'Cannot damage shields' DamageMode - future possibility?

posted on September 11th, 2022, 11:37 pm

A quick question for the members who understand coding/API side of FO: Do you think adding a new 'damageMode' option could be a possibility in the future? The hope in mind was a mode that does only hull damage (like mode 1) but does not bypass the shield, so if it hits a shielded ship it does no damage?

The inspiration for this was a Talarian NPC faction concept. It's said in canon their ships are inferior to federation ships, but was thinking instead of making their ships carry very low-damage weapons, they could have weapons that can only do their full damage to exposed hull, as they struggle with enemy shields?

I noticed in ODFs the 'hidden extra weapon' (with damageMode 2) apparently used for giving EPS Conduit ships like the Novas their shield bonus, which was an inspiration for this. If a new damageMode like above was possible, it may allow a similar approach for implementing weapons that are weaker against shields (Each weapon would be in two parts, with one part not able to damage shields).

Thanks for your time.

posted on September 14th, 2022, 11:21 am

You could use an explosion to do it. When a weapon hits a target, you can program in two explosions: one for hitting shields and one for hitting hull. An explosion can then drop an effect pod, and that effect pod can fire a weapon with 50 range that targets the nearest object. It's possible to end up targeting something else with shield hits, but if you coded only the hull hit to deal the damage, it should always target the ship you're hitting.

Look at the Federation Intrepid's Tricobalt special for code examples. You would just set the shieldexplosionhit to a different one that doesn't deal damage