Limpet mines

[DraconisDomini]

This is an idea I had as a result of the Replace damage pulses with.. thread and Crimson-Artist's contribution.

Basically small drones with pull effect weapons and a damage pulse that would latch on to a ship and then bore through it. I created a simple prototype and discovered one small problem, pull beams always pull the target towards the originating ship, even if the originating ship is much smaller. This seems a little odd, but perhaps it would be overpowered if small ships could use pull effect equipped weapons to pull themselves towards larger targets. It should still work on fighters/other drones, where as well as doing direct damage it should immobilise the fighter/drone such that larger weapons on the mothership. From this perspective it seems like it would be a workable concept, but would it cause horrendous lag issues because of the large number of 'mines' and their constant collisions with other ships? I know Crimson-Artist mentioned his 'battle-skewer' idea. Has anyone else tried this sort of concept?

 

[starhaiden]

So pull effect pulls two entities close together based on the mass of both entities, pull strength and if a entity is stationary?

 

[jayman38]

I really prefer the idea of push and pull weapons affecting the movement of both vessels. I would like this change. I think the push and pull effects and possibly the stop effects were nerfed. With this change, I can see them getting boosted back to pre-nerf levels of fun. A targeted ship could have an additional defense by dragging the firing ship into a hazard or another structure that interferes with the effect, such as an asteroid. "Oh, you want to slow me down for a clean shot? Let's see how you like being dragged across the surface of that star, scrub!"

 

[DraconisDomini]

I really prefer the idea of push and pull weapons affecting the movement of both vessels. I would like this change.

I agree that would make a lot more sense, and would make the limpet mine concept work better. The question is would limpet mines then be overpowered?

 

[jayman38]

I agree that would make a lot more sense, and would make the limpet mine concept work better. The question is would limpet mines then be overpowered?

Personally, I'm sure the community would come up with multiple effective defenses. However, the only true way to find out for sure is to see the change in action in game.