Bay 12 Games Forum

I wish for a MMORPG set in the Mass Effect universe. The two main factions would be Council Space and the Terminus Systems, but any playable species can join either (or some other) faction. The classes are pre-defined, and any player species can become any class, but each species has strengths and weaknesses.

Human: General jack-of-all-trades.
Asari: High biotic potential.
Turian: Skilled soldiers and leaders.
Salarian: Tend towards finesse rather than firepower or strength.
Krogan: Raw power and toughness.
Quarian: High shield strength, tech experts.
Batarian: Shrewd and sneaky.

There would be nothing stopping a quarian from becoming a berserker, or a krogan becoming a healing class, though they might not be as effective at those jobs as other races. Roleplay would be the key here.

Quote from: Sirus on October 12, 2011, 09:15:54 pm

Three other weapons:

Gauss are basically the machine pistols of space warfare. They have piss-poor range and are among the least damaging weapons in the game. BUT, they require no ammo or power reactor, which saves space, and they also have the best fire rate in the game; high-tech gauss guns can fire off like 10 rounds in a single turn in combat, each.

Particle beams are kinda like sniper rifles. They easily have the best range of beam weapons, even low-tech versions having a range of over 100,000km. I'm pretty sure that they do not lose damage with distance, either.

Plasma carronades are like shotguns. They typically have short range and high recharge times. On the other hand, they easily provide the most damage per shot amongst beam weapons.

Actually, Particle beams are some of the shortest range beam weapons when it comes to capital ships, since they have a fixed range regardless of size. Normally a 20cm laser will have a much longer range than a 12cm laser, but a huge battleship based particle beam has the same range as a tiny one on a fighter.

What about the techs that increase a PB's range? You start at like 50k km, then 100, and from there I don't even remember what they extend to (though I believe they pass the million mark at some point).

Seems to me like PBs would make an excellent standard gun for your fleet. If each ship has at least one, you can easily synchronize your fire for a devastating volley.

Three other weapons:

Gauss are basically the machine pistols of space warfare. They have piss-poor range and are among the least damaging weapons in the game. BUT, they require no ammo or power reactor, which saves space, and they also have the best fire rate in the game; high-tech gauss guns can fire off like 10 rounds in a single turn in combat, each.

Particle beams are kinda like sniper rifles. They easily have the best range of beam weapons, even low-tech versions having a range of over 100,000km. I'm pretty sure that they do not lose damage with distance, either.

Plasma carronades are like shotguns. They typically have short range and high recharge times. On the other hand, they easily provide the most damage per shot amongst beam weapons.

Quote from: Sirus on October 11, 2011, 02:42:57 pm

Quote from: Flying Dice on October 11, 2011, 02:36:17 pm

Quote from: Sirus on October 10, 2011, 10:33:27 pm

Quote from: Sowelu on October 10, 2011, 10:28:37 pm

Effects of nebulas, from http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/topic,965.0.html :

- No missiles.  Period.
- No shields.  Period.
- Passive sensor strength is divided by nebula level.
- Active sensor strength is divided by nebula level.
- Chance to hit with beam fire controls is divided by nebula level.
- Max ship speed is (2500km/s / nebula level) * ship armor level.  So, a level II nebula limits an armor-1 ship to 1250km/s.

Also the planet generation might be different.

...Y'know, I think I'll just delete nebula from now on. There doesn't seem to be a single upside to them, but a hell of a lot of downsides.

They're excellent static defenses. Just drop some beam-armed warships with really heavy armor on the JPs and your enemies will have a really tough time breaking through.

What if they just fly past? Or ram your ships?

If they fly past, you get a bunch of free hits and you now have forces cutting off their escape while your defenses on the other side know they're coming and you can shred them during their jump disorientation.

Er, you might not get ANY hits at all. And if you neglected defenses in the next system in line, hoping your awesome nebula would hold off all challengers, then you're pretty much screwed.

Another thing is that nebulae usually cover a whole bunch of adjacent systems. I have about 10 nebula systems all adjacent to each other in my current game.

Considering that real nebula can span hundreds of lightyears, I say this is a plus in the realism department.

I for one applaud RedKing for trying a tactic other than missile spam, especially such an unorthodox tactic as MORE DAKKA.

I was really looking forward to Serendipity, but this...

Please release this one. I shall name my first-born after you and become your personal barbershop quartet if you do.

EDIT: Ok, after looking over the rest of the thread and the OP, I have a few questions:
FTL capabilities, or strictly in-system travel?
Will there be some sort of combat engine?
How many different locations are you hoping for in the first testing release?
Will there be any sort of ship customization?

Why do you need mods for a lighthouse? I can see one being made with pistons and lava, or just the lava if you want the light to shine in all directions.