Patch When? Discovery 5.2 Edition: Blog #1

[Kauket]

Does the positron discharge affect all ships, only ones that dealt damage? only hostiles? Can we choose when to fire the discharge, or does it happen automatically?

A friendly cap suddenly popping off a positron discharge and mercing all friendly snubs in the blast radius would be hilarious but probably not desirable.

take my words with a grain of salt since I've only briefly tested it.

It pops off in a radius and damaging all things in said radius. Including allies.

I think the discharge automatically fires off at the end of a boost.

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[The_Godslayer]

Does the positron discharge affect all ships, only ones that dealt damage? only hostiles? Can we choose when to fire the discharge, or does it happen automatically?

A friendly cap suddenly popping off a positron discharge and mercing all friendly snubs in the blast radius would be hilarious but probably not desirable.

I'd like to petition a double explosion for that shield burst to guarantee as much collateral damage as possible. If I don't see it on the banned list for every pvp event like snub missiles last patch, it isn't funny enough.

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I'll do something about my superiority complex when I cease to be superior.

"Whatever happened to catchin' a good old-fashioned passionate ass-whoopin and gettin' your shoes, coat, and your hat tooken?"

[Traxit]

friendly reminder to add to the rules a clause about Positron Griefing™

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The best Video Game OST
Just Got Better

[Kauket]

friendly reminder to add to the rules a clause about Positron Griefing™

That falls under 1.0, don't be an ass.

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[James Greed]

friendly reminder to add to the rules a clause about Positron Griefing™

That falls under 1.0, don't be an ass.

My mango is to blow up

..... but that's what followup patches are for.

On a serious note, please do said follow-up patches if needed. Even if you've only got a bandaid fix in mind. It can prevent digital chafing.

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Greedback

[Geno]

What about all the other special shields? (e.g. Technocracy, AI, adapted AI Core shields, BERSERKERS and ROSETHORNS)? Will they all fall under a different unlisted classification, or will they follow this new design by being assigned to one of these three shield types at random?

[Seapanda]

This looks really nice, I'm looking forward to the patch!

[jammi]

What about all the other special shields? (e.g. Technocracy, AI, adapted AI Core shields, BERSERKERS and ROSETHORNS)? Will they all fall under a different unlisted classification, or will they follow this new design by being assigned to one of these three shield types at random?

Quoting from some soon to be released patch notes:

• Auxo shields are Positrons. Nomad and AI shields are Gravitons.
  
• FRENZY and BERSERKER shields are hybrids Molecular-Positron shields, featuring Molecular's explosive damage reduction and Positron's shield explosion.
  
• ROSEGUARD is a highly defensive Positron variant, with high recharge and energy drain, but low capacity. Its explosion does increased energy (shield) damage, but no hull damage whatsoever.

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News article library, feedback and content requests.

[Haste]

Does the positron discharge affect all ships, only ones that dealt damage? only hostiles? Can we choose when to fire the discharge, or does it happen automatically?

The Positron discharge occurs at the end of any shield boost, no matter the length, and irrespective of actually having taken any damage. There are base damage values that are triggered no matter what. The only control the user has is how many batteries they used and, thus, how long the boost was.

A friendly cap suddenly popping off a positron discharge and mercing all friendly snubs in the blast radius would be hilarious but probably not desirable.

There's a maximum hull damage value and, as you go up the shield class ladder, this value gets proportionally lower compared to shield damage. Right now it's honestly still pretty harsh and I can see us reducing it further. One of the considerations for an adjustment is to turn the Positron boost explosion into an "Ion" one with a massively reduced shield multiplier and much more energy damage, so it has some powercore suppression abilities, and then making the hull damage values substantially lower.

Here's a Heavy Battleship Positron Shield's stats:


Given how absolutely enormous the radius is, substantial hull damage would make it nearly impossible to play a snub in a fleet fight setting with more than one of these running around.

Edit: quick note that's probably important: the damage multipliers work off of the reduced damage taken during a shield boost. 10% of 50% is, in practice, 5% of damage fired at the shield being reflected.

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[LuckyOne]

So, let me get this straight, you took a relatively straightforward rock-paper-scissors system that was simple to understand and take (a slight) advantage of based on the knowledge of the enemies you're likely to run into and their weapon preferences, and replaced it with this weird RPG-like stats-boosting number-crunching thing and you're saying it's for the better?


So far not convinced, but let's wait for the patch to hit.