Alright, so I've been thinking recently about some different possible weapons, shields against these weapons, and blocks that could be implemented to make combat more interesting. I've arranged these weapon ideas into "Tiers" - levels of power. The higher the tier, the more rediculous the cost of the control computers/cannons. The current weapons are Tier I.
Tier II:
Basic Torpedo - Essentially a D1000 missile, but has about one third as much blast radius/damage, and moves about five times faster. Will be good for turrets.
Basic Laser cannon - Fires a continuous beam of damage that hits shields or individual blocks, much like an antimatter cannon. Behaves much like a reversed AstroTechnoBeam - the more cannon blocks you have in an array, the more sets of 20 damage it does per second.
Tier III:
Tracking Torpedo - Same as a basic torpedo, but will home in on a ship's selected target. Unlike SD-BB missiles, you would not have to wait for this to lock on, all you do is select a target and fire.
Heat-seeking Torpedo - Same as a basic torpedo, but targets the same way as an SD-KB missile.
Basic Plasma Cannon - Essentially the same as an AMC, but with a very small area of effect. The AOE increases along with the range, etc. when more cannon blocks are added.
High-Power Torpedo - Another dumb-fire torpedo, but with more damage and a larger AOE than the basic torpedo.
High-Power Laser Cannon - Same as a laser cannon (Continuous beam of damage), but with more base damage.
Tier IV: (These are becoming very powerful now)
High-Focus Plasma Cannon - A cannon with no AOE, but drills through multiple blocks, and does multiples of base damage to shields. This block drill amount/shield damage multiplier increases with the nmber of cannons in an array.
Shield-Breaker Torpedo - A dumb-fire torpedo which, on impact, does no damage to blocks, but does massive damage to a ship's shields.
Splitting Torpedo - A Tracking Torpedo which splits into seven seperate torpedos just before impact. An absolutely devastating weapon.
Chain Torpedo - A heat-seeking torpedo which, on impact, not only does damage to whatever it impacted, but also sends out three additional heat-seeking torpedos which find new targets and hit them, continuing the chain reaction. Good for taking out large groups of fighters.
Blast Laser - A High-Power Laser which does a small amount of AOE damage when it destroys a block directly.
Tier V: (The most powerful weapons of all, ridiculously expensive, reserved for only the richest factions)
Pulse Disruptor Cannon - Essentially the same as a basic plasma cannon, but with a much larger AOE and much higher base damage per shot.
EMP Torpedo - A dumb-fire torpedo which, on impact, disables a ship's weapons for X number of seconds. It does not matter whether this torpedo impacts shields or hull. This number depends on how many cannons are in the array.
Planetcracker Torpedo or MOAT (Mother of All Torpedoes) - A dumb-fire torpedo with a ridiculous amount of damage and absolutely massive blast radius.
Acid Torpedo - A dumb-fire torpedo which, on impact, does X amount of damage to a random block on the outside/outer hull of the ship it hits every 1/2 second for 10 seconds. X is determined by the number of cannon blocks in the array. This effect behaves much like the ship being in a sun sector.
SD Overload Torpedo - Does no block damage, but on impact to shields, disables a ship's shields for a short period of time. This period of time is capped at five seconds. The period of time is determined by the number of cannon blocks in the array.
Black Hole Torpedo: Creates a powerful, spherical gravity well centered around the point of impact. The amount of time the well lasts for depends on the number of cannon blocks in the array. Can hold an enemy ship in place long enough for the ship that fired it to get away.
Infrared Hybrid Laser - Again, a laser with a continuous beam of damage and a small AOE when a block is destroyed, but this one is impossible to detect when fired. It has no visual effect, it just does the damage.
