Ammo Cache or ammunition without micromanagement

[Zoolimar]

Instead of adding the need to resupply I propose creation of an Ammo Cache block that calculates its workspace similar to how shipyards do it (U-shaped block groups that create a containment). Though you will need a continuous group instead of multiple gates.

Ammo Caches are filled with warhead groups with the size dependant on the power of the gun that they are supposed to feed. So a piddly little cannon with 1-2k damage needs only 1 warhead block as a unit of ammo, and a capital cannon with 1 million damage per shot may need hundreds of warheads to get even one unit of useful ammo.

So why would you fill your ship with enough volatile material to blow up a good chunk of it? Because it allows to shoot your cannons faster as long as ammo is there. Say (with new power) you have a cannon that takes a lot of energy per shot and normally you will need to wait a long time while it reloads or you will need to put it forward in priority neglecting other systems. Ammo Cache allows you to fire the cannon in bursts, pelting the target with multiple projectiles.

Ammo Cache still takes energy to reload, the same or maybe even bigger amount than it would have taken to shoot the gun as many times normally. So a gun that takes X energy to fire, with an Ammo Cache for 10 projectiles, will need at least 10X to reload it. And you can't fire the gun until the Ammo Cache is completely reloaded.

Pros:
-Much higher rate of fire in short bursts allowing to overwhelm the enemy

Cons:
-Volatile
-Takes space
-After the Cache is spent takes a lot of time to reload

 

[Dire Venom]

First of all, nice visual!
I'm all for making weapons a bit more modular and less soup-like. Having more structure built into them would be a welcome change, and more explosions defiantly isn't a bad thing :P I think as a whole the game is moving towarsd more refinied and modular systems.

Obligitory ammo rack gifs:

Issues may be caused by using them to 'supercharge' systems as such. Players would still beable to build their weapons off floating in space thus negating the danger of ammo explosions at no loss. I think as a whole using blocks/items/fuel to supercharge systems sounds nice but would cause too many issues and would be required and exploited on all compedative builds.

Being able to overwhelm your opponent with alpha is already a bit on an issue with offense vastly outscaling defense. I don't think adding in an alpha orientated mechanic would be a good idea.

I feel that ammo racks should fufill a different purpose on ships. However with the removal of power capacity and this weird recharge mechanic its sort of different to find an exact place for them, except as a required part of building a weapon.

(Tbh I really don't like the removal of power capacity, if weapon blocks can store charge, surely other blocks can too???) Blah... it just really bugs me :/ Recharging weapons for 2 hours and using chambers to nullify upkeep cost.... erghhhhhhh

Still, great suggestion and hopefully ammo racks of some sort could be implimented for a (yet undetermined) function.

 

[Zoolimar]

Being able to overwhelm your opponent with alpha is already a bit on an issue with offense vastly outscaling defense. I don't think adding in an alpha orientated mechanic would be a good idea.

I think that's a problem with defence, not with offence. Or better to say it is a problem with scaling between them. If scaling was better alpha weapons with Ammo Caches (or even normal alpha strike weapons) would need a lot of thought put into how much ammo you want to have against the risk of wasting the burst and getting blown up.

 

[Dire Venom]

I think that's a problem with defence, not with offence. Or better to say it is a problem with scaling between them. If scaling was better alpha weapons with Ammo Caches (or even normal alpha strike weapons) would need a lot of thought put into how much ammo you want to have against the risk of wasting the burst and getting blown up.

True, however unless there are some major mechanic changes players can completly negate the risk of explosions and just build the weapon deteched from the ship, or have the linked ammo storage away from the ship for no cost. In short, not a problem with your suggestion, just the current game mechanics which would allow for it to be exploited.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Interesting idea!
You title and visual made me think of it working like Storage and Cargo.
The Weapons computer connected to weapons cache blocks that load up in preparation to fire.
Whether they look like warheads or not, I like the idea of them being volatile like warheads.

This would make sense for me from a weapon using ammunition while providing a balance in the form of volatility.

From what I remember, I don't think Schine wanted to go down the road of ammunition or fuel mechanics, so not sure what I was thinking would even be looked at.

 

[Nickizzy]

I like it. I had a longer reply but I went off WiFi and it didn’t save D: