Actual "shield" to help armor build

[nerezzar]

I know that you did not originally plan implementing "shields".

However, under the current system, the only viable path in higher difficulties seems to be evasion.
A single hit from an opposing torpedo can kill you if you got unlucky with internal damage and the crippling debuff.

If you added "shields" instead (only a small amount, like 5-10% of ships' hull), those could prevent internal damage and crippling debuffs as long as active.

You could call it "ablative plating" or something like that to avoid energy shields. That could actually improve armor builds by a lot as armor would make the plating last longer and you wouldn't eat 40% armor debuff within a first unlucky round, rendering your entire build useless.

Depending on whether you make it a fixed percentage or a "random" amount, you could further diversify ship and build choices with minimal changes to the ships and modules themselves.

[Cory Trese]

Apr 7, 2020 12:52:09 GMT -5 nerezzar said:

However, under the current system, the only viable path in higher difficulties seems to be evasion.

In what way? What I'm seeing from players is quite a bit different than this?

[nerezzar]

Apr 7, 2020 13:30:59 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

Apr 7, 2020 12:52:09 GMT -5 nerezzar said:

However, under the current system, the only viable path in higher difficulties seems to be evasion.

In what way? What I'm seeing from players is quite a bit different than this?

I feel like taking more than 1 hit a turn is deadly. If you take 1 hit against Xeno, you probably take 2+ against Jyeeta and will die pretty quickly. Either to the combat itself or to losing high level crew.

[mishaadams198828]

Granted I am no expert by far (challenging is as far as I go on a regular hard only for unlock runs) but mitigating the debuffs with crew or ship debuff removing talents is doable. The internal shielding which is the mechanic used over internal shields reduces how much damage actually goes against your components and hiring crew with better stats which translates into more hp and morale prevents crew from "leaving their post" and keeps your crew contributing to ship pools. A component offers full functionality( I believe) until it suffers 60percent damage. Also a good interdictor craft and pilot can intercept torpedoes and their defensive flight plans boost ship defense. A single volley of 2 or 3 torps hitting turn 1 can start a spiral of debuffs but only if you don't have enough talents to reverse it. I fly big ships and I don't go for the evasion heavy build so I go in planning on taking a couple hits. That's also why I like boarding craft because they may temporarily cause some fires and void contortions but I cure them as they come up and once I get a successful boarding or two I've crippled their weapons and taken out a good chunk of crew/officers and two panic crew debuffs means once I put out all the fires the enemy crew are running around like headless chickens instead of manning their posts so I just pound with torps and keep boarding. To combat the actual hull loss and component damage I keep a lot of post combat talents to keep things running. Just my two cents again I am a medium difficulty player. It's quite possible my playstyle would need changed in higher difficulty.

[nerezzar]

The problem with this approach is while you cure the first debuff(s), you will eat another. And the curing talents do not add as much defensive stats as a "real" defensive talent.

I'm playing on impossible and that might be the cause for my rough experience.
I'm also using small craft and the debuffs are amazing.
However, they take some time to apply and it means you can't use as many interdictors for aegis pattern in the meantime.

All that said, I have lost 5 crew in 140 years, so it's probably not too bad.

[mishaadams198828]

Gotcha. Another suggestion if you aren't doing so already might be to use an engine that is higher on speed than agility. This would either give you a bonus or lessen the enemies bonus at 4/5 range from torp hits. A few more speed might be the difference between eating a full volley of torps and only getting one that gets through.

[Cory Trese]

During the testing and alpha testing of Star Traders: Frontiers, we found that mechanics that tried to "prevent internal damage and crippling debuffs" were less effective for the game, and less fun for the player, than the current system of avoiding, soaking, and redirecting internal damage while providing active, rather than passive, ways to remove crippling debuffs.

I definitely appreciate all of the excellent feedback. I'm glad to report that these were avenues we explored extensively during the design and we settled on the current mechanics and ruleset intentionally based on evaluation of the other options.

One way to get back to the type of thinking that helped us navigate the alpha test so successfully is to carefully consider not only how the mechanic impacts the player's meta, but also the AI meta. In enabling a certain mechanic for each side, the number of viable (ie, fun) playstyles shifts up or down. In the case of the prevent shielding components from alpha, it became clear they eliminated more than they gained.

I have lost 5 crew in 140 years

This is a problem I might suggest you solve with Custom Difficulty and a much higher base Death Save %. The shielding, armor and damage cascading systems are the results of years of work. They have changed many times, and will continue to change, but adjustments must be made carefully and in a way that does not cause fun reduction for the hundreds of thousands of people who play the game.

Thanks again!