Just had this weird thought when I was testing with some rail gun ships. I found out that when a projectile went through shields or broken parts, the trajectory of the projectile may sometimes changes as if it has bounced off or been deflected by the target.
It seems that this is caused by the rotation of the target after the impact, and happens more frequently on small ships or broken pieces.
This reminds me of how the ricochet work in real life and the potential application of it in making the game more realistic and interesting.
Anyways, here is the idea of how the bouncing of projectile could work if somehow It has been adopted as a new feature of the game mechanics.
As the picture shown, the bouncing will only occur when all of the following conditions were mated:
1. The projectile must come in a very shallow angle (less than 45 degrees or 30 degrees?) relative to the target.
2. The target most be a shield or an armor block.
3. The projectile must has enough damage or penetration left after the initial impact. (Projectiles that don't have enough damage or penetration will be stopped and disappear as usual.)
Once the above three conditions were mated. The trajectory of the projectile will change based on the angle of incoming projectile. The target that takes the impact will receive full damage from the shot and will probably be destroyed, but the rest of the parts behind it will be spared.
Notice that the projectile will still go on and damage anything on its path even if it has been deflected. So a careful arrangement of armors and shields is required in order to take advantage of this effect.
I think this would make the game more interesting because it will encourage people to build more streamline or diagonal ships rather than building more wall like or square like ships.
