Read by Council Missile System Change: Missile Storage vs. Damage per shot

[jayman38]

For missile ammo, the texture of the missile module itself gives me an idea:
The side of each missile module shows stored missile ammo.

This tells me that the number of missile modules should define the storage capacity of the missile system, not the power of each missile.
Linked secondary weapon systems (and tertiary effects) will actually determine the power (and relatedly, the ammo usage) per shot.

Examples:
> 0 missile modules, but no slaved weapon systems: 1 dmg single missile per second, lots of ammo per module. (E.g. based on texture, let's say that a single module holds ~36 dmg (36 individual small missiles), spread across 1-dmg missiles yields 36 shots per module.)

200 missile modules (1 dmg, 7,200 dmg capacity), 200 slaved beams (+1000 dmg + 1000 dmg capacity (enough for at least one shot) + lock-on capability), 200 slaved explosive modules (+1000 dmg + 1000 dmg capacity (enough for at least one shot) + add explosive effect) results in 4 missiles, each doing 2001 double-explosive damage.

1000 missile modules (1 dmg, 36,000 dmg capacity), 1000 slaved cannons (+5,000 dmg + 5,000 dmg capacity + rapid-fire capability), 1000 slaved punch-through modules (+5,000 dmg + 5,000 dmg capacity + punch-through) results in 4 missiles, each doing 10,001 damage, punch through.

4000 missile modules (1 dmg, 144,000 dmg capacity), 4000 slaved beams (+20,000 dmg + 20,000 dmg capacity + lock-on capability) results in 8 missiles, each doing 20,001 damage per shot. No added effect other than the missile's inherent explosive effect, due to no tertiary slave.

With this, missiles should be able to intercept missiles (missile pd turrets), and missiles should probably have HP. Maybe 1/1000 damage + 1. (E.g. a 20,001 damage missile would have 21 hp.)

Leftover damage would result in one extra missile with less damage (the remainder) than the regular missiles.

Examples:
The 200+200+200 example could result in 4 regular missiles with 2001 damage each, plus one 1196-damage missile.
The 1000+1000+1000 example could result in 4 regular missiles with 10,001 damage each, plus one 5,996-damage missile.
The 4000+4000 example could result in 8 regular missiles with 20,001 damage each, plus one 3,992-damage missile.

The ship should be able to "rebuild missiles", probably at a rate of 1 dmg/sec, maybe multiplied by the number of missile modules.
Plus, you can "buy" instant reloads at shops and friendly stations. (And maybe supply ships with special supply blocks or something.)

Edit:
The damage increase probably needs to be ten times as high (50 damage and ammo storage per slaved weapon block versus just 5) to compensate for the reduced ammo availability and to make it a truly powerful weapon for smaller vessels, without becoming over-powered. (server-configurable, of course)

 

[nightrune]

This is definitely a new way to think about it. Will have to let it soak in a bit.

 

[kiraen]

It never ceases to amaze me how so many people want consumable ammo and/or fuel, but get bent out of shape at the idea of consumable food.
Anyway, how do you plan to address swarmer missiles?

 

[cyberus111]

Isn't this simply another version of ammo as alternative

 

[jayman38]

It never ceases to amaze me how so many people want consumable ammo and/or fuel, but get bent out of shape at the idea of consumable food.
Anyway, how do you plan to address swarmer missiles?

I'm coming from the angle of common sci fi media, where food is basically handled behind the scenes, while missiles/torpedoes are limited. I consider the beginning game of the StarMade universe to be end-game situation of other games, so that indefinite food production is already a thing for all astronauts. That's a little optimistic for a universe that has pirates and laser spiders, but people generally try to automate the food process to end up at the place where Starmade already starts from.

The slow regeneration is a way to make this system independent of ammo reloads, without being quick enough to make reloads obsolete. (With the slow regeneration, missile systems with few or no slave systems will be able to regenerate at the same rate as ammo usage, so that's actually a lot like the current missile system.) It simulates on-board missile construction without requiring an additional block type. But maybe we should have a new block for ammo fabrication.

For the multiple-missile shot of swarmers, divide the overall damage by the number of missiles, so the overall shot with all missiles included still has the same damage/ammo usage, while still having multiple missiles per shot. Each missile in the swarm is relatively weak, depending on the secondary and tertiary slave systems. (A higher slave-system ratio will give stronger swarm missiles per shot, at the cost of having fewer shots before needing to reload.)

Isn't this simply another version of ammo as alternative

Yeah, I originally suggested this on about page five of that thread, and realized that this would be an interesting way of making the missile weapon system less like a homing/slow-fire cannon shot and more like missile systems that we see in common sci fi media, so I made a separate suggestion.