A change to charge cannons

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    Presently charge cannons (though an interesting idea), do not really fill a needed roll. As far as I can tell, they basically achieve the same goal as a big cannon + small beam, but with the added charge mechanic that is just there to make it harder to use. So this is an idea for how to help make the charge canon fill a role that no other weapon currently does.

    One of the problems with Weapons 3.0 is the removal of punch through mechanics which makes spaced armor an effective countermeasure against pretty much everything other than weapon spam. So my thought is to use the charge cannon as a variable punchthrough weapon.

    Instead of charging to do more damage, charging it for 5 tics will punch through 5 blocks before inflicting its unused damage as Acid. 10 ticks would give 10 penetrations, etc.

    My second thought was how to add them as a properly AI usable weapon, and this is where a little bit of logic becomes helpful. Attach cannons to activation blocks. Each ON block will tell the cannon to charge 1 tic per shot, so this configuration would punch through 5 blocks, then do acid.

    upload_2018-5-13_0-57-56.png
    ... but if you flip a switch and turn off 3 than it only does 2 punch though

    upload_2018-5-13_1-0-51.png
    This would make controlling the finer aspects of the charge cannon doable with remotes.

    [edit]: Just for clarification, AI would still need to wait for the cannon to charge; so, adjusting those activation blocks would not only affect punch through, but also rounds/sec. This would help balance the weapon by making you sacrifice dps for armor penetration; otherwise, people will just be walking around with 30 stage charge cannons all the time.
     
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    This would be a neat feature, although right now you can regulate charge by just switching to another slot mid-charge. I doubt that's going to make it to release though.
     
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    Nice idea but i like the charge for more dmg model it gives the game a sniper like class for taking out warships at safe ranges mabe it could become and actual weapon like a beam rifle or somthing so we can have both

    ~Rocket
     
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    • Legacy Citizen 4
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    I honestly think Missile secondary being this charge thing was a mistake. They could have done some good shotgun type mechanics by simply having the spread be ajustable by percentage of missile secondary and randomization of the spread pattern. I’d much rather have turrets that function as skeet guns for fighters etc. I have absolutely no reason to use the current charge mechanic for anything, anywhere.
     
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    I am very okay with spaced armor being good in general, it pushes us towards interiors.
    Charge cannon is a neat idea, but I think ultimately should be replaced with BSG-style flak, not made more complicated and into what would be everyone's "defeat the spaced armor" go-to.
     
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    Nice idea but i like the charge for more dmg model it gives the game a sniper like class for taking out warships at safe ranges mabe it could become and actual weapon like a beam rifle or somthing so we can have both

    ~Rocket
    Cannon-Beam is a sniper cannon. It has more range, alpha, and muzzle velocity than the charge cannon, and by doing it at less than 100% you can exactly recreate the damage pattern of a charge cannon, minus the annoying charge sequence.
     
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    Charge cannon is a neat idea, but I think ultimately should be replaced with BSG-style flak,
    I like the thought of C-M being either more explosive than other cannons, or having a fragmentation effect - eg. the shot splits into several smaller shots in a wide cone, either as soon as it breaks one block (impact fragmentation) or when it reaches a certain distance to the target (proximity fuse).