Topic Title

Hi all,

I had a lot of fun during the ship competition in december 2015, I first want to thanks for the organisation of such event The submission week was a quite busy week (irl), and I had little time to perfect my submission after I created the concept (like half of the week) and the visual (the other half of the week). So as works should never be left unfinished, I continued to work on those ships, and I will use this post to present their final version. In order not to interfere with the on-going competition, I will post the re-work after the end of the competition (well, I can post the visual, I don't think this will have any consequences seeing that Venon or Engineer will win )

Here is a first post to see the finished design: in order to get a transparent back-ground, I removed the blurring that I had on my ships. Also the design of the Starbite was the most challenging, because I need a ship able to go both way and still looking nice, so I rework it a lot. The first line are my new ships, form left to right: Astrophage, Blue Bell, and Starbite.

Size example.png (225.26 KiB) Viewed 11571 times

Before the real descriptions, here are some thought about each idea:

Astrophage: the idea was to create a ship which looks like a bacteria, quickly feeding from one place to another, and dying if there were nothing to eat. As making the astrophage always lose points as soon as it was moving would have been impractical, I limited losing hp to the first weapons, which allows to fly quickly though space. Also, this ship will take possession of an area by leaving a slime trail all over the place: the slime allows it to go quick, and allows also the rest of its team to go fast. Could be really funny if you play in team, and make so kind of "space highway" for your team-mate. The drawback is that if you just normally fly through space, you are slow, or you have to use your first weapon and lose hp.

Blue bell: I already discuss this for the challenge, but this ship allows you to create safe zone for you and your team-mate. The last weapon can be fun to pause the combat a bit (people will have to learn to dodge it).

Starbite: at first, I wanted to create a concept of a fleet of ships = you fly 3 ships at a time, each having its own hp and shield (so you die if all 3 ships were killed). I wanted to looks them like fishes, able to attack quickly the target by charging it, and also able to instantly go on the other direction without losing speed or having to turn. But having 3 ships would be to difficult to pilot, so I created the Starbite with a decoy technology: an enemy should have trouble to know which ship to attack, allowing you to get close in order to charge the enemy. Of course the main point of this ship is that it's able to reverse its speed, allowing new kind of flying pattern and techniques. Would be probably very fun.

The next 3 posts are reserved for the rework description of the ships/techniques.

Design:

AstrophageNoBlur_small_transparent.png (1.89 KiB) Viewed 11550 times

or

AstrophageNoBlur2_small_transparent.png (1.98 KiB) Viewed 11442 times

This ship has the same engine tail as the medic ship.

Description:

A mad scientist crosses macrophages with jagged stars, and decided to tame the beast. He partially succeed, making a semi-leaving vessel able to fly though space. This ship makes space a gliding -slimy- place.

Stats:

Health: 9
Armor: 4
Shield: 4
Shield regen: 7

Cost: 3900 flux

Specialities:

+30% corro
+30% kinetic
+30% increase attack speed
+30% maximum power

The ship comes with armor at level 6.

Special: this ship leaves behind it a slime trail (look like acid spray, but the spam pattern is like flame trail), that last 30 seconds. If this ship, or any members of its group, enter an area with this green trail, it receive a bonus of 15% of its speed (added to the ship bonus).

This green trail is considered a sort of slime, and can be cleaned with nova. The slime stays even after the death of the astrophage.

To be clear: when the macrophage fly normally through space, it does not have any speed bonus (so it will be slower than most ships). Reentering an area where it already was will however allow it to go fast. Also, its team-mate will benefit from this speed bonus, if they follow it for instance. This can allow the macrophage to create space "highway" to speed up his whole team.

Optional: if a foe enter the green trail (slime area), its speed will be reduced by 5%: the slime will attack the enemy vessel, not enough to deal damage, but enough to slow it down.

Special: This ship is not able to use teleport technology !

