The reason I see them as spammable is that a larger ship (Battleship, Carrier, or larger) would have the ability to overcome the Cargo issue by simply having massive cargo hold, given most blocks in the default build stack to (999,999.), having multiple cargo holds that could store max block stack lends itself to abuse, and 200 single shot emitters while needing a bit of ammo would at 5k damage be dealing 1mil alpha damage straight to the hull and internals shortly there after for one system, larger ships would no doubt have multiple systems just for this purpose. Also smaller craft could achieve a two emitter system (10k dmg) and never run out of ammo with the current cargo system.
Simple ways to fix this issue would be:
- Limit the number of Warheads in a stack. Example stack size could be 1000 blocks max per stack. (Using the current Cargo set up)
- Limit the number of Stacks of warheads that can be in anyone Cargo hold.
- New Block for Ammo Magazines that that can hold a limited number of blocks. Example Ammo Mags block could hold a maximum of 100 total warhead blocks (Not stacked blocks but blocks total). Presuming warheads are still being used as ammo. For bigger Magazines place more blocks in contact with each other. Thus small ships would have smaller payloads, and large ships could have larger payloads.
- Increase the Mass of warheads so that carrying massive numbers in cargo holds is a determent to the ships mobility.
I also noticed that the suggested max speed was 3x server, which at the moment is faster the normal missiles, and presuming that this suggestion can add slaves it would be 9x server when adding a beam slave to it, which may be moving to fast for AMS to deal with.
Possible fixes include.
- Have Max speed locked at 3x server. (Faster than normal Missile, but slower than Fast missile)
- Speed penalty based on size of system. Larger systems move slower. (Do not really like this one but it is an option)
Also what is the Range of this weapon? as I never saw it posted. As it stands there are 9.6km range missiles in game now (M+B), and while it may be fun to spray a large area with these, being 4 sectors over and getting shelled by a battle that one is not involved in would ruin a players day.
On a side note. While I do prefer to build launchers using logic, and gaining mastery in those fields, I am not opposed to new things either. I have unfortunately had some very bad experiences with PvP griefng over the years and tend to look at things from a prospective of a player being griefed.