luxury items. This will also affect the availability (and demand) for such items in the markets.
- A low SOL indicates a poor standard of living for the population, in situations with low stocks of essentials like food this indicates an event like a famine.
- Manipulation of the markets either directly through trade or indirectly by blockade will change the SOL appropriately.
- Security
- The security value represents the security situation for the entity. The higher the value, the more secure the population feels and vice versa.
- The security value can be modified by direct player action, acts of piracy will lower the security while bounty hunting will increase it.
- Wealth
- The wealth variable indicates the accumulated wealth of the entity. The entity can use its wealth to generate events to boost its other values and as such acts as a cushion for negative changes. It also indicates the strength of the economy and feeds into prices.
- Note the while SOL and wealth are connected, they are not the same thing.
- Players can influence wealth in a number of ways, generous trading will increase wealth, while reducing profit margins for the locals will reduce wealth. Destroying entity assets will impact on wealth, and influencing security and SOL will also have a knock on effect.
BI-MODAL SIMULATION TICK
The simulation runs in two distinct modes (although the evaluation of each mode generates the same events). The first is based on player activities, once an activity type reaches a threshold for the entity, the impact is applied and any events generated
As well as player effects we also want periodic change driven by the simulation itself.
PLAYER ACTIVITY THRESHOLDS
Player activities within the associated volume for the entity are tallied into various influences. These influences have a direct effect on the entity’s stats. The tracked activities are as follows:
- Development level
- Negative impact
- Failed development missions
- Positive impact
- Completed development missions
- Standard of Living
- Negative impact
- Failed standard of living missions
- Positive impact
- Completed standard of living missions
- Completed trades that add to the entity’s essential goods
- Security
- Negative impact
- Piracy
- Murder
- Failed security missions
- Positive impact
- Bounties collected
- Completed security missions
- Wealth
- Negative impact
- Issuing missions
- Losses made on trade by entity
- Positive impact
Thresholds for the activities are set depending on the entity’s population, development level and modifiers from government types as applicable. A count for each activity is maintained; note that it is the net between positive and negative actions that is used to determine any change. Missions are weighted more heavily in the count than general actions. Once the net effect reaches the threshold value then an event is generated. The activity counts are reset and the threshold value recalculated based on the new statistics if needed.
Note that wealth is not a triggered threshold, but is included as it does change depending on circumstances and is required for generating remedial missions.
GENERATED EVENTS
When a threshold has been triggered then the entity creates an event, this is typically a mission designed to address the problem, although this will cost the entity some of its wealth. If the entity has no wealth then an event cannot be created, however a message will be generated for the monitoring developers (see intervention triggers).
Periodic change can also create events.
The government type determines whether an event should be generated for the triggered threshold.
If the government type allows it then an event (and associated mission) is generated. These will follow the same pattern as the activity thresholds list, so for example a bounty hunter mission will be generated if the security variable is reduced.
PERIODIC CHANGE
The periodic development of entities is handled by a periodic scan of each entity. The entity’s variables are analysed and adjustments made. If any changes change a value across a given minimum then an event is created in the same way as if an activity threshold was crossed.
Currently the frequency will be set at a daily (real time) tick. However this may require altering once in place.
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Persistent NPC's:
GOALS- Provide consistent characters for player’s to interact with
- Provide a sense of history for the galaxy
- Provide the opportunity for casual encounters to become longer running threads
CHARACTER TIERS
Character tiers are used to identify the characters, their significance and permanence in the game world.
TIER 1 CHARACTERS
Tier 1 characters are major characters within the game world, for example Planetary Presidents, Major Corporation CEO’s and top ranking crime bosses. Typically the player will interact with tier 2 characters associated with the tier 1 character rather than directly with the tier 1 character.
There is a global list of tier 1 characters.
They are identified by the following characteristics:
- Players do not interact with these characters directly.
- The character is common to all online players.
- The character is created via an in-game invent – typically manually.
- The character can only be killed by an in-game event.
- A tier 2 character can be promoted to tier 1, but only by an event.
TIER 1 CHARACTER EXAMPLES- Faction leaders
- Station leaders
- Regional persons of note
- Engineering/Scientific specialists (enhanced weapons and modules)
- Can provide missions, but only on rare occasions, for example:
- Very high faction rating
- Very high player rank
TIER 2 CHARACTERS
Tier 2 characters are characters that persist for players, but can be interacted with directly. There is a per player list of tier 2 characters and they are identified by the following characteristics:
- Players can interact with the character directly.
- Character can be killed by players or by events.
