There hasn't been much discussion on ion storms, radiation zones (at least from what I see on the Medical Officer skill thread) and all the asteroids and planets seen in the screenshots. Vesuvius (I guess this threat is meant for you) is it possible for you to give more details?
Curious about this too. All the images I see posted around shows 'environments' that must have effects on ships.
I hadn't answered this query because I wanted to build a nice page for it, here it is, it should cover all the details
For radiation, when its says 1 damage to all sides, does that mean that you're essentially getting 6 damage since there's six sides to your ship/hex? And in the level1 radiation case, if you have 1/1/1/1/1/1 powered to your shields, would that mean you don't receive the effects of the radiation?
Hexxx: There's so many planet/moon/asteroid varieties I cannot count. About a dozen unique objects. Ob1: Your force fields will absorb the damage, but you'd have to recharge it every round. Yes, if you went into a radiation I zone and didn't have any force fields active, you'd get 6 damage per round... so radiation zones are best avoided unless you have to go through them for tactical reasons -- of course you do have an advantage if your science officer has the skill.
Later in development, I hope to have objects like the asteroids and even one-hex sized moons be destructible. Otherwise all objects and environments are indestructible.
So essentially don't go into level 4 radiation unless you're suicidal or have a lot of hitpoints to kill. What happens if a place is full of ship debris, wouldn't that create a large area of obstacles?
Indeed if the ship wreckage stayed in place, it could mean a lot of barriers, and some people could game the system by creating a 'wall' of destroyed ships. The wreckage will actually 'dissipate' after 20 rounds, or when all combat is over.
The level of detail on this stuff is pretty nice for an indie game, I must admit. UBIsoft should take notice.
I do have a technical question. If the combat is turn-based, does these environmental effects hit you at the beginning of the turn or at the end of it? Also if youre on the outside of a nebula, do you see an opponent that is inside it?
There is another option. Environmental effects could be 'click' based. This would be some arbitrary number or portion of time. Therefore smaller, nimbler ships may get away with less damage (and more decisive captains can also minimise damage over dawdlers), whilst removing the 'gaming the game' mechanic of being just outside the effect at the start of your turn, entering, maybe going through combat, and exiting the effect before the end of the turn so counting as if you had never been in the effect at all. This is also true of vessels just speeding through an effect just to gain the tactical advantage of putting the effect between them and an enemy. Running vessel starts turn on same side of effect as pursuer, moves all the way through the effect without damage, and ends it's turn on the other side where the enemy can't see/shoot it - possibly ready to shoot the pursuing vessel as it exits the effect either blind, defenceless, or worse.
To Sarah, the effects vary: In Ion Storms and Nebula the force field and sensor disabling is instant. As for radiation, you get hit at the end of the round before allocation round. Player turns invisible to outside players' sensors inside a nebula, just as the person in the nebula is. 'Visibility/detection' ends up being at 4 hex range. So Coser, you are correct about the radiation, where you could in theory cross right through it without taking damage.
Since we know now that ion storms disable the force fields, some genari ships and hive ships would probably prefer to battle on maps that have a lot of nebula in them. Is there going to be maps where the entire space is nebula or ion storm etc.?
Yes, there will be maps where a significant portion of it is dominated by one environment or another. There will be a huge variety of maps/battlefields (since we're talking about at least 100 sectors on a medium galaxy map).
