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Instead of adding a new block for each new weapon I came up with a different idea. We have energy weapons and ammo based weapons using AMC blocks and a new "Gun" block, respectively. The computer used to control those blocks determine what weapon that block is.
My ideas for computer types are:
Energy Weapons
Blaster
+++++ Fire Rate
--- Damage
-- Range
+++ Shot Speed
Pulse
--- Fire Rate
++ Damage
++ Range
+++ Shot Speed
Special: The pulse gun fires 3 shots every time it fires.
Cannon
---- Fire Rate
++++++++++ Damage
+++ Range
-- Shot Speed
Special: Cannon shots are very, very big.
Wave
-- Fire Rate
--- Damage
----- Range
-- Shot Speed
Special: Wave shots are larger than other shots. They also grow larger as they travel.
Ammunition Based Weapons
Ammunition weapons take almost no energy to fire, but consume ammunition; which is explained later. For the most part, they are equivalent to their energy based
counterparts.
Chaingun
See Blaster
Mass Driver
See Pulse
Mortar
See Cannon
Flak
-- Fire Rate
-------- Range
+++++ Shot Speed
Special: The Flak weapon fires a very fast moving projectile with very low range. When it hits something or reaches maximum range; it explodes dealing splash damage.
More information on ammo-based weaponry can be seen in the ammunition section.
You can add other computers to complement these, the weapons above are extremes so there can be weapons that compromise between two or something else entirely.
You'll notice there are no beam weapons. It's because hitscan weapons would be incredibly overpowered in a game that suffers from lag spikes. Wait until the system is more optimized. Furthermore, other weapons here lessen the need for it. Large ships can use Wave or Flak weapons to hit fighters; if fighters have problems hitting large ships you have bigger problems than weapon choice.
Multitools
Similar to the above, I combined Powersupply, Powerdrain, Salvage, Pulse, and such computers to use Multitool blocks instead of their separate ones. Furthermore, their strength depends on their XYZ size, like power blocks instead of weapons.
Weapon/Multitool blocks change color depending on what computer they are attached to.
One problem with combining the blocks is using the Shift+V feature to automatically link blocks of weapons. No idea how to get around this.
Ammunition
Unlike energy weapons, ammo-based weapons do not get their damage from blocks. Their damage is based on what ammo is loaded into it and the bonus/malus from the computer. The amount of Gun blocks determines the firing rate, projectile speed, and range.
I've considered two systems for this:
1. Ammunition has a level from 1-5 like ore. Ammunition is universal with higher level ammo doing more damage. The amount used depends on the computer. Mass drivers get X shots per ammo item while mortars get Y etc.
2. Ammunition has a level from 1-5 like ore, but each weapon uses different ammo.
I've thought of other systems, but I don't know if Schema wants to add special damage types; so these will be fine for now.
Then we have to place an area to hold the ammo. The "Plex Magazine" block.
It's similar to a plexstorage block, but it only has 1 slot and how many items that can fit in that slot depends on how big it is. It scales similar to the SD Power Storage. You link the magazine block to the weapon computer. More than one computer can link to the a plex magazine.
A plexmagazine block has 1 HP, and if it goes down all connected plexmagazine blocks explode in a glorious fireball. (With or without ammo)
Small amounts of low level ammunition can be bought from shops, but for the most part you're going to have to rely on manufacturing your own. You can buy the recipe from shops.
Ships bought from a blueprint are not equipped with ammunition.
Missiles
Missile blocks have been standardized, with the three computers connecting to a single type of missile block. However, missiles are capable of both ammo and energy weapon usage. Unlike ammo weapons, the size of your launcher only determines how fast you reload and what size missile you can fire through it. Missile damage, speed, radius, and range is determined by the missile. Homing capability is determined by your missile computer.
Missiles are stored in a "Plex Missile Rack". You can store 1 missile for each Missile Rack Block connected to it, so a 3X3X3 cube is 27 blocks allowing you to store 27 missiles. Link the missile rack to your missile computer.
If your launcher is not connected to a missile rack or the rack is empty, your missile launcher will "Create" a generic missile and fire it; which works like thecurrent game.
A plex missile rack block has 1 HP, and if it goes down all connected plex missile rack blocks explode in a glorious fireball. (With or without missiles)
There can be as many missile types as you can possibly think of, each with their own roles. For the most part, the more damage it does, the bigger the size is, which means you'll need a bigger launcher to fire it. Stored missiles reload quicker and are much faster and more maneuverable than a generic missile.
Small amounts of weaker missiles can be bought from shops, but for the most part you're going to have to rely on manufacturing your own. You can buy the recipe from shops.
Ships bought from a blueprint do not come with missiles.
Shields
In addition to the normal shield system, I've come up with two different kinds of defensive equipment.
First is the Hull-Plate Ionizer block. You link this block to hulls/hardened hulls on your ship. When active, it drains power, but increases the damage resistance of the linked hull blocks to 99% (minimum 1 damage). The hull continues to take hits, just very weak ones. The more hull blocks are linked, the more power it drains (I think 500-1000 per block is good).
You can activate the hull ionizer using your system hotbar. You can have more than one hull ionizer but they cannot be linked to the same blocks.
Next is the Shield Battery. The shield battery uses energy crystals to recharge shields and can do so even under fire. Like the Plex magazine, the shield battery block holds only one stack of items and how many energy crystals you can fit depends on how large your shield battery is. Every X amount of shield recharged, the Shield Battery uses one energy crystal. The larger your shield battery, the more shields are restored per second and the more energy crystals are used.
You can activate the shield battery using your system hotbar. After usage, it goes into a cooldown.
The shield battery block has 1 HP, if it goes down all connected shield battery blocks explode in a glorious fireball. (With or without crystals)
Small amounts of energy crystals can be bought from shops, but for the most part you're going to have to rely on manufacturing your own. You can buy the recipe from shops.
Ships bought from a blueprint do not come with energy crystals.
Shop Types
I believe that different types of shops could emulate an economy better than one all-purpose shop type. So every time a shop is spawned, it chooses one of the following types.
Factory
- Buys manufacturing materials/paints at higher prices.
- Changes them into Hull/Ship/Station Blocks and sells them at lower prices.
Arms Dealer
- Buys manufacturing materials and paints at higher prices.
- Changes them into Weapon/Tool/Missile/Ammunition and sells them at lower prices.
Refinery
- Buys Ores, Plants, and Terrain blocks at higher prices. at higher prices.
- Changes them into manufacturing elements/paints and sells them at lower prices.
Shipyard
- Buys Hull/Ship/Station/Weapon Blocks at higher prices.
- Creates some Hardened Hull with materials.
- Increases pirate/trading guild spawn rate in surrounding sectors as long as it has materials.
- Shipyards are rarer than other shop types.
Market
- Like the current shop.
Docking and AI
Carriers are essentially useless due to AI limitations and turrets are a pain to deal with, so I thought up something to hopefully fix it.
First we have AI blocks that connect to the docking blocks. "General Bobby" and "Admiral Bobby" blocks link to turrets docks and docking modules, respectively. Each "Command" block can link to an unlimited amount of their respective docking modules.
When docking a ship, instead of going to each individual docking block, you can target the admiral/general bobby block instead. It will automatically dock your ship on the smallest docking space available.
The command block can be activated through your system hotbar. Doing so brings up the AI menu, so you can activate the connected turrets/fighters. You can also change
the weapon settings for every connected turret/fighter. One weapons setting for Energy Weapons, one for Ammo weapons and one for missiles which changes all weapons on all connected ships. You may want to set up a second command block if you have multiple types of turrets/fighters.
The Admiral Bobby block can be used to launch and retrieve fighters. Fighters will not leave the sector their command ship is in and will switch to turret mode if the carrier leaves the sector.
If your turrets/fighters use ammo-based weaponry or missiles, you can link the command blocks to a PlexMagazine/PlexMissileRack. The turret/fighter still needs at least one PlexMag/PlexRack. Fighters will be reloaded upon docking.
Other changes
Advanced build mode should have the ability to hide/show certain block types as well as show you how much of each block is being used.
Pirates should get tougher the further you get from spawn. The scaling rate and maximum difficulty can be changed in the config.
Shops shouldn't have block limits or at least have higher block limits since they have a money limit.
