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- Aug 14, 2013
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Currently with only one type of direct fire weapon the games combat mechanics are a little stale. Every ship is either a mini-gun or auto shotgun. Additional weapon types could diversify combat and separate ship designs greatly. “Damage types” would interact differently with shields and armor. Kinetic, thermal, energy based damages.
The Antimatter Cannon: This jack-of-all-trades weapon is a staple to all new pilots and the backbone of any fleet. It does average damaged versus shields as well as armor. Increasing the size increases the production output of antimatter therefore increase potential rate of fire, damage, range and speed.
Missile Overhaul:
Missiles need a huge overhaul. They can be the most useful and diverse weapon type in the game. First they need to be physical objects that you can interact with. They should show up on radar and be capable of being shot down or intercepted. Small missiles are fast and agile, lock on faster and reload faster. While the bigger a missile system gets the more complicated the reload mechanisms so they reload slower and heavier missiles fly and maneuver slower but carry a massive yield. Missiles are very effective against armor but should have decreased damage versus shields (something like 50% reduction) but they should still be capable of damaging shields.
Missile Types:
d-1000. These missiles have no complicated guidance systems or flight control so all space is dedicated to the load out, these are the fastest and most powerful missile type.
SD-KB Equipped with simple thermal tracking systems and flight control these missiles are slightly less powerful than the d-1000
SD-IR (NEW) The missile computer for these missiles is equipped with an infrared tracking laser. Pilots will have track the missile to its target. Slightly less powerful than the SD-KB
SD-BB These fire and forget missiles uses a targeting computer to lock on and track targets. Larger missiles require more complicated computations therefore target lock time is increased. Requires on board computer so less space for fuel, thrusters, and warheads, therefore this is the weakest missile type.
Structure:
Missile size and damage would be determined by the size of its launcher. Launchers could be individual tubes or entire missile racks. The largest square faced box in an array would determine the biggest possible missile while any additional mass would increase reload.
Customizations: Under the weapons computer you can set the size of the missile. This will allow you to turn a large missile launcher into a missile rack. Each missile can then be fired individually and will have it’s own reload timer (similar to having disconnected modules but they would share attributes, and fire sequentially instead of all at once). Additionally fuel, thruster, and warhead load outs can be adjusted to customize the range, speed, and damage of the missile (max values set by missile size).
New Additions:
Spatial Artillery:
Spatial Artillery is the equivalent of naval artillery but designed for the vacuumed of space. These cannons use kinetic energy to propel explosive slugs at your target. These slugs have the benefit of that kinetic energy as well as the explosive slash damage therefore do increased damage to shields than missiles (75%?) but still deal extra damage in a small radius when they hit armor. The Shot from this cannon will fire from the center of the square barrel.
Structure: The structure of Spatial Artillery is fairly complex and consists of two parts. The barrel length determines the max speed and range while the square width/height controls the damage. The second part is the loader which it’s size just controls the rate of fire, however the larger the cannon the more complex the loader the slower the rate of fire.
Customization: Values for the projectile size and powder charge can be tweaked directly exchanging damage for distance speed (max set by barrel dimensions)
Railguns:
Railguns fire a small magnetic slug using a set of rails. This is the fastest moving projectile and it’s massive kinetic energy is extremely taxing on shields although it’s small size does little damage to armor and systems but is capable of penetrating several layers at once. Additionally it will have an increased chance of passing through weakened shields altogether.
How it works: A rail gun has a series of capacitors that all discharge at once to achieve the magnetic pulse. This doesn’t consume power all at once but will require a set e/sec while it recharges and until it’s at max power.
Structure: The only major determining factor for the railgun is the “barrel” length, a longer barrel gives a projectile more time to accelerate allowing for a greater maximum damage, any additional mass would add speed, and range.
Customization: You can set the amount of e/sec to consume during a recharge cycle; this in turn will set the rate of fire. Values for projectile size can also be tweaked (max set by barrel size) which will directly trade off damage for speed/range.’
Other Partial Ideas:
Plasma Cannons. These would be nearly identical to AMCs but being nearly all thermal damage would be useless against shields (5-10% damage?) but eat through armor like butter.
