Damage Pulse, the forgotten weapon

    DrTarDIS

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    Since damage pulse stays at "point of fire" as it expands, the only real use for it is as a "minelayer" (the original name for it) behind your ship. Last i checked anyways.

    Run away, run away, leave a trail of stuff .
     

    Lecic

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    Since damage pulse stays at "point of fire" as it expands, the only real use for it is as a "minelayer" (the original name for it) behind your ship. Last i checked anyways.

    Run away, run away, leave a trail of stuff .
    When did you last check? Damage pulse has been a "follow the ship" weapon for probably over a year at this point.
     

    AtraUnam

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    I'd like to point out that at no point was 'damage pulse' ever named 'minelayer' that was a completely different weapon that was at no point in the game.
     

    StormWing0

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    hmm making pulse some kind of bullet that has the same blast area on impact sounds like a good way to go and make it useful. Primary Fire shoots a pulse round off that explodes on impact, Secondary Fire detonates it like it currently does right in front of the barrel. :)
     
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    Why not make it a defensive measure as well? In addition to radiating outwards and causing damage, why not also have it detonate, warp, or redirect incoming fire? Obviously change the pulse/can to have a longer reload, so you can't just spam it. It needs to be activated at a singular, crucial moment, not 20 times a match.

    Just a thought.
     

    DrTarDIS

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    Why not make it a defensive measure as well? In addition to radiating outwards and causing damage, why not also have it detonate, warp, or redirect incoming fire? Obviously change the pulse/can to have a longer reload, so you can't just spam it. It needs to be activated at a singular, crucial moment, not 20 times a match.

    Just a thought.
    Because calculation-load of a waffled can/can array vs waffled pulse/can would be...too much fun.
     

    kiddan

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    What if pulses were similar to common bullet hell projectiles? They'd float though the air as little orbs, slower than cannon fire, but must be avoided and not shot down (or maybe an EMP blast when shot). Different weapon combos would result in spread fire, splitting mid-way, etc. One of the combos could be the traditional melee pulse, for the niche ships that can use it.
     
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    Because calculation-load of a waffled can/can array vs waffled pulse/can would be...too much fun.
    Again, increase the cycle time for pulse/can so you CANT just spam it.

    Also, the simplest form of my idea would simply have it negate the "projectile" (missile, amc boolit, or beam) and that would be all. When a waffled can/can is unfocused fired on systems, would that be any less collision checks? Would it be any less than a plate of docked armor on the outside of your hull?

    I mean, if collision checks are the only reason you don't like the idea, I don't see why that should discount it so out-of-hand.

    Of course if you think my idea is just stupid, well then I can't really blame you for finding fault in it lol
     

    Matt_Bradock

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    Pulse slave does have a niche though. Anyone whose shields (and maybe even computers) were oneshot by a beam/pulse/ion or cannon/pulse/explosive setup, knows what I'm talking about.
     

    AtraUnam

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    I would simply make pulse how it used to be, dimension based radius. That way it could become a niche weapon for large ships to to use against drones by detonating massive several hundred meter wide pulses.
     
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    Crimson-Artist

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    I would simply make pulse how it used to be, dimension based radius. That way it could become a niche weapon for large ships to to use against drones by detonating massive several hundred meter wide pulses.
    i would also make it much stronger at the cost of more energy. even before you had to have a but load of damage pulse modules just to be able to take a chunk out of an enemy ship
     
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    Matt_Bradock

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    I'd much rather have it as a directed pulse, so it would expand from the output but only as a cone not sphere in the direction the computer's facing. Range could match the base beam range but travels with the speed of an unguided missile, and affects a larger area towards the end.
     
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    AtraUnam

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    A permament damage area could also be nice, finally get some good melee weapons going, massive power draw but it would deal massive damage to anything in the radius, line a prow with them and go ham.
     
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    Gasboy

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    I had always thought that the damage pulse weapons could make for really cool photon topedo-like weapons. It fires a fast projectile, like the cannon, and the damage pulse happens when the projectile hits something. So it is a nice cross between a cannon (fires in straight lines) and a missile (has nice big area effect damage). No lock-ons or anything. Just a pure point and shoot weapon.
     

    Lecic

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    I had always thought that the damage pulse weapons could make for really cool photon topedo-like weapons. It fires a fast projectile, like the cannon, and the damage pulse happens when the projectile hits something. So it is a nice cross between a cannon (fires in straight lines) and a missile (has nice big area effect damage). No lock-ons or anything. Just a pure point and shoot weapon.
    So make dumbfire missile weapons completely worthless?
     