Hulls should be a lot cheaper.
SD-KBs need to be fixed.
My ideas for computer types are:
Energy Weapons
Blaster
+++++ Fire Rate
--- Damage
-- Range
+++ Shot Speed
Pulse
--- Fire Rate
++ Damage
++ Range
+++ Shot Speed
Special: The pulse gun fires 3 shots every time it fires.
Cannon
---- Fire Rate
++++++++++ Damage
+++ Range
-- Shot Speed
Special: Cannon shots are very, very big.
Wave
-- Fire Rate
--- Damage
----- Range
-- Shot Speed
Special: Wave shots are larger than other shots. They also grow larger as they travel.
Ammunition Based Weapons
Ammunition weapons take almost no energy to fire, but consume ammunition; which is explained later. For the most part, they are equivalent to their energy based
counterparts.
Chaingun
See Blaster
Mass Driver
See Pulse
Mortar
See Cannon
Flak
-- Fire Rate
-------- Range
+++++ Shot Speed
Special: The Flak weapon fires a very fast moving projectile with very low range. When it hits something or reaches maximum range; it explodes dealing splash damage.
More information on ammo-based weaponry can be seen in the ammunition section.
You can add other computers to complement these, the weapons above are extremes so there can be weapons that compromise between two or something else entirely.
You'll notice there are no beam weapons. It's because hitscan weapons would be incredibly overpowered in a game that suffers from lag spikes. Wait until the system is more optimized. Furthermore, other weapons here lessen the need for it. Large ships can use Wave or Flak weapons to hit fighters; if fighters have problems hitting large ships you have bigger problems than weapon choice.
Multitools
Similar to the above, I combined Powersupply, Powerdrain, Salvage, Pulse, and such computers to use Multitool blocks instead of their separate ones. Furthermore, their strength depends on their XYZ size, like power blocks instead of weapons.
Weapon/Multitool blocks change color depending on what computer they are attached to.
One problem with combining the blocks is using the Shift+V feature to automatically link blocks of weapons. No idea how to get around this.
Ammunition
Unlike energy weapons, ammo-based weapons do not get their damage from blocks. Their damage is based on what ammo is loaded into it and the bonus/malus from the computer. The amount of Gun blocks determines the firing rate, projectile speed, and range.
I've considered two systems for this:
1. Ammunition has a level from 1-5 like ore. Ammunition is universal with higher level ammo doing more damage. The amount used depends on the computer. Mass drivers get X shots per ammo item while mortars get Y etc.
2. Ammunition has a level from 1-5 like ore, but each weapon uses different ammo.
I've thought of other systems, but I don't know if Schema wants to add special damage types; so these will be fine for now.
Then we have to place an area to hold the ammo. The "Plex Magazine" block.
It's similar to a plexstorage block, but it only has 1 slot and how many items that can fit in that slot depends on how big it is. It scales similar to the SD Power Storage. You link the magazine block to the weapon computer. More than one computer can link to the a plex magazine.
A plexmagazine block has 1 HP, and if it goes down all connected plexmagazine blocks explode in a glorious fireball. (With or without ammo)
Small amounts of low level ammunition can be bought from shops, but for the most part you're going to have to rely on manufacturing your own. You can buy the recipe from shops.
Ships bought from a blueprint are not equipped with ammunition.
Missiles
Missile blocks have been standardized, with the three computers connecting to a single type of missile block. However, missiles are capable of both ammo and energy weapon usage. Unlike ammo weapons, the size of your launcher only determines how fast you reload and what size missile you can fire through it. Missile damage, speed, radius, and range is determined by the missile. Homing capability is determined by your missile computer.
Missiles are stored in a "Plex Missile Rack". You can store 1 missile for each Missile Rack Block connected to it, so a 3X3X3 cube is 27 blocks allowing you to store 27 missiles. Link the missile rack to your missile computer.
If your launcher is not connected to a missile rack or the rack is empty, your missile launcher will "Create" a generic missile and fire it; which works like thecurrent game.
