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I was trying to figure out how to not make this OP but there aren't too many ways around that other than putting some annoying limits on it. The idea behind this effect is it allows the weapon to be fired well outside the normal range by taking advantage of a scanner and jump drives. The enemies in the sector that is fired into will see a jump window open as if there is going to be a ship coming into their sector but instead of a ship it'd be weapons fire. Weapons using this effect would only work on turrets that are docked to something that isn't docked to a homebase or normal ship. The weapons will only function if the root parent entity is a normal station or planet (Planet Plate). So basically you could put the weapons onto a normal ship but for them to function the ship would have to be docked to a station or planet that isn't a homebase.
Deep Space Weapon Computer: Can control any number of Deep Space Weapon Modules and also can have any number of slaved Jump Drive Computers and Scanners, min 1 jump drive and min 1 scanner.
Number of Deep Space Weapon Modules affects the overall reload time, power usage, and strength of the shots fired. Number of Jump Drives and their modules affects number of jumps out shots can be fired at max (Their charge times affect reload time, no charged jump drives, no shots fired).
Number of Scanners and their modules affect the AI's ability to detect targets within the area it can shoot in. This means without a scanner it can't find anything to shoot at, also more effective scanners lead to better odds of shots hitting, least effective is effectively blind firing, most effective is what the AI would normally have for accuracy.
This also has a min range it cannot fire within and that is twice loaded sector range. The reason for this is the weapon can't shoot anything within loaded sector range of the weapon in the fire place but this also makes sure someone can actually get in range to hurt the thing in hopes of disabling it.
Power usage of weapons using this effect at 100% is twice that of what it'd be for if it had Overdrive at 100%. Also keep in mind the jump drives need power to be charged as well before the weapon can even fire at all and they'll charge at a normal rate for if someone was charging them with a mouse.
Deep Space Weapon Module: The modules for the Deep Space Weapon Computer.
This effect might be best used on Alpha weapon that have long reload times since having a high firerate weapon could be an issue, but the jump window would be open long enough on a single jump drive and module to get several shots through before it closed. This would effectively turn high firerate weapons into burst fire weapons rather than full auto weapons. Now if you had enough jump drives and modules on them you could get a good firerate going until they had to be recharged.
Now onto what happens when rounds are fired. Basically a jump window opens up in front of the weapon a few blocks ahead of the output groups. On the enemy's end they'd see it open up at about 50% the range of the firing weapon at the closest, so it isn't like it is opening up right next to their hull giving them no time to dodge or in the case of missiles shoot them down.
Since this weapon can't be used on things docked to a homebase it eliminates the issue of someone camping at their main base and pestering you with it. Also since it doesn't work on ships that aren't docked to a station or planet this takes out the other issue of someone parking at jump range with a fleet that can move and peppering your base from some ungodly distance you can't do anything about. Doesn't stop them from docking said fleet and doing that though but in that case you'd have at least a general idea where the shots were coming from. Also jump windows will only open from the direction weapons fire is coming from and accuracy and randomness of the windows' opening locations are affected by distance greatly.
So if you were on a server with normal jump range it'd be rather easy to fire a target within 8 sectors but what about if the jump range was something ridiculous like say 150 sectors? As I said distance will affect the accuracy of the window locations and with that kind of range unless they are firing lockon missiles it is highly unlikely they'll hit a moving target but the main issue is finding them.
Now to solve this problem as a whole lets just upgrade the scanner computer so it can give you near exact coords of the enemies firing at you and save you the guesswork of randomly jumping so you can retaliate quickly without issues. When used if the enemy is firing from within space your faction controls it'll give exact coords, as for firing from outside the system it'll give you a general area of coords but it'll help narrow down the area considerably. Since the cold truth is with enough jump drive computers and modules they could be firing from several galaxies away and rain death down on anyone not paying attention.
The up side though until AI battles in unloaded sectors are implemented this weapon only works if the sector it is firing from is loaded. It can however snipe into unloaded sectors that have been explored providing there is something to shoot moving through that space. Although damage won't likely register until the target hit is loaded again. Hopefully this issue here gets resolved by the devs one day since at the moment it requires both target and firing sectors to be loaded.
As for if a player is trying to use this new type of weapon well it's going to take some changes to the main map and minimap to make it work. Effectively you target sectors just like you would if you were going to jump to them, input the coords into the nav like you would normally and it'll show you if there is something to shoot in the target sector. Basically all you see on your end are blips like you'd see on the minimap giving you a general idea where to fire. Weapons using this effect are best used by the AI because of this but can be used by the player to a deadlier degree if they have someone spotting for them in the target sector. While it can be used by a single player this is a two player weapon when in use by a player.
So any ideas so far?
Deep Space Weapon Computer: Can control any number of Deep Space Weapon Modules and also can have any number of slaved Jump Drive Computers and Scanners, min 1 jump drive and min 1 scanner.
Number of Deep Space Weapon Modules affects the overall reload time, power usage, and strength of the shots fired. Number of Jump Drives and their modules affects number of jumps out shots can be fired at max (Their charge times affect reload time, no charged jump drives, no shots fired).
Number of Scanners and their modules affect the AI's ability to detect targets within the area it can shoot in. This means without a scanner it can't find anything to shoot at, also more effective scanners lead to better odds of shots hitting, least effective is effectively blind firing, most effective is what the AI would normally have for accuracy.
This also has a min range it cannot fire within and that is twice loaded sector range. The reason for this is the weapon can't shoot anything within loaded sector range of the weapon in the fire place but this also makes sure someone can actually get in range to hurt the thing in hopes of disabling it.
Power usage of weapons using this effect at 100% is twice that of what it'd be for if it had Overdrive at 100%. Also keep in mind the jump drives need power to be charged as well before the weapon can even fire at all and they'll charge at a normal rate for if someone was charging them with a mouse.
Deep Space Weapon Module: The modules for the Deep Space Weapon Computer.
This effect might be best used on Alpha weapon that have long reload times since having a high firerate weapon could be an issue, but the jump window would be open long enough on a single jump drive and module to get several shots through before it closed. This would effectively turn high firerate weapons into burst fire weapons rather than full auto weapons. Now if you had enough jump drives and modules on them you could get a good firerate going until they had to be recharged.
Now onto what happens when rounds are fired. Basically a jump window opens up in front of the weapon a few blocks ahead of the output groups. On the enemy's end they'd see it open up at about 50% the range of the firing weapon at the closest, so it isn't like it is opening up right next to their hull giving them no time to dodge or in the case of missiles shoot them down.
Since this weapon can't be used on things docked to a homebase it eliminates the issue of someone camping at their main base and pestering you with it. Also since it doesn't work on ships that aren't docked to a station or planet this takes out the other issue of someone parking at jump range with a fleet that can move and peppering your base from some ungodly distance you can't do anything about.
Doesn't stop them from docking said fleet and doing that though but in that case you'd have at least a general idea where the shots were coming from. Also jump windows will only open from the direction weapons fire is coming from and accuracy and randomness of the windows' opening locations are affected by distance greatly.So if you were on a server with normal jump range it'd be rather easy to fire a target within 8 sectors but what about if the jump range was something ridiculous like say 150 sectors? As I said distance will affect the accuracy of the window locations and with that kind of range unless they are firing lockon missiles it is highly unlikely they'll hit a moving target but the main issue is finding them.
Now to solve this problem as a whole lets just upgrade the scanner computer so it can give you near exact coords of the enemies firing at you and save you the guesswork of randomly jumping so you can retaliate quickly without issues.
When used if the enemy is firing from within space your faction controls it'll give exact coords, as for firing from outside the system it'll give you a general area of coords but it'll help narrow down the area considerably. Since the cold truth is with enough jump drive computers and modules they could be firing from several galaxies away and rain death down on anyone not paying attention.The up side though until AI battles in unloaded sectors are implemented this weapon only works if the sector it is firing from is loaded. It can however snipe into unloaded sectors that have been explored providing there is something to shoot moving through that space. Although damage won't likely register until the target hit is loaded again. Hopefully this issue here gets resolved by the devs one day since at the moment it requires both target and firing sectors to be loaded.
As for if a player is trying to use this new type of weapon well it's going to take some changes to the main map and minimap to make it work. Effectively you target sectors just like you would if you were going to jump to them, input the coords into the nav like you would normally and it'll show you if there is something to shoot in the target sector. Basically all you see on your end are blips like you'd see on the minimap giving you a general idea where to fire. Weapons using this effect are best used by the AI because of this but can be used by the player to a deadlier degree if they have someone spotting for them in the target sector.
While it can be used by a single player this is a two player weapon when in use by a player. So any ideas so far?
