DW2 - Ship design

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DW2 - Ship design - 1/27/2021 7:34:46 PM

ncc1701e

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With it be possible to create your own ship hulls in the ship design editor?
For example, would it be possible to recreate the shape of my avatar (without modding)?

It is from a movie I can't remember the name of.

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RE: DW2 - Ship design - 1/27/2021 7:45:22 PM

SirHoraceHarkness

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From what I have seen you don't get to have any cosmetic control over what the ships you design look like unless you make your own 3d model and import it. Its for adding in components and the different ship hulls have certain restrictions on what you can do with them.

But no worries as long as the combat side is fine tuned enough a trek modder will come along and add in some ships if not do a total conversion.

(in reply to ncc1701e)

Post #: 2

RE: DW2 - Ship design - 1/27/2021 7:47:34 PM

Erik Rutins

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Ship Hulls are basically data templates in a XML file that's easily moddable, but they define the base characteristics about the hull. What size it is, how much component space it has (and each component bay and the bay size and position for external bays), any additional modifiers, etc. All that gets linked into the Research Projects in another XML file to determine how you get access to that ship hull. The ship hull is not the model though. To create a new 3D ship, you will need to use 3D modeling software (the free kind should work fine) and follow the modding guide for this we release. Assuming you can do that and customize a ship hull template to match the model, you can put pretty much any ship you want into the game for your enjoyment.

Regards,

- Erik

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RE: DW2 - Ship design - 1/27/2021 8:00:04 PM

SirHoraceHarkness

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Nice. So how far does the weapons hardpoints matter to weapon type? Do you just plop in a weapon and it will use a generic firing port at that spot or will there be functioning turrets with weapon arcs and such?

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RE: DW2 - Ship design - 1/27/2021 8:17:12 PM

Erik Rutins

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Each weapon component bay has a maximum size and in the default game, we have what we call Light, Medium and Heavy weapons as well as Point Defense Weapons (generally similar in size to Light weapons) and Starfighter-sized weapons (smaller than light, only for Starfighter hulls).

Weapon bays also have a specific position on the ship model and based on that, an arc they can cover for those that fire direct (some like missiles and torpedoes, seeking weapons basically, don't require a direct line of sight and can fire at targets out of arc).

Every bay can generally fit a Light, Medium or Point Defense weapon on the default hulls, but some bays are larger and can also fit Heavy weapons. Medium weapons are mainly when you have extra space to add in more firepower or want to maximize your firepower in a particular arc. Heavy weapons generally shoot farther, hit harder and are much bigger but can be worth their weight when it comes to cutting through shield, armor and hull resistances.

Regards,

- Erik

< Message edited by Erik Rutins -- 1/27/2021 8:28:44 PM >

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RE: DW2 - Ship design - 1/27/2021 8:27:16 PM

Galaxy227

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It's truly incredible just how granular the ship design and combat system has become in DW2. It looks, feels, plays, and dare I say even simulates just about everything I could ever ask for when it comes to space combat. The improvements regarding a more tactical control of fleets and their individual ships excites me.

I can't wait to see more combat in the following months.

< Message edited by Galaxy227 -- 1/27/2021 8:28:10 PM >

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RE: DW2 - Ship design - 1/27/2021 8:40:25 PM

Larsenex

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Oh man, here I am the guy who loves Torpedoes for punch and beams for close range. A spinal mount rail gun! Gonna punch thru the hull from stem to stern.

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RE: DW2 - Ship design - 1/27/2021 8:45:48 PM

ncc1701e

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Looks good Erik, thanks.

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RE: DW2 - Ship design - 1/27/2021 8:45:56 PM

Erik Rutins

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Worth noting that the damage model is also significantly better than in DW1. If you hit with a very damaging shot, you could damage multiple components as well as hull. In other words, some damage can "carry over" further into the ship if it has enough to keep going. Heavy weapons also generally consume more power, take more space and fire more slowly though.

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RE: DW2 - Ship design - 1/27/2021 8:51:03 PM

ncc1701e

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Can we target some specific components of an enemy ship during a battle? For example, can we destroy shields then engines? And, then, can we send a boarding party to capture the ship?
Send it back to your home spaceport? And capture some technology?

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Chancellor Gorkon to Captain James T. Kirk:
You don't trust me, do you? I don't blame you. If there is to be a brave new world, our generation is going to have the hardest time living in it.

(in reply to Erik Rutins)

Post #: 10

RE: DW2 - Ship design - 1/27/2021 8:54:53 PM

SirHoraceHarkness

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Will DW2 approach the complexity of eve online weapons? Resistances and weapon types along with ship speed and signature radius make or break a ship build there vs what it might be facing making some weapons super damaging and other more or less ineffective. Also things like a large lasers slower targeting transversal vs moving targets making it less effective vs faster ships. Starting to get a bit giddy if true.