- Character can be created via an event, by the game or promoted from tier 3.
- Character can be promoted from tier 2 by being known to a large number of players.
- Characters can issue missions.
TIER 2 CHARACTER EXAMPLES- Faction leader underlings that the player deals directly with
- Mission targets
- Mission providers
- Pilots of NPC vessels that the player has previously interacted with
- Player contacts
TIER 3 CHARACTERS
Tier 3 characters are transient characters that are created when traffic is generated, these are typically pilots for NPC ships. Tier 3 characters are randomly generated from a global pool as needed.
If the player interacts with a tier 3 character then the character may be promoted to a tier 2 so they can be encountered again. They may also shift back down to tier 3, if the interact is minor, as their importance will diminish over time.
They are identified by the following characteristics:
- They are not persistent
- They can be promoted to tier 2 (and thus become persistent)
- They are randomly created according to the required archetype
TIER 3 CHARACTER EXAMPLES- Pilots for generated traffic
- Passengers
NEWSFEEDS
Characters (particularly tier 1 types) can be used as named people in news items.
REQUIRED DATA
Each persistent character has two sets of data:
- Core information
- Character log
CORE INFORMATION
The core information defines the character and how they interact with the world and the players. The required data includes:
- Name
- Archetype – this is used to manage events the character is attached to. It also defines what missions or behaviour the character has.
- Location – this is where the character is currently based.
CHARACTER LOG
Like players the character’s (tiers 1 and 2) generate an event log to track their history. There will be a separate design discussion on the player’s log, but for the characters the following information needs to be recorded for each entry:
- Timestamp
- Character/Player
- Event type
- Other parties
The NPC’s log of player interactions will work on a system of event significance, the more significant the interaction, the more likely the character is to remember it. An entry of a player destroying an NPC’s ship will last far longer than a quick player communication. Each entry with lose significance over time, allowing an NPC to “forget” interactions, and eventually returning them to a lower tier.
The propagation of this data across players will need to be handled by the server, making this data shareable across multiple instances of the game. Igor has more information on the technical aspects of this system.
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"I drink your milkshake!" Mining in Elite: Dangerous:
Mining Process
We’re initially looking at three types of resources that can be mined:
- Mineral bodies
- Frozen liquid bodies
- Gaseous/dust clouds
Mining is split into three distinct stages:
- Detection – there are two stages to detection:
- Initial find – commanders must utilise scanning systems to locate a resource point such as an asteroid field, dust or gas cloud within a system
- This initial detection can involve the use of “far scanning”: micro drones or extended sensor scans that can over time allow initial detection in neighbouring systems
- Once a find has been successfully located the commander can attempt to use further scans to determine the most efficient extraction points
- Commanders can skip this step and attempt to extract resources in effect “blind”
- Commanders can obtain data elements for their galactic map at a system level which contain resource information as if they had scanned it themselves
- Information from detailed scans can reveal precise resource types as well as provide feedback to improve the moment to moment harvesting
- Resources can range in size from tiny to huge:
- In the case of mineral and frozen bodies this is based on a percentage chance of each body harbouring resources
- In the case of gas/dust clouds it is described by the size and density of the cloud
- Some resources are visually identifiable, others are not (they could potentially be extracted without detection but it would be pot luck)
- Extraction – the method of extraction depends upon the resource type but importantly, all methods of extraction require moment to moment gameplay that rewards skilful and attentive players
- Mineral and frozen liquid bodies can be attacked with mining lasers which “break off” flecks of resource
- Depending on the accuracy of these attacks (based on data acquired through scanning) the flecks will:
- Take longer to break off
- Be more or less valuable
- Poor accuracy can reduce the overall amount of resource obtained
- Different resources can require specialised mining laser types to improve yield/allow extraction
- Incorrect laser types can trigger potentially dangerous reactions as well as decrease yield
- Flecks can be collected, at which point they become canisters of the appropriate resource
- Gas/dust clouds must be flown through with an appropriate scoop
- Depending on the accuracy of the flight path the yield may be greater or less
- The cloud is dispersed over time as the commander flies through it
- Some gas/dust clouds require specific types and grades of scoop
- Some gas/dust clouds may suffer reactions based on vessel temperature and speed of travel
- Incorrect management of speed and temperature can cause potentially dangerous reactions as well as decrease yield
- For every X amount of a resource scooped an appropriate canister is created in the hold
- In all cases, there are other potential effects from harvesting:
- Contamination - this can occur during the extraction process, by collecting and storing the resource or simply by being within the vicinity
- Specialised scanners and ship monitoring systems can alert the commander to contamination
- Void creatures - space contains a number of base intelligence critters that can be disturbed whilst detecting and extracting resources
- Most are hostile, a few can become valuable resources themselves
- Drones - commanders may equip and employ drones to collect solid resources in the same way that they can collect floating canisters (this is an alternative method of collection for vessels without an operational cargo scoop
- Auto miners - potentially not for release one: these are large deployed devices that can mine a location over time, allowing the player to collect them at a later date
- They cannot be found by other human commanders unless the commander is also present at the location, though on return commanders may find that they have suffered malfunctions or been contaminated
- More expensive auto miners are more resilient to adverse effects and can offer greater yields
Some resources may be subject to an NPC claim:
- Such claims are normally broadcast via beacons placed at the resource location
- The beacons transmit details of the claim
- Some beacons can detect extraction and transmit alerts to the claim’s owner
- Some beacons are mobile
- Sometimes this functionality is carried out by a vessel (which may or may not be a mining vessel)
- Claims create additional gameplay potential by weaving events and missions into the mining process
Issues
So, a bit to chew over. And here’s a few other things to add to the mix:
- You can see that our mining process is fairly involved - but do you think it’s interesting enough? What are your suggestions for making it better?
