Please add a "Remove Lightning Damage" Option

Serdar Akkılıç shared this feedback 4 years ago
Considered (Not Planned)

My first lightning strike experience on the new update was literally on me, while i was about to board my newly constructed welding ship. I almost died and lost my welding ship cause it destroyed many of the thrusters with me.

I want to experience the new weather system. I like to hear and sometimes see that lightning effects. However since there is not a real damage detection, nor an easy repair system, this random structs are extremely frustrating. There is even not an option to remove them. You need to remove the whole weather system...

Replies (20)

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5

Yeah, please give us the setting. I loved the idea of random weathers but the lightning struck me in my first thunderstorm and deleted my inventory. I like to have lightnings/thunders but I don't like the damage.

Now, I have to remove weathers unless there's a mod to solve my problem or until it's fixed.

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5

I agree that this is an option we need.

I want to be clear though its not a feature I likely would use. But someone like the youtuber kanajashi would need it. He is actively building a cosmetic city and the constant pasive damage caused by lightning would be a problem if I was doing that, and I hate turning off block destruction for something like this as it feels like a comp out.

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7

My character was struck by lightning 4 times in 10 minutes, and did huge amounts to damage to my heavy armor base (as seen in the picture below).

"Safe" environment setting should not cause this kind of damage.


unknown

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3

I also thought about that. But people may want separate settings for meteors and lightning. So changing name of "environment safety" to "meteor storm frequency" may be better. Lightning should have a similar setting system.

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3

Lighting damage would be fine, provided you had some control on how often lightning strikes, and where it strikes. Right now it can just ignore decoys and go straight for the player, which is pretty awful. In addition to this, the toxic alien fog that comes inside buildings and ships is quite a problem too. Instead of just lightning damage, I think all weather related damage should be turned off by default when the environment setting is at "safe".

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4

Not funny coming back to bases and ships that are destroyed. Give us the option to turn damage off please or at least a mechanic to avoid it.

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1

Ditto, I find that enabling weather makes the game 100% more immersive, but lightening damage needs to be yet another tickbox or something I can edit in a config file or via console.

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2

Lightning damage. On objects that are made of steel. Which conducts electricity. Like a lightning rod. Which was invented to prevent damage from lightning strikes to objects made from materials of lesser conductivity.


Promising candidate for the Dumbest Idea Keen (And Nobody Else) Thought Would Be A Great Idea.

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2

I don't really mind lightning damage but I wish it wasn't really death bolts raining down on your head from above. Mitigation, recognizing you're underground and not hitting you, random strike area made large so sometimes it is just near and so forth.

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2

Lightning strikes are a rarity in the real world especially compared to Space Engineers. Not continuously raining down in the same small area like the wrath of god. My base got MURDERED. And it's not like a freak incident, it's just non-stop waiting for the damned storm to end.

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4

Bump- we NEED a simple on/off option for Lightning Damage, it should not be difficult nor should multiple support tickets complaining about it be ignored for months and months.

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5

Yes! STOP IGNORING THIS KEEN!

RECOGNIZE US.

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3

I mean, thats keen at their best right? Ignoring their audience and doing shiz their own way with no thought about how we would feel or if we care

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4

Yes, PLEASE add a 'no lightning' option!

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5

For the love of God, Keen, please add a "no lightning damage" option. I finally decided to get back into Space Engineers after nearly a year, only to have my base absolutely wrecked by lightning!

Doesn't really make me want to play, Especially as the rest of the weather effects make me have to think about how i build.

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2

This would be the best way to get rid of that feature. I really gave up on weather feature after some time. It is nothing but annoying, frustrating and exhausting when trying to fix stuff non stop. Just started a hardcore survival and my survival ship wrecked at first day and ruined 30 minutes of start...

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2

As it stands, the only countermeasure provided to this unreal effect is insufficient IMO.


Edit: and ineffective.

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2

I currently use a "lightning rod" (antenna) placed at the highest point. Lightning doesn't "always" hit it, but it hasn't hit me or any other block or grid when it does strike close, just the antenna.


It has worked so far but this would be a nice option.

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2

The option would be nice to have and honestly it should have been there from the begining I mean since when do gamers dislike options. :D

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1

bump.

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4

Lightning is incredibly poorly done. It's game breaking. There's no way anyone at Keen play-tested an actual game start with lightning before rolling it out, because if you don't have a large base handed to you at the beginning you cannot start the game with lightning on.


I just got my brother to finally try playing this game. After learning the ropes he tried a Mars start with nothing but regular dropships, and I joined him multiplayer to help out. That start was impossible. I have 450 hours in this game and have been playing since 2014 before the introduction of planets, and this is hands down the worst new game experience I've ever seen in Space Engineers.


We had just managed to scrape together our first survival kit, oxygen generator and wind turbine, from parts we could not make yet and had to scavenge from the drop pods. Minutes after they were made, lightning just started hammering them. Our oxygen generator existed for 10 minutes before it was on fire, and we lost the large tubes in it. We couldn't assemble large tubes yet, so that was pretty much game over right at the start. All we could do was stare in disbelief as our oxygen slowly ran out and lightning struck our tiny 5x6 platform again every few seconds, like some angry god that just didn't want us to exist.