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    Making it into an aura projector of sorts would work too.
    I know, I know, that sounds retarded and "too much fantasy for my comfort" but think about it. It'd create a niche for support ships.
    • ships that "buff" allies' and "debuff" enemies' systems
    • ships that spread damage across several entities or just absorb it for others.
    • ships that simply reinforce (only need defensive Ion on one ship) allies' shields and weaken enemies'
    • astrotech beam being actually useful due to AoE heal not that I'd oppose a thorough rework
    • possibly a crutch for capital ship mechanic, aka JD+Pulse increases former's range and Pulse+JD allows others to hitch a ride
    • Salvage+Pulse could project it's beam as a cone of fire, Pulse+Salvage could very well mine stuff in range or generate resources based on amount of ore in the area - hello~o planet bases
    • current jump inhibitors could be turned into effects, allowing creation of weapons that disrupt JDs on targets without bothering anyone else, or adding them to Pulse to continue being an asshole
    • if stealth ever gets reworked as if Pulse+Jammer could shadow a whole damn fleet yeah, till the first scan
    To retain some semblance of balance same auras and applied (de)buffs do not stack, stronger ones have priority.
    Auras and (de)buffs, however, may stack.

    Cannon+Pulse
    In addition to increased range shots apply a (de)buff that stacks to equivalent of the Pulse effect with a multiplier.

    Beam+Pulse
    Increased range and burst time, applies Pulse (de)buff with multiplier.
    Effect is applied in full immediately, but expires quickly without a beam to reapply it.

    Missile+Pulse
    Lock-on, bigger range and a lasting stacking (de)buff.
    Stacking means that you'll need several shots to get the full effect.

    All stacking effects have their timers reset when same new stack is applied.
    Pulse+Cannon
    Weak damage and/or effect with faster tick rate. You know the drill.

    Pulse+Beam
    Bigger range and energy consumption, average damage.

    Pulse+Missile
    Reduced range, effect strength is multiplied by config variable. However, it is not granted in full the instant you enter it's range.
    Instead it applies a weaker stacking (de)buff that mounts to the listed strength. Slave/Master ratio determines the tick rate and additional strength.
    Upon leaving the effective range (de)buff does not disappear immediately. Instead it gradually weakens over a period of time. Duration of said period is based on Slave/Master ration.
    Pulse+Pulse
    Negates % of enemy aura effects, both positive and negative. Auras with same effect are negated even more.
    Remember, it's only a % and same auras do not stack, that includes the nullifier aura.

    So what do you think guys? G-guys?
    Why are you carrying pitchforks?..
     

    sayerulz

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    What if pulses were similar to common bullet hell projectiles? They'd float though the air as little orbs, slower than cannon fire, but must be avoided and not shot down (or maybe an EMP blast when shot). Different weapon combos would result in spread fire, splitting mid-way, etc. One of the combos could be the traditional melee pulse, for the niche ships that can use it.
    This sounds promising, it would certainly be more useful, but would it be useful enough?

    Pulse slave does have a niche though. Anyone whose shields (and maybe even computers) were oneshot by a beam/pulse/ion or cannon/pulse/explosive setup, knows what I'm talking about.
    Beam pulse ion has some use, although in general beam/beam is better, but cannon/pulse/explosive? That has to be the worst cannon type there is. Even cannon/missile is better, as it can at least do some damage at close range. but cannon/pulse/explosive? Sure, it would be great if explosive actually worked, but it doesn't, and all that combo is going to do is go straight through an enemy ship with like 10% of it's damage spent.
     

    BJammin

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    I only wish the Pulse+Beam combo could give an even larger range. Would be really cool to have a sort of 'last-ditch-mega-pulse' weapon for taking care of lots of enemies in a ship's proximity (give it a really slow charge and a massive power draw to balance it). Attempted to make one before, but I think there is either a cap on the max range for pulses, or the grouping dimension to pulse size ratio is comically off. The ship I built it in wasn't even large, and the pulse still couldn't get any bigger then about a quarter of its size - even after massively extending the size of my pulse grouping outside of the ship's hull. Oh well. Maybe it's simply not meant to be.
     

    Gasboy

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    So make dumbfire missile weapons completely worthless?
    There are things you can do to avoid that from happening. The pulse weapons can be more expensive in cost to make, in power consumption, and can take longer to reload.

    Also, if that's the only argument you can kind of make... >.>
     

    Lecic

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    There are things you can do to avoid that from happening. The pulse weapons can be more expensive in cost to make, in power consumption, and can take longer to reload.

    Also, if that's the only argument you can kind of make... >.>
    So you're just going to make the pulse weapons inferior to dumbfire missile weapons?

    The solution to pulse is NOT to make it a clone of an existing weapon. Make it a unique weapon type. This is the same problem I have with the "fix explosive!" requests. If you "fix" explosive you just make missile weapons useless, or you fix and then nerf explosive to the point where it's worthless and nothing has changed. You need to give any new weapon type a different method of causing damage to avoid conflicts.