Super Weapons

[Spartan-228]

Now I am sure a lot of you are going to see this and yell NO!
But before you go looking for your torches and pitchforks hear me out.

Now I am sure you have all built ships that looks beyond epic, but the main weapon was rather disappointing either in its effectiveness, visually, or both. Lets face it nothing is more of a downer than to build an amazing ship that would scare the crap out of someone only to have a weapon that lacks the same epic effect (I am looking at you laser pointer).

So this is what I propose. A new weapons category. This new category would still have your basic weapons cannons, missiles, and lasers.
However these weapons can only be used if you have the right number of blocks used, for example.
In order to build a super cannon level one you must use 5000 blocks no more no less a level two would be like 10000 and a three 20000 and so on and so on.
As for what these weapons could do that is a hole other topic, but they need to look good and do an equally impressive amount of damage. Now of course these weapons would use more power and have a longer cool down time then other weapons, and maybe they could use ammo.
But weapons that look epic and inflict cool looking damage (like a single big cannon hole instead of buckshot) are needed.

 

[Keptick]

I'd prefer just being able to scale the visual weapon effect with the size of the weapon array with the use of a slider to be honest. So basically the margin gets higher with a bigger weapon. The visual effects could also just scale properly and not get capped at ridiculously low sizes (I'm looking at you, cannons).

As for the effect, use a weapon-pulse combo. Voilà! You got yourself a weapon that perfectly fits your description!

 

[Spartan-228]

I'd prefer just being able to scale the visual weapon effect with the size of the weapon array with the use of a slider to be honest. So basically the margin gets higher with a bigger weapon. The visual effects could also just scale properly and not get capped at ridiculously low sizes (I'm looking at you, cannons).

As for the effect, use a weapon-pulse combo. Voilà! You got yourself a weapon that perfectly fits your description!

Well I would be all for bringing back the dial a yield weapons.

 

[Ixalite]

I prefer various weapons combos to be most effective at certain sizes. A good example might be rapid cannons being most efficient at >10 blocks, and going downhill from there, while cannon+Pulse being most effective at 500+ blocks and being less effective at lower numbers. You could still install your "superweapon" style of system on fighters, but it would not be as effective PER BLOCK as it would on a capital ship scale implementation.

 

[jayman38]

I'm thinking a cumulative percentage bonus for every 1000 or so weapon blocks. Maybe deactivated in the default game and with the block count (1000) and bonus soft-limit (90 percent) server-configurable.

E.g. 100% damage up to 999 weapon blocks, 101% damage at 1000 blocks, 103% damage at 2,000 blocks, 106% damage at 3,000 blocks, ..., 191% damage at 13,000 blocks, 192% at 14,000 blocks, 193% at 15,000 blocks, etc.

 

[lupoCani]

I'm thinking a cumulative percentage bonus for every 1000 or so weapon blocks. Maybe deactivated in the default game and with the block count (1000) and bonus soft-limit (90 percent) server-configurable.

E.g. 100% damage up to 999 weapon blocks, 101% damage at 1000 blocks, 103% damage at 2,000 blocks, 106% damage at 3,000 blocks, ..., 191% damage at 13,000 blocks, 192% at 14,000 blocks, 193% at 15,000 blocks, etc.

As I see it, exponential damage increase is the last thing weapons need. Big guns already heave a significant advantage in having the least impaired blocks-to-effect scaling, without the square-cube law that plagues hull or the diminishing returns imposed on shields. Buffing guns, larger ones in particular, is only going to make this imbalance worse.l

 

[Spartan-228]

I wasn't really thinking of big guns that do more damage. I was thinking of beam weapons that looked like a Covenant cleansing beam. A cannon that actually puts a nice sized hole in something and not that odd checker board look. Or how about missiles with a proximity detonation for trying to take out stealth ships.

 

[ltmauve]

Maybe superweapons have a very long reload time, but can produce extra damage depending on how much energy the ship has up to a certain point. So a superweapon on a ship with 10 trillion energy could do 1 trillion damage, but it'd take all that energy, and you would have to wait for a full recharge to do the trillion damage again. And it would actually be capped to a maximum damage (and energy usage) dependant on the size of the weapon.

 

[Mariux]

Maybe superweapons have a very long reload time, but can produce extra damage depending on how much energy the ship has up to a certain point. So a superweapon on a ship with 10 trillion energy could do 1 trillion damage, but it'd take all that energy, and you would have to wait for a full recharge to do the trillion damage again. And it would actually be capped to a maximum damage (and energy usage) dependant on the size of the weapon.

That's pretty much what a pulse system would do as a secondary system normally. It makes primary weapon cost more energy, have a longer reload, but be more powerful.

 

[aceface]

hmm, this would be good.

 

[blurb357]

it would be cool to have these on statins like orbital defence turrets, however, I think they would be to OP on ships, the system that we have now is good and balanced, so lets keep it that way

 

[MossyStone48]

I'm of the mind that the "Capital Ship" flag that was discussed a while back include the super weapon enabler. The first weapon in the ship's configuration should have that super kick. All other weapons, including turrets, behave normally.

 

[ltmauve]

I'm of the mind that the "Capital Ship" flag that was discussed a while back include the super weapon enabler. The first weapon in the ship's configuration should have that super kick. All other weapons, including turrets, behave normally.

The first weapon? The weapons configuration menu chooses whichever it wants. And the first slot? That's flexibility-limiting. I do agree that capship points are a great idea for superweapons.
Also, multiple superweapons on a ship should be allowed, but at much higher cost. As for turrets with superweapons, I assume that the capship points will transfer over to the parent ship.

That's pretty much what a pulse system would do as a secondary system normally. It makes primary weapon cost more energy, have a longer reload, but be more powerful.

