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This isn't about making totally new weapons to use but a few new types of weapon modules for both primary and support weapons to allow for different things to do done with them.
Currently we have what I call Single Direction modules meaning they can only fire in the direction either them or the computer they are connected to is facing. Also these are fairly limiting and for good reason because of this making it so ships using these modules have to completely turn the output side of the ship to fire at enemies. (Yes I know this does apply to the swarmers and lockons)
Phaser-like or Multi directional Array Modules: Yes I kinda stole this idea right out of Star Trek and it works somewhat the same way as them. This also forces possible output locations for weapons fire to be exposed to the outside environment. That said this check only cares if at least one of the faces on the weapons modules has at least one block exposure and doesn't care if it is berried under 50m of armor as long as that one block of open space is there.
Only modules with one block of open space on one of their face will be valid firing locations.
In the meantime energy or ammo to be fired from the array will move along to the best or closest firing location that meets the requirements rather than only firing in the direction the computer is facing. However the furthest outputs in the direction the computer is facing will be the default starting point before it checks other areas. On spawn, block destroying damage to the array modules, and building changes near or to the arrays are the only times it rechecks the firing locations. These checks shouldn't be any more intensive than the current ones on weapon module groups taking damage.
These arrays would be less powerful than their Single Direction counterparts but having the ability to fire in any direction rather than strait out in the computer facing direction makes them far more dangerous than normal due to the fact a ship using them doesn't have to turn to shoot you unless you are in a blind-spot on their ship.
Field Emitter Arrays: These are way different than normal and less powerful than the type above but allow for the weapon to fire a shockwave of micro rounds in all directions from its outputs. Other types could also be like a damaging energy field made of the rounds fired for that type of weapon. The weapon range on this is also cut down as well since it allows the user to give their enemies a bath of death in all directions making it nearby impossible to dodge.
There are some catches to using one of the other types of weapon modules in place of the default ones. First you cannot use more than one type of weapon module per computer, meaning you can't have say Single Direction and Phaser types salved to the same computer for example. This however doesn't stop you from linking a computer that has one type of modules to one that has another type. Secondly these two new types in particular are less powerful in the damage area than the normal ones. That said they each do something the normal ones and each other are unable to do and have their areas they are really good at.
Now on something else: Weapon Firing Styles.
Currently we have this Fire All type of firing style that only turns into a cycling firing style if we don't have the power to fire all outputs at once. This has always annoyed me to no end why we couldn't tell the weapons in their computers or even the AI to fire in a different mode.
Cycling Fire Mode: This allows the shooter to fire one output at a time rather than all at once and it will cycle through all outputs once before going back to the first output to fire again. Now for high fire rate weapons like beams and cannons this might not be very useful but this could be handy for say high alpha weapons or in cases you simply don't have the power to fire all outputs at once.
Multidirectional Spray Mode: This firing mode moves the restriction of the computer's facing direction for shooting to the module output's facing direction for shooting but at the cost of far lower than normal damage, range, and fire rate. In this firing mode the module facing directions determine the weapons fire directions. In Spray Mode while you have less powerful rounds you can basically tell all your enemies nearby they might want to move. Outside that you'd end up deal little damage to them. This could be handy when you have no scanner but you know that cloaker is somewhere in the same sector as you and you just want to spray the whole sector down out of frustration. Also what if you are in a cloud of drones wanting to murder you at close range and can't get them off you normally.
That said anyone else also have some ideas?
Currently we have what I call Single Direction modules meaning they can only fire in the direction either them or the computer they are connected to is facing. Also these are fairly limiting and for good reason because of this making it so ships using these modules have to completely turn the output side of the ship to fire at enemies. (Yes I know this does apply to the swarmers and lockons)
Phaser-like or Multi directional Array Modules: Yes I kinda stole this idea right out of Star Trek and it works somewhat the same way as them. This also forces possible output locations for weapons fire to be exposed to the outside environment. That said this check only cares if at least one of the faces on the weapons modules has at least one block exposure and doesn't care if it is berried under 50m of armor as long as that one block of open space is there.
Only modules with one block of open space on one of their face will be valid firing locations. In the meantime energy or ammo to be fired from the array will move along to the best or closest firing location that meets the requirements rather than only firing in the direction the computer is facing. However the furthest outputs in the direction the computer is facing will be the default starting point before it checks other areas. On spawn, block destroying damage to the array modules, and building changes near or to the arrays are the only times it rechecks the firing locations. These checks shouldn't be any more intensive than the current ones on weapon module groups taking damage.
These arrays would be less powerful than their Single Direction counterparts but having the ability to fire in any direction rather than strait out in the computer facing direction makes them far more dangerous than normal due to the fact a ship using them doesn't have to turn to shoot you unless you are in a blind-spot on their ship.
Field Emitter Arrays: These are way different than normal and less powerful than the type above but allow for the weapon to fire a shockwave of micro rounds in all directions from its outputs. Other types could also be like a damaging energy field made of the rounds fired for that type of weapon. The weapon range on this is also cut down as well since it allows the user to give their enemies a bath of death in all directions making it nearby impossible to dodge.
There are some catches to using one of the other types of weapon modules in place of the default ones. First you cannot use more than one type of weapon module per computer, meaning you can't have say Single Direction and Phaser types salved to the same computer for example. This however doesn't stop you from linking a computer that has one type of modules to one that has another type. Secondly these two new types in particular are less powerful in the damage area than the normal ones. That said they each do something the normal ones and each other are unable to do and have their areas they are really good at.
Now on something else: Weapon Firing Styles.
Currently we have this Fire All type of firing style that only turns into a cycling firing style if we don't have the power to fire all outputs at once. This has always annoyed me to no end why we couldn't tell the weapons in their computers or even the AI to fire in a different mode.
Cycling Fire Mode: This allows the shooter to fire one output at a time rather than all at once and it will cycle through all outputs once before going back to the first output to fire again. Now for high fire rate weapons like beams and cannons this might not be very useful but this could be handy for say high alpha weapons or in cases you simply don't have the power to fire all outputs at once.
Multidirectional Spray Mode: This firing mode moves the restriction of the computer's facing direction for shooting to the module output's facing direction for shooting but at the cost of far lower than normal damage, range, and fire rate. In this firing mode the module facing directions determine the weapons fire directions. In Spray Mode while you have less powerful rounds you can basically tell all your enemies nearby they might want to move. Outside that you'd end up deal little damage to them. This could be handy when you have no scanner but you know that cloaker is somewhere in the same sector as you and you just want to spray the whole sector down out of frustration.
Also what if you are in a cloud of drones wanting to murder you at close range and can't get them off you normally. That said anyone else also have some ideas?
