Best Ways to Incorporate Ammo

[Spartan-228]

My personal favorite idea on this would be to link a weapon to a plex storage that you would load the ammo into.
However it should not be mandatory. There should be advantages and disadvantages for both options. If you don't use ammo you use up power. If you use ammo you only use maybe half of what it would have normally.

As for the ammo we could have a lot of fun with this.
Ammo types could in some extent replace or enhance effects.

There could be nukes. Slow moving, but high damage missile.

Torpedoes fast moving long range missile, but poor maneuverability.

And the list can go on and on for missiles.

For cannon you could have armor piercing, high explosive, shredder and many many more.

 

[MineCatFTW]

The effect blocks (to me) look like big sci-fi ammo crates anyways. This could be an interesting change, but it doesn't quite fit with the 'theme' of the weapon systems.

 

[Dragon2000]

My personal favorite idea on this would be to link a weapon to a plex storage that you would load the ammo into.
However it should not be mandatory. There should be advantages and disadvantages for both options. If you don't use ammo you use up power. If you use ammo you only use maybe half of what it would have normally.

As for the ammo we could have a lot of fun with this.
Ammo types could in some extent replace or enhance effects.

There could be nukes. Slow moving, but high damage missile.

Torpedoes fast moving long range missile, but poor maneuverability.

And the list can go on and on for missiles.

For cannon you could have armor piercing, high explosive, shredder and many many more.

i think it should not replace effects but if they enhanced them it would make starmade even more fun but how would you get this ammo would you have to make it or would you have to find it from pirate stations maybe by using the crafting system they could be made less valuable/powerful could be made easily like shredder missiles should be not too difficult to make but enough so after 30 minutes you have a system to set up auto production i personally think this is a great idea because i don't want my weapons to need ammo it would take so long to my big ships or even small starting ships hard to make but the idea that it just no longer take power makes me think that it is a great compromise i personally can think of some fun i could have with certain kinds of ammo like quantum torpedoes (sorry for making a star trek reference) that could be very powerful but could also may be slow but also take a fair bit of stuff to make sure this might need more ids to make the ammo but really im hope the devs implement this they way you have made it sound i can think of some friends that may like this as well

 

[Gerion]

This is a thing that should come AFTER a proper cargo system is in place, because at the moment one plex storage can hold as much ammo as anyone could ever want (plus a few rounds spare). In principle its a good idea, balancing weapons by their ammo usage.

 

[jayman38]

I always wished more games would utilize different ammo types for the same weapon system.

I think alternating between energy usage or ammo usage is a great way to go.

New block idea for this concept: Nanite ammunition conversion block. (Converts Grey Hull and/or rocks and dirt and/or something else that is common to produce selected ammo type by the hundreds)

 

[Dark_Inquisitor]

Why add amunition in first place? You could simply limit power generation in some way (power generation would require some kind of fuel). This way, you wouldn't have problems like, the best players using only OP ammo which would be hard to get. It would be much simpler.

What's best, it would touch everyone equally + require big amounts of fuel to power up large ships (an actual PURPOSE for shuttles?) and add new economic dimension to the game (ship operational time?(related to fuel capacity?))(but that's unrelated to this topic, so ignore that).

 

[молоток]

I would propose an optional "requires ammo" section in the block behavior config file, and a set of blocks and recipes for various ammo components. In this way, you could set normal AMC to not require ammo, but rapid AMC would. Rockets should of COURSE cost ammo, and it would be more difficult to make, (I think homing missiles should require an AI module in the recipe for example) but beams naturally would not. In this way, balance could be brought to weapons, and each weapon choice would come with economic consequences. Link chests to the weapon computers for ammo storage.
I heard a rumor that "base only" blocks may soon be able to be used on very large ships, but will come with a penalty to movement. In this way, large ships could manufacture their own ammunition, while smaller craft would have to re-arm the hard way.