What I'm saying is that it keeps the energy-per-damage cost of all other weapons, and its damage will probably depend on the total power available. However, it will exceed the dps-per-block limit of normal weapons, but at a capship point cost.

 

[MossyStone48]

I'd rather not see multiple super weapons under one person's command. Seem far too OP. If you must do that then have a dreadnought super cap with several capitals docked and super weapon those.

 

[Mariux]

The first weapon? The weapons configuration menu chooses whichever it wants. And the first slot? That's flexibility-limiting. I do agree that capship points are a great idea for superweapons.
Also, multiple superweapons on a ship should be allowed, but at much higher cost. As for turrets with superweapons, I assume that the capship points will transfer over to the parent ship.

What I'm saying is that it keeps the energy-per-damage cost of all other weapons, and its damage will probably depend on the total power available. However, it will exceed the dps-per-block limit of normal weapons, but at a capship point cost.

I see. But I think it would get a bit complicated, especially for newer players

 

[ltmauve]

I'd rather not see multiple super weapons under one person's command. Seem far too OP. If you must do that then have a dreadnought super cap with several capitals docked and super weapon those.

I was going to say that energy cost was a counter to that, but realized with many small superweapons the cap on damage based on the superweapon size would negate that. However, how about a superweapon is only a normal weapon until undocked? (Not sure if we want superweapons on stations.) I'm thinking that having a ship just large enough to handle the superweapon's cost and power, and then docking a bunch of those to a carrier would be rather OP.

I see. But I think it would get a bit complicated, especially for newer players

Because you see so many newbies making huge ships, right? </sarcasm>
But seriously, I might have been unclear about how it works.
At minimum, a superweapon will use the same amount of power and do the same amount of damage as a normal weapon of the same size and reload.
However, it can consume up to 20 times as much power, and do up to 20 times as much damage as a normal weapon of the same size and reload. It will try to be as powerful as possible, but will be limited by the ship's current power level. It will most likely eat all your power at once.
I'm thinking the reload on these should be 2-10 minutes, and also these (except for the -missile types) should not scale well with additional tubes/barrels/elements.

Also, thinking of effects for each combination: (Most of these have explosive and puncture by default, unless another effect has 100%)
Cannon: Fires a large, fairly fast projectile that does grazing damage to ships it almost hits, but does severe damage to any ship it does hit, on multiple blocks. Has a >1m hitbox for doing direct damage.
Cannon-cannon: less grazing damage, but faster and reloads faster
Cannon-missile: designate multiple targets, then fire. Attempts to shoot all of them with cannon-cannon superweapon rounds.
Cannon-beam: super-fast, ultra-long range shot. No grazing damage. Instead of normal puncture, does equal damage to all shots in path.
Cannon-pulse: high grazing radius, slight lag before firing. Does pulsar-disabling effect to any target directly hit.

Missile: Flies on a curving path towards the point it was fired at. Does pulsar-disabling effect to any target directly hit.
Missile-cannon: Faster travel and reload. No pulsar-disabling. More curvy path
Missile-missile: designate mutliple targets, then fire. Launches a set number of missiles total for each target selected. Total damage is split amoung all targets. The number of missiles per target is determined by the number of seperate missile tubes on the target. No pulsar-disabling
Missile-beam: Travels straight to the target, then begins random maneuvers at about halfway there. Slows as it approaches the target. Explodes twice, doing half its damage each time.
Missile-pulse: Lock-on. No erratic flight, but has damage as a form of health. Has a normal radius which acts like a standard missile, then a "radiation damage" radius, in which targets will either take the full radiation damage (it's instant, right after the normal explosion) to their shields, or have all blocks exposed to the blast have up to half their health taken off. Radiation damage pushes targets away from the center but does not pulsar-disable.

Beam: Has a >1m radius for direct damage. Does grazing damage to ships nearly hit.
Beam-cannon: Has a smaller direct damage radius and grazing radius.
Beam-missile: Hit one target. Some ships near the main target are hit with secondary and tertiary beams emitted from the main target. No grazing radius. Only ships not docked to the target will get hit with the secondary and tertiary beams.
Beam-beam: Similar to Cannon-beam, high range, and damage distributed evenly to all blocks hit.
Beam-pulse: No puncture. If the target's shields are down, causes them to explode with a force equivalent to the block damage, centered around the point of impact. (N)PCs are not protected by the target ship from the blast. Grazing hits on unshielded targets cause much smaller explosions. Will do damage to shields normally.

I have no clue how what to do with the Pulse- superweapons, though. THinking about, but I could use some inspiration.

 

[Spartan-228]

I have no clue how what to do with the Pulse- superweapons, though. THinking about, but I could use some inspiration.

That is because no one has thought of a good way to use them. theoretically you could put them on drones and you might end up with missiles mounting damage pulse warheads, but that's only if the drone will get that close. Other then that their range makes the unsealable unless you ram the other ship, or fighters buzz your hull.

 

[Lecic]

No thanks. Projectiles should just scale in size with damage.

Also, I agree with @Itmauve. Certain weapon combos should be more effective at certain sizes. Tired of seeing capital ships using rapid cannons as their main weapon.

 

[Winterhome]

"Super Weapons" don't need to be added by the game as a separate thing.
You can make the things you're talking about already.
It just takes some basic knowledge of geometry and making sure outputs don't touch eachother to get a large gun without a checkerboard effect.

 

[Megacrafter127]

"Super Weapons" don't need to be added by the game as a separate thing.
You can make the things you're talking about already.
It just takes some basic knowledge of geometry and making sure outputs don't touch eachother to get a large gun without a checkerboard effect.

You do know how tedious and ineffective checkerboards are?