Seems pretty easy, from a design-only-fuck-the-coder standpoint, in that you assign mister player a combat UID of some value on entry into the game if no combat UID exists. If a combat UID exists, he is assumed to have been previously destroyed in said combat arena unless the UID is listed in table V (for Victorious). Thus he can't go back to the combat arena id'd by his account, but he can go to any other, racking up entries in the V list to gain experience points and nerdlinger status.

Right?  I mean, I don't know how to program is what I mean.
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"You bring the weasel, I'll bring the whiskey." - kellnerin

When you appear you have to get put at least 180-N seconds away from a tactical combat you've been in N seconds ago.

There can be at most 180/10 = 18 previous combats you were in during the last 180 seconds, so make the space big enough to fit 18 circles each of 180 seconds radius and that will be enough.

Ideally the point is chosen such that it is outside the radius of previous recent combats but within 60s of a different existing combat.  If there isn't a new combat you have to create some robots and make them have a combat that the player can join in.

OR, you don't create robots specially, you just have enough robot combats going on all the time over a big enough area that there will always be one that the player can be put near to.

You don't have to determine when a combat is happening really, you can just track approximately where the player has been for the last 180 seconds and appear him somewhere different.

Also, will there be a Brace for Impact button you can press to Brace For Impact and avoid taking so much damage?  This would also require a sound effect of someone shouting the order.

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I just ate about 7 pounds of meat
-theantix

When a player's ship is respawned, tehy don't have fully powered shields/hull/weapons whatever.

It takes 180 seconds to fully recharge/repair those.

Now you can make it so they have a fighting chance, and not be one shotted immediatley.

Or you can set it up that they can be one shotted immediatley if you hate the players.

In your typical great-demo-but-unfit-for-purpose hippie style?

Perhaps, instead of wasting 2 years of your life in creating the next NEW THING, it would be more prudent to spend that time finishing something?

• 'relevant things' are reset to zero
• 'relevant things' are reset to a specific base level (possibly zero) after a predetermined amount of time (<=60s, possibly zero)
• then restore linearly or geometrically, such that after total 180 seconds (or, optionally more), everything is at full, until the player 'respawns'

• no longer automatic -- handled directly in game via normal (pre-death) means OR:
• restored at a (probably much) slower rate OR:
• generally, in-combat restoration can be performed by some player-selected tradeoff, such as not firing, engaging, diverting resources, etc (technically falls under the first option)

This is probably to be too general to really be useful, but it might be a good way to focus slightly before getting into specifics.

I am not your dupe account.

The easy way is to have a series of separate zones or sectors, and a dead player respawns at a "home" port in a new sector.

Getting killed or even damaged should carry a penalty; perhaps by using the principle of repairs or purchases. You perhaps want the mechanism of combat to encourage players to try and run away once it appears their shields/ armour is penetrated and real hardware starts to be damaged.

You've mentioned stealth and wanting to banninate it, but if you are going for naval battles in space you have to have the equivalent of the submarine, which relies on stealth for success. Smaller ships have to have some advantages they can use, such as being hard to detect, perhaps faster etc. I suggest that a starship submarine would combine something like a weapon capable of heavy damage but with a slow reload time, and it's stealth ability would cost it speed.