One nagging detail

Tue Feb 25, 2003 3:39 pm by Nietzsche

From my expierences in the PR Beta, FL is a great game

It has alot of upsides (gfx, story, controls, size etx), all in all its a very solid title, and probably will get better over time.

However, one little detail is really irking me. In combat, enemies do not regenerate shields or hulls. This poses 2 annoyances, First, their shield systems must all be defective and have 0 natural regeneration. Secondly, Trent is the only person in the whole univerese who knows about Shield batteries and Hull repair nanobots.

The problem with this is more then cosmetic. Historically, the great thing about space combat sim combat was that in a swarm of ememies, you wanted and had to stay on your target, if he got out of firing range or arc, his shields would regen and you would be back to square one. More times then not, you would be cursing at the screen when you lost track of your target right when hes shields went down, because you new his shields would be back up when you re-aquired.

Now in FL, I can fire a volley on all the ships heading for me when I first engage in an area, and for the entire fight (10 minutes or so), whatever values their shields and hull were at, they will be at the same value at the end of the fight..
Its not just unrealistic, it takes alot of the strategy and fun out of combat

Anyone else notice this or am i just a nitpicky anal rentitive geezer?

Tue Feb 25, 2003 4:03 pm by Mr. Void

I've only played the demo and didn't know if later opponents would start using shield batteries, but it is a bit weird that the ships you come up against in the demo don't recharge their shields especially since they drop batteries at times when you blow them up, so obviously they have some.

On the other hand, if they were using up a couple of shield batteries a fight, they'd probably maul me when they come at me 4 against one

Tue Feb 25, 2003 4:29 pm by WhiteTiger

Excellent point Mr. Void!

What fun would the game be if the opponents were so realistic it made it extemely hard to survive a attack by 3 or 4 at a time? If that were the case..then I would want shields that regenrate faster than thiers do! I remember in Privateer the bad guys shields would regenerate like yours did...but your weapons would hurt them more than thiers did to you and you could kill them faster because of that. It made the game more equal for the player.

Tue Feb 25, 2003 4:33 pm by SirCarcass

I bet they originally had it, and found through testing that a lot of the big encounters were too hard. Their shields do recharge naturally, though, just slow like Trents natural recharge.

Stormtrooper Tactics 101: Okay class, repeat after me. "There he is! Blast em!" Very good.

Tue Feb 25, 2003 4:44 pm by Brother Grimm

I just got in a furball with about a dozen Outcast Daggers last night....Let's just say that if they used shield batteries or nano-bots, I'd have never stood a chance. While I agree it takes some of the realism away, I worked my arse of to survive and blast them all to hell. As mentioned above, it's a trade off that has to be made to make an impossible situation against insane odds, somehow survivable. Sure it's kind of "fooling" you into thinking the battles are harder than they really are, but winning a 12:1 odds battle better re-inforces a sense of accmplishment better than beating 3 or 4 Outcast Daggers that use shield bats or bots.

It's obviously a design decision that was made and while it might "dumb down" the game a bit, DA has obviously worked very hard to make this game accessable to more than just the die-hard space combat sim fan. I know this will turn off some of those fans, but if we have any hopes of seeing more games like this, it has to be done (i.e. financial success is a MUST these days).

On the recharge issue, the NPC shields charge VERY slowly (not the same rate as yours). I think one of the beta testers mentioned that their recharge rate is 1 (where Trent's shields range from 25 to 100, I think).

Edited by - Brother Grimm on 25-02-2003 16:46:33

Tue Feb 25, 2003 6:26 pm by Ugnaught

Maybe their sheilds have been tweaked a little in the 'gold' version of the game. I'm still trying to figure out how enemies can switch in and out of turret mode fast enough to shoot at me when I'm behind them then turn around and shoot at me again. Also, how do those guys do barrel rolls?

Let's get those missiles ready to destroy the universe!!

Tue Feb 25, 2003 8:58 pm by Lev Arris

Just consider shield batteries and nano bots as some sort of indirect difficulty setting. If you think the combat's too easy, carry less bots and less batteries or none at all.

-------------

"In all likelihood you're going to die out there. We're all going to die out there, but none of us needs to be reminded of that fact. So you die, you never existed." - Lt. Cmdr. 'Angel' Devereaux

Edited by - Lev Arris on 25-02-2003 20:58:41

Tue Feb 25, 2003 9:07 pm by Recusant

Is it possible that as you level up the opponents become harder, by having more powerful weapons, stronger, quicker recharging shields etc? It may be that we just haven't seen this in the demo due to the level restrictions?

Tue Feb 25, 2003 9:23 pm by Ali_Bubba

Oh, the shields do regenerate, but at a much slower rate than players. I found this out in the SIlverton Roid field in Colorado. I was having fun killing xenos and mining, but wanted to do more mining. So the next wave of Xeno's sent at me, I killed all but one. The last one, I stripped him down to a critical hull and left him so I could mine in relative peace. I noticed him getting bolder and targeted him. His shields were regenerating and almost full. So, I stripped him again and he got less bold really quick.

Tue Feb 25, 2003 9:37 pm by Silberwolf

I also wonder why the chields of other ships dont regen. I flew in formation with four Navy ships and we attacked some rougues. I scanned the ship of one of my formation members and he had a higher capacity, but only a reg-rate from 1 .maybe 0?)

Tue Feb 25, 2003 9:43 pm by WingC3

The regeneration rate is one. You can check this by scanning someones cargo and clicking on their equipment. It will tell you what the regen rate is. On the bright side...the outcasts have VERY large shield capacities in a given system...much larger than any u can buy in that system. However the regen problem is not inherent only to the demo..it exists in beta 1196 too. We'll see what happens at gold

Tue Feb 25, 2003 9:54 pm by Bargib

As far as I remember the higher level enemies will actually use shield batteries...

Tue Feb 25, 2003 10:32 pm by Nietzsche

Bargib, About what levels? Im on mission 8 or 9 i think, lvl 14, and i still havent seen it. On a side note however, I am finally starting to get more exciting jobs, putting torpedoes to use on stations and cap ships

Anyone venture to guess if the PR beta save games will be compatable with the full version?

_____________________________
"Gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him." -The Gay Science

Edited by - Nietzsche on 25-02-2003 22:41:05

Tue Feb 25, 2003 11:37 pm by tasiin

They don't in MP Bargib, been almost everywhere and no one uses batteries or nanos.

Wed Feb 26, 2003 12:57 am by McTurbo

they dont regenerate because of the sheer numbers of enemies they throw at you. if they were able to do as you wanted it would effectively be 1vs 30 instead of 1vs7. reguardless the odds are you will run out of shields and nano's before your opponents do. not to mention taking on mulitple ships that are stronger than yours would be near impossible if they regenerated and used shields.

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