Ship Asplode!

Look at all the pretty lights.

from Sins Forums
I can't recall if this particular question was addressed before, so I'm asking again, especially since the graphics continue to change and evolve.

The question is: What are the explosions like?
To be absolutely precise: How big is the boom?

Now, I realise this is a somewhat superficial issue... and not exactly in good taste to ask of hardworking game devs. It's akin to asking a girl what her bust size is. However, I have really sound reasons for asking.

The recent "Nexus 2" tech-demo video that's floating around drove home for me how strong an impression superficial details like that can make in a promotional video, even on relatively discerning and intelligent gamers (ehrm, *cough*). It's hard to look at footage like that and not think "Hey that's cool!" Grabbing attention is really the first step in promotion, right? So. Big boom = good for promotion.

So I have to ask! The boom... how big is it? How does it vary with ship size and type? Do anti-matter reserves affect the explosion size? How would you compare the explosions to other, similar games? What about surface buildings and orbital structures?

And while we're at it, we might as well throw in everyone's opinions on big explosions as well... since they'll inevitably end up being voiced anyways.
18,170 views 32 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
i am hoping their big booms... cause i love explosians so nice
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Big boom is good... but don't forget the old saying, oh how does it go? "It's not the size of the hump, but the motion of the camel." What it looks like is important too. If the kablooie in the Nexus 2 vid looked like a huge version of something you might see in Super Mario Brothers then you wouldn't have been impressed, no matter how big it was. In fact, what it looks like becomes even more important when you supersize it since it becomes such a prominent feature.
Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
I'm more curious if it creates shrapnell damage

I dont think this was answered in the last forum...
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
i want big explosions. fire, debris, plasma, and the sound of the crew dying before the radio cuts out. AAAARRRGGGHHH... and schem is right, there should be damage from explosions. makes for more strategy. maybe not for frigs and such, but you sure as hell should go down if your too close to a shipyard.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
The final explosion graphics aren't in the game yet, just some temp placeholder art. I'm told that there will be three different particle systems used for them, however.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
The final explosion graphics aren't in the game yet, just some temp placeholder art


ah god!! THE SHIPS GOING DOWN THE SHIPS GOING... *shrrr*shrr*shrr*

*pink two-headed chickens fly all over the screen*
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
There will be three different particle systems used for them, however.


That certainly sounds rather nifty. Has anyone here seen particle-system driven explosions before?
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
you have already seen them around..you probably just havent noticed what you were really looking at
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
if you see lots of shiny things going all over your screen, or some black debris shooting everywhere, thats a particle explosion.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
so, a particle explosion is actaully particles that explode away? wow....

anyway, big blasts are nice, but make sure that they take a while. You know, boom...boom....boomboom....WHAM! For gameplay purposes, of course, because you need to see what just blew up.

It has nothing to do with eye candy at all
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
of course not !!!
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
On a slightly relative note - the feeling of an explosion is affected not only by it's size and pretty art, but by the camera. Merely making the camera wobble a bit can make an explosion, or even any mere projectile round "feel" heavy at the time of impact/explosion. This is something I found really effective in Nexus.

In short: Shaky camera = "whoa".
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
I to hope there is room for a lot of boom boom.

These ships are big, so the explosion should be big, can you imagine a 2 kilometre long behemoth, being struck from all sides, smoke and plasma fizzing from ruptures in the hull, and then just going >pop<
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
Nukes hitting = Big white bright flash. Thinks nexus tech demo ,thinks battlestar galactica , thinks supcom trailer ..thinks yes it HAS to be in Sins of solar empire
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top
can you imagine a 2 kilometre long behemoth, being struck from all sides, smoke and plasma fizzing from ruptures in the hull, and then just going >pop<


actually... I'd Imagine that unless you have huge AM stores, yes, at best there would be a small pop, and that would be your shield generator SDing

but SCREW INTUITION!!! I WANT EXPLOSIONS!!!
Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top
To be realistic a ship in space would implode not really explode, but seems that games today(or ever) dont follow real physics. Still a nice explotion is always impressing.  
Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top
TheGreatEmperorNovember 9, 2006 23:26:32Reply #16To be realistic a ship in space would implode not really explode, but seems that games today(or ever) dont follow real physics. Still a nice explotion is always impressing



Until said implosion reached critical mass.

Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top
Or the power core blew up.
Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top
someone left the plasma stove heater on and burnt some sausage thus overheating the kitchens powersupply and emergency chief had to launch scape pods assuming the ships inner structure wouldn't last long enough to handle the kitchens heat.

the result looks like it was unbareable!
Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top
A spaceship would, in fact, have a very very hard time imploding, since there's lots of pressure inside (from the atmosphere) and absolutely no pressure outside, priming it rather nicely to explode. Now a submarine on the other hand would probably implode, because there's only about 1 atmosphere of pressure inside and usually lots and lots of atmospheres of pressure on the outside (one atmosphere for every 10m or so of water you're in).

Speaking of exploding, one of the new screenshots in this thread has a nice shot of a ship blowing up rather nicely. It answers a few of the questions asked in this thread!
Reply #21 from Sins Forums Top
Now a submarine on the other hand would probably implode, because there's only about 1 atmosphere of pressure inside and usually lots and lots of atmospheres of pressure on the outside (one atmosphere for every 10m or so of water you're in).


this is true, a spaceship would have an extremely hard time imploding, you have pressure inside, but not outside

now, that being said, submarines do not implode (counterintuitively). instead what happens is that a stress fracture bursts, and immediately the entire inside is water blasted by immense pressures. this is due to the structure of the ship being much stronger than the structure of the levels

the restult is that everything inside the submarine gets torn away, while the outside is fully intact

if you were to look at an "imploded" submarine from the outside, all you would see is an inward-facing hole, no "crushed soda can".
Reply #22 from Sins Forums Top
Submarines have imploded... or at least left evidence that suggests they have. It's not as common as less catastrophic (but still fatal) failures. The 1963 failure of the USS Thresher (SSN-593) is basically a textbook example of how to implode a sub. It depends on whether the inrushing water can get in fast enough to equalize the pressure, and what depth the sub is at. Anyways, that's neither here nor there. It's just an example of circumstances I thought would help illustrate where you'd expect an implosion to happen.

What'd you think of the explosion in the new screenshots? Big enough? Not big enough? Needs more lasers?
Reply #23 from Sins Forums Top
Submarines have imploded... or at least left evidence that suggests they have


from the numerous places I've looked, they have only left debris.

I say this because I've watched a series episode on the history of a doomed vessel (forgot which), the last full hour was spent explaining how they were so damn intrigued that the ship didnt implode on the sea bed. I believe the reason that this is a recent development is because we have yet to have a probe able to go down to those depths (or rather, we just got one)

(as a note, they had a full digital photo shot, there was only a 10M wide hole, nothing else at all wrong w/ the exterior, the inside was totally gone, however)
... come to think... this might have been the thresher incident, w/e

but either way, the reason its not like an inverted baloon-popping is because you have an extremely rigid exterior. it is far easier for the water to just open up a small hole and rush in (which would immediately start relieving pressure) rather than to crush the metal from all sides.

its like this, when shooting a tank do you use armor piercing bullets? or high yield explosives.

which one wastes more energy, but accomplishes nothing but a flamescar?
Reply #24 from Sins Forums Top
just looked over the recall of the incident

those pieces of evidence are nicely explained by an explosive compression (which is what we are talking about)

and still, cant stand up to a fully intact ship on the sea floor.
Reply #25 from Sins Forums Top
Would explosions effect ship movements? If there's huge decompression on the port side of the ship, would it move to the starboard? Also if engine is taken out, would ship veer to that side?