Evocati 3.14.0 - Ship Combat Dynamics Info Post

Ship Combat Dynamics - Information and Feedback
Dear SC players,

Star Citizen Alpha 3.14 has a lot of changes when it comes to spaceship and vehicle based combat. Due to the introduction of capacitor gameplay / power management v2 and missile operator mode we had the opportunity to review and rebalance almost all of our combat stats.

We will now cover below the design goals and changes for shields, weapons and ships:
Shields
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Design Goals:
- we want fast regenerating shields on fighters
- we want smaller ships needing to grind through bigger shields very slowly, rather than but against insta-regen
- we want players to feel more in control what their shields are doing
- Shield regen rate is dictated by the power triangle

Brief:
The changes to shields are not very extensive however for the initial release but we have removed a couple of non-player facing delays and tried to split the generator sizes for certain ship classes:

Size 0 and Size 4:
- no changes as those sizes currently only contain vehicle specific shield generators

Size 1:
- high regen / HP ratio
- low HP overall
- typically used on small fighters and transporters (e.g. Gladius)
- bubble shields only

Size 2:
- normal regen / HP ratio
- about 4 times more HP compared to size 1
- typically used on heavy fighters and larger ships (Freelancer, Vanguard)
- bubble shields only

Size 3:
- large multi-crew ship sizes
- about ten times more hp compared to size 2
- typically used on heavy multi-crew ships (e.g. Reclaimer, etc.)
- quad faces or above

Additionally the following changes apply:
- shield generators in the same class temporarily all have the same stats to aid the initial balancing pass
- Shield hardening has been removed as it did not produce interesting gameplay choices, we will redevelop it at a later point.
- The shield UI has changed slightly
- A lot of time dynamics in the shield regen process have been removed to make it easier to predict when the shields will be up again.
- The regen rate is dictated by the power triangle.
- powering off one shield generator will remove the shield properties from the shield system (half HP and regen if you turn off one of two generators)

Weapons
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Design goals:
- Weapon loadout must matter and be meaningful
- The player should choose carefully when to employ the weapons
- Taping down the fire button should not be a valid combat strategy
- Every weapon should have pros and cons
- Energy weapon regen rate is dictated by the power triangle
- Make player controlled turrets more powerful

Brief:
There are a lot of updates concerning weapons and their new associated capacitors and how ammo and regen distribution works for energy weapons. In 3.14 every ship has a capacitor item that produces "ammo" for the energy guns ( this item is not visible but in the future we want to make a proper swappable item out of it).

Two variables come into play here:
- Regen: how fast the ship can replenish energy ammo
- Ammo Load: how much energy ammo the ship can hold at the same time

Both regen and ammo load are distributed across all powered energy weapons on a ship. So if you have one energy cannon and two energy repeaters you have the choice to disable the energy repeaters. The ammo load and regen will then be distributed completely to the energy cannon. That means that one energy cannon will not just be able hold more ammo but it will also regenerate faster.

In addition, we gave each weapon category an intended purpose:

Energy Repeaters S1 to S4:
- dedicated anti-fighter weapons
- should be the most dangerous energy weapons against fighters
- normal regen and ammo load cost

Energy Repeaters S5+
- dedicated anti-large ship weapons
- relatively high fire rate to keep larger multi-crew ships shields under strain
- normal regen and ammo load cost

Energy Cannons S1 to S4:
- fighter carried anti-large ship weapons
- should not be very effective in dogfighting against other fighter classes
- regen and ammo load cost is reduced to make it more efficient than repeaters

Energy Cannons S5+:
- dedicated anti-large ship weapons
- very low fire rate, very high damage
- regen and ammo load cost is reduced to make it more efficient than repeaters

Ballistic Weapons:
- have the same RPM as energy weapons of the same class (except for some specialized weapons)
- higher damage output compared to energy weapons and penetrate shields
- higher range compared to energy weapons
- We want ballistics to be specialized weapons
- Ballistics are very strong alpha strike weapons
- Ballistics are not supposed to be a good choice for long duration engagements
- Ballistics should feel limited in terms of ammo but be very powerful when you employ them

Scatter guns (energy and ballistic):
- they are now specialized short range weapons
- high risk / reward
- very high damage output that cannot be employed as easy as before

Distortion changes will come later, it needs a lot more discussion. An entire tackle and interception mechanic.