Weapons:

1/ Hyper slime

When activate, this weapons will speed up the astrophage by a maximum of 5%, and create a larger slime area that will create a slime in front of the player, allowing him to gain the slime speed bonus: the ship will gain a total of 5 + 15 = 20% speed.

Using this weapon (ability) will almost cost no power, but will consume shield (then hp) of the ship. In other words: as long as you use this weapon, your ship will lose 15% of its hp per per second.

Elite tech:
- increase by 5% the speed gained by hyper slime (total = 25%)
- reduce dot damage
- increase slime area (useful when used for team-mate)

This weapon can't be copied.

2/ Phagocyting

The living part of the ship will eat anything around it. This weapon as very close range, attack with 80% of jaw damage with 15% leech component.

This weapon can't be copied.

Elite tech:
- increase direct damage
- increase leeching
- increase rate of fire
- reduce power cost

3/ Thorn Storm

Shoot in a circle pikes that will pierce enemies. Each bullet as almost the same base damage as the piercing gun, slightly lower, but they are piercing. It's a corrosive + kinetic weapon. Graphically, it's the same as the Jagged star attack, but the bullets are grey. Caracteristics are quite similar to the attack of the jagged star.

Elite tech:
- increase damage
- increase range
- increase bullet speed
- increase rate of fire

In action: [I'll had the weapons if I have time]

TrailAstrophage.png (158.96 KiB) Viewed 11465 times

Design:

BlueBellNoBlur_transparent.png (2.46 KiB) Viewed 11550 times

Size: same as judi (the hull is roughly the size of EE)
The ship engine trail is the same than Eagle Eye (same color, length). It starts from both side of the tail.
Paint job allows different colors for the hull and the shield on the sides (or whatever, as long as people can have fun with the colors...)

Description:

It's been said that the ships's name comes from the last sound heard by the survivors of an attack of that ship. A bell sound, a blue flash, then all went silence and darkness.

Stat:

Health: 4
Armor: 10 (same as queen)
Shield: 10 (same as retro)
Regen: 0

This ship uses a very rare technology able to make the shield enforces the ship's armor. It can also project its shield in space, to create a safety zone that will temporary protect its hull. When bypassed, the technology will create an explosion of electrostatic shockwave, that will temporary disrupt electronics components of all ships in the vicinity. Unfortunately, it’s also affect the main ship, and this technology tampered the base shield regeneration circuit, so the base shield regeneration of this ship is null.

Cost: 4500 flux

Speciality:

+6% speed
+50% energy damage
+5% power regen
+20% maximum power

This ship comes with shield at level 6, and engine at level 2.

Weapons:

BlueBellWeap_transparent.png (2.74 KiB) Viewed 11442 times

1/ Shield dome

Visual: this weapon is charged like a nuke, but creates a blue smoke while charging. When released, it creates a small shield dome at the position of the player, which as the same graphic than a safe zone but is more blue.

This shield dome is considered like a pet which cannot move. After been released, it will stay in position, even if the player goes away. This dome is only a shield: the amount of shield depends on how long the weapon is charged: 100 power = 100% shield, with the same amount of a retro. 200 power = 200% retro shield. This base amount is then affected by the %shield from the player arts, ship bonus, shield tech and elite tech, but not the convert arts ! It possesses a 35% damage reduction like other shield, and has the same resistances as the player.

Every second, the shield will decay and lose 10% of its hp (starting after 1 second): after 10 seconds, the shield would spontaneously vanish, or when the shield hp reaches 0.

While the player, or any members grouped with him, is inside the shield, they can't be targeted, even with piercing of aoe weapons (but will continue to be affected by any dots gotten prior to be protected by the shield). Nuke from regius will destroy the shield dome, but the player will be safe (once). The players inside the shield can still shoot. Visually, the protected players have a kind of blue aura.

This weapon has a 30 second cooldown, and its base cost is 100 power (both can be decrease via increase attack speed). It is not affected by gravity. One player cannot create more than one shield dome at a time.

