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**Antonio** · 10-08-2024, 06:48 PM,

Discovery 5.2 Escalation Dev Diary #3 - Systems

With the latest dev blog focusing on more balance changes, it's time to talk about systems. Version 5.2 brought many system changes, and we’ll be covering some of the more important ones while discussing future plans.

Overview

The highlight of the patch is undoubtedly the radiation damage rework. Our lord and savior @Aingar managed to crack a piece of code that defines radiation damage and gave us several new tools to fine-tune radiation fields. The most important one, by far, is percentage-based health damage. This means that the vast majority of instakills are now gone from the game, and radiation, which now has the ability to harm all classes equally, has been replaced with the new model. More details on that below.

Additionally, this dev diary will showcase the reworks of Omicron Zeta, Tau-23, and Coronado. Story changes won’t be covered in detail here as @jammi talked about them in this thread, though quite a few system changes are driven by the storyline (Coronado, Tohoku, Dublin/New London, etc.).

Radiation Rework

Any kind of damage exerted inherently by a zone rather than a collision with an object (e.g., gas pockets, mines, asteroids) is considered radiation damage. This might sound counterintuitive at first, but all zones, such as sun coronae and planetary atmospheres, are nothing more than cleverly concealed radiation damage coming from a source (the zone itself) independent of the object (such as the sun). This means more or less every system in the game is within the scope of this update, as all radiation zones have been reworked to fit the new model.

Several new features got enabled with the radiation rework:

Percentage max health damage
Damage scaling with distance from the center of the radiation zone
Logarithmic scaling based on distance
Further customization with options like energy-only damage, shield-only damage, and cruise disruption fields
Flat damage, similar to before

You might not notice the new model much on suns or planets, as you will still die quickly. However, the change will be noticeable in hazardous zones, especially exploration-related hazards. Instakills were previously the only way to make exploration challenging for some classes and trivial for others, due to the hull differences between fighters and battleships. As someone responsible for many recent hazard additions, I personally always viewed instakills as a necessary evil, and I wished for percentage-based damage to improve the experience for everyone. That’s why I’m happy to see this change implemented and working as intended. Hundreds of files and entries were changed, so I ask the community—if you notice irregularities with a certain radiation zone (whether it’s a sun or a planet not dealing damage or a random field burning you too quickly), let us know, and we will fix it.

Additionally, equipment no longer takes radiation damage. This was an unfortunate drawback to making the new model work, but it’s a small price to pay. Some of you might appreciate this change, as you can now survive a planet ram in a snub without losing all your weapons. This also applies to slow-burn gun/shield loss during exploration—it won’t happen anymore. We may have put a few ship repair dealers out of business with this one.

What can you expect in the future? More hazards, more exploration content, fewer instakills, and just as many Suhl deaths—unless Aingar cracks the code for explosion-based damage.

Omicron Zeta

New Omicron Zeta visuals.

Omicron Zeta received a visual and slight layout rework in 5.2. The main goal was simple: to increase the representation of green Omicrons in the game. Over the last decade, since Discovery’s record-high system count in 4.86, many green Omicron systems were deleted. While non-green systems remained or were changed to green, this left the largest nebula in the game with very few properly colored systems. Some systems, such as the Nomad home systems or the immersion-breaking tubes of Delta or Kappa, are too iconic to change, but Zeta was not on that list. While an Omicron system doesn’t need to be green, it’s likely by default due to its nature.

Not much else has changed. Bases, jumpholes, and other objects were moved around, but its role as the gatekeeper to the Nomad Home Worlds and the rest of Sirius remains.

Tau-23

Java Station, Tau-23.

Tau-23 received a layout rework, focusing on correcting object placement, improving patrol paths, and adding more flavor to the system. The system was slightly upscaled, and connections were repositioned to correctly reflect neighboring systems based on their nav map placement. Flavor elements, such as depots, asteroid miners, and NPC zones, were added. Mining fields were also repositioned. Since Vanilla Tau-23’s lore had Beryllium as the BMM-contested ore in the south and Niobium as the IMG-contested ore in the west, Discovery had swapped the two at some point, but this has now been reverted to align with the system’s original history and the conflicts that arose from it (Bretonia/BMM provoking IMG and Kusari in the Taus, the Kusari-Bretonia war, etc.).

New Tau-23 Patrol Paths.

Detailed patrol and trade paths were re-added after being deleted at some point in Discovery’s development, with appropriate exclusion zones established along the most populated paths created by factions inRP. Patrol paths now involve all relevant factions patrolling and trading through key areas of the system and points of interest.

Coronado

A view on Coronado from the north.

Coronado’s eastern half received a layout rework, largely driven by story changes and the fact that some areas were too cramped or incorrectly placed. Additionally, the system received more flavor and improved quality across the board. Story changes include increased Liberty presence through DSE’s trade lane construction and Scottsdale Refinery, IMG gaining full control of Pecos, and Insidious being relocated to the southwest, closer to the new main smuggling route through the Baffin passage.

Connections to Cortez were shifted further south. On the Cortez side, the Coronado jumphole is no longer so close to Curacao. The mining field in Coronado has remained in nearly the same place. Patrol and trade paths were added for all relevant factions in Coronado. Additional features, such as the central comet, minor exploration bits, and improved nebula visuals, were also done. Overall, the focus remained on enhancing quality across the board.

Final Thoughts

The systems team is doing well at the moment. We are content and looking forward to focusing on new projects in 5.3, including bringing back some old systems (can you guess which ones?) and addition of more exploration content—this time with fewer instakills, I promise. Whatever we do, you can expect us to maintain our pattern: focus on quality, with work such as patrol paths, story elements represented through systems, well-executed visuals, and so on.

We invite you to give us feedback on the systems changes and the team, looking back at 5.1 and 5.2 since we’ve been working together. We appreciate it. Thank you for your attention.