Salvage Beams As Weapons

[Winterhome]

A salvage beam rips hundreds of cubic meters of crap out violently and puts it in your inventory. If it has that kind of power, then it should be usable as a form of shoddy weapon - much like a pickaxe or shovel can be used as a weapon.

I propose that salvage beams do extremely little damage to blocks on ships that aren't overheating - but not none - and no shield damage. If the ship isn't overheating or otherwise salvage-ready, the salvage beams could do 1 DPS per block, or the rough equivalent, and take armor into account. A combat salvager would need to dedicate an inordinate amount of space to be effective as a weapon, and using a salvager as a main weapon in combat against another equally sized combat ship would be suicide, but it comes with the upside of not losing blocks to the void when they're "broken".

 

[aceface]

No.

 

[Gasboy]

Pretty sure that the community will respond with a resounding no.

 

[Winterhome]

Pretty sure that the community will respond with a resounding no.

Would it be so hard to explain *why* it would be a bad idea?

 

[K10wN]

This used to be part of the game. It was removed, and thank god it was.

Salvaging is for salvaging, not for fighting. Kill the ship first, then salvage up the left overs from the overheating ship.

 

[Winterhome]

This used to be part of the game. It was removed, and thank god it was.

Salvaging is for salvaging, not for fighting. Kill the ship first, then salvage up the left overs from the overheating ship.

I remember that the problems with it were that it bypassed shields and ate blocks far faster than any amount of weapons would.

 

[CaptainTaz]

Would it be so hard to explain *why* it would be a bad idea?

mainly because the way you suggested it makes no sense at all. Pretty much every ship has shields, so that alone makes having the devs code this bad.

secondly, how would it be able to tell between mining and attacking? if somone makes a ship out of larimar blocks, how will it know not to mine them and not damage them?

just use a weapon block brah.

 

[Winterhome]

mainly because the way you suggested it makes no sense at all. Pretty much every ship has shields, so that alone makes having the devs code this bad.

secondly, how would it be able to tell between mining and attacking? if somone makes a ship out of larimar blocks, how will it know not to mine them and not damage them?

just use a weapon block brah.

File headers, whether the shields are currently up or down, and the overheating tag.
It's not something that would go on block type but rather on target type.

If someone's ship has shields, then you simply kill them with an actual weapon before salvaging, just like you would with literally any other hull buster weapon

 

[Gasboy]

Would it be so hard to explain *why* it would be a bad idea?

Whenever you take a ship out of dock, you make a conscious decision about what to fly.

With your idea, why would people use anything but giant salvager arrays? The most optimal weapon is the one that can do the most things. Salvagers would become the weapon of choice.

Normally you have to decide your ship's purpose: dedicated miner, missile boat, gunboat, etc. If you choose to be a jack of all trades, you will be master of none.

By allowing salvagers as weapons, you eliminate some of this choice. You also open the door to weapons be used to salvage.

 

[Winterhome]

With your idea, why would people use anything but giant salvager arrays? The most optimal weapon is the one that can do the most things. Salvagers would become the weapon of choice.

Easy - because flying a salvager into actual combat with a similar size combat ship is suicide. If you're stripping less hull blocks than an equal size single output beam would, then you're going to die if the target is shooting back

 

[Edymnion]

Just think of it as ships having a structure integrity field that blocks salvage beams. You can only salvage a ship when it goes into overheat mode, aka when the SIF has failed.

 

[Gasboy]

Easy - because flying a salvager into actual combat with a similar size combat ship is suicide. If you're stripping less hull blocks than an equal size single output beam would, then you're going to die if the target is shooting back

Right, so what is the purpose of your idea then? If you have a ship that's half salvager and half something else, you're going to die to a dedicated warship anyways.

So either take out a warship and fight, or take out a salvager and run from anything with guns. There's absolutely no point to salvagers being used as weapons. If you have guns, and you're able to down someone's shields, there's no point in using a salvager as a piddly weapon. If you have salvagers and can only use them on ships with down shields, and you don't have weapons to take down their shields... your idea is useless, yes?

 

[Winterhome]

Right, so what is the purpose of your idea then? If you have a ship that's half salvager and half something else, you're going to die to a dedicated warship anyways.

So either take out a warship and fight, or take out a salvager and run from anything with guns. There's absolutely no point to salvagers being used as weapons. If you have guns, and you're able to down someone's shields, there's no point in using a salvager as a piddly weapon. If you have salvagers and can only use them on ships with down shields, and you don't have weapons to take down their shields... your idea is uselesss, yes?

It's a difference of a few hundred thousand blocks of materials, if not more, that aren't being wicked into nothingness.

 

[Gasboy]

It's a difference of a few hundred thousand blocks of materials, if not more, that aren't being wicked into nothingness.

... Hey, lets just allow build blocks to be plunked down onto enemy ships in combat and save ALL the blocks.

Sorry, it's still going to be a no.

 

[Winterhome]

... Hey, lets just allow build blocks to be plunked down onto enemy ships in combat and save ALL the blocks.

Sorry, it's still going to be a no.

Intentionally misrepresenting the entire argument - clever

 

[CaptainTaz]

Intentionally misrepresenting the entire argument - clever

not really.

 

[kiraen]

It's a difference of a few hundred thousand blocks of materials, if not more, that aren't being wicked into nothingness.

This is the only valid argument for it so far. But there are a million better solutions. Like just flying over and claiming the husk. Then you can just build-salvage.

 

[CaptainTaz]

This is the only valid argument for it so far. But there are a million better solutions. Like just flying over and claiming the husk. Then you can just build-salvage.

even then it doesn't hold much water, seeing as, as he says they;

do extremely little damage to blocks on ships that aren't overheating - but not none - and no shield damage

they'd be able to MAYBE get 1 block before the shields regen under fire.

Maybe in the extremely old system where shields did not regen under fire this would be viable, but OP's not considering some things with this idea.

 

[Winterhome]

This is the only valid argument for it so far. But there are a million better solutions. Like just flying over and claiming the husk. Then you can just build-salvage.

I could throw in a four page persuasive essay as to why it's not a bad idea, if you'd like.

Just because there are better solutions doesn't necessarily mean that isn't something that should exist for the sake of existing. It IS a procedurally generated, creative game, after all. Reimplementing an unintended feature that was removed rather than rebalanced would be on the healthy side in terms of emergent gameplay. If someone wants to try to do something stupid, by all means, let them. By the "There's a better solution" argument, we should remove Beam slave Beam weapons and explosive effect beams, pull effect passives, and most of the decorative panels that weigh a lot but don't offer any bonuses.
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they'd be able to MAYBE get 1 block before the shields regen under fire.

Maybe in the extremely old system where shields did not regen under fire this would be viable, but OP's not considering some things with this idea.

Just like 100% Piercing effect weapons, then?

 

[CaptainTaz]

Just like 100% Piercing effect weapons, then?

Those are used mainly as damage after the shields drop, accompanied by a suppressor weapon/turrets to keep the shields down while in use.

The salvager being used has literally no purpose.