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[IronTomato]

If you can write a virus which inserts this code into an enemy CPU, you should be able to set fire to it

much simpler to raise 257 interrupts from an external source, if you have access to the enemy cpu you have already won

btw, I wonder how cpu and I/O will work for ship systems. Probably good design will have each system with their cpu and independently working from anything else...

still if there is that limitation 257 hit on a shield could fry the controlling cpu. 257 missiles could fry the point defense cpu, and so long. they don't have to be real shoot or missiles, just enough to trigger the interrupt on the cpu, then the real firing can commence.

I bet during the first few weeks after launch, nobody will be sanitizing their sensor inputs. Imagine sending a shutdown code via flashing lights. Ah, the hijinks that could ensue.

Imagine forcing a program onto a rival's computer which would cause their ship to initiate full thrust while randomly turning and flailing around. Imagine how many people we could cause to rage with stuff like that. 

that's why we as a mature community of sociopathic lateral thinker have an edge over other players

Exactly.

[miauw62]

The best virus would be a virus that somehow gave you control of the enemy ship, then crash it into another enemy ship.
Much more effective.

[IronTomato]

Hmm. Radiation beam?

[Seraphim342]

Far as number/size of ships go, the one I'm currently designing is a combination.  It's a 300m-long cruiser that has a hangar deck for 8 fighters.  Also has 4 cargo tugs/tenders (It's a LASH-type in terms of bulk cargo, carries it in barges/containers), and two "rider" gunboats with a crew of ~3-4.  Cargo decks are connected to the hangar deck by a pair of large cargo lifts as well, and could be converted quickly to hold another 20 or so fighters.  Also has 44 missile tubes capable of firing torpedoes or single-man drop/boarding pods in dorsal and ventral batteries, so there's that =p 

I actually did the initial layout of it based on my naval architecture experience and, as it turns out, working on a spaceship's actually easier because you don't have to worry about things like a waterline and, well, gravity.  Ended up leaving me with more leftover space than I frankly know what to do with after designating the engineering spaces, berthing spaces, CIC, flight deck, weapons control stations, missile bay, galley, and med bay.  I've got about 15,000 square meters of deck space left over even after throwing in trivial stuff like an exercise room and laundry, giving each room its own auxiliary space for storage, emergency power, and life support.  And dividing the entire interior into airtight compartments with internal airlocks.  We could probably fit 500 Bay12ers in there quite comfortably, all in a nice compact package.  Biggest problem would be finding a job for everybody =p 

Also, remember that our strength lies not in our numbers, but in our !!SCIENCE!!.  Nobody takes basic tools and figures out how to turn them into weapons of mass destruction as fast or as well as us.  I mean, how long did it take after the minecart update for one of us to figure out you could turn it into an artillery piece?  I think it was something like 15 minutes, then a day to make a self-loading fully-automatic version =p  I can see it now... "Did they just blow up our ship with a LASER GUIDED-REFRIGERATOR!!!??"  They won't know what hit them. 

*EDIT* As far as hacking goes, it seems that wireless capability is going to be limited.  Even if it's there, I'd strongly recommend hard-wiring everything.  Getting your wifi password hacked is a lot more serious when the guy who does it can flush your life support system .  Seems like to do some hacking you'd have to board the enemy vessel and physically access their computer.  Since boarding has been all but confirmed as a valid tactic, I can imagine this leading to some truly epic battles =D

[PanH]

If you can write a virus which inserts this code into an enemy CPU, you should be able to set fire to it

much simpler to raise 257 interrupts from an external source, if you have access to the enemy cpu you have already won

btw, I wonder how cpu and I/O will work for ship systems. Probably good design will have each system with their cpu and independently working from anything else...

still if there is that limitation 257 hit on a shield could fry the controlling cpu. 257 missiles could fry the point defense cpu, and so long. they don't have to be real shoot or missiles, just enough to trigger the interrupt on the cpu, then the real firing can commence.

