It's only been a few months now, yeah? Yeah...
Anyway, I've dropped that idea of an EVE application within the greater whole of my website. At first I was just going to drop the idea of a shared login, but the totality of having a whole extra database and a moderately complex system there, and then finding a website that already exists to do what I wanted to do... it just didn't feel like it's worth making.
That said, for UNIVERSE development I can say that I haven't made any real progess to the game in a little while (sorry!) due to being busy with people and jobs.
I have made one important breakthrough for the project: I have confidence now that even with a total system loss I can restore a backup from scratch onto a fresh computer. This is good also because the current host system is mildly crippled by a virus I picked up a while back [don't worry no threat to you] which has been gradually sapping resources and performance capability from the machine, which I therefor may soon reformat or replace.
SPACE COMBAT ~ SHIP ATTRIBUTES
I don't think I've mentioned much about the game's combat system yet, so I shall gift thee all with some details that have been swimming in my head for a long time. Besides, if you've read most or all of the devlog, you deserve it.
Mass & Volume: These physical attributes affect things like speed, evasion, and detectability.
Structure: The main HP of the ship. As the structure takes damage so too do various ship systems. On-board weapons, evasion, and sensors will be reduced along with the structure HP level. Once reduced to zero, the ship is fully incapacitated and damaged beyond repair, effectively dead.
Armour: Yes I spell it with a u. The armour attribute of a ship will reduce incoming damage by the 'amount' of the armor equipped; as the ship takes damage the effectveness of the armour is reduced by a factor dependant on the damage recieved. For example, a large powerful shot would pierce and severely compromise that area of the armour plating, allowing a percentage of future shots to completely bypass any armour.
Energy Shields: Who doesn't like energy shields? First to mention, they would be an advanced technology not available to starting empires; that's okay though because they would be expensive, too. Energy Shields would function as both additional HP and armour. The shields would have a threshold, a max HP, and might regenerate a bit through the battle. The shield threshold would probably be something like 10% of the current shield HP; an attack whose damage is less than or equal to this amount will be completely absorbed by the shield HP, and if the damage is higher than this then its damage would be reduced by the threshold amount and then what remains would hit the ship armour/structure as normal.
Speed: There would actually be a few speed ratings; one would be a battle maneuvering speed, one would be a cruising speed for travelling within a solar system (too fast for battles but too slow for interstellar flight) and one would be an FTL drive for travel between the stars.
Summary of Weapon Types: Laser, Projectile, Missile, Particle Beam
Laser: Good Accuracy, High Power Demand, Shields are not very effective, Least damaging type
Projectile: Medium Accuracy, Medium Power Demand, Shields are normal effective
Missile: Excellent Accuracy, Very Low Power Demand, Shields are highly effective
Particle Beam: Good Accuracy, Very High Power Demand, Shields are normal effective, Significant damage & tech cost
Additionally: Projectile & Missile weapons might have a moderate & high upkeep cost (respectively) for ammunition, while lasers and particle beam (P'eam?) weapons have very low upkeep cost...
Summary of Weapon Systems
When designing your ships, you get to create whole weapon systems (if any) your ship will be equipped with. Larger ships are permitted to install more weapon systems. A weapon system will probably include 3 attributes for you to control: Weapon Type, Power, Shots .. and maybe a 4th for accuracy ... Small ships will be limited to one weapon system, medium ships will be allowed two, and large ships will be allowed up to three weapon systems.
NEXT TIME
More about designing your space ships... (coming soon!)
