Atmodive Rework

[Vectorus]

Atmodives are such a Hazeron institution, it seems almost blasphemous to make this proposal...Every so often they overwhelm the bug section of the forum and the grievance section of the Discord. Usually some tweaks to navigation and AI processing are made, they quiet down for a while, then we get another flare-up a few moths on.

After I personally atmodived from the helm like the true NPC that I am, I started thinking about a small change that could help fix them from the opposite direction: the direction of remedy, rather than prevention. I don't think we've ever tried that before.

Hull stress is the only instant kill for spaceships in Hazeron. Even black holes and the centres of suns inflict damage over time, which tough ships can tank long enough to try a few emergency saving throws. Why not change atmospheric stress damage in the following way:

Once a ship or vehicle exceeds its max rated atmospheric or underwater speed, a massive alarm goes off. Damage is now inflicted at a rate of 20% total hp per second over 5 seconds (or whatever). Once the alarm is active, that ship's AI helmsman receives maximum server processing priority for the duration of the emergency, and his sole job is to slam the breaks and put on maximum reverse thrust until the ship is back under safe speed. A human helmsman would, naturally, try to do the same.

Atmodives would still be dangerous and almost always costly, just as they're meant to be for careless pilots, but not instantly and universally fatal. A ship with a cyclic mission including repairs would be able to survive multiple atmodives, costing resources (it's not a get-out-of-jail-free), but sparing players the massive frustration of starting from scratch. Any good?

[Deantwo]

We rarely have crash landings happen without full ship destruction.

Have hull stress just damage the engines down to 10% health, and forcefully slow the speed to under the stress limit. That way your ship will crash land more than it will just blowup. Which would be fun to then try any repair your ship, rather than instantly die.

[Vectorus]

Sure, that could be easier. Though I do like the idea of there being an element of chance and skill, rather than a flat 90% damage outcome. Either way, the point is that they would not be uniformly fatal - whatever works best for the servers.

[RawrDotFlac]

has anyone else noticed that the ai seem to throw the thrust to 100% whenever they fly, like regardless of the distance to travel, they always travel at max speed?
it may be possible that a limit on the amount of thrust the ai can use if within a certain distance to a celestial body could prevent them from reaching destructive levels of speed within an atmosphere.
If distance to orbital body is < 3000m then cap the amount of thrust an ai can use @50% (just some random values off the top of my head)

I like getting where im going quickly, but im ok with my trip taking an extra minute or two.

[jakbruce2012]

This, Please. This damn bug has been a headache since the beginning of hull stress.

If the AI cannot be made smart enough to avoid such disasters, then give the AI an out of sorts.