Combat easy mode by limiting opponent thruster power

[Bugbear]

Hi all,
I want to have a crack at improving my combat abilities and I was thinking that a simple way of doing that would be to limit the thruster output of my opponents.

Could anyone give me a pointer as to where in the code would be an appropriate place to insert a multiplier of sorts that could be used to nerf my opponent's maneuverability?

Cheers

[bszlrd]

Hmm, maybe create a thruster equipment that reduces performance (look for bespoke thrusters among the equipment for an example), and find the lua code that generates pirates/attackers, and make them add that equipment to their ships?

[FluffyFreak]

Looks around https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pion ... p.cpp#L558
and in https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pion ... t.lua#L761

"thruster_power" gets "_cap" appended when it's loaded I think so they're the same values :)

[FluffyFreak]

It's all a bit kludgey but I wanted something quick and simple, also the AI probably won't fly well with it

[kennworl]

Another approach might be to get the pirate generator to add weight to the ships. That would have the same effect would it not? Would the AI cope better with that?

[bszlrd]

The main problem is that the thrusts are quite different. Like even if you would fully load, a Wave, Sinonatrix, or Pumpkinseed it would still accelerate better than most of the ships even if they are emtpy. Same with decreasing thrust on the fly. You would need to do quite of reducing to have an effect on some ships, but the same amount would cripple others.
Right now the best acceleration is about 20G full /10G emtpy, (Wave) and the worse is 1.4G/0.6G for the Bluenose. That's way too much difference in my opinion.

Really, the game needs a rebalance. And possibly an upper limit to acceleration in general. Like if your ship would be able to pull 6G empty, even then it won't be "allowed", only the 4G it's rated to. (in-game reasoning: ship structure and squishy crew won't like too much of 6G acceleration)