Armed space stations?

[Zetoss]

Am I really the only one with a good answer to "simple AI for turrets"? This works with standard projectiles and dumbfire missiles:

Turret aims at enemy, fires a "ghost shot" that is invisible and does no damage and has immense speed. If the ghost hits friendly, the turret will NOT fire for about half a second, if it doesn't hit a friendly the turret will fire a real shot or burst. Repeat every half second. Covers ALL possible friendly fire scenarios in the entire imaginable gameworld with a fraction of the CPU usage of nearly any other idea.

BORING FURTHER DETAILS YOU NEED NOT READ:
To avoid 100 stupid questions the "ghost shot" is easy as pie to make from the programmers point of view, the game already always knows who is shooting who. The ghost shot can also be an exact copy of the projectile fired or a "buckshot" to reduce the odds of friendly fire even more. Seeker missiles that are not covered by this type of ghosting should automatically disarm when they get too close to a friendly so as to not harm it, the projectile is simply disabled. All of the above took me about 10 seconds to come up with so I kinda think Egosoft has already done this or something even better.

[kotorone1]

i agree with the above post.
Simple, requires almost no CPU power, and keep thing from killing themselves.
Or they might just go the route they did in X3 and let a ship shoot through itself......

[Bobucles]

Simple, requires almost no CPU power, and keep thing from killing themselves.

Doubling up every shot isn't CPU intensive?
There's also no simple way for a ghost bullet to predict if a ship CAN or WILL dodge a particular shot. If the ship dodges, the station can still shoot itself.

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.

By "rebooting" the turret systems, of course! Stations don't change shape very often (a few times per game hour, max?). So when they do change shape, THAT'S the time to figure out how their weapons work. Combat is the LAST time you want to stack up the friendly fire scripts! Tough targeting issues should be solved before the CPU finds itself short on time.

If the game can't figure it out, the weapon can be flagged for the player to solve. Sometimes planting a PPC behind a giant ore refinery is just dumb.

Ideally, stations are connected in a way where few weapons find themselves with odd obstacles or restrictive firing arcs. Simple obstacles are pretty much unavoidable as stations become more complex. But really bad component spots can find other uses like shields or short ranged flak.

I can't say much about missiles. The only remotely predictable missiles will be heavy torpedoes. Buyer beware. Replace your small missiles with flak style weapons, limit them to long range (away from the station), or pump those shields. Another option is for "missile safety" equipment that disables friendly fire missiles, minimizing damage.

[Zetoss]

Actually it doesn't even need to double every shot, it can fire one ghost and ten real shots like a supercharged phased repeater gun. As I said the "buckshot" would further reduce the likelihood of friendly fire but let's say the turret instead fires an expanding ghost shot that will pass any hostile but report if it touches a friendly, it would be nearly impossible to get friendly fire even in dogfights and it still does only need to be done once or twice a second, the rest can be full auto 30 shots a second baby! Even the engine in X3TC can handle a thousand shots a second and still get "who-hits-who" right, I really doubt an increase of 10% workload would matter.

[Myrmedon]

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.

And then charge the destroyed attacker for the goods delivered

[Bobucles]

And then charge the destroyed attacker for the goods delivered

Wasp missile x 35: 52500cr
Speed delivery: 7500cr
Littering fine x 80: 97050 cr
Trespassing x 13 : 6500cr
Unlawful disposal of radioactive waste: 20000 cr
Unlawful disposal of bio waste: 30000 cr
Failing to recycle common materials x 28 : 2100 cr
Overdue for Vehicle inspection: 1000 cr
Failed vehicle inspection: 2000 cr
Body disposal fee: 5000cr
Other punitive damages: 8720 cr
Other fines : 1360 cr
Subtotal: 233730 cr
Sales tax(15%): 35059.5 cr

Total: 268789.5 cr

Pay up.

[Myrmedon]

Woah Bobucles, you forgot the Department of motor spaceships excise tax on the fuel consumption during the action and during cleanup.

But that list right there is more of a deterrent than any gun platform, where is the profit in attacking the station? Darn expensive proposition!