If an enemy touches the dome, it will be hurt as if it was hurt by a beamer: it's a cumulative direct damage that will be applied as long as an enemy is in contact with the dome, but will instantaneously stop as soon as the contact is broken (enemy moving away, or dome breaking down). The %damage of the player affects the damage of the dome.

Example of the shield value of the dome at level 120:
- It has a base of 24.2k shield with level 6 shield, and up to 48.4k with elite tech.
- With 200% shield via arts, it gives you 145k shield.
- With 500% shield via arts (tank mode), it gives you 290k shield
Waiting until power max (170 power), you can get a factor 1.7 to those values, so you can get up to 247k with a 200% arts config, and 494k with 500%.
Side note: we should monitor the value of the dome in order to get it balanced. I think the values here should be good enough to actually be worth using, without been too powerful. But maybe it shouldn't take into account the elite tech of the shield stat of the ship. Remember that this dome force you not to move in order to stay inside, which will greatly impair you damage capabilities, and the dome is a really easy target for high dps weapons Using resistances make it less powerfull in pvp than pve.

Elite tech:
- increase area.
- decrease the decay value of the dome: the dome will last longer, up to 20 sec.
- increase dome damage.
- decrease dome cooldown.
- decrease power consumption.

PS: if this weapon becomes copiable, the base value of the shield dome should be the same as the base value of the ship. Blue bell as the same shield as the retro, so those values stand, but using dps ships you shouldn’t be able to reach that kind of values.

2/ Little twinkle

Visual: its shooting pattern is the same as broadside, but each missile is the same as the missile of plasma gun, but then in dark blue.

This weapon replaces the blaster for this ship. It shoots sideway, has the same range and pattern as the broadside, and also the same power consumption. On impact, slightly less damage than plasma gun, and also has a dot component (70% of plasma gun dot, per bullet). Because fewer bullets reach the target, it takes longer to build high dot, but the range and lower power consumption compensate for this drawback. Shooting sideway is also more complicated than plasma gun at close range, but this weapon can hit multiple targets at a time.

It sounds like very small twinkles.

Elite tech:
- dot value
- add 100% corrosive damage (and dot damage)
- increase rof
- decrease power consumption
- increase bullet speed

This weapon can be copied.

3/ Electrowave

Visual: the bullet in itself looks like a mine, with a blue core instead of a red one. It is created at the center of the ship, and won't move after it is dropped. After 2 seconds, it will automatically explode with a shockwave like a nuke, which visually looks blue (instead of the yellowish color of nuke shockwave). The shockwave has the same range/speed than a nuke.

This weapon needs one second of channeling to be released correctly. It doesn't deal damage. Instead, every ships (including the player who dropped the weapon) and enemies caught by the shockwave will be unable to shoot/move/turn/use abilities for 2 seconds. This weapon removes also shield regeneration for 5 seconds (at level 6), because of the electrostatic overload created by the wave.

The ships that are caught in the explosion will continue their course depending on their inertia. They are affected by gravity and by any dots they had at the moment of the explosion. The shockwave clears missiles. The player is also affected by the explosion, and the shield dome does not offer protection to the shockwave.

Cooldown: 1min. Base power cost: 50. Both are affected by increase attack speed.

When launched, this weapon produces a very recognizable high pitch bell-like sound twice, each second after been dropped. This will give the other players 2 seconds to go away before the explosion.

Elite tech:
- increase wave speed
- decrease coolddown
- decrease power consumption
- decrease channeling time

Side note: I am all for making both 3 weapons copiable, even if it fits principally this ship design. It would be fun to see some domes and shockwaves from other ships in game.


In action: [It's just to give an idea, the tray should be better designed and I can't get the weapon right at the moment]

TrailBlueBell2.png (136.97 KiB) Viewed 11442 times

Design:

Starbite9_small2_transparent.png (3.15 KiB) Viewed 11550 times

The ship engine tail looks yellow/red, like the engines of golden heart.

