Broken Warheads

[Zaphord]

So I've been working on a torpedo bomber and managed to get things working pretty well with some help from people on the forums, but much to my disappointment, when I launched my first torpedo at a local pirate base it only destroyed 2 or 3 blocks. WTF? Those warheads used to do a lot more damage back before the explosion update.

If I'm gonna go through the trouble of building a ship to carry torpedoes, then those torpedoes should cause a decent amount of damage. IMO, the risk isn't worth the potential reward, especially since this ship's other weapons are primarily defensive.

I can see it now; I roll up on an enemy station with a fighter escort, fire all 4 torpedoes, watch them DENT the hull, then get chewed out by my escorts as they get shot out of the sky.

Please fix this, I'd hate to have to shelf another ship until the game is fixed to make it viable.

 

[Megacrafter127]

The extreme damage they did before was due to the same warhead block exploding multiple times before being removed for exploding.
In addition, the old explosion system caused every exploding weapon to deal a multitude of the supposed damage to the target.

 

[Chevalleis]

Well, then the 'supposed' damage needs to be fixed, because right now warheads are absolutely useless in ship-to-ship combat, and the only utility they have is in self-destruction systems or some complex contraptions with little actual use. Torpedoes, even huge ones, are completely ineffectual when compared to the amount needed to inflict even moderate damage, and the same applies for warhead swords and spears. A decently-sized torpedo should be a very real threat to an enemy ship, and there are plenty of ways to evade, destroy and trick them, so it's not like they're a 'fire and wait for the kill' weapon.

 

[Zaphord]

Well said, Chevalleis .

Torpedoes, as I see them working in starmade, should be a a high risk / high reward weapon solution. You basically have multiple large explosive charges docked to the hull of your ship, which could be set off my enemy fire if your shields drop below half or even blown up shortly after launch if they manage to peg the detonator charge before it flies out of range.

Not much of a risk or reward as it is now though. In fact, just for shits & giggles I "accidentally" misfired one of my torpedoes so it would hit the wing of my bomber. Lost 1 block and damaged another 2. HP dropped by about 170 or so (enough to destroy the 1 standard armor block and damage the others). The torpedo kept flying in an erratic pattern after it detonated, so it also only took minimal damage.

The only real reason to build torpedoes as far as I can see right now is that they completely ignore shields, but the unimpressive damage they do would mean having to build multiple, high-yield torpedoes to do any worthwhile damage. Might as well just use a Missile/Pulse/Explosive weapon, you'll get better results once the shields are down.

I love the idea of torpedo bombers, but right now they're just not practical. Shame too, I have some great ideas I'll have to put on the back burner for now.

 

[Vilab]

moreover, those charges could be improved, and made more like standart weapons ( adjacent blocks could be seen like one huge explosive charge, instead of several smaller independant ones like for now )
they would still be triggered by ennemy fire, ramming, or activation blocks ( this activation should be standardized like computer-modules, press C to activation block, and then place all explosive charges, instead of the current place 3 charges, press V 3 time, place 3 charges, press V 3 time.... )


they could also be adjustable and made more like HEAT charges ( used IRL against armored thing, with very little damages all around the charge, but high damages in front of it ) instead of the current HE effect ( used IRL against soft target, same damages all arround )
that is to say with an asymmetrical explosive range instead of a sphere like now ( it keep a standart explosive sphere of 3x3x3 arround the explosive and add a new cone effect of 3x3x4 for one single charge by ex ), which increase the more there are explosive blocks ( max cone range could be 3x the lenght of the explosive charge 1,5x the width and height // max all arround damages could be 0,5 to 1x the size of the explosive charge )

 

[Zaphord]

moreover, those charges could be improved, and made more like standart weapons ( adjacent blocks could be seen like one huge explosive charge, instead of several smaller independant ones like for now )
they would still be triggered by ennemy fire, ramming, or activation blocks ( this activation should be standardized like computer-modules, press C to activation block, and then place all explosive charges, instead of the current place 3 charges, press V 3 time, place 3 charges, press V 3 time.... )


they could also be adjustable and made more like HEAT charges ( used IRL against armored thing, with very little damages all around the charge, but high damages in front of it ) instead of the current HE effect ( used IRL against soft target, same damages all arround )
that is to say with an asymmetrical explosive range instead of a sphere like now ( it keep a standart explosive sphere of 3x3x3 arround the explosive and add a new cone effect of 3x3x4 for one single charge by ex ), which increase the more there are explosive blocks ( max cone range could be 3x the lenght of the explosive charge 1,5x the width and height // max all arround damages could be 0,5 to 1x the size of the explosive charge )

Never even thought of HEAT rounds, that would work too. Great for punching holes in well armored titans and stations and let your fighter escorts get a shot at their soft innards :D.

Though I would still like the option of hitting enemies with a standard HE torpedo too, perfect example would be to launch it into the hole the HEAT torpedo made in the hull.

