I second this, titan's need a massive explosion, maybe even a death clone where you see it slowly break apart and drift into space or towards a planet before the bits disappear.

Oh man, this. Just imagine the energy needed to operate one of these ships: it's got an incredible amount of mass (from the looks of it, it's heavier than an Argonev Starbase), and it manages to propel that mass at amazing speeds; it's almost as maneuverable as a capship!

Anything with that much power has just got to go boom in an amazing way. Maybe send out an explosion shockwave covering a very significant part of the gravity well (half or so), bypassing shields and dealing a big jolt to capships, and flat-out obliterating lesser entities like construction ships and light frigates? Enemy and friendly alike, of course.

The damage of such an explosion would have to be carefully balanced so that people don't throw a titan at an enemy just to clear their grav well with the explosion (titans aren't that expensive in the late game if you have a large empire). I'm thinking something like:

* Low-level, "Heavily Damaged" capships (per the voice announcer) would die in the explosion

*Construction Ships - gone

*Raloz - gone, except maybe with full hull upgrade research they may survive

*Cobalts - gone

*Corvettes - gone

*Fighters - gone

*Protevs - gone

*Weaker light cruisers such as Cielo and Hoshiko - probably gone, but maybe survive with hull point upgrades

*Kodiaks - can barely survive if at full health

*Capships with full hull - survive but takes about 25 - 40% of total hull points depending on level

*Titans - "mild" to "moderate" damage

*Starbases - "mild" to "moderate" damage to a fully upgraded SB; very heavy damage to one without any hull upgrades

*Planets - if they get hit by the shockwave, it's like ~5 volleys of bombs hitting it all at once (about 400 - 500 damage to infrastructure / planet health)

*Modules - heavy (40 - 70%) damage, but most modules except mineral extractors should survive due to their high armor

Also, the shockwave damage should taper off slowly with distance -- not to the point that it barely tickles a fighter's nose at the edges, but something like 20% less damage at the outermost reaches of the shockwave compared to being right on top of the titan when it explodes. It'd still obliterate fighters even at the edges of the shockwave.

As an Advent player Allquixotic, I am very opposed to the bypassing shield bit of your idea.

Same here. Go Unity!

Your idea is not a bad one, but making the code for that (different damage for different ships) could cause issues. The shield bypassing will take away what make Vasari special as well.

Also, there will be some crazy people (I will be guilty) that will just use a Titan as a "bomb" against Advent fleets. The Unity would be at an incredible disadvantage since if they even fully tech up, their heavy cruisers alone hardly have more than 1,000 hull. Also, an Advent player HAS to ask this question to him/herself with confronted with a Titan, "Do I try to destroy the titan and lose all of my fleet, or do I just let it go?"

I do agree that damage should be done to ships in the intimidate facility, but just not as much (and not shield penetrating) as you are proposing, Allquixotic.

I think there should be different damage types for ship classes (bigger the ship more shockwave hits it, so more damage it has to cope with) but damage should go against shields first, should always be able to wipe out the shield, and then the remainder of the damage goes to the ship. This can still easily destroy smaller ships and do damage to larger ones. 

But yes, when a Titan explodes, it should do damage to all surrounding ships and structures, allied and enemy. Its only the right thing to do for such glorious behemoths.

Make it realistic...

First, remove the explosion sound... sound don't propagate in space

Remove a lot of the fire/smoke effect... the only for something to burn in space is to have some oxidation... you need oxygene... if a section in fire come in contact with space vacuum, it simply extinguish...

Shockwave don't propagate in space... shockwave will only propagate at fast speed along the structure of the exploding ship, helping to reduce it in tiny little piece...

The only thing who have a increase range on space is the radiation propagation in case of nuclear explosion... not atmosphere for slowdown them... http://history.nasa.gov/conghand/nuclear.htm ...

In space battle will never look like it is show in plenty of Hollywood film... if kinetic weapons or laser beam are used, the impact site will be vaporized... with all these little holes in the hull, will depresurate the ship and crew will die from lack of oxygen... if nuclear device is used, it is the high level of radiation who kill the crew...

Make it realistic will reduce the use of particle effect in game and spare CPU/GPU resource for bigger space battle...

I feel like it's an excellent idea. Kind of like the TEC starbase self-destruct. Does anyone even use that anyway? But I think your damage effects are a little too much. If your own Titan is destroyed and your fleet is decimated, then you have probably no defenses left to stop their Titan. I guess that makes them all the more valuable.

I think a titan death should do moderate damage and be reduced by armor and shield mitigation (say base 1000 damage for ships in blast radius).  This gives the titan commander one last hurrah and would make killing them more interesting.

Please don't have titan deaths do splash damage, it'll be horrible. A a more visual demise would be nice though. It could also have certain 'stages' of destruction like some large units in CnC4. The random flames sprouting out doesn't quite cut it for me.

Some good ideas but I'm thinking something more than just damage.

Make the explosion have the same effect as Phase Inhibitors, damage ships that try to leave for a minute or 2 after the explosion.  Maybe also stop the use of abilities for a short duration.  Perhaps a lingering radiation in the gravity well reducing planet population/growth rate & destroying constructors & trade/refinery ships only.

What about a de-buff/forced retreat for the side that lost the titan, something akin to shattered morale of friendly crews forcing them to retreat to nearest friendly planet or a certain distance.  Make it detonate all mines in the gravity well or stop all movement of strike craft for a short period.

Yes, the Titan exploding should generate a powerful aftershock which would hit friend and foe alike.

BUT I think it should be dependent on the Titan ship type.

Suggestions:

TEC Loyalist: Ultra heavy damage + shockwave pushing everything away - including structures, even starbases.

TEC Rebel: EMP pulse depletes shields and disables ship weapons and hull regen

Advent Loyalist: Scream of the Unity - detonates antimatter causing damage which ignores shields, telekinetic boom pushes ships afar

Advent Rebel: Muted Death - disables skills, weapons and ship movement.

Vasari Loyalist - Black hole death causes an implosion which pulls everything, including structures, even starbases, towards the point where it was. Ships take damage by knocking on each other and flight controls become inoperable for some time. The smaller the structure, the more it is pulled. Corvettes in range will all be swallowed, Frigates too unless they are very far away.

Vasari Rebel: Explosion sends a shockwave of nanobots-gone-haywire in all directions, which start eating on ships hulls. Ships affected get longer cooldowns less turning, speed, antimatter and shield regen, and hulls stop regenerating.

Yes, it most certainly needs a nicer explosion on death.

A huge explosion should deal some damage to ships in the close vicinity if possible, but the nice graphic is more important imho.

I mean, when you manage to wear down such a collossal ship, you want some kind of reward.....a large fireball should testament the loss of a titan.