Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Akura]

I just more or less finished a simple enough cargo boat. Carries 240k materials, costs 10k materials itself. Gave it a 3-barrel autocannon for defense, firing a full 153 belt-load of 54mmx270mm(432mm with casing) rounds, about 3 shots per second. Not sure whether I should make it a total solid bullet(with either AP or sabot head), or full HE with either a proximity or inertial fuse. The latter noticeably does more damage to most(and multiple) blocks, but has trouble with armor and most of the rounds fail to blow, while the latter does more reliable damage even if it fails to penetrate. HE seems to be more effective against smaller unarmored targets, while AP can eventually take down a block or two of large armored ships(like Onyx Watch).

Of course, it's a cargo ship not meant for combat, so the gun is mainly for self-defense.

[Akura]

Rising this back up From the Depths. *gets shot*

Somehow I failed to notice this got a fantastic patch. I was wondering why I suddenly had a "Clear Clips" button on the railgun I was playing with.

Spoiler: I'll just copy the dev post (click to show/hide)

Excited to release this fantastic new patch. It has lots of cool new things such as pistons and the ability to place turrets, spinners and pistons on other turrets, spinners and pistons. There are also a lot of quality of life and fine tuning options added. Note that a lot of mods may need updated after this release so if you are having issues then try uninstalling any mods that add code. Please check out the full change log below:



[added] Support for pistons (1x1x1 and 1x2x1)

[added] Support for spinners, turrets and pistons on other spinners, turrets or pistons (limited to 25 levels, including the MainConstruct)

[added] it is now possible to set the idle azimuth and elevation for turrets

[added] it is now possible to set the idle azimuth for APS (not CRAM due to some technical problems)

[added] spinblocks and pistons can now be locked via their GUI, so the ACBs won't be able to move them

[added] elevation only turret (1x1x1 version only)

[added] ACBs can now be turned on/off by using their GUI or another ACB (an ACB cannot turn itself on/off automatically)

[change] ACBs can now be placed on SubConstructs

[change] The Aimpoint card can now be configured, the maximum time before targeting another block can be configured, and it can be set to target Mainframes and ammo storage as usual or any random block

[change] Shields can now have their color changed using directly their GUI, no need to use the shield projectors anymore (but they still work)

[improved] it is now possible to choose between local and global field of fire restrictions for weapon and turrets

[improved] It is now possible to manually control the SpinBlocks using their GUI

[improved] copy/paste feature for ACBs, LWCs and AMCCs

[improved] if you look at an airpump with leaks, the leaks will be indicated by small red squares

[improved] ACBs input values now have different decimal places depending on the type of the input

[improved] ACB input for control key stimulus now display the actual key instead of a number

[improved] GP PID altitude test values can now be set between -1000 and +3000

[improved] 'Clear clips' button added to the APS firing piece

[improved] 'Access to intakes' button added to the APS firing piece (exiting that GUI will return to the APS GUI)

[improved] When clicking on the selected ammo controller in the ammo intake GUI, the ammo controller GUI is now displayed (exiting that GUI will return to the intake GUI)

[improved] It is now possible to slow down the rotation speed of the turrets (using a percentage)

[improved] Optimization of the fuel engine power creation when using turbos or exahusts

[improved] a LWC can now control weapons on all the stacked children SubConstructs, including pistons or spinblocks

[improved] the LWCs now aim x40 times per second, which will make targeting a lot more efficient

[improved] the LWC on the MainConstruct are executed before the ones on the first level of SubConstructs, which are executed before the ones on the second level of SubConstructs, which are executed before the ones on the remaining levels of SubConstructs

[improved] the LWC can now control a turret (or stacked turrets) which have no weapons (so, you can place a radar 90 on a turret controlled by a LWC in order to rotate the radar toward the target)

[fix] When a shield projector is placed next to a shield color changer, it now connects the shield color changer automatically

[fix] When loading a blueprint and after having taking hits, the shields are now returning to their specified color

[fix] The external venting of turbos is now displayed correctly in the cylinder's tooltip


[lua] Due to the extensive modification on the SpinBlocks, the functions related to the Spinners and turrets have been largely modified (old functions still there, but shouldn't work for stacked SubConstructs)

[lua] SubConstructs now have a unique Id, such an Id will never be reused in the same blueprint. The turrets, pistons and SpinBlocks are now accessed using that unique Id

[modders] The blocks array have been removed, blocks are now accessible in 'ElementStorage' using the Local Position coordinates

[modders] It is now possible to mod the constructs thanks to the introduction of 'Modules' that are attached to the constructs (most of the existing modules can be replaced)

[modders] It is now possible to add new audio assets (they will now be loaded correctly even if not in the FtD directory)

[modders] it is now possible to add new types of turrets by naming its parts '<custom name> Turret' and 'Turret Block <custom name>' (case and spaces are mandatory)

Hope you'll enjoy the new stuff- and wishing you a fantastic 2018,

Thanks for your continued support,

Nick and the FtD team

Lots of cool things. Being able to toggle ACBs is a huge plus. Also, stacked spinners.

[Ozyton]

I got this game a long while back but didn't spend much time on it until a few months ago. I spent days making a ship. Turns out it's a very shitty ship, but it's mine. Spent ages trying to get the bow to slope correctly and once I finally did it turned out that it actually made the ship slower than simply having a giant wedge in the front. Still can't figure out how the targeting works, it always seems like the sensors track stuff the boat guns aren't even targeting. I have a main cannon and two AAA, and the sensors won't target aircraft to make the AAA more accurate which is very annoying.

Then I went and took a look at the very first boat I made back when I first got the game. Refined it a tiny bit and actually put some hydrofoils controlled by a PID on it to make it not flip out of the water at high speed which I was somewhat proud of. It's still a very crappy boat with a crappy dinky turret on it that does no damage.

