Praesus Lecti
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Posted - 2006.02.16 20:47:00 -
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Why are object (ships, stations, gates, asteroids, debris, etc) only solid when it comes to collision detection but not solid when it comes to blocking someone's ability to shoot at me and/or target me?
Every object needs to be solid in that you can't fly through it, shoot through it or target though it. If I am in my frigate weaving in and out of asteroid in some belt and a battleship warps in, he can target me and start shooting at me with complete disregard to any and all objects between his ship and my own. Imagine the tactical possiblities if you could truly use the environment to your advantage. Escaping a fight, for example, would not be limited to just trying to warp away. You could maneuver around some asteroids (or other ships for that matter) to block the shots from the aggressor.
For that matter, if I'm in a ship sitting still on the far side of a HUGE asteroid and another ship warps in and is positioned so that the asteroid is between him and me, he can see me on the overview, but cannot target me. No line of sight exists. He will know I'm out there somewhere, but clicking on the overview will allow a target lock. I am essentially hidden from him until either him or I move enough to directy see each other. Once he does get a lock, the lock stays..I'm more than fine with that, but the overview right now is basically a targeting version of god-mode...the all seeing eye.
What he can do to target me, without having to move, would be to move his camera to an asteroid and pan around. If at any point his camera view sees my ship, he can target me. If the asteroid still blocks his LoS though, he can't shoot me.
This should apply to ships as well. Positioning a battleship between 2 attacking Frigates would block their LoS and stop their weapons from firing. Once the LoS is restored, the ships can resume firing.
This is entirely feasable to implement because all these objects already have solid boundaries. It's a simple matter of the system drawing a line between the objects and if the line intersects a solid object the weapons stop firing.
Tactics would reach new highs to say the least, something this game desperately needs. So far the only valid tactic is to blob-lag your opponent so you can shoot them without resistance.
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