Hey everyone, another development blog. I've recently been working on a lot of the core gameplay elements and corporation features. I have been really bad at putting out blogs again, sorry it's been a while.
Weapon ammo and ranges
I have been doing updates to how weapons work, previously they would fire whenever you activated them, even if the target was outside of the max range. This not only wasted ammo/energy but also felt really strange. Now turrets will wait and only fire when a target is inside their maximum range, this allows them to conserve ammo and energy as well as giving you the ability to activate them before moving into range.
EMP Missile, Siege weapons
I have added some new EMP missiles as a new turret, these missiles have a mix of explosive and energy damage and are a good medium range option for missiles.
I've also been working on much larger weapons, siege weapons, this class of weapon can only be installed on large ships and will only target stationary structures. They can be used to much more effectively bombard enemy stations but are useless against other ships.
Damage types and shield penetration
There are three main damage types in AQ2: Energy, Impact and Explosive. Each damage type now has increased or decreased damage against armor or shields. For example Energy damage will deal more damage to shields, but less to armor. Impact damage is more effective against armor than shields. Most damage can now also penetrate shields based on the damage type, shield state and the accuracy of the turret. A railgun scoring a very high accuracy shot on a ship with weakened shields has a good chance that some of the damage will penetrate and damage the armor.
Internal system damage
Ships now have several internal systems that can be damaged, damaging these systems will impact ship performance and can only be repaired at a station. Internal systems are very well protected and will only be damaged by very powerful or very accurate shots, the lower the ships shield and armor the more likely it is that internal systems will be damaged. Internal systems have different damage states: None, Minimal, Heavy and Critical damage, each damage state decreases the ships performance further. For example a ship's internal shield systems can be damaged, decreasing shield regeneration. Or a ship's engines can be damaged, slowing them down.
Internal damage adds more strategy when engaging in prolonged fights, as you can't rely on constant armor and shield repairs to keep you going.
Station Boarding
A new way to capture stations, you can now launch boarding pods from larger ships. Boarding pods will land on the stations and begin an assault, if the attacker wins they can then claim the outpost for their corporation.
Station assaults are fought between the attacking troops and the station's defensive troops, once they are engaged in combat they will battle for control. The battle will be shown when flying near the outpost. Attackers can be reinforced by sending in more boarding pods, but defenders can also send in their own boarding pods to help. Stations can also install modules for boarding defense, such as automated internal turrets, or extra troop barracks, giving them a better chance at repelling enemy attacks.
As I've mentioned in previous blogs, stations can now riot if their satisfaction is low enough, this will result in an internal boarding assault as the local population attempts to take control.
Night Ravens, AQ Security and other Corporations will also attempt their own boarding assaults on stations, adding more life to the galaxy.
Alpha testing
I have been running a small alpha test and gathering some good initial feedback and cleaning up bugs, I'm hoping this leads to the beta being available soon!