Harpyja
DUST University
Ivy League
432
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Posted - 2013.08.03 02:50:00 -
[1] - Quote
I'm almost certain this has been talked about a long time ago, but I haven't seen this pop up recently and I'd also like to add my own ideas.
Structure. It is one of the three bars of health every ship in EVE Online has. First comes shield, then armor, and finally structure lies underneath it all. It is nothing more than an extra sliver of health in dire times, or is it? It provides its own unique quirks...
I will not be describing how structure works in EVE, but rather describing how it can be implemented into Dust.
First of all, dropsuits should not receive structural health. Once your armor is gone, the next round will kill you. Once your armor is gone, you are nothing more than a regular human being.
Vehicles do not and should not behave like dropsuits. Once a vehicle's armor is gone, does it make sense that a single SMG round can blow up an entire tank? You can strip away all the armor from an M1-Abrams tank, but what remains is its structure. Shoot any rifle at this skeletal structure and it will only dent it at best.
Structural Health Bar (or curve, but I will use "bar" from now own to describe the health shown in a vehicle's HUD)
It would simply go next to the left of the armor health bar. As for the icons for each layer, shield will remain as the shield, but armor will take on the Medieval helmet (who thought that that would be an excellent icon for something in the future? hehe), while structure will take the current icon for armor (the way that it is in EVE).
I must admit, it might become overload for the HUD to show a third health block when a player looks at a vehicle. The HUD itself representing a player's health can be improved. It is actually no different from old games. EVE recently had its HUD improved. I believe something like this can be brought into Dust.
Structural Health Values
Structural health in EVE is typically equal to a ships base main tank HP (an armor ship would have base structure roughly equal to its base armor). Since adding about 3000 structure to a shield/armor HAV might be a lot (or will it actually be one of the balances that might be needed?), I say to take the average of the vehicle's base armor and shield.
Attributes of Structural Health
Every anti-vehicle weapon should have equal efficiency against structure. This is how it is in EVE as structure has a base resistance of 0% against any damage type. Since armor/shields are naturally more resistant than structure, every anti-vehicle weapon should have a damage bonus higher than any damage bonus against shield/armor.
We all love that armor burn. We all love losing vehicles to armor burn. Armor burn should do its best to reduce armor to 0, but once it hits 0, armor burn stops until another anti-vehicle weapon impacts armor at its critical level. Armor burn will not affect structural health, but in fact, it should decrease the efficacy of armor reps (hang on! Let me explain!). This is one way armor vehicles can take advantage of structure. Instead of having their armor rep trying to fight the effects of armor burn, they can simply wait for their armor to reach 0 before starting up armor reps, as they will become more efficient. Of course they would need to be away from danger if they will hit 0 armor intentionally.
Structural damage should be almost irreparable (more details later) and the more structural damage a vehicle sustains, its performance decreases. For example, a vehicle should lose acceleration and top speed as its structure is taking damage. Effects should be minimal at first but they should increase exponentially as structure nears 0.
Structural Modules
Bulkhead Reinforcements - This module greatly increases structural strength (hp) but also increases vehicle mass which decreases speed and acceleration. Passive module.
Structural Reinforcement - This module greatly increases the resistances of structure (and I mean greatly increases them, not a whimpy 30%, but something like 60%). Active module. Only one module permitted. EVE's Damage Control Units provide 60% resists to structure.
Chassis Optimization - This module reduces structural strength (hp) but also decreases vehicle mass which increases speed and acceleration. Passive module. Yes we already had something similar, but it reduced armor plating. I believe that is should take away from structure, not armor.
Structural Repair Unit - This module helps repair structural damage at a rather slow rate. Passive module. Why should it be a passive module? I'm thinking that it should repair structural damage at roughly 10 hp/s. Making an active module repair at a similar rate makes little sense. I believe this can be similar to armor repair modules on dropsuits: slow but constant. While armor tanking is viable for dropsuits, structural tanking should never become a main tank |