Bigger Bullets: The quest for a more epic StarMade

[MineCatFTW]

With the upcoming weapons update, I've been hankering for a new feature that has been discussed before, on the old site, but not here. I call it Bigger Bullets, though other people call it different stuff. The idea behind it is that you can set multiple connected outputs of a weapon, instead of just one, and that will increase the size of the projectile/beam etc. For example, let's say you have a 1000 damage cannon that fires once every second. When you only have one output set, it will fire a standard size cannon round that deals 1000 damage to one block. This is the current system. The problem with this is that even hitting the toughest block in the game, you still waste 600 damage out of 1000. Not good, and this is why the "shotgun" or "waffle" arrays are prevalent in ship combat. What this suggestion would do is change it, so you select multiple outputs.
It would work like this: Take your 1000 damage cannon, then select a SECOND OUTPUT, let's say to the first one's left. This creates a bullet that is wider, but not taller, and will hit two blocks next to each other, dealing 500 damage to each. Now only 200 damage is wasted. But a flat bullet looks weird to you, so you add two more, making a 2x2 square. Now it is still a 1000 damage cannon firing once a second, but the damage is spread over four blocks, dealing 250 to each.
Now combine this with the dev build's artillery cannons and punch-through effects, and you could have a 20,000 damage cannon that not only hits four blocks, but keeps going past the first few. We could finally see that unlucky fighter getting vaporized by a battleship's main cannon, and huge chunks getting blasted out of ships, instead of shitty little holes. Overall, we could get the space battles you see on TV and in movies, in StarMade

~MineCat out.

 

[WolfChild]

I actually really like this idea. I think that the choose output size thing is a bit simple, but I don't know how else you'd do it. There needs to be some negative, for balance sake.

 

[cptkickercutleg]

I can only frown at the idea of blinding people with a 200x200 cube of projectile that does 1 damage but fires stupidly fast.

 

[Commodore]

I think the projectiles should look like the star citizen ones, they are great!

 

[Ithirahad]

With the new explosive modifier, cannons like this will become possible... However, I still support this.

 

[MineCatFTW]

I actually really like this idea. I think that the choose output size thing is a bit simple, but I don't know how else you'd do it. There needs to be some negative, for balance sake.

You spread your damage out, so you may not have enough to break a block after it's spread out. But it still needs to be more powerful than shotgun arrays, otherwise there's no point.

 

[MineCatFTW]

With the new explosive modifier, cannons like this will become possible... However, I still support this.

I've played around with it, and it only damages the four blocks directly touching the block that was hit. Still, it's better than nothing.

 

[Megacrafter127]

But it still needs to be more powerful than shotgun arrays, otherwise there's no point.

As far as I see, it would already be more powerful, than shotgun arrays(if the d/shot of a group scales linear), since it'd be much easier to build.

 

[Lecic]

+1. I've been wanting this for ages. If it was added, I'd make a huge charge laser. I don't think it should work with missiles, though.

 

[rece ktore leczo]

I definitely agree that powerful weapons waste too much damage. Building bigger guns isn't much welcomed as the damage output is in majority wasted. New effects system would change that, but it would be nice if the basic guns would have some values of these effects without any subsystems connected.

What i mean is that certain weapons could have some build-in effects (customizable) with values pretty invisible in smaller guns, but pretty important on bigger ones. AMCs could be explosive ones, beams - piercing, pulse - emp (i think it's more dmg to shields), etc.
Adding more effect blocks to the gun would either magnify basic effect or add new one.


The OP suggestion is nice, but as mentioned above, it could be abused by making big blinding guns.

 

[Lecic]

The OP suggestion is nice, but as mentioned above, it could be abused by making big blinding guns.

Maybe past a certain projectile size to projectile power ratio, it consumes more and more power. That way, a 1x500x500 cannon might shoot a really big projectile, but it drains all their power, so it isn't sustainable.

 

[rece ktore leczo]

Maybe past a certain projectile size to projectile power ratio, it consumes more and more power. That way, a 1x500x500 cannon might shoot a really big projectile, but it drains all their power, so it isn't sustainable.

If the power requirement would grow exponentially with the grow of the bullet then it would be nice. Maybe with equation:
basic.en.req. * 1.05^n where "n" is the number of outputs. With 5 outputs the en. req. would be 1.277 of the basic one and gun with 40 outputs would have 7 times more power req.

Anyway i think that adding some effect values for the vanilla gun could be easier to implement but i would be also happy with the OP suggestion.

 

[MineCatFTW]

Great suggestions everybody! Good to see people like it.

 

[Archailect]

I think this is a pretty good idea, seems like it would improve the game a lot! It doesn't seem too unbalanced, either, since the damage is just divided.

Another thing, it would let you set up weapons better even if you aren't using multiple outputs. Maybe it's just me, but getting the gun to fire from the right place when it's shaped strangely can be difficult.

 

[Malacodor]

I'm not sure if this makes much sense with the new weapons system. But at least the size of the graphical effect of projectiles/beams/missiles should be proportional to their damage. It looks ridiculous when a huge cannon fires tiny bullets.

 

[Vakna]

Why not just add some math to the code that increases the projectile size based on the amount of connected blocks, just as the damage increases based on this. But cap the size at a specified number so that people can't make planet sized missiles or something.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

in the dev builds AMCs projectiles do get larger with more power. I'm still waiting for Beam weapons to increase the size of their beams based on the dimensions of the arrays.

would suck to have a massive titan with beam weapons and the beam only looks like tiny toothpicks compared to the size of the ship.
I WANT MASSIVE DEATH BEAMS

 

[MineCatFTW]

You're missing the point. It would be more ridiculous if your giant death beam only broke one block at a time. And Malacador, take the time to read the FIRST WORDS of this suggestion.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

You're missing the point. It would be more ridiculous if your giant death beam only broke one block at a time.

i know. I always wanted the size of the beam to increase the amount of blocks it damages and i was thinking that a appropriate way to balance this is to change the way that Beam weapons stats are calculated. i think that making beam weapons use a similar system to the way Pulse weapons calculate stats (X,Y,Z dimensions affect Damage/Range/Reload)

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

So basically you want to build multiple canons without the detriment of building multiple cannons? Currently if you want to hit more than one block you need multiple cannons, additional cannons adds additional power requirements for balancing effect. Sure you want big guns to do more damage but I can't imagine the nightmare it is to code a single larger projectile capable of hitting multiple blocks, and then to balance that with all the other additions already being put into place. Currently the size of the projectile changes with damage, sure you cannot fire a single projectile several meters wide but if you want to spread your damage out you have punch through, peirce, and explosives as an option.