- Are we missing some obvious/totally awesome methods of mining?
- Could claims be used by players? We almost certainly want this long term, but how might it work?
- Refining and crafting? We actually have a rudimentary system for this in the game, but we suspect it is a massive can of worms on several levels? We’d like to get your opinions on this one!
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Exploring in Elite Dangerous:
In Elite: Dangerous explorers are players who travel out into undiscovered areas of the galaxy, hoping to find previously undiscovered systems and locations. Explorers scan and record data wherever they go, and can sell that data on to various interested authorities. Explorers can also sell on data they have discovered to other players, allowing them to sell the co-ordinates of a valuable find to the highest bidder, or keep their discoveries to exploit for themselves.
Explorer players must discover different points of interest using different methods
- Explorer players’ main method of making money is through selling details of points of interest they discover
- Points of interest players can discover include:
- Star Systems
- Dark Systems (systems without a star, but other features)
- Stars
- Planets
- Asteroids, comets
- Moons
- Structures
- Other Phenomena
- These Discovered locations may include:
- Secret Locations
- Resources
- Events/Missions (time limited and permenant)
- Beauty spots (usually attached to other entities)
- Messages/Beacons
- Players explore to build up the details on their galaxy map
- When starting a new commander the player will have some details on their galaxy map
- This will allow the player to travel to any locations they have map data to, without having to explore
- Players can buy map data from authorities to expand their ships computers library of maps
- New map data will allow the player to travel to new locations without needing to explore
- Map data that is bought from authorities is not to the highest level of detail and can be improved with player gathered data
- Map data includes hyperspace routes to systems and major points of interest in that system
- Players can use scanning equipment and probes to detect systems and record new hyperspace routes
- Scanners are used to detect any nearby systems that are within the players jump range
- Scanners will give the player a vague indication of the direction of a system
- High end scanners can give the player a better details of the system they have detected (is it a star, an asteroid field etc.)
- Players can then launch hyperspace probes that will give the player more information on the part of space they are looking at
- Probes will give the player heat-map style data to help guide the player to the correct co-ordinates for a jump
- Different probe ammo can provide different information, or react based on objects in the target system
- Using the data they have gathered the player must align their ship as best they can with the target system and activate the hyperdrive to jump to the system
- The player’s ship records data of any successful jumps the player makes
- The pilots federation will always pay players for the first successful jump they make using the exploration method (If the player bought the map data for the jump they cannot sell the data), even if the player is not the first person ever to make the jump (the pilots federation use the data to improve their telemetry and keep maps up to date)
- If the player is the first person to ever make the journey they receive a bonus for discovering the hyperspace route
- The closer the player lines up their jump to the target system, the higher quality the data the players ship will gather on the jump. Higher quality data is worth more money when sold to authorities
- If a player’s jump is not accurate enough they may suffer a miss jump
- Longer distance jumps require a higher level of accuracy
- A systems contents may also affect how accurate a players jump must be to avoid mis-jumping
- Players use scanners to detect points of interest within systems
- The player’s scanners detect various points of interest around the player
- It takes time for players scanners to detect points of interest
- Player’s proximity to a point of interest can affect the time it takes to detect
- Players ship facing can affect the time it takes to detect a point of interest (e.g. pointing my ship at a undiscovered point of interest will allow me to scan it faster)
- Different types of points of interest can require different player actions to detect
- For example to detect a mineral rich formation of asteroids the player must launch probes around an asteroid field
- The probes provide a cross section from their perspective of the asteroid field they’re launched at
- Each additional probe the player uses provides more details on the target asteroid field
- The player uses their scanner to view the data from the probes, and must tag the areas with the highest concentration of minerals in the field
- Once this process is complete the point of interest is completed
- The quality of the players scan of the area affects the value of the data
- The quality of the player’s scan can affect the amount and type of materials found in the asteroids
Players can sell information they have gathered to other players as well as authorities. This is done through a trade interface similar to the trade goods trading interface. Players can sell hyperspace routes from their location to any single system they have explored to. The purchasing player then offers a price (this can be 0 if it is a gift), and if both players are satisfied they agree to the trade. Players can also trade in system data including locations of points of interest using the same method.