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RE: DW2 - Ship design - 1/27/2021 8:56:48 PM

Erik Rutins

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You can't target a specific part of the ship, but there are disabling weapons (Ion Weapons) in the game that now have varying profiles as far as what types of components they are more likely to disable. You can use these on your designs to help disable shields or engines, then rely on the rest of your weapons to do more damage, or research Ship Boarding and use boarding pods and tractor beams to hold a ship close, board it and take it over. Once you take it over, you can use it or send it to a spaceport for disassembly which can give you research boosts or even unlock techs that (if you're playing with variable/blind research by default) you might not have previously had access to, depending on what's in the ship.

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RE: DW2 - Ship design - 1/27/2021 9:00:02 PM

Erik Rutins

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quote:

ORIGINAL: SirHoraceHarkness
Will DW2 approach the complexity of eve online weapons? Resistances and weapon types along with ship speed and signature radius make or break a ship build there vs what it might be facing making some weapons super damaging and other more or less ineffective. Also things like a large lasers slower targeting transversal vs moving targets making it less effective vs faster ships. Starting to get a bit giddy if true.

I haven't had time to play Eve, so I can't answer directly. There's certainly more detail and resolution to combat and ship design than in DW1. There probably is not be as much detail as a game that's focused very much on a single ship.

It is true that we have more resolution on the targeting/tracking side too now though and point defense weapons are much better at engaging those fast moving targets like starfighters. Speed does also affect targeting to a degree, as do countermeasures, which you can get both from electronic countermeasures as well as some boosts from stealth tech or better maneuvering thrusters. Trying to hit a starfighter with a Pulse Torpedo or a Shatterforce Beam is highly unlikely, but those work great on bigger targets like ships and stations (being stationary) are the easiest of all to actually hit.

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RE: DW2 - Ship design - 1/27/2021 9:06:02 PM

SirHoraceHarkness

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

I haven't had time to play Eve, so I can't answer directly. There's certainly more detail and resolution to combat and ship design than in DW1. There probably is not be as much detail as a game that's focused very much on a single ship.

It is true that we have more resolution on the targeting/tracking side too now though and point defense weapons are much better at engaging those fast moving targets like starfighters. Speed does also affect targeting to a degree, as do countermeasures, which you can get both from electronic countermeasures as well as some boosts from stealth tech or better maneuvering thrusters. Trying to hit a starfighter with a Pulse Torpedo or a Shatterforce Beam is highly unlikely, but those work great on bigger targets like ships and stations (being stationary) are the easiest of all to actually hit.

Well eve is very much combined arms fleet combat at about the same scale as a good end game DWU fight with each ship providing support in its own fashion such as dedicated ecm ships to jam target locks and repair ships to fix ships mid fight and on and on. But instead of each ship being AI it has a human at the controls.

Ok so the granularity is going to be built into the game and hopefully we get decent core access to modify it? Just getting a basic modding faq together to get some interest built up in the community. This may be the go to engine for the really big fleet based mods if it allows enough customization. But I suppose we will know soon enough.

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RE: DW2 - Ship design - 1/27/2021 9:26:40 PM

Katarkus87

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In Combat is it possible to ram enemy ships?

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RE: DW2 - Ship design - 1/27/2021 10:36:58 PM

Cauldyth

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Love the damage model in DW1, so thrilled to hear it's returned, and in even more detailed form.

All those wonderful stories of ships limping home with one functional engine, half its fuel cells blown out, and no weapons left.

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RE: DW2 - Ship design - 1/28/2021 2:15:21 AM

Whiskiz

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With seeking, indirect firing weapons as well as direct firing weapons and firing arcs - combat could end up being pretty damn awesome.

components having what 4 different states? Including disabled from Ion weapons, which also can come in a variety that have different strengths and targets specific component types?

Together with combat having been made slower?

The options are endless. No wonder why races need so much work each

Hopefully ship speed affecting weapon accuracy is also a noticeable difference, so smaller ships can speed tank somewhat and still find use mid - close range even in big battles and against big ships. (more than just fighters/bombers)

In Eve online the smallest ships and players can literally orbit around massive Capital ships at max speed, at the closest range and never be hit unless the Cap ship is specifically built with anti small weaponry in mind which generally they aren't - the tradeoff is that you need 100 small ships to even eventually get the shields down let alone anything else haha. But still. They can also still support by inhibiting warp, scrambling targeting and a few other fleet buffs and opponent debuffs.

In fact this is an entire playstyle in EVE Online and there's vids of 1 Cap ship PvP against 100s of small ships on Youtube. Even if the Cap ship destroys like 30 small ships, if it still gets taken down the player loses out on billions more than the other side and to win it has to actually kill them all off or scare them off since they're all inhibiting it and it only has so many consumables to keep its shields etc up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I1ZFixFJbA (Don't think timestamping is working, skip about 5min in to when the fight is in full swing)

His big Cap ship is in the center, the other ships you can't even see except for their targeting reticule they're that small. The Cap ship players enemy targeting is at the top of the screen, look at how little of an effect a Capital ship is having on smaller ships because of the close range and speed tanking while they're whittling him down.

Some of those battles are really interesting and while i'm not hoping for an exact replication, having those mechanics soft introduced would still be cool.

< Message edited by Whiskiz -- 1/28/2021 2:31:59 AM >

(in reply to Cauldyth)

Post #: 17