Description:

While most people try to shoot bullets, the captain of this ship find shooting his ship a reasonably good solution to survive in combat. Surprisingly, it seems to actually work in most situations. The ship has an enhanced hull to survive the impact. It uses decoy technology in order to reach its target without getting killed.

Stats:

Health: 8
Armor: 10
Shield: 8
Shield regen: 2

Cost: 5100 flux

Specialities:

Kinetic damage: +100%
Power regen: +5%
Speed: +4%

Comes with Armor at level 6, and engine at level 2.

Weapons:

1/ Colllision course

The ship jump in space (speed boost of +100% for 1 second, up to 2 seconds via elite tech). During this acceleration second, and during the deceleration phase (almost same among of time than during the acceleration = 1 seconds standard, 2 seconds via elite tech), the ship will deal high deal kinetic damage to any vessel on its path: each contact will deal the damage, which is equivalent of a fully charged snowball during the acceleration phase, and will be smaller during the deceleration (like 50% of the damage). The damage does not depends on the enemy's speed.

Cooldown 5 seconds, power 50

Cannot be copied

Elite tech:
- increase duration (up to 1 second more)
- increase speed boost gain
- decrease cooldown
- increase damage done

2/ Backjump

This ship inverse its inertia: it reverse its engine, which will instantly apply a 100% speed boost on the other direction during 2 seconds standard (and 3 seconds via elite tech). In practice, the ship will go back in the direction from where it was coming. During the backjump, the ship will damage any vessel that are in contact of it's hull: see perforation technique.

In practice, this unique technique allows the owner of the vessel to instantly change direction, making a bad idea to follow it.

Cooldown 20 seconds, power 80

Cannot be copied.

Elite tech:
- decrease cooldown
- decrease power consumption
- increase speed boost gain
- increase boost duration

3/ Decoy

This weapon will create a pet that looks exactly as the player. The decoy does 10% of the damage of the player, and has 75% of it's hp/shield. The decoy will always stay in the vicinity (moving from left side to rightside) of the player, and will only teleport in order to follow the player (if the player is teleporting). The decoy will always match the players speed, and uses the same weaponry as the player.

This weapon can be copied.

Elite tech:
- Increase hp/shield of decoy
- increase damage of the decoy (5% more)
- decrease power consumption

In action: [no weapon as those have the same visual than speed boost]

TrailStarBite.png (130.79 KiB) Viewed 11442 times

Edit: ah, I can still add one image, so here is for fun a "making of" of the ship - the different models were made during the week following the contest (so it was during the voting week). Funny to look back at the first models

Evolution Starbite.png (84.58 KiB) Viewed 11442 times

Your ships are unexpectantly really big.
Where'd you get the ship spreadsheet from?

Well, I guess you are saying that the zoom here in the forum is different from the zoom in game: try to zoom / unzoom the windows of this forum until ships look the same as in-game. I don't know the resolution of your screen, and the ship size in game depends on it, but the queen or the crystal (for instance) should looks the same size in game and here.


Sizes are coming from the wiki, and I checked in-game that those were correct by using the ratio between two ships, like this for instance:

CompareSize.png (151.05 KiB) Viewed 11540 times

Edit 18 december: ok, it's done. I finalised the different ships if you want to have a look.

I will now leave those ships in peace

Thanks I am glad you like it.

Man, if that Starbite doesn't look nice............I would definitely vote in favor of the Starbite, your graphics are amazing! What software did you use?

I REALLY liked this ships,my favourite was the Starbite <3 I don't liked the Astrophage but still really cool,I want the Blue bell and the Starbite

Certainly nice work and with a lot of thought and effort put into them... And the one thing you do differently than me is use of PowerPoint and (somehow) get better graphics . I just use Paint for all my stuff... Sure the details on mine always seem to need work, but that's kinda the best I got without fussing over it...

Didn't examine all this carefully enough to comment positively or negatively, but I must say: nice work, well done.

Pretty cool.