GCU Grey Area wrote: ↑Sat, 10. Feb 24, 17:24
Not terrible idea, have played several games over the years which allowed energy to be moved between engines, shields & weapons as needed. Was always quite a fun mechanic. However, weapon energy -> boost would not work particularly well for the the way I use boosters in X4. Mostly use boost to minimise incoming fire while flying towards an enemy (rather than for running away). Would not be helpful to get on the tail of an enemy only to find that my guns would not shoot because all their energy had been boosted away. That's precisely the time when I need weapon energy the most & somewhat depleted shields are of far less importance because the enemy's guns are now pointed in entirely the wrong direction. Perhaps there should be a key (or configurable setting for AI ships) to control where boosters are drawing their energy from?
I do agree with much of what you're saying, however, drawing on weapons power vs. shield power was just a compromise. For me, a fully separate boost pool makes far more sense.
Here's the thing, dog fighting - or general combat in S and M-Class ships - can be quite fun. However, it's appeal is limited because
it is limited, there's little finesse. As a player, we have some advantages - mainly that we can strafe reliably, whereas the AI really doesn't so much. As such, I usually don't fly smaller ships myself, once I have something better. At the moment, I tend to sit on one of my Carriers or Destroyers and watch them do their thing. I might jump into a smaller ship to go somewhere - I have teleportation now, so that'll only ever be to a Faction station - such as to speak to a Faction Rep or some mission-related thing, but I'm not dog-fighting.
I think developing the tactics and tools available to "Fighter Pilot" style play would be a real boon to gameplay. Deeper mechanics - such as the separate boost energy pool - and perhaps even a limited ability to bias Engines / Weapons / Shield like in many other games, might make this aspect of the game significantly more engaging. I for one would love that.
The scale and range of things you can do in X4 is vast but, sometimes, it perhaps leaves some aspects feeling underdeveloped. This isn't a slight towards the devs, but just the nature of such a wide and ambitious title as X4. However, that doesn't mean it wouldn't benefit from changes.
For me personally, changing how boost works - separate energy pool - would be quite transformative to how I play. Currently, in face-paced combat, once you're shields are down, your options are limited. You can go evasive and hope to buy enough time without being hit to engage travel drives and flee. What you cannot do however is a quick boost away and return.
Now, for transparency, I play using the VRO Mod. This means projectile speeds are a lot faster and more likely to hit, making regular evasive flying somewhat less effective. It still works, but you perhaps need a little more distance from what's shooting at you due to shot speeds. To balance this, shields are better, but charge more slowly, yet are not subject to the shield recharge delay after being it. This make fighter combat much more visceral and intense, as a mistake can more readily lead to death. I love it, game is MUCH harder. No more starting Elite Vanguard, force a Corvette to bail - new ship, first few minutes of gameplay. No that starting ship would be owned by such a vessel. Player skill and advantages (strafe) are a factor sure, but ship class is much more significant. If a Fighter that'd lost shields and was taking hull damage was
still able to boost, it'd be transformative. Additionally of course, this would add to the repertoire of moves for all AI Pilots, making battles that much more interesting.
What Ships / Engines
should have this separate boost pool? Should it apply to all ships? Should it be just military ships, or should it solely depend on what Engines and Thrusters are fitted? Any sort of boost behaviour lends its self better to smaller ships, and that's what I'd embrace for this mechanic if it were me.
Currently, there are other issues with ship AI and combat. The most glaring one for me is with my Carrier-Launched Fighters. Generally, these work GREAT. They engage travel drives instantly, arrive NEAR the target, their ability to get into the fight is near flawless. Once engaged the Pilot's level has a noticeable impact of their performance. In numbers - I generally have a dozen per Intercept wing - they gang up on enemies fantastically. However, their major weakness is how they behave when being shot. Initially, with a reasonably good pilot at least, they'll go evasive. That spiral pattern they do is very effective at avoiding fire, even with VRO's faster projectile speed. Not so good vs. beams of course. It's when they hit that "I'm damaged enough to flee" stage that things break. Sadly, something is a bit messed up here. I'd say that most of my Carrier-Launched Fighter losses are due to this... When a ship decides it's going to flee, it doesn't just flee, it comes to a dead stop, sits there for a moment and only
then actually starts to flee. However, in intense fighter vs. fighter combat that's too long. From a player perspective, it simply looks like my ship gives up. It's in a fight, it gets hit a few times, then it slows to a stop and dies quickly. THIS behaviour certainly needs to be addressed, as it's nothing short of broken currently.
With this current weakness / bug in the AI, a boost pool that does not rely on that (depleted) shield might help. If a ship could just BOOST at that "shall I flee?" moment, it'd buy it some time at least. Perhaps it still needs to flee, but that boost had allowed it to escape immediate death, and time to calculate that escape vector, if it still decides it needs it.
I would LOVE boost to have its own capacitor / energy pool / fuel tank, call it what you will. This would be great for smaller ships. For Capital Ships, well, if they had their own "emergency" boost pool, that gave them a decent turn of speed BUT took a long time to recharge, that might be viable. How boost works currently though, it's largely pointless in my view.