A plex missile rack block has 1 HP, and if it goes down all connected plex missile rack blocks explode in a glorious fireball. (With or without missiles)
There can be as many missile types as you can possibly think of, each with their own roles. For the most part, the more damage it does, the bigger the size is, which means you'll need a bigger launcher to fire it. Stored missiles reload quicker and are much faster and more maneuverable than a generic missile.
Small amounts of weaker missiles can be bought from shops, but for the most part you're going to have to rely on manufacturing your own. You can buy the recipe from shops.
Ships bought from a blueprint do not come with missiles.
Shields
In addition to the normal shield system, I've come up with two different kinds of defensive equipment.
First is the Hull-Plate Ionizer block. You link this block to hulls/hardened hulls on your ship. When active, it drains power, but increases the damage resistance of the linked hull blocks to 99% (minimum 1 damage). The hull continues to take hits, just very weak ones. The more hull blocks are linked, the more power it drains (I think 500-1000 per block is good).
You can activate the hull ionizer using your system hotbar. You can have more than one hull ionizer but they cannot be linked to the same blocks.
Next is the Shield Battery. The shield battery uses energy crystals to recharge shields and can do so even under fire. Like the Plex magazine, the shield battery block holds only one stack of items and how many energy crystals you can fit depends on how large your shield battery is. Every X amount of shield recharged, the Shield Battery uses one energy crystal. The larger your shield battery, the more shields are restored per second and the more energy crystals are used.
You can activate the shield battery using your system hotbar. After usage, it goes into a cooldown.
The shield battery block has 1 HP, if it goes down all connected shield battery blocks explode in a glorious fireball. (With or without crystals)
Small amounts of energy crystals can be bought from shops, but for the most part you're going to have to rely on manufacturing your own. You can buy the recipe from shops.
Ships bought from a blueprint do not come with energy crystals.
Shop Types
I believe that different types of shops could emulate an economy better than one all-purpose shop type. So every time a shop is spawned, it chooses one of the following types.
Factory
- Buys manufacturing materials/paints at higher prices.
- Changes them into Hull/Ship/Station Blocks and sells them at lower prices.
Arms Dealer
- Buys manufacturing materials and paints at higher prices.
- Changes them into Weapon/Tool/Missile/Ammunition and sells them at lower prices.
Refinery
- Buys Ores, Plants, and Terrain blocks at higher prices. at higher prices.
- Changes them into manufacturing elements/paints and sells them at lower prices.
Shipyard
- Buys Hull/Ship/Station/Weapon Blocks at higher prices.
- Creates some Hardened Hull with materials.
- Increases pirate/trading guild spawn rate in surrounding sectors as long as it has materials.
- Shipyards are rarer than other shop types.
Market
- Like the current shop.
Docking and AI
Carriers are essentially useless due to AI limitations and turrets are a pain to deal with, so I thought up something to hopefully fix it.
First we have AI blocks that connect to the docking blocks. "General Bobby" and "Admiral Bobby" blocks link to turrets docks and docking modules, respectively. Each "Command" block can link to an unlimited amount of their respective docking modules.
When docking a ship, instead of going to each individual docking block, you can target the admiral/general bobby block instead. It will automatically dock your ship on the smallest docking space available.
The command block can be activated through your system hotbar. Doing so brings up the AI menu, so you can activate the connected turrets/fighters. You can also change
the weapon settings for every connected turret/fighter. One weapons setting for Energy Weapons, one for Ammo weapons and one for missiles which changes all weapons on all connected ships. You may want to set up a second command block if you have multiple types of turrets/fighters.
The Admiral Bobby block can be used to launch and retrieve fighters. Fighters will not leave the sector their command ship is in and will switch to turret mode if the carrier leaves the sector.
If your turrets/fighters use ammo-based weaponry or missiles, you can link the command blocks to a PlexMagazine/PlexMissileRack. The turret/fighter still needs at least one PlexMag/PlexRack. Fighters will be reloaded upon docking.
Other changes
Advanced build mode should have the ability to hide/show certain block types as well as show you how much of each block is being used.
Pirates should get tougher the further you get from spawn. The scaling rate and maximum difficulty can be changed in the config.
Shops shouldn't have block limits or at least have higher block limits since they have a money limit.
Hulls should be a lot cheaper.
SD-KBs need to be fixed.