 

[jath]

No ammo please. I'm sick of ammo. Just use replicators that automatically feed the ammo into the launchers. woo!

 

[OdraNoel]

i personally would love to see both, a fuel and ammo system be implemented :p

/rant
now not everyone will agree on those things, but thats where configs come in handy. these are perfect features to add to the game to give it more appeal and depth. now i don't believe in the whole micro-management argument because that isn't a problem with a proper UI and implementation. in fact that is often the purpose of many minecraft mods, to remove micromanagement of having to manually craft various items. (automation)

but things like fuel or ammo management aren't a problem if a ship can easily access any ammo or fuel on a space station while in the vicinity of that station. so say you have fuel tanks and ammo cases that can only be placed on stations to store in bulk. and ships can simply access that in the menu while in the ship. or you could just get a refuel button when near a shop. all these little things just add more depth and RPG elements for me. which is what i want most from the game. so maybe im biased. but thats why it would be perfect for a config option. those those of us who want to play "hardcore" (for a lack of a better word) can.

and as for ammo? oh man i dont even know where to start! :p i know this is just my wishful thinking and maybe a bit of masochism, but id love to see a highly modifiable ammo system. where you can make ammo of all qualities depending on how you craft it and what recourses you use. (yes more micromanagement! give me more!!! :D) and missiles have so much potential. imagine missiles with multiple kinds of warheads and things like that. or a diablo 2 style ammo system..... (too much?)

---
ok im done rambling. i know most wont want so many RPG elements added to the game. but theres those of us who do! just give us config options and everyone stays happy. but either way, im sure down the road someone will eventual make a mod for all these things so ill just sit tight till then.

 

[NeonSturm]

I think ammo should be implemented together with firing patterns.
Items, power => factory => clip
clip, power => drained by weapon


Ammo in Clips (even if it only requires power to produce) fixes many possible reload-exploits.

it lets you control

1. how many of which effect you want to produce
2. which weapons have access to which clips (size, type)
3. offline clips/storages can not be selected by weapons or used by the ammo-factory (= control used/produced type with Logic)
4. setting current clip offline = weapon reload.

### More details below ###


Handle Power like an Item which can only be put into Power Tanks.

( 1000 Items )per( Tank ) + groupSize^1.05 (( changeable by "/data/config/blockBehaviourConfig.xml" ))​

PlexStores, PowerTanks, FactoryEnhancers => AmmoFactory (normal)
PlexStores, PowerTanks, EffectModules => AmmoFactory (special effects)

AmmoFactory => PlexStores (used as Clips)
PlexStores(used as Clips) => Weapon Barrel

Clips:

Clips which feed weapons should not draw from any Ammo-Factory.
You can have different ammo in one clip, but as a weapon draws same number of ammo as it has blocks, you may have multiple stacks with "stack < block count"

If the target is shielded, the clip with most ions may be chosen first.
If the target is unshielded, punch through may be.

Controll behavior by making different clips available via Logic or just don't have different clips.​

Logic-Control:

Clips:

Only online clips are available - forcefully unload the clip by setting the clip offline (logic)
The reload mechanism acts like a Logic-AND with all clips state and the weapon computers state.
It will not unload the current clip if there is no free available while the clip is active.​

Fire:

The fire mechanism works while the weapon computer is active.
The cool-down is after unloading a clip, not after loading a clip, thus you can choose a clip and start a firing loop by setting the computer active.
You can stop after a magazine by setting all other clips inactive.​

Damaged groups | arrays:

Block groups and arrays which get damaged may get inactive for some time to prevent lag.
Power tanks | Item containers:

Start taking damage : Save preDamage[ (stock := current.stock) (ratio := current.stock / current.capacity) ]
Taking damage : reset cooldown after which "Stop taking damage" is triggered
Stop taking damage : Restore afterDamage[ (stock := min( (preDamage.stock) (preDamage.ratio * current.capacity) )) ]​