Spawning in the stuff that comes with the game just sort of makes me realize how I'll never be able to make anything as awesome as that...

[Akura]

Regarding the sensors, are you using both normal detection and tracking sensors? Also, different tracking types have different accuracies. Cameras(both visual and IR) give very good bearing accuracy, but poor range estimates. Radar gives good range estimates but poor bearing prediction. 90° give even better scans than 360°, and gimbal tracking sensors give the best targeting but cannot pick up new detections(essentially, they enhance existing scanning).

Also, mainframes can only target one enemy at a time - all LWCs connected to it will fire on the mainframe's target. Using multiple mainframes(and changing the channel for wireless LWCs) will allow you to target multiple enemies with different guns. I learned this one today.


But yeah, I totally understand how you feel.

[Ozyton]

I can't remember and don't feel like starting the game up to check, but I have three mainframes (one for driving the ship, one for the cannon, and one for the AAA. I could probably have the cannon be on the navigation computer but whatever). I don't remember how I have the mainframes set up to the sensors right now, but I do remember that I forced the gimbal trackers to only track what the turret is aiming at by sticking them into the turret and limiting their field of view. I'll maybe give more detail once I can be bothered to boot the game up and check. The problem could entirely be that the AAA computers aren't hooked up to any of the non-gimbal trackers, but again I'd have to double check.

Also yes, both the AAA are hooked up to one mainframe, which seems like it'd be fine for now unless one of the turrets can't engage due to firing arcs.

[MrRoboto75]

Sensory for me mostly boiled down to slapping a handful of cameras or whatever until I get 100% detection in the sandbox.  I know the system is far deeper but I don't really bother to think about it.

I could have sworn mainframes on the same ship can share detection data but I don't remember where I saw that.

[Akura]

I saw the same on the Steam boards, that mainframes share targeting data. Not sure if this requires connection between mainframes or not.

EDIT: Does anyone know how to make continuous spin blocks(or rather, heliblades) spin at a rate set to the air drive factor? ACBs lack variable outputs(or inputs) and don't do anything based on(or to) the drive factors. I assume a lua script can do it, but I don't really know how to program in lua. Trying to make a propeller-based plane, and not use a complex controller - the reason for this is that wing control surfaces don't play well with the CC.

[Ozyton]

I have to go to bed soon but out of curiosity I booted the game up to see how I had my sensors hooked up. On both AAA I have a receiver attached directly to active gimbal sensors right on the guns, but I apparently never hooked up a receiver to the actual active/passive sensors. I seem to remember the gimbal trackers being able to track despite this which made me think perhaps the gimbal trackers can track as long as any active/passive sensor has found a target regardless of if it's transmitting to the correct mainframe..? Maybe I'll have to do some more testing when I have more time.

So the elevation only turret is a new thing, has anyone found a use for it? I figured it would perhaps be good for adding a smaller coaxial machine gun to larger turrets, but I don't even know if that would be useful itself.

I assume a lua script can do it, but I don't really know how to program in lua.

I do think that the game should rely less on people being able to know how to script and instead allow you to do these sort of things in a plug-and-play way. "If x then do y" would be a good start, right now ACB's can do that for the most part but the UI isn't the best and it targets every block within a range instead of being able to target specific blocks. Plus you need a whole new ACB for every single condition and action you want to do.

[LoSboccacc]

the elevation turret is quite good to elevate slow guns (or to elevate fast gun faster)

so a 5mt base + elevation to make cram acquire target faster and be more accurate is one thing (the elevation turret won't collide with the ship itself, perfect for a ball turret)

the other thing I did was make an extra cheesy drone orbiting 500 mt out at 200m/s shooting simple lasers - you need a 5m base + the elevation turret to make them track the target precisely, the single two axis turret isn't enough

that said I still can't enjoy the current shield meta. was hoping to see the shield rework but losing hopes.

[Akura]

Tried to build a tank, but it barely moves. I'm pretty sure it's because there's too much collision with the ground, but there's the problem with ground wheels; they're too small.

[LoSboccacc]

I’ve heard disruptor emp has had the accuracy penalty removed, haven’t tried it yet, that could work

edit:
inertial cram should now reach beyond shield now with the explosion rewrite on devtest

[Puzzlemaker]

So I purchased this game, went through all the tutorials, story missions, etc.

Finally started playing the actual game

Took two hours trying to design the perfect starting ship, got frustrated and ragequit.

So I should try again at some point.

[Akura]

One of the biggest pieces of advice I can give is to put a heavy(preferably lead) keel on the bottom of the ship, to put the ship's center of mass below the center of buoyancy. This prevents it from capsizing so easily, and helps right itself if it somehow does.

I also suggest looking at pictures of actual ships and such to get an idea of how to shape yours.

[Puzzlemaker]

One of the biggest pieces of advice I can give is to put a heavy(preferably lead) keel on the bottom of the ship, to put the ship's center of mass below the center of buoyancy. This prevents it from capsizing so easily, and helps right itself if it somehow does.

I also suggest looking at pictures of actual ships and such to get an idea of how to shape yours.

Well, the biggest problem I was having was I was being a perfectionist without the experience to pull it off.  I should just make a shitty starting boat, then improve it as I go.

[Greiger]

Tried this game out a while ago and after doing the first tutorial(?) mission, and steaming around finding nothing, I went into sandbox to try to build a boat and couldn't figure out how to start one.  Also it seems that there is a need to get resources but I never seemed to need any?   And I hear people in this thread talking about AI controlled boats but I never saw any?  I think I've been playing the wrong gamemode or something.

I think I'd love this game if I could actually figure out how to play it.