I bet during the first few weeks after launch, nobody will be sanitizing their sensor inputs. Imagine sending a shutdown code via flashing lights. Ah, the hijinks that could ensue.

My computer shutdown while I was reading this message. (btw, you can clean the interrupts, or preventing them to stack, so you would have to reactivate stacking before setting magma fire).


While little 1-2 men ships seems to be the best solution, there is one issue : friendly fire. If we fight together, we can't use automated turrets (or we need a way so that the turret can know who it shoot to, but too complex). Or 1 pilot and 1 gunner.

I can only imagine the destruction caused by a little ship full of turrets into a big fleet


And radiation : the new EMP

[LoSboccacc]

I somewhat don't think that injecting code on enemy ship is within the in game possibility, unless people is really really bad at coding and setting up their ships.

Maybe we can fool some automated drone if they accept commands by antennas, if radio frequency are in the game. But I don't see anyone letting warships accepting remote commands and ready to be exploited

we can maybe focus on boarding, then it would be simpler to fry the system with small arms or something.

[miauw62]

Depends. If they have their mainframe easily accesible when we board, we could fry their ships.

OR, we could become a major supplier of code, and insert backdoors only useable by us.

[ScriptWolf]

I has noticed a lot of people asking if we are being on one ship or several. Why not do both ? We could have one main mother ship where people can decided to stay not and then other people can go into smaller groups and work that way. But we would always have the mother ship to go back home to

[miauw62]

I agree. One big ship, and loads of fighters. But do we have enough people to man all that?

[ScriptWolf]

I agree. One big ship, and loads of fighters. But do we have enough people to man all that?

maybe...

but i prefer the one big ship with swarms, because say we get 20 people living on the big ship and 30 out in fighters gaining money, they can send some money home to the big ship for upgrades while the mothership does all the main building for the rest of the fleet. Personally as a programmer i would prefer to live in a big ship and just program for the benny of the rest of the fleet.

50 people would be good enough for a fleet, we just have to try and band all the bay12 guys togeather under the flag of armok

[10ebbor10]

We just set up shop somewhere in an abandonned sector, where we install out primary HQ, then launch smaller ships from there.

As for the random bit flipping problem. Just make backups. If there are 3 Backup's, the computer should follow the majority, and when one deviates, restore it from a secure backup. Its going to be complicated though.

[ScriptWolf]

hopefully we could make a star base ? Instead of a ship and have a permanent home in said sector, would be much effective..... But we run the risk of being static and coming under attack and losing everything

[IronTomato]

We just set up shop somewhere in an abandonned sector, where we install out primary HQ, then launch smaller ships from there.

Yeah. Our mainbvl vessel should be a huge flying fortress a la the Ulysses from Bulletstorm. We should also have several different kinds of smaller ships. The one I fantasized about earlier could be like a spy plane. Also, would UAV's be possible? If controlling someone else's ship is possible, why not build ships especially to be controlled remotely?

[miauw62]

I'm not sure wether remote control would be possible. But drones are certainly an option, especially for boarding and injecting code.

[Seraphim342]

One main advantage a big ship would have over a swarm of smaller ships is the weight of the guns and the thickness of the armor.  While maybe you'll have a "weak spot," the fact that you'll be able to design the ships from the ground up sort of precludes that, unless you're bad at designing ships or there's some mechanic in there to enforce weak spots that leave a big ship vulnerable to a small one, which would be kinda cheap.  Also, since it space and is going to be portrayed more or less "realistically" in terms of physics, the ship vs. fighter analogy doesn't really hold up since both are moving in the same medium.  It's not 24 F/A-18s versus a cruiser, it's 24 cigarette boats with missiles and chainguns versus a cruiser.

On the hacking front, I think by far the best hacking method would be to write a program that wipes the entire computer clean, then installs a program that only allows the computer to play this, and sets a randomized password to do literally anything else =p