None of this is how lightning even works. It doesn't charge back up and strike the same area every two seconds. It doesn't strike underground, or ignore tall blocks of solid metal out of a preference for killing functional devices. This mechanic made me embarrassed for having recommended the game.

Yet, to play without it, you have to disable weather effects entirely! Those are the only two choices: Constant unpreventable base griefing to the point you can't even start, or put the planet back into a completely lifeless state.

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1

There is a 3rd option, for the time being ( until Keen come to their senses and/or I send Marek enough threats to remove his genitals with a rusty razor... )- a nice simple mod that removes damage from Lightning: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2143322540

We shouldn't have to rely on a mod to do this, but hey, at least the modding community understands the player base and reacts accordingly...

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6

The problem with lightning currently is the amount of damage it dose and the difference in block hit points.

I’m close to releasing a difficulty mod where I make the game harder yet I chose to severely nerf lightning damage and instead make it hit (grids) a little more often. For a much more rewarding game play.

Now you know there is a storm and it is damaging to small grids, but if you don’t have a decoy your large grid blocks shouldn’t break right away (unless you didn’t weld them).


Iv tested this a lot trying to find the right balance.

The numbers I came up with for damage was about the breaking point for a small decoy, as I wanted small grid builds to be viable for small grid only play through. This is around 30ish not the default 80 and it is so much more comfortable to play. (I look forward to player feedback on this.)


I should also note that sometimes big damage ‘is’ a good thing. I have my own weathers that will do far more damage (100s) but tend to only hit grids not players as being one shot is not fun. These storms are like a 1 in 50 chance just to catch people out and spawn in remote areas. But then again my mod is not intended to be easy lol!


The problem I see is that player health and small grid decoys, are useless once the damage picks up to something a little more meaningful to large grid blocks. So if you want nicely balanced lightning for your large grids it’s just too much for a small grid decoy or player to survive.


There is also a damage inconsistency where lightning may do more than the specified damage, I am assuming its hitting and then hitting a second time with the explosion damage? Hard to tell.


Not to forget you need to find cobalt and build a turret before you can make a decoy with progression on.


So my suggestions to keen that hopefully doesn’t break much of what’s currently in place already.


Give small grid decoys and players a 66% damage reduction from lightning hits (receiving only 1/3 the damage).

Rethink the amount of damage lightning dose and how often it hits. 90 damage and hitting grids more often and players less, for example means.. Players take about 3-4 hits and the small grid decoy will be on about 90% after 1 hit. But not break completely. This means a second small grid decoy that still works, can take another hit and the first can be repaired without having to be replaced significantly reducing the annoyance it brings. It means large grid ships can shrug it off a bit while small grid ships should head for cover right away. Players also don’t have 80% of the health suddenly vanish due to not having found any cobalt yet. Players should worry more about their grids than themselves in a storm it just feels better. Use that as a starting point and playtest it a bit.

And .. perhaps the biggest thing keen could do, give us a lightning rod block that doesn’t eat bullets. Because then new players will know how to protect themselves from lightning without having to look it up online because, it’s really not clear that a decoy might help them! lol =)

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5

I agree with the dismay over lightning.

My suggestion is the damage done by lightning (as opposed to the aesthetic effect) should be ruled by the "environment hostility" setting in the same way as meteors.

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6

Can't believe this is still ignored.

Lightening is completely unrealistic and unreasonable.

Keen, do a google search for 'space engineers lightening' to see how much grief this is causing the community.

This needs to be addressed immediately.

It's unlikely a person in the real world will be struck by lightening ever, yet it happens multiple times per hour of game play in this game.

And stupidly when the world is set to safe it continues to happen.

This is long past overdue for correction.

Just fit it now please.

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4

I agree, I prefere to play without using external wikis in most cases.

And the damage is extreeme, I had my drill rig destroyed and after rebuilding I added 3 heavy armor blocks on top as protection.

5 minutes later a new electric stor hit, first taking out a wind mill, then taking out 2 of the heavy armor blocks protecting my drill, one hit each, the blocks where not damage, they where gone completely.

I rushed up to rebuild and it quickly vaporized both blocks again.


This is heavy armor inteneded to protect agains weapon fire.

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4

"Considered - Not planned."


Well, fuck you too KSH.

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100% agree. Lost complex small grid builds multiple times because of this. It's not only unrealistic but frustrating. We used to play without weather then.

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5

As practically all commenters agree, lightning damage is completely off the scale. I do not want to be rude in any way, so what I refer to as "should" in this comment shall be regarded as a suggestion that makes sense for me, personally.


While completely getting rid of the damage is also removing what could be an important part of future engineering gameplay, a more sensible approach to the status quo is desperately needed. As I think what we all can agree upon is that it does not make sense in any way for a single lightning bolt to instantly vaporize tons of heavy armor in just a single strike.