I’d like to gauge player interest in a community driven photography contest, which would be another way of explorers earning money.
- Players can take photographs (essentially screenshots) from their view ports (with and without cockpit and GUI etc)
- Player photographs can be submitted to a regular photography contest
- Players can only submit one photograph each
- Players can vote on a selection of the best photographs
- The player(s) who get the most votes wins the competition
- The winner gets a (in game) cash prize (plus prizes for 2nd 3rd most weird etc.)
- The photograph (and other user submissions) will be used in appropriate places in the game (billboards, news papers, etc.)
Players who decide to go exploring are jumping into the unknown, and without high end kit, often with little to no knowledge of the dangers they are jumping in to. Alongside the risk of encountering hostility when jumping to an unknown system, explorers scanners attract a lot of attention, generating lots of heat. Explorer ships will need to be prepared to face hostile activity when exploring, and players need to be ready to fight for their claims or run for their lives.
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"We have clearance, Clarence" "Roger, Roger" Comms in Elite: Dangerous:
Summary- Ships in the Elite Dangerous galaxy communicate through text “comms” messages.
- These can be quick messages granting permission to dock, or long exchanges debating a mission or deal.
- There will be two types of communication interaction in the game: player to player and player to NPC.
Player to Player
- Players can lock onto and hail any other player’s ship that is not ignoring them
- They have three ways of communicating:
- They can choose to type messages to each other freely
- Voice chat
- Preconfigured messages
- These will cover all common interactions between players like asking for assistance, offering trade and declaring piracy
- These will allow players to carry out deals and agreements quickly and easily by picking presets
- New preset options will arise from having higher reputation values in certain areas
Player to NPC
- Talking to NPC would be handled entirely by the preset messages system.
- Conversations happen either when the player hails an NPC and they respond and vice versa
- Players will choose from a number of options and the NPC will automatically respond, they will take reputation into account when deciding their response.
- Reputations can also affect the general tone of interaction with a particular type of NPC, a trader being hostile to a pirate for example.
- New conversation options can become open to the player as their reputation values change, this could include options to bluff, bribe and haggle.
- Choices made in these interactions will have real consequences for gameplay, each choice could have a different outcome in terms of gameplay.
Issues
Broadcasting
- Do we need to support the ability to broadcast/communicate to a number of other players simultaneously? We want to avoid the text based chat channels spamming that most other games have, are there any ways you guys can think of by which players can communicate without text? So far we’ve come up with distress beacons and posting of shared waypoints, both visual and both allow players to broadcast gameplay related information without the need for text. Any ideas on this welcome!
Abusive Language- We need to work out whether it is necessary/worthwhile to have some sort abusive language filter for text messages sent to other player. (This would be on the receiver’s end and would be toggleable in the options menu)
- Do players need to grant permission before voice chat is transmitted?
