COUNTDOWN TO MISSILE LAUNCH
by Hazed
Alan is still working on the code to launch missiles – as I explained last week, testing it is a laborious task. But it’s nearly ready and should be in the game sometime in the next few weeks.
Fighting is going to be an expensive, not to mention dangerous, pastime, but for a short period after the code goes in you will be able to fight without risking life or wallet. First, your hull strength won’t go below zero, so you won’t actually die if you get on the losing end of a barrage of missiles. Second, ship repairs will continue to be free so patching up all the damage won’t cost you. Both of those benefits will be removed once all the code is finished and you’ve had a chance to experiment with it – but I’ll warn you before that happens.
If all your ship’s defensive strategies fail, and it does get hit by a missile, the hull will take damage. One or more ship’s components may get hit as well – computers, shields, engines, sensors and jammers and so on (it’s theoretically possible that all of them will get hit, but very unlikely). In most cases, a hit means reducing the power or strength of the component, except for sensors and jammers which if hit are destroyed completely.
The computer level can never go below 1 no matter how many times it takes damage. The rationale for this is that the computer is distributed, and has redundancy. Sufficient hits to take it out completely implies that the hull is completely destroyed, and the player is dead.
Full details of how it all works will be in the next issue of the Star, in two weeks’ time.