In real life, flying crafts and rovers are practically shielded from lightning. Ingame, lightning should do a little damage to these crafts that can be welded up later like destroying some components above the functional line of blocks (i.e. a single bolt just barely damages these blocks "armor"), or SOMETIMES to cause one or two thrusters to burn.


Also, players should only be targeted if they aren't close to a grid (possibly outside a 25 meter radius?) with a far lower chance.


For stations, a nice approach would be that lightning does damage to adjacent blocks only in a radius around the point it strikes at (striking preferably blocks that are high above the ground), around 5 to 10m, where it does some damage so that some iron-based components of the affected blocks are destroyed (especially unwelded scaffolding), for functional blocks, however, it should do considerably more damage to "electrical" components (i.e. fry computers, power cells, detector components, superconductors, gravity components, etc...).


All in all, the mechanics should motivate to find one of several possible engineered solutions. Players should be motivated to stay near/inside their grids when a storm comes instead of just being slain by the wrath of Zeus. Functional blocks that are welded up completely should still be functional after one strike, only if they are barely functional, the damage in the form of more expensive components being destroyed should be more severe. It should be possible to shield functional blocks with cheaper blocks that are not directly attached (e.g. blast doors, half armor blocks, etc.) by leaving an air gap in between, or having welder contraptions to repair the damage.


Decoys might still be a very good defence but take significant damage when struck or even just targeted, especially regarding their functional components. So it might be worth choosing between more reliable but costlier decoys or to depend on simple blocks that shield functional blocks. Dedicated and functional lightning rods in a similar style to the existing antenna but being cheaper to build and without the "antenna functionality" would also be a great addition.


I would be very honored if any of these suggestions are seen as helpful and even more so if these are being considered to be implemented in any form.

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The real thing they need to do is add some benefit to lightning. Everything (threats) needs some way to work around or benefit from it. This is true for all games, Its something called counter-play. As Keen focuses more on Sandbox games this is rarely a consideration they need to worry about. However lightning is something they need to work on. no counter play there.

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Well, technically there is a workaround. The thing with the decoys.

It's still stupid and unimmersive. Effectively everything in SE you build, you can build, is made of metal, and prominently so. At best, just about the only damage lightning could do to SE builds in the first place is maybe singe the fabric on the couch block, and only when hit directly.

SE isn't Minecraft. Its emphasis is on technology. More specifically, on plausible technology. (Let's credit magnetic plates sticking to anything to practical simplification, and gravity generators and jumpdrives to the Twenty minutes into the future trope.) Its emphasis is not on magic that fundamentally permeates the gameworld and setting in both subtle and not so subtle ways. It's not a world where grass drops wheat, oaks drop apples, obsidian rings form portals to hell when lit, and lightning turns villagers into witches. So, pulling the function of "everything the player can build and who should therefore be on their toes for protection and repair to make the game oh so terribly exciting metal is now particularly sensitive to lightning" out of one's arse is really just that. A colossal asspull that only serves to demonstrate an egregious lack of sense of game design.

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Problem is, as has been pointed out before, is that Decoys don't always work- players are still complaining that they get sniped by lightning, even when they are under ground.

Basically, Keen have done what they always do and say they've fixed a problem, but as soon as people test in-game it quickly becomes apparent they haven't fixed it at all; hence, we simply need an option to turn off the damage whilst keeping the weather effects. There is a mod that allows us to do that, but we shouldn't have to rely on mods that can stop working or aren't enabled in multiplayer servers when we'd like them to be...

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yeah .. weather is off.

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Keen made too much money on Steam and dont care.

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The fact that this has gone without acknowledgement by KSH for 3 years has pretty much completely turned me off any of their products, DLCs etc.

This is a major issue that many have come here to discuss, and I'll be thousands more have just gone straight to turning off weather.

For something that is probably a 2 minute code change to seperate lighting from weather in general, or a days work to come up with a complete solution i can't believe it remains ignored.

I've played very little of SE in the last 2 years, despite having some interest in the game still.

KSH being so ignorant is farr too much of a put off.

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For something that was labelled "considered (not planned)", it was just implemented and rolled out in the Signals update.

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Can't believe I'm seeing a reply to this thread, after 4 years.


This issue and its handling is what made me completely lose confidence in Keen's ability to finish a game. It wasn't that they didn't have resources, they did plenty of other unnecessary things instead of this. Tons of new models and textures they can show off in a new update or DLC sizzle reel, but nobody available to even so much as go in and change the value of a timer or damage multiplier while they think about how to actually balance it.


Severity: 8/10. Medium difficulty planet start unplayable. Difficulty of fix: 0/10. Level of uproar from users: 10/10. Ignored and left for modding to fix, for four years.


This feature's handling was what made me lose all confidence a working game experience was on the horizon, and stop playing.

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Guys, i even bet this tread will stay here as Considered (Not Planned) like forever. I even think that they forget about this suggestion already and someone thinks that, this is their great idea to add an option lol.

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