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ELITE: DANGEROUS - FUEL
MODULE
Every ship has a module within it for handling fuel storage and use across the ships systems colloquially called the
Fuel Tank. The module itself has the following properties:
- A Main Tank that can store a specific amount of fuel in an appropriate unit (e.g. tons)
- This defines the operating time and/or range for a space ship before refueling is necessary
- An Active Fuel Reservoir from which current ship operation draws from
- Always a standard size in the same unit as the main storage tank (e.g. 1 ton)
NORMAL SHIP OPERATION- During normal ship operation a small amount of fuel is used continuously based on the demands of the power plant
- This amount of fuel is always taken from the Active Fuel Reservoir (AFR)
- The higher the power draw the faster the fuel is used up
- A single unit of fuel (e.g. 1 ton) will last a significant amount of time (e.g. an hour) under normal operating parameters (e.g. 75% of full power)
- Once the AFR is drained, fuel is diverted from the Main Tank to refill it completely (so long as there is fuel remaining within it)
- So a AFR with capacity of 1 ton will drain 1 ton of fuel from the Main Tank exactly (ensuring the Main Tank is in whole units at all times)
- If the penultimate ton of fuel is accessed from the main tank to put into the AFR a warning is given to the player making them aware that they only have a single ton left in their main tank for hyperspace jumping with (in addition to the penultimate ton that has just been put into the AFR)
- If the last ton of fuel is accessed from the main tank to put into the AFR a final warning is given to the player indicated they will no longer be able to perform a hyperspace jump
- If the AFR is drained along with the Main Tank the ship turns all modules except Life Support off
- The player can’t manually turn anything else back on anymore
- Life support is operating on emergency battery power and can only maintain operation for a limited time (e.g. 15 minutes)
- After the battery power has gone the ship fully shuts down and the player will asphyxiate and die if they remain on board (in non-ironman mode they would automatically launch the escape pod at this point)
SUPERCRUISE- Supercruise drains fuel from the AFR at an accelerated rate (e.g. changing the operating time from hours to minutes)
- Otherwise it’s much like normal ship operation
- So long as fuel can be drained from the Main Tank to refill the AFR supercruise can be maintained
- If no fuel remains in the AFR or Main Tank then supercruise will abort and the player will be unable to use it anymore
HYPERSPACE- To hyperspace travel the player uses fuel from the Main Tank directly in whole units
- Each whole unit of fuel equates to a jump up to one light year in distance
- A jump of less than whole number of light years will still consume whole units of fuel (e.g. a jump of 1.5 light years will consume 2 whole units of fuel)
- If the Main Tank is empty the player will be unable to hyperspace jump (even if they have fuel in the AFR)
REFUELING- Players can refuel their ship at stations and refueling outposts
- Fuel is always bought in whole units
- The Main Tank can be refilled separately to the AFR
- Despite the AFR being able to have less than a whole unit of fuel within it, it is always completely refilled when refueled and the cost is always in whole units of fuel
- Players can refuel their ship by scooping fuel directly from stellar bodies (stars, gas giants, nebulae)
- The ship must be fitted with a fuel scoop
- The player uses the fuel scoop to refill their AFR based on how successful they’re doing
- Rates of refilling is based on player skill and the stellar body in question
- Once the AFR is 100% filled whilst scooping the entire amount of fuel within it is put into the Main Tank so long as there is room
- Further scooping will again start to refill the now empty AFR
- If no room is available in the Main Tank scooping must stop
- Players can acquire fuel via a fuel transfer with another docked ship
- Players can utilize a distress beacon to signal for any nearby ships to help with refueling
- The beacon isn’t a guarantee and could in theory bring the player more trouble than they’re currently in with their fuel concerns (but could be the only hope left of rescue)
- Activating the beacon is a onetime only device that will be renewed upon the next station visit (conveniently prevents misuse and ensures the player is incentivized to dock after such an attempt if the beacon was successful)
- Regardless of the method used to contact or approach another ship they must first be docked with the other ship successfully
- The ship can initiate a fuel transfer with the other docked ship through mutual agreement
- This can be gifted or can be made a part of a trade depending on the interface/comms channels used to initiate the transfer
- Fuel is transferred in whole units from one ships Main Tank directly into the other ships Main Tank
- There is no way to transfer fuel from the AFR of one ship to another
- Once the fuel transfer is complete an empty AFR will automatically refill as per usual with the newly acquired fuel from the Main Tank
TYPES OF FUEL
To add variety and player choice to the fuel mechanic different types of fuel are available to be purchased/scooped/acquired. The following rules apply to different fuel types:
- The default fuel sets the benchmark on which other types of fuel operate; it is considered standard
- Other fuels are either of a lower or higher quality than the standard fuel
- Lower quality fuel has a penalizing modifier to consumption rates, i.e. if standard fuel will keep a particular power plant running at 75% power for 1 hour, a lower quality fuel with a modifier of +20% consumption would only last 50 minutes
- Lower quality fuel also has a penalizing distance modifier for hyperspace jumps, i.e. if standard fuel gives a 1 light year jump per unit fuel, a lower quality fuel with a modifier of -50% distance would only jump ½ light year per unit fuel instead
- Higher quality fuel has a beneficial consumption modifier, i.e. a ship will run for longer on it compared to standard fuel
