Random event: rogue comet

[NerdyVampire]

Stellar Corporate Conglomerate Update (low-medium pop only)

Rogue Comet Alert

Long-range sensors have picked up a large comet entering your sector. Collision with this comet is expected to incur severe hull damage. Evasion is recommended.

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Stellar Corporate Conglomerate Update (high pop only)

Rogue Comet Swarm Alert

Long-range sensors have picked up a swarm of large comets entering your sector. Collisions with these comets are expected to incur severe hull damage. Evasion is recommended.

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It would work like this:

• Event may activate at the earliest ~20 minutes into the round, if bridge crew/OM/XO/Captain/AI are active plus engineering/operation staff (for thrusters OR ship weapons).
• Comets spawn at the opposite side of the sector from the Horizon
• Each comet is assigned a random vector towards the Horizon's half (but not necessarily the Horizon itself).
• Comets can only collide with vessels. Comets has a slow movement speed.
• It will be the responsibility of a bridge crewman (or similar) to use the sensors to locate and extrapolate a projected course of the comet(s), moving the Horizon out of the way and/or shooting them down as they come within range.
• Shields can reduce collision damage, but it should not avoid it entirely (otherwise there is no real motivation to evade them).

Argument:

• This will make space a little more dangerous again (who is afraid of hazards / ghost roles these days?)
• It will provide some more gameplay and responsibility for bridge crewmen
• It will provide some PvE action for engineering if they actually hit us.
• It can give ghost-role players an excuse to interact with the Horizon, if they get hit they can request emergency repair/extraction/medical aid.

Edited August 23 by NerdyVampire
clarity

[Roostercat]

this has the potential to just delete third party ships doesn't it

[NerdyVampire]

9 hours ago, Roostercat said:

this has the potential to just delete third party ships doesn't it

That's an important point, but I see a possible solution (though I'm not into the code).

When the comet is about to spawn and is assigned a vector, we check through the list of 3rd party vessels' XY grid coordinates. If the course of the comet would hit it, we adjust by some degrees and check again. If it still hits, we adjust by twice the degrees in the opposite direction. Sooner or later we are guaranteed to find a course that cannot collide with 3rd party vessels - unless they move, but then they would be active and presumably be able to check sensors first.

Edited August 23 by NerdyVampire

[furrycactus]

Would the comets be visible on sensors the moment they spawn, regardless of the hazards in the way? Sometimes the Horizon spawns boxed in or in really tricky to navigate spots, surrounded by dust or carp or meteors on all sides. I can imagine it might be pretty tricky to try and escape a comet if the Horizon is stuck in an unfortunate spot from the start.

[NerdyVampire]

4 minutes ago, furrycactus said:

Would the comets be visible on sensors the moment they spawn, regardless of the hazards in the way? Sometimes the Horizon spawns boxed in or in really tricky to navigate spots, surrounded by dust or carp or meteors on all sides. I can imagine it might be pretty tricky to try and escape a comet if the Horizon is stuck in an unfortunate spot from the start.

I would say for the purposes of the event they would need to. I imagine the event triggers, bridge crewmen run to the sensors so they can determine if the ship is in danger or not, and either it is within the Horizons long sensor range from spawn, or they will have to wait a bit for it.

[NerdyVampire]

56 minutes ago, furrycactus said:

I can imagine it might be pretty tricky to try and escape a comet if the Horizon is stuck in an unfortunate spot from the start.

We could also adjust the minimum time before the event fires, but within the first 20-30 minutes, it should be possible to either prepare weaponry to clear hazards, shoot the comet, or engines to move out of the way.

[NerdyVampire]

Bumping this and adding that the comet should despawn if it leaves the sector borders, rather than teleport around.
I still think this is a worthwhile event to consider and a realistic addition to the NBT suite of events.

[JeffMomentRed]

Listing lazily to the left without looking at the sensors for the comet because space is big : )
I'm uncertain how well this could be implemented into the game, but ideally, this has the potential to be a flavorful random event.

[Fluffy]

As far as I know, comets are kilometers to tens of kilometers large, a comet hitting the horizon would result in the horizon not being a thing anymore to a level nuke ops could only dream of

[NerdyVampire]

1 hour ago, Fluffy said:

As far as I know, comets are kilometers to tens of kilometers large, a comet hitting the horizon would result in the horizon not being a thing anymore to a level nuke ops could only dream of

Well not quite the scale I was thinking of.. in my head this would be akin to getting hit with a ship weapon projectile.

Maybe what the Horizon is dodging is just the shard of a comet?