Armed space stations?

[Canefox]

A little detail I've been wondering but I haven't seen specifically mentioned is if space stations themselves can be armed with weapons. I always found it annoying when my stations come under attack I'd have to send a squad of fighters to go take care of them. I mean sure there are laser towers though I always found them unreliable OOS. I also found it disappointing and cheap that all I had to do to destroy a space station was to just park my corvette with as many turrets facing it and fire away. Sure it took some time, but the minor police patrols they threw at me seemed like an underwhelming response to an attack costing many lives and millions of credits.

I'd like to see armed and dangerous station in Rebirth. Given their daunting size this time around, it surely would make for some epic battles. Also I like the idea of creating a station completely focused on combat, a battle platform in a highly contested area of space.

[edit] Oh wait, derf :B Reading it over again it did mention turrets. Guess that answers my question. Though I still wonder if you can make a station that isn't a factory at all but a dedicated battle station

[Kor'ah]

For stations it seems like we're going to get the kind of freedom we could only dream about in the prior X games. I'm sure there will be some limitations with this mechanic, but it does look like anything is possible with enough credits now.

[Sareth01]

From what i've been reading and seeing on the forums it looks like you can have a well fortified station.

I Always wanted a military base of my own, imagine the fun of building one in a dangerous sector and having to fight off enemy ships with your fleet while it is under construction!

It sure would be nice to feel like Emperor Palpatine .

Makes me wonder if/what super weapons would be in game, and whether capitals or stations would be able to mount them.

Having armed stations in general will add a whole new level to combat, as long as they are relevant in a capital ship confrontation. I would like to think that a fully fortified, well stocked and fully invested station should be strong enough to deal with some very tough customers.

Can't wait to hear more on this!

[Canefox]

Hell yah! I would love a floating space fort to my own. I doubt there will be any "super weapons," like one shot killers, though it would make sense that a highly fortified space station could be more than a match for at least a couple capital ships. Also from that I'm sort of guessing by the way capital ships are built now, the lines between M7, M2, and M1s seem to be blurred. If you really can build your own capitals from the ground up you can probably mix and match capabilities of all these ships however you want. Wouldn't be surprised if the old ship classification system had been thrown out all together.

[caleb]

"That's not a moon, it's a battlestation!"

I would love that. Stations are modular now, so maybe Egosoft could add a military module? just a module with additional weapons/shield platforms? That would rock

[Mightysword]

In the interview I pretty sure one of the option in expanding your station module is also include defense, so yeah it's in.

I wonder if we can build our own weapon platform now.

[Kitty]

Read again the sticky subject. Unless I'm not as good in english as I hope, it is clearly stated that there will be weapon modules for stations.
And find it GREAT.

[A5PECT]

Kitty's right. (Looky here)

Expansions - Going into detail

On top of that modules can also be expanded.
The surface elements that we described in the ships and stations section, all play an important role for your own stations as well.
Invest in turrets, equip the surface of your station with shield generators and add more capabilities to your station by building more things on the surface of your station.

[Treelor]

I would like to have a station that bears nothing but missile turrets.

Long range spammy pew pew missile death.

[Virtualaughing]

Not to mention that some "epic" sized turrets on your factories to take care of hostile capitals. The whole concept of lasertower is just lame IMO. However i have found an alternative way to use lasertowers in huge fights as decoys like fighter drones. Another way is when you wanna clear an area from mini asteroids in dark sectors. I like to use LT as arrow to the direction has to be cleared of mini asteroids....

[ragamer]

What I'm wondering if the AI will be smart enough to exploit blind spots on the station weapon array as a player would do...

...And if the Turret AI will be smart enough to avoid shooting the station itself.

Or at least if we will be able to script things like this .

[Bobucles]

...And if the Turret AI will be smart enough to avoid shooting the station itself.

Since a station doesn't move, a turret only needs to care about excluding self fire from its targeting arcs. This is something that can be figured at turret placement, or when the station changes shape.

If a station has a complex shape, this can be pretty difficult to figure out. What if a turret's arc sweeps right through a length of tubing, or something like that? I guess we'll have to wait and see how stations come together.