- Higher quality fuels also have a beneficial distance modifier, i.e. each unit fuel used in a jump will go further than 1 light year
- Regardless of quality certain types of fuel may have additional effects or byproducts that need to be dealt with (e.g. irradiated waste that must be stored in empty cargo canisters or risk contaminating the ship and its crew)
- The entire Fuel Tank module can only operate on a single quality level type of fuel
- The player can acquire fuel of a different quality level to that already in their system but conveniently all fuel is compatible with one another albeit only as efficiently as the lowest quality in the system (i.e. the entire Fuel Tank takes on the quality of the lowest quality fuel within the system)
- E.g. scooping any fuel higher in quality to that which you have will maintain your fuels current efficiency. Scooping fuel of lower quality than that in the system will lower the quality of everything to the same level as that scooped
MODIFIERS
As described above fuel quality can determine a number of modifiers that affect the performance and/or efficiency of the ship. However these modifiers can be provided by other systems such as the ship hull, drives and hyperspace module. The modifiers are formally described below:
- Consumption Rate - a percentage modifier for altering the base rate of consumption of a fuel during normal use
- Jump distance - a percentage modifier for altering the base jump distance of 1 ly per ton during hyperspace travel
- The modifiers are applied individually to the base values as determined by the fuel quality before being applied (e.g. two sources of -50% jump distance will actually only result in a 75% reduction overall in distance rather than 100%)
- E.g. explorer class ships hulls typically have beneficial modifiers to jump distance and consumption rates opposed to military grade hulls that require more fuel consumption in general to civilian ships
FUEL TANK MALFUNCTIONS
The Fuel Tank is like any other module in the ship (although it’s usually built into the superstructure and is thus typically not upgradable) in that it can suffer damage and malfunctions. These malfunctions are listed below:
- Minor malfunctions:
- Faulty fuel line - temporarily starves the power plant of fuel thus reducing available power gradually until no power is available (modules turn off in priority order) until the fault fixes itself (variable time limit for the malfunction)
- AFR fuel leak - temporarily drains more fuel from the AFR than normal as fuel is effectively leaking from the reservoir until resealed automatically (variable time limit for the malfunction)
- AFR refill fault - temporarily stops the refill process when the AFR is empty resulting in starving the system as in a faulty fuel line malfunction above but can only happen when refilling the AFR (variable time limit to the malfunction)
- Major malfunctions:
- Main Tank leak - temporarily drains fuel from the main tank over a long period of time before automatically resealing. Whilst draining the Main Tank is considered to have one less whole unit of fuel as what it once had as that unit of fuel is slowly drains away. If that unit of fuel completely drains another whole unit is sacrificed to the malfunction. Once the malfunction is over any partial units of fuel left in the Main Tank will automatically top up the AFR if possible and any further leftovers are lost
- Main Tank fire - the Main Tank ruptures and ignites in a dangerous inferno completely destroying all units of fuel in the Main Tank (AFR and Reserve Tanks are unaffected). The fire is a separate ship wide malfunction described in another document and this malfunction is really just augmenting it by also having all the fuel in the Main Tank lost to the fire
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"Hasta la vista, baby" Ship Damage in Elite Dangerous:
Ship Health
- Every ship has a health value representing its hull integrity
- If a ship receives more damage to its hull than its hull integrity health value it breaks apart and is destroyed
- Larger ships have their hull integrity value split across several hull sections
- Once a section receives more damage than its total, further damage to it is reduced and spread to adjacent sections
- All ship modules have a health value representing their state of repair
- As modules receive damage they increase the probability of malfunctions occurring
- When a module’s health is reduced to zero it is disabled and cannot be used until repaired at an appropriate dock
- Some modules cause chain reaction damage on nearby modules when they are disabled
- Some modules cause catastrophic failure when disabled, destroying the ship in a fiery nova (the power plant, some exotic modules)
- The commander’s escape system (in normal mode) automatically engages when there is no possibility of ship recovery (power plant detonation, ship and personal life support failure)
Damage
- There are two types of damage: direct damage and fatigue
- Direct damage occurs as the result of weapon attacks
- Fatigue occurs as the result of hazardous environments, ranging from running reactors past safety limits to damaging environments both inside and outside the ship
- Both types of damage affect the ship’s hull or modules health values
- There is one significant different between the two types of damage: only direct damage can trigger malfunctions in modules
- Normally, direct damage from weapons must break a shield before it can attack the hull
- Both the hull and shields are able to soak an amount of damage before it is applied
- The hull receives an amount of damage that hits it based on its current health (the less damaged the hull is, the more of the incoming damage is applied to it rather than penetrating)
- Any remaining damage penetrates through and hits a module in the vicinity of the hull strike
- If there are no modules in the vicinity of the hull strike, this penetrating damage is wasted
- Some weapons are penetrators, reducing the amount of damage that the hull receives and pushing more through to modules
- Targeting systems dramatically increase the likelihood of targeted modules receiving penetrating damage
Maintenance