Really, I'd be happy with any improvements. As long as warheads don't remain as lame as they are now, so much wasted potential .

 

[psteiner]

Welll I made this torpedo launcher for capital ships.....



Capital ship says, "Oh, I just got hit, I'll take care of him after the coffee break."

 

[Vilab]

Welll I made this torpedo launcher for capital ships.....

"

i have a BattleCruiser/heavy cruiser in WIP, which is meant to use a torpedo room slightly inspired by your design, with 12 torpedoes ( 3 ready to launch, 3x3 in stores ).

however, as explosive charges are rather useless for now and this room takes a huge amount of place... it will be the last thing to built ( + the fact i still have to design a brand new wireless logic ).






the idea behind the HEAT round, is that while explosive charges need an increased blast radius to deal usefull damages, this increased all around blast would also spend too much energy destroying the void/the whole torpedo.

 

[psteiner]

i have a BattleCruiser/heavy cruiser in WIP, which is meant to use a torpedo room slightly inspired by your design, with 12 torpedoes ( 3 ready to launch, 3x3 in stores ).

however, as explosive charges are rather useless for now and this room takes a huge amount of place... it will be the last thing to built ( + the fact i still have to design a brand new wireless logic ).






the idea behind the HEAT round, is that while explosive charges need an increased blast radius to deal usefull damages, this increased all around blast would also spend too much energy destroying the void/the whole torpedo.

Even if this is never fixed, you can always retrofit the weapons blocks

 

[Zaphord]

Bump :p

I'd really like to see this fixed soon. Shouldn't bee too big of a fix, but I'm sure the devs are working on other things that are probably more pressing.

 

[psteiner]

Bump :p

I'd really like to see this fixed soon. Shouldn't bee too big of a fix, but I'm sure the devs are working on other things that are probably more pressing.

Just modify the config setting on the explosive in the block behavior config file. Increase the radius and scale up astronaut damage and damage proportionately...

 

[Spartan-228]

Here are my thought on the subject.
http://starmadedock.net/threads/torpedo-bombers.20787/

 

[Lecic]

Welll I made this torpedo launcher for capital ships.....



Capital ship says, "Oh, I just got hit, I'll take care of him after the coffee break."

I would recommend having one strong push beam instead of multiple bursts.

 

[Mork2]

A lot of the designs I see use a beam/cannon/push setup to apply constant thrust while its lined up. I haven't tested this idea but couldn't you use a beam/pulse/push. Massive push and if I'm reading it right it fires 5 x 1 second pulses in a row as well so in theory you could release a torpedo for each of the 5 or atleast 3 of the beams. Then you have a 50second recharge time unless you had another one setup ready to takeover.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

Last time I tested warheads it didn't even have enough explosive power to destroy itself allowing for it to hit multiple times. When it finally did destroy itself it didn't even kill the core I had attached it to.

 

[StormWing0]

I'm in agreement with making larger groups of warheads actually group together rather than be just a big clump of singles. Sure it'd lead to huge novabomb ships being made but so be it, these things need to actually group so we don't have to change the config settings. also their defaults need to be high enough to be even warranted to even bother using.

 

[Lecic]

Last time I tested warheads it didn't even have enough explosive power to destroy itself allowing for it to hit multiple times. When it finally did destroy itself it didn't even kill the core I had attached it to.

They USUALLY blow themselves up, but I've had times where they didn't.

 

[Master_Artificer]

I don't think they should be increased to much. They are currently the only weapon to COMPLETELY ignore shields, and that means a person just joining a server could make a quick cloak ship and do some internal damage to a big capital and be a bitch to repair (until the shipyards can replace destroyed blocks... can they do that yet?)

Maybe increase the damage to kill advanced armor blocks, and/or slave an explosive effect module (not computer) to a warhead to increase blast radius, Overdrive to increase overall damage, pierce/punch to deal a set amount of damage to all blocks in an area (might be something like leave the armor intact but burst systems behind it if it is only one layer thick). EMP to deal energy damage still (lol why), and ion to deal shield damage too? Idk why you would want that last one, but sure. Or, maybe Ion negates it to deal only shield damage, and you can use it like a safety feature and use logic somehow to turn off the safety effect once launched, enabling block damage once more.

Heh, slaving a push module to a warhead then logic detonating it to propel a bunch of warheads out of a barrel towards the enemy... would be useful on stealth ships who don't want to use blocks on propulsion systems but can't fire push weapons due to decloaking, and people who want to recreate age of sail ships.

 

[MacThule]

I'm in agreement with making larger groups of warheads actually group together rather than be just a big clump of singles. Sure it'd lead to huge novabomb ships being made but so be it, these things need to actually group so we don't have to change the config settings. also their defaults need to be high enough to be even warranted to even bother using.

Huge nova bombs wouldn't be OP anyway - shooting them down would be a nonce. I also miss the older warheads and would like to see warheads at least stack like everything else does.

 

[lilheartless]

i don't understand why people want tools that are only useful for griefing buffed....