Flak Cannons. Fires chaff into the air as an anti missile defense, this deals no damage versus shields and only minor haul damage.
The Antimatter Cannon: This jack-of-all-trades weapon is a staple to all new pilots and the backbone of any fleet. It does average damaged versus shields as well as armor. Increasing the size increases the production output of antimatter therefore increase potential rate of fire, damage, range and speed.
Missile Overhaul:
Missiles need a huge overhaul. They can be the most useful and diverse weapon type in the game. First they need to be physical objects that you can interact with. They should show up on radar and be capable of being shot down or intercepted. Small missiles are fast and agile, lock on faster and reload faster. While the bigger a missile system gets the more complicated the reload mechanisms so they reload slower and heavier missiles fly and maneuver slower but carry a massive yield. Missiles are very effective against armor but should have decreased damage versus shields (something like 50% reduction) but they should still be capable of damaging shields.
Missile Types:
d-1000. These missiles have no complicated guidance systems or flight control so all space is dedicated to the load out, these are the fastest and most powerful missile type.
SD-KB Equipped with simple thermal tracking systems and flight control these missiles are slightly less powerful than the d-1000
SD-IR (NEW) The missile computer for these missiles is equipped with an infrared tracking laser. Pilots will have track the missile to its target. Slightly less powerful than the SD-KB
SD-BB These fire and forget missiles uses a targeting computer to lock on and track targets. Larger missiles require more complicated computations therefore target lock time is increased. Requires on board computer so less space for fuel, thrusters, and warheads, therefore this is the weakest missile type.
Structure:
Missile size and damage would be determined by the size of its launcher. Launchers could be individual tubes or entire missile racks. The largest square faced box in an array would determine the biggest possible missile while any additional mass would increase reload.
Customizations: Under the weapons computer you can set the size of the missile. This will allow you to turn a large missile launcher into a missile rack. Each missile can then be fired individually and will have it’s own reload timer (similar to having disconnected modules but they would share attributes, and fire sequentially instead of all at once). Additionally fuel, thruster, and warhead load outs can be adjusted to customize the range, speed, and damage of the missile (max values set by missile size).
New Additions:
Spatial Artillery:
Spatial Artillery is the equivalent of naval artillery but designed for the vacuumed of space. These cannons use kinetic energy to propel explosive slugs at your target. These slugs have the benefit of that kinetic energy as well as the explosive slash damage therefore do increased damage to shields than missiles (75%?) but still deal extra damage in a small radius when they hit armor. The Shot from this cannon will fire from the center of the square barrel.
Structure: The structure of Spatial Artillery is fairly complex and consists of two parts. The barrel length determines the max speed and range while the square width/height controls the damage. The second part is the loader which it’s size just controls the rate of fire, however the larger the cannon the more complex the loader the slower the rate of fire.
Customization: Values for the projectile size and powder charge can be tweaked directly exchanging damage for distance speed (max set by barrel dimensions)
Railguns:
Railguns fire a small magnetic slug using a set of rails. This is the fastest moving projectile and it’s massive kinetic energy is extremely taxing on shields although it’s small size does little damage to armor and systems but is capable of penetrating several layers at once. Additionally it will have an increased chance of passing through weakened shields altogether.
How it works: A rail gun has a series of capacitors that all discharge at once to achieve the magnetic pulse. This doesn’t consume power all at once but will require a set e/sec while it recharges and until it’s at max power.
Structure: The only major determining factor for the railgun is the “barrel” length, a longer barrel gives a projectile more time to accelerate allowing for a greater maximum damage, any additional mass would add speed, and range.
Customization: You can set the amount of e/sec to consume during a recharge cycle; this in turn will set the rate of fire. Values for projectile size can also be tweaked (max set by barrel size) which will directly trade off damage for speed/range.’
Other Partial Ideas:
Plasma Cannons. These would be nearly identical to AMCs but being nearly all thermal damage would be useless against shields (5-10% damage?) but eat through armor like butter.
Flak Cannons. Fires chaff into the air as an anti missile defense, this deals no damage versus shields and only minor haul damage.