- Both ship hull and modules can be repaired at most docks for appropriate fees
- Repair modules can be fitted in a ship and used to repair modules flagged by the commander in the systems management interface
- Repair modules are loaded with a finite resource, which can be restocked at most docks
- Repair modules cannot repair hull integrity
- Repair drones can be stored in cargo racks and deployed to repair hull damage to a targeted ship within range (including the commander's ship)
- Repair drones have charges which can be restocked at most docks
Malfunctions
- As a module’s health is reduced there is an increasing chance that it will suffer a temporary malfunction based off the following triggers
- The module suffers direct damage
- The module is powered up
- The module is activated
- Malfunctions are temporary debilitating effects
- The lower the module health the greater the potential severity of malfunction
- Malfunctions are module specific (e.g. an auto cannon might suffer an ammo feed jam, a sensor unit might display corrupted data, an engine might generate excessive heat
- Malfunctions can last for a few seconds to several minutes, based on the effect
- Malfunctions always generate visual/audio feedback so that it is clear abnormal behaviours are active
- Some malfunctions can be ended early by specific action that commanders can learn (such as switching a module off and back on, refraining from module activation, continuous fire etc.)
- Some malfunctions can cause additional fatigue or direct damage to other modules
- A manager oversees malfunctions and weights their occurrences to smooth the pacing of multiple malfunctions (reducing the likelihood of triggering too many malfunctions from minor damage)
- Most malfunctions can be ended early by repair
- Some weapons are specifically designed to increase the chance of malfunction when they deal damage directly to modules
This then, is what we are currently heading towards. Again, the watchwords for us are interesting events and drama, along with clear meaningful choices. It should be fairly clear that destroying a ship is not going to be a single shot affair – taking into account shields, hull and modules there’s a fair bit of work to be done (as part of this philosophy you can expect to see NPC aggressors sometimes deciding to break off – victory does not necessarily require a grind until total annihilation). As for malfunctions, well, we like them because:
- They can be varied and offer interesting challenges to the commander
- Importantly, a commander can learn what they are and often mitigate their effects or work round them (even choosing different modules in an attempt to control what malfunctions can occur)
- They always trigger based on a legible event
- They are debilitating, keeping the advantage to the better combatant
- Because of their transitory and semi-random nature they keep open the potential for a commander to fight back right to the end
- They are easy for us, as developers to tweak, add and remove
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"Give me a ping, Vasili." Updated Sensors and Targeting in Elite: Dangerous:
SENSOR MECHANICS
- Default Sensors for all ships
- Upon arrival to a new location a picture of potential contacts around the player based on their distance and signature appears (see Signature and Sensors below)
- More detailed sensors are located in a forward facing arc that have better range capabilities thus resolving contacts where the default all-around sensors cannot (usually a multiplier to the default sensor range)
- In addition to the above false positives are put into the mix depending on the quality of the sensors and/or any environmental factors (see Signature and Sensors below)
- To resolve a contact the distance between the ship and the contact needs to be reduced and/or the signature of the contact needs to increase (see Signature and Sensors below)
- A low signature contact won’t resolve until it’s quite close where as a high signature contact can be resolved from quite a long way away
- Signature can be based on several factors including heat and engine emissions
- Only contacts that have been validated can be targeted by the targeting computer so that weapons can provide assistance/gimballing/lock-on etc.
- Advanced Passive Sensors
- These are deployable sensors that dramatically improve the ship’s forward facing detection abilities by significantly increasing the range at which a specific signature value can resolve a contact
- As they are deployable they take up a valuable hard point on the ship
- Passive sensors like these don’t affect the ship’s current signature to other ships sensors other than the potential heat increase through power used
- Advanced Active Sensors
- These are deployable sensors that actively search for contacts using strong EM pulses and other forms of detection that dramatically increase the ship’s own signature as a result
- They are extremely powerful in that potential contacts within their sensor range can be validated instantly at the cost of also lighting the ship up to everyone else
- They come in both forward facing only and in fully spherical configurations
- Forward facing typically operate to much larger ranges and are quicker than the all around types
- Activating an active sensor will “ping” the area and instantly reveal any potential contacts that the sensor is able to detect
- The further away a contact is the less likely it will be able to be detected
- After activating a contact will be told they have been “pinged” and can then look out for possible new sensor contacts that have just resolved to find the likely suspect
SIGNATURE AND SENSORS- Sensors are tuned to be able to fully resolve a contact at a specific distance providing the signature is equal to 1
- For example a sensor with range 8000m will be able to fully resolve a contact at 8000m with a signature of 1
- If the contact was instead at 4000m away then it would only require a signature of 0.25 to be resolved
- Likewise a contact at 16000m away would require a signature of 4 to get resolved
- The environment can affect the stats of the sensors such that ranges are reduced, default signature values increase or lowered, arcs widened etc.