Weapon Loadouts:
To reflect the intended gameplay changes we adapted a lot of the default loadouts on some ships:

- Defensive ship turrets should now always be equipped with energy repeaters
- Offensive ship turrets are supposed to be equipped with either energy repeaters or energy cannons
- No turret has scatter guns due to the limited range
- No turret should have ballistics equipped unless it is for a special role like a drop ship.
- Scatter guns should be not default equipped as they are specialized weapons
- On all default loadouts energy weapons should make up at least 50% of all equipped weapons
- By default Fire group 1 should usually be assigned to energy weapons, fire group 2 to ballistics.

Of course players are free to customise their ships as they want, this is just for the default loadout.



Thrusters and Ship Tuning
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Design goals:
- Tune each ship towards the role that it should fulfill
- Do not have a best ship for everything
- G numbers should make sense based on the fighter class
- G numbers should reflect what humans can roughly endure
- Boost (former afterburner) give you only a short time advantage but player must make a conscious choice to employ it
- Boost regen is dictated by the power triangle
- Avoid nose to nose combat
- Make ships different enough to allow varied combat geometry
- Discourage PIP wiggling and other movement scripts
- Boost regen rate is dictated by the power triangle

Brief:
We are now trying to tune the ships towards their intended role. That means tuning the ships so they fit within an expected performance envelope for the things they were designed to do while having very clear pros and cons.

Light Fighters (e.g. Gladius):
- Excels at: 1 vs 1 dogfights or swarm tactics
- low durability
- Highest agility: excels at lateral acceleration, high rotation rate
- Boost affects mostly lateral acceleration

Interceptor / Interdictors (e.g. 300i):
- Excels at: forward acceleration
- low durability
- carries often specialized equipment
- Highest forward acceleration, otherwise average agility
- Boost affects mostly forward acceleration

Medium Fighters (e.g. F7CM):
- Excels at: high loadout flexibility due more hardpoint and equipment choice
- average agility
- average durability
- Boost affects all axes equally

Heavy Fighters (e.g. Vanguard):
- Excels at: prolonged combat, n vs n engagements
- only fighter class allowed to equip manned turrets, S2 shields and heavy weaponry
- poor agility
- Boost affects all axes equally


The boost (former afterburner) was reworked to offer only short term advantages and disencourage constant usage:
- The amount of boost available is dictated by the thruster capacitor charge (you can see the state on HUD when you use it)
- Heat should not be the short term limitation of boost anymore
- Boost needs a minimum capacitor charge to engage
- Engaging boost is not instant but it needs to spool up for a short time before it is actually engaged
- Boost not just affects the linear axes but also rotational acceleration (very useful on bigger ships)
- Boost has a minimum cost when employed and regen delay after use
- The spacebrake does not automatically enable boost anymore (there is an option though)

Ships
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Most ships have been updated in terms of how much HP they have on the hull and some items. Certain elements (like wings) are more sturdy now and won’t fall as easy. Ship parts that carry a lot of items (e.g. Vanguard engine nacelles) are much sturdier.


What we need from you?
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The basic milestone for 3.14 we want to achieve is not to have combat completely finalised done. What we want to achieve is a workable archetype balance which we hope will serve as a good foundation for further combat development in subsequent patches. So we would like you to play the builds particularly specifically in PVP and be very vigilant about these topics:

Weapons & Damage
- Do weapons feel right or too strong or limited?
- Is the ammo load for energy weapons high enough?
- Do ballistic weapons have enough ammo for their purpose?
- Do ballistic weapons feel limited but powerful?
- Are cannons less suitable against fighters but good against larger ships?
- Are there any outliers in terms of damage, RPM, regen costs?
- Are there any ships that seem to have an unsuitable weapon loadout?
- Are turrets deadlier than before?

Ship Tuning
- Are ships pulling the expected amount of Gs
- Does the agility of the ship feel right compared to its intended role?
- Does the amount and regen rate of boost feel okay?
- Do you see more varied maneuvering in PVP?
- Are ship variants similar to each other?

Shields & Ship Hull:
- Are there ships that have the wrong shield generators mounted?
- Are there ships which seem too tanky for its class
- Are there ships which seem too flakey?
- Are there any ships that insta regen shields?

Combat in general
- Does it feel better or worse than 3.13?
- Do you always need to use the same strategy to win?
- Do you have all the information you need to make meaningful combat decisions?
- Are there obvious obstacles destroying the fun?
- Are power triangle assignments too strong?