[Syock]

I would be amazed if they allow suicidal stations to go retail.

[heratik]

I would be amazed if they allow suicidal stations to go retail.

"Your station was destroyed by...Your station"

[caleb]

I would like to have a station that bears nothing but missile turrets.

Long range spammy pew pew missile death.

Even better, a missile manufacturing station with just missile launchers. Never run out of ammo!!

[ragamer]

I would be amazed if they allow suicidal stations to go retail.

And I can tell you that it will be mostly the case...

...A constant on the entire X's series was the complete lack of attention to Friendly Fire on the "Vanilla" Turret code... Something painfully easy to exploit against the Xenons.

I understand the reassons, too much CPU power investment... That's why I think it will be highly likely that, due to the complexity of some of the modules already shown on some SS, Station turrets can be triggering FF regularly. For example:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y7BgzhXecA0/T ... 81ou57.jpg

This one that looks like a Solar Power Module (akin to the SPPs on previous X's) has the kind of geometry EASILY exploitable as cover by a player fighter (Specially if it's capable of the powerfull strafing of previous X's games) against the owning station turrets placed somewhere else.

I wouldn't be surprised if they used the simple solution (but unrealistic) of simply making the sations immune to damage of shots of their turrets (Which is far less CPU intensive). Something similar may happen to Rocket turrets that, without any doubt will not even require complex geometry for a player to use missiles against the owning station.

Added to this they can also deactivate collision detection against the owning stations for those shots... Which would remove the chance to use the station geomethry as cover (Notice that turret arc could still prevent it to shoot at targets out of it... But that makes sense and still a tactial option attackers and defenders should pay attention to).

[Bobucles]

I wouldn't be surprised if they used the simple solution (but unrealistic) of simply making the sations immune to damage of shots of their turrets (Which is far less CPU intensive)

Actually, the least CPU intensive would probably be to figure out and adjust the firing arcs BEFORE the station ever opens fire. It's not like stations are going to move! If the station suddenly finds itself with new, open firing arcs (because obstructing modules blew up/tractor beam shenanigans), then it's up to the station to shut their weapons down and reboot their systems.

Of course, there are other mechanics that could be added in, like:
- reduced self damage (shield modulation/magic/etc!)
- specialized short range defense weapons (flak/rapid fire/etc.)
- tractor weapons (to pull ships around, better firing arcs)
- missile spam
- Or just tank it, because popping tiny ships is worth a little damage.

[ragamer]

Actually, the least CPU intensive would probably be to figure out and adjust the firing arcs BEFORE the station ever opens fire. It's not like stations are going to move!

Oh... the question is... When you do this? How you calculate it?... Performing a kind of "ray tracing" into a "mesh" of angular coordinates you divide the whole firing arc into? This is what's done usually, you calculate a "firing allowed mask" you check each time before opening fire (The "angular size" of each element of the mask is usually controlled by the deviation of the proyectile shot, in particular by half the angular area).

This "mask" although has to be updated each time you add/remove a module to your station, the max range/max deviation of the mounted weapon changes and ofc each time you move/create any surface element. Notice that this process has to be repeated on EACH turret, each time any of the former changes happen.

But the above process can't help you at all with Rocket turrets...

...I would love to see something like the above implemented but...

...Don't you think that the "no collision" or the "no damage" dirty tricks will be much much much easier and will get rid of the potential "urge" of players attempting this kind of "tactics"? Which is the final goal, anyway (From Dev PoV, ofc... Not from the "realism lovers" like me).

[EmperorJon]

I was going to mention that... if a missile launcher needs some sort of universal missle ammo (Or even not, maybe they're customisable more) surely a station which PRODUCES these would be awesome, especially if you then get to sell it off to all the heavily defended stations in the area.

[brucewarren]

I get the impression it will also be possible to upgrade the station sensors
to cover a larger area.

Combined with long range missile production and turrets. I'd build me a
serious starbase and blockade everyone I didn't like.

Do we know if our stations can be towed? I'd like to build it out of harms
way and move it into place later.