- Additionally special equipment could be used to affect other players scanners such that effective ranges or signatures are reduced when they being scanned
- If the contact is unresolved because their signature isn’t high enough for the range they’re at to be detected instead a scalable VFX is applied on the sensor UI to indicate the possibility of a contact
- The close the contact is to being resolved the more focussed and consistent the VFX is so the player can try to get closer or turn to point their more powerful frontal sensors at them to finally resolve the contact
- Distant and low signature contacts might have zero VFX applied or barely show up as a sensor glitch at all
- False positives are mixed into this to add a layer of uncertainty to the above
TARGETING MECHANICS- Once a ship has been resolved on the sensors the player can target them to provide a more detailed readout on the type and status of the ship
- Targeted ships are highlighted on the sensors as well as on the HUD
- Detailed readouts of the ship are displayed in a dedicated panel on the cockpit whilst the ship is targeted
- By having a ship targeted several other mechanics can come into play based on the equipment installed and/or deployed on the player’s ship:
- Missile lock (described below)
- Subsystem scanning (described below)
- Cargo Scanning (Mechanically identical to subsystem scanning)
- Bounty Scanning (Mechanically identical to subsystem scanning)
- Weapon gimballing (ability for gimballed weapons to provide aiming assistance on targeted ships)
MISSILE LOCK- To begin the missile lock sequence the player must...
- ...have a ship targeted
- ...have a seeking missile weapon deployed
- Once the above conditions are met the HUD will indicate an acquiring lock symbol which will, over time, move from the centre of the HUD to the onscreen position of the targeted enemy
- When the acquiring lock symbol is maintained on top of the targeted ship icon for a short time the missile system will acquire a lock and the symbol will change
- Whilst a lock is acquired the symbol will overlay the target providing the enemy is within the FOV of the player’s ship
- If the enemy ship ever moves outside the FOV of the player’s ship any missile locks will be lost and will need to be reacquired
- Players can speed up missile lock by aiming their ship such to bring the acquiring lock symbol on their HUD on top of the intended target faster than if just leaving it to do it automatically
- Firing a seeking missile with a lock acquired will result in the missile being able to either:
- Independently track the target and no further action by the player is required (they can break lock without affecting the launched missile)
- Track the target providing the player maintains a lock throughout the missiles flight path (losing lock will result in the missile maintain its last heading until the lock is reacquired or the missile runs out of fuel)
SUBSYSTEM TARGETING- To begin the subsystem targeting sequence the player must...
- ...have a ship targeted
- ...have a subsystem scanning module installed and/or deployed if necessary
- The scanning sequence will take time based on the quality of the module and also requires that the target ship to be in the FOV of the player’s ship the entire time (like with missile lock)
- The target ship will know they’re being scanned unless the player is using specifically stealthy scanning modules
- If the target ship moves off screen or the lock on is disengaged for whatever reason the scanning will be cancelled
- Only when a full scan for the required time is made will the enemy subsystems be available to target through the cockpit interface and other appropriate input
- Once a full scan is completed the player doesn’t need another scan to reacquire the subsystem list if they change targets in the mean time (i.e. the ship remembers the results of the scan on a per target basis)
CARGO SCANNING- Mechanically identical to subsystem targeting, cargo scanning just requires the specific scanning module to be installed to enable it
- Subsystem scanners, cargo scanners and bounty scanners can both be installed at the same time and will also run at the same time provided they are both powered and/or deployed if necessary
BOUNTY SCANNING- Mechanically identical to subsystem targeting, bounty scanning just requires the specific scanning module to be installed to enable it
- Subsystem scanners, cargo scanners and bounty scanners can both be installed at the same time and will also run at the same time provided they are both powered and/or deployed if necessary
26.06.2014, 10:07
). Ansonst find ichs gut wie sie es machen sprich Planung, Aussichten uvm. .
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Linear-Darstellung
