Satellite Suggestion: OCDO

[OneWingLunarian]

Satellite Name: OCDO (Orbital Cyclical Defense Orb)

Description: Made by the same company as the Microgun, this Defensive satellite is the total opposite of the Microgun’s offensive nature. When activated, this orb will, no pun intended, orbit around your ship, and block incoming projectiles that hit it. Sadly, licensed technology does not permit defense against laser beams. It’s remaining Durability is denoted with the “energy ring”.
(Alternative design idea by SpryterTerraxian: Satellite Suggestion: OCDO - #11 by SpryterTerraxian)

Durability: 10/16 bullets.

What it does: Orbits around the ship with a small outer forcefield when activated. The shields will not be so big that it completely blocks your ship, but big enough to be hit by a projectile instead. However, it cannot block laser-type attacks. (They won’t damage it either!)

Orbit Speed: It’s dependant on how many OCDOs you have. One alone will take 1 second to orbit your ship once. Two will take 2 seconds, Three will take 3 seconds, and Four will take 4 seconds. (Five will take 5 seconds too.) So even with 4 equipped, it will not entirely protect your ship from danger, as your ship will still run the risk of a projectile still slipping past the cracks in between two shields.

Alternative Orbit Speed: Every OCDO orbits the ship at a rate of 1.5 orbits per second.

Cost: 698 keys! (Cheapest satellite in the game, but only because it’s more defensive than offensive.)

Sorry, no super cool looking example pic. You’ll just have to picture what it looks like yourself!

Create the OCDO?

• Heck yeah, a new satellite! (Yes)
• Who cares? If it can’t even shoot stuff (no)

Extra Information:
The Satellite is activated with Satellite Fire.
The Satellite activates nearly instantly, but not quite, so think slightly ahead.
The “No Satellite” Medal is only killed after you block a single bullet with the Satellite.

Here is a bit of an example on how it kind of would like. It’s ugly, but it will have to do.

orb blocky projetictile
arrowy showing le orbitall one directional
ship die if hit with boolet hahaha

[SpryterTerraxian]

This reminds me of the Defense Bots from Alien Sky. Resemblances aside, I’m all in for defensive options. After all, pure offense gets boring sometimes, and defense would spice things up a bit too. I’m in for this getting added into the game.

[Francis]

I understand that a new satellite would be good, but it also needs to be well-designed, balanced and have a texture for it.

Great satellite design tho

[OneWingLunarian]

ikr

you can’t even see it

(because it’s not created yet)

[Francis]

Invisible satellites, this will be revolutionary!

[Recruit_75]

@OneWingLunarian

ship will still run the risk of a projectile still slipping past the cracks in between two shields.

While I might be wrong about the defence system being RNG, I still stand on the point that it isn’t as dependable as the BBQ’rs though the OCDO’s last longer. You could predict the movement of the orbs and hope to catch bullets but in the heat of battle, this plan will break down and it might become difficult tracking the orbs, thus leading to a slipup and the player dying. The biggest hurdle of the OCDO is will it be better than the BBQ, overall, and sadly, my answer is no. I’d still take BBQ’rs over OCDO’s.

That being said, with the right hitbox size, it could be a decent stopgap bridge between a normal unshielded player and using a phaseout.

Edit: Just found out that instead of being always-on, it activates like any other satellite. And you could actually predict the movement of the orbs so I’ll take back the RNG statement.

Overall 6/10 Pros: A decent stopgap measure of protecting players from death without being too OP like DPO’s
Cons: Lack of dependability compared to BBQ’rs

[OneWingLunarian]

Satellite fire button exists for a reason

[EasternLich]

So like one of the Craws of Thunder Force but excluding the extra firepower? Big fan; but I have a question regarding the OCDO. If it defends from a projectile the user loses the NoSatellite medals immediately?

[OneWingLunarian]

It only kills your “no satellite” after it blocks a single bullet.

[EasternLich]

As expected then

[SpryterTerraxian]

Maybe it could look like a sphere with a ring around it? (I was too lazy to add textures on it, but you get the gist. maybe the sphere could look like a Barrier, and the ring could have a ring of light signifying hitpoints left.)

[Francis]

Yes, maybe if you had 3 it could look like a Fidget Spinner.

[ScarletCuboids]

Beyblade

[OneWingLunarian]

Sure, that would work too. Hell, probably even a better look than a forcefield.

[SOLAR]

Like this?

[InterAction_studios]

I see two unsolved issues with this:

1. How the orbs will smoothly move from their docked position to their orbit position and back (there might be several of them and ideally you’d want them evenly spaced out, but the docks aren’t and some satellites might be docked further away than others).

2. How the orbs will interplay with offensive satellites. If you need to hold the “satellite fire” key down to activate them, then this will also fire any offensive satellites, which is undesirable and wasteful. Alternatively, they could be stationary and “always on” as soon as you dock them (this of course will make them pointless if they’re docked far away from the spacecraft).

[Enhawk]

@InterAction_studios

(this of course will make them pointless if they’re docked far away from the spacecraft).

Don’t the orbs orbit around the spacecraft, anyway.

[Francis]

@InterAction_studios

Alternatively, they could be stationary and “always on” as soon as you dock them (this of course will make them pointless if they’re docked far away from the spacecraft).

This could actually work, but I’d wait for OneWing’s opinion first

[InterAction_studios]

@Enhawk

Don’t the orbs orbit around the spacecraft

Not if they’re stationary and “always on” , as I said.

I’m toying with the idea of activating/deactivating them with a single click (instead of holding down the button). So, click-and-release to enable, click-and-release to disable.

This will decouple them from the offensive satellites, but the downside is that it’s non-standard way to control satellites, and hence will be problematic to explain and/or cause bug reports.

[Kylo-Hen]

@InterAction_studios

How the orbs will smoothly move from their docked position to their orbit position and back (there might be several of them and ideally you’d want them evenly spaced out, but the docks aren’t and some satellites might be docked further away than others).

Have the satellite be a “generator” that glows when active or something, and make the projectile-blocking orbitals separate entities that it generates - perhaps connected by a beam of energy, or something, for fun visuals.

@InterAction_studios

How the orbs will interplay with offensive satellites. If you need to hold the “satellite fire” key down to activate them, then this will also fire any offensive satellites, which is undesirable and wasteful. Alternatively, they could be stationary and “always on” as soon as you dock them (this of course will make them pointless if they’re docked far away from the spacecraft).

Right-click to activate, right-click again to deactivate. They ignore held mouse inputs.
(EDIT: I realise you posted this further down, aha. It’s probably the most intuitive solution though… if it proves confusing the control scheme can be changed after implementation, probably).

Also, might I suggest a more… Chicken Invaders-esque name? Something like “Ionized Teflon Emitter” or “Energized Guardian Generator” (E.G.G for short) or even “Sauce Shields”. There’s plenty of wordplay opportunity here.