Energy

from StarControl Forums

In the original Star Control there was a single energy bar for both systems.  If this SC intends to keep ship at 2 systems each, possibly 3 on one or two, then it could use separate energy bars for each individual weapon or device.  I would strongly recommend this.  With such simple ship designs a single energy bar for both systems is very restricting.  It eliminates a lot of potential weapon/system designs from consideration all by itself, greatly complicates the design of some ships, and certain weapons/devices either can't work together are will work badly with another system interfering with their energy usage.

For example, take my 1v1 dueling "dream ship" that I mentioned in another thread.  It's weapon must be fully charged to fire.  While this could still work with a single energy bar, it means that dropping a mine temporarily disarms the main weapon (until the energy if full again).  This makes the ship significantly less capable, and is annoying from the players perspective.  With separate energy bars using the mine has no effect on the main weapon, the systems don't interfere with each other.

It's more natural to the player that they be able to use a thing they have not used yet/recently, and not have that thing not function because they have been using a different thing.  If you have guns and a shield, in such a simple game, you expect the shield to function when you try and use it if you haven't used it for a while.  You have your two capabilities, and often want to combine them.  Separate energy bars ensure that you can.

But the most important reason for this is the simple design of the ships.  A single energy bar eliminates a LOT of variety in the design of weapons and devices, much much more is possible in ship design if each weapon and device can have it's own special rules for how it works such as things that only work when fully charged.  It also allows fine control over the rate of usage of each system.  It just enables a lot more variety in the design of the ships considering how simple those designs are.

 

8,501 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from StarControl Forums Top

I utterly disagree.

 

You're asking me to pilot the ship, shoot and monitor the 1st battery, activate second ability and monitor 2nd battery, monitor the enemy ship, monitor their plasma bolt/missile/etc. This is not a space combat simulator.  Every time we add something, we complexify. I don't want to play Wing Commander.

 

This also automatically brings up the question of ship design. If I have 2 batteries to recharge, I need twice as many dynamos.  It would become ship non-design, as there wouldn't be much of a choice.  Finally, a simple question: Why, oh WHY would my ship have two distinct power centers with 2 different power circuitries? Just so it keeps me from diverting power from one to the other if I have the need to?

Reply #2 from StarControl Forums Top

Quoting Tovanion, reply 1

I utterly disagree.

I agree with your disagreement. (Though, Wing Commander had a single battery for guns.)

Having one pool of energy means that you have to manage the use of your primary and secondary abilities together.

The Arilou skiff is a good example of the balance. You needed to hold enough energy in reserve for a hyperjump. The Avatar was another good example. If you held down the tractor beam button, you wouldn't have enough juice to power your laser once the enemy is in range.

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from StarControl Forums Top

It's just 2 systems.  2 Energy bars.  It's very easy to keep track of.  The thing is that with only 2 systems you can have a lot more variety in weapons and devices.  A single energy bar is very limiting and prevents you from having certain weapons and devices.  It can work with 1 energy bar, obviously, just not as well and with less variety in the available systems.  You don' have to "monitor" both energy bars, in fact it's pretty rare to actually look at the energy bars.

 

Reply #4 from StarControl Forums Top

The current plan is to have one energy system that is shared between the abilities.

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Reply #5 from StarControl Forums Top

2 energy bars is an illusion.

If you change very action you take into time. Then you will realise that you can only do so many things sequentially and that be it one battery or 2 it will still be the same amount of time you spend.

 

In your example of a mine laying ship with fullpower gauge enabled gun you cannot really do both at the same time even with 2 energy bars. Mine-laying usually done while running away from the enemy or in preparation to fight the enemy thus as a defensive tool, and rarely as an attack tool. The fullpower gauge enabled gun is a head-on attack weapon. Both weapons have distinct phases in which they are used anyway so then not much different from having 1 energy bar.

 

Also, I think that temporarily disabling your main gun when you drop a mine sounds fair.... And you can always shoot first and then place mines..... and why have your main gun use all the energy? Have it use 90% instead. Or reduce the energy bar gauge so that it will fill up faster, or increase the recharge rate.

 

There are many ways to make it work without having to go 2 energy bars....

Reply #6 from StarControl Forums Top

Quoting Vaelzad, reply 4

The current plan is to have one energy system that is shared between the abilities.

As I said, that works too, and has it's own unique mechanics to work with that separate bars don't.  It is a style choice, not a balance problem.  Separate energy bars is just more flexible, allowing for more variety in how systems work and fine control over how often each system can be used.

I am just throwing out ideas that might be useful to the devs, not knowing the specifics of how the game works.  If they already have weapons and devices they are happy with they are past the need for more versatility in the design anyway.