- Joined
- Mar 17, 2015
- Messages
- 37
- Reaction score
- 9
In most PVP builds, turrets are massive objects that often dwarf the ships they are attached to. I've encountered this problem on almost all of the capital ships I have tried to build. To do meaningful damage, and to use a significant amount of available power, weapons systems often are a large percentage of the mass of a warship. This means that effective turrets are very large and unwieldy, and honestly look horrible. So I set out to consider a solution, and get feedback from the community.
This problem is especially apparent with the new AI Faction ships, which are designed around a more RP approach. They have lots of room for yet to be implemented crew, and wouldn't stand much of a chance vs a PVP build. But they sure do look nice.
Yes, I am aware that there is the "Overdrive" effect, that does 6x the damage for 10x the power. I have done some designs and have found that even with overdriven turrets, the designs end up being large and unwieldy.
First solution: adjust how much power and damage weapons blocks do, to scale them by a factor of 10x or more. This solves the problem, and allows RP ships to do more damage with fewer weapons blocks, and turrets can be smaller and keep the same effectiveness.
Drawbacks: This breaks all existing ship designs. Not ideal.
Second Solution: Make new set of weapons blocks that do 10x the damage at 10x the power. A "Capital Ship" class weapon set.
Drawbacks: Lots of work to create 8+ new blocks. These blocks would be redundant. Not ideal.
Third Solution: Make a new effect block: The Capital-Overdrive block. Same concept as the Overdrive, only scaled up for capital ship use. Would increase damage and power usage by 10x-25x. Testing would be needed to find the best balance of turret size. As the system is designed for capital ships, projectiles would be slower, and missile tracking would be negatively affected. This is to give a tradeoff for the damage added. Should require a significant amount of resources to produce, or use "unobtanium" to make. IE something hard to find, or using a new mechanic such as gas planet mining, or only available as a trade good from NPC factions.
Capital Overdrive used as a passive effect could either increase thrust and turn rate in exchange for increased power thrust cost, or increase thrust and turn speed in exchange for top speed.
Drawbacks: Allows for very powerful weapons at greatly reduced masses. Would change game balance greatly.
Fourth Solution: Introduce a new weapon, Capital Cannon(name WIP), that when fired, shoots a large, slow projectile. This weapon would do 10x-20x the damage as a cannon block, and take 10x-20x the power, travel 1/2 the speed of cannon, and have 1/2 the range of cannons, and have innate explosion effect. The blocks would use either a large amount of materials to create, or use a hard-to-get material.
Capital - Cannon: Increased rate of fire, less damage per second
Capital - Missile: umm shotgun? or perhaps limited tracking ability in exchange for less damage
Capital - Beam: Increased range, decreased fire rate, increased projectile speed (should still be slower than regular cannon shots)
Capitol - Pulse: High Damage, Long reload speed, even slower projectile
Note: anything with Capital as a secondary increases damage 10x-20x and increases power 10x-20x
Cannon - Capital: Reduced range, Reduced Projectile speed, Increased damage
Missile - Capital: High Damage, Less tracking ability, Less range, Less Projectile speed (basically torp/nuke)
Beam - Capital: High Damage, Reduced range.
Pulse - Capital: High Damage, Reduced range, slow expanding pulse
Capital - Capital: Very High Damage, 1/4 Range, 1/4 Projectile speed
Drawbacks: Adds complexity. Adds somewhat redundant weapon. Changes weapons balance, but less than Capital Overdrive block.
I'm hoping to spur some discussion on how this problem might be solved, if its worth solving at all. I do realize most of these solutions greatly affect the game balance. Thanks for reading my wall-o-text!
This problem is especially apparent with the new AI Faction ships, which are designed around a more RP approach. They have lots of room for yet to be implemented crew, and wouldn't stand much of a chance vs a PVP build. But they sure do look nice.
Yes, I am aware that there is the "Overdrive" effect, that does 6x the damage for 10x the power. I have done some designs and have found that even with overdriven turrets, the designs end up being large and unwieldy.
First solution: adjust how much power and damage weapons blocks do, to scale them by a factor of 10x or more. This solves the problem, and allows RP ships to do more damage with fewer weapons blocks, and turrets can be smaller and keep the same effectiveness.
Drawbacks: This breaks all existing ship designs. Not ideal.
Second Solution: Make new set of weapons blocks that do 10x the damage at 10x the power. A "Capital Ship" class weapon set.
Drawbacks: Lots of work to create 8+ new blocks. These blocks would be redundant. Not ideal.
Third Solution: Make a new effect block: The Capital-Overdrive block. Same concept as the Overdrive, only scaled up for capital ship use. Would increase damage and power usage by 10x-25x. Testing would be needed to find the best balance of turret size. As the system is designed for capital ships, projectiles would be slower, and missile tracking would be negatively affected. This is to give a tradeoff for the damage added. Should require a significant amount of resources to produce, or use "unobtanium" to make. IE something hard to find, or using a new mechanic such as gas planet mining, or only available as a trade good from NPC factions.
Capital Overdrive used as a passive effect could either increase thrust and turn rate in exchange for increased power thrust cost, or increase thrust and turn speed in exchange for top speed.
Drawbacks: Allows for very powerful weapons at greatly reduced masses. Would change game balance greatly.
Fourth Solution: Introduce a new weapon, Capital Cannon(name WIP), that when fired, shoots a large, slow projectile. This weapon would do 10x-20x the damage as a cannon block, and take 10x-20x the power, travel 1/2 the speed of cannon, and have 1/2 the range of cannons, and have innate explosion effect. The blocks would use either a large amount of materials to create, or use a hard-to-get material.
Capital - Cannon: Increased rate of fire, less damage per second
Capital - Missile: umm shotgun? or perhaps limited tracking ability in exchange for less damage
Capital - Beam: Increased range, decreased fire rate, increased projectile speed (should still be slower than regular cannon shots)
Capitol - Pulse: High Damage, Long reload speed, even slower projectile
Note: anything with Capital as a secondary increases damage 10x-20x and increases power 10x-20x
Cannon - Capital: Reduced range, Reduced Projectile speed, Increased damage
Missile - Capital: High Damage, Less tracking ability, Less range, Less Projectile speed (basically torp/nuke)
Beam - Capital: High Damage, Reduced range.
Pulse - Capital: High Damage, Reduced range, slow expanding pulse
Capital - Capital: Very High Damage, 1/4 Range, 1/4 Projectile speed
Drawbacks: Adds complexity. Adds somewhat redundant weapon. Changes weapons balance, but less than Capital Overdrive block.
I'm hoping to spur some discussion on how this problem might be solved, if its worth solving at all. I do realize most of these solutions greatly affect the game balance. Thanks for reading my wall-o-text!