Transphasic Torpedo - Perhaps the king of all anti-capital-ship weapons. This torpedo behaves like a splitting torpedo, but shields only have a 1 in 6 chance of stopping it. This means that, most of the time, 5-6 torpedos WILL break through the ship's shields every time it is hit by Transphasics. (This weapon is based off of the Transphasic Torpedoes from the Star Trek: Voyager episode, Endgame. If you haven't seen it, go watch it, you'll know what I'm talking about afterward.)
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There are also new shield and armor blocks that I am proposing, that could counter these highly powerful weapons. If a ship had multiple different types of shields, the shields would be placed in layers. The order of layering would be controlled by the player.
Shields:
Antiplasmatic Shields: Vastly reduce any kind of damage from a plasma cannon, HF plasma cannon, or Pulse Disruptor Cannon. Very, very weak against any other type of weapon, though, and are easily knocked down by a basic AMC array.
Polyphasic Shields: These have a better chance of blocking a Transphasic Torpedo than other types of shielding. The exact chance depends on the number of shield blocks. Chance of blocking a TPT is capped at 19/20. However, any other kind of weapon will pass right through these shields; they ONLY block Transphasic Torpedoes.
Faraday Shields: When installed, these will massively reduce the effect of EMP torpedoes, but will not negate the effect entirely. Other weapons pass straight through these.
Shield Surge Protector: Although not a direct shield emitter/disperser, the number of these installed will decrease the chance of an SD Overload Torpedo knocking down the ship's shields. With enough of these, one could render Overload Torpedos totally useless.
Armor:
Advanced Armor: Essentially doubly hardened hull. Has very high health and armor points.
Reactive Armor: When hit by a torpedo, this armor will be consumed within whatever the blast radius of said torpedo is, but will stop the torpedo from doing any further damage to the ship.
Deflection Armor: Has very low health, but when hit, has a 25% chance of reflecting whatever hit it straight back toward the point in space where it came from. Block is consumed when it reflects a hit.
Solar Armor: Behaves the same as hardened hull, but also protects any blocks behind it from the Sun's radiation. Gives the "wearer" a definite advantage when fighting in sun sectors.
Photovoltaic Armor: Same as solar armor, but also generates a small amount of power when in a sun sector.
Optical Feedback Armor: When hit by any kind of a laser, does a small amount of damage to a few random blocks within the laser cannon array.
Polyphasic Armor: Same as Advanced Armor, but greatly reduces damage from Transphasic Torpedoes.
Antigravity Armor: Same as hardened hull, but pushes other ships away. NOTE: Does NOT affect torpedoes.
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There are also a few more miscellaneous blocks that I have thought of which don't fit into any of these categories.
Miscellaneous:
Tachyon Sensor: Has a 75% chance of detecting cloaked/jammed ships when active. Consumes quite a bit of power, although this is a fixed amount, and does NOT scale with ship's mass.
Tachyon Supressor: Reduces chance of being detected by a ship's Tachyon Sensor while cloaked/jammed. Consumes about 1/4 the power of a jammer per 10 blocks. Chance of being detected decreases as number of Tachyon Supressor blocks increases, all the way down to zero with 150 supressor blocks.
Advanced Coil Thruster - Has about five times the power per block of a standard thruster, and costs a good bit more.
Maneuvering Thruster - Increases turning speed. Especially useful for large ships.
Advanced Maneuvering Thruster - Same effect as maneuvering thruster, but five times as powerful. Also costs a good bit more.
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If these new systems were implemented, it would add so much to shipbuilding - It would force builders to make decisions about what to protect against more than what else, and would force builders to create ships with specific purposes - If invading a faction base that has lots and lots of lasers, then use Optical Feedback Armor. If facing fighters equipped with Transphasic Torpedoes, use Polyphasic Shields and Armor. If you have been having an issue with EMP torpedoes, install Faraday Shields. This system should be balanced to where a ship physically can't include everything - builders have to decide what and what not to equip their ships with. Any feedback is appreciated.
Tier II:
Basic Torpedo - Essentially a D1000 missile, but has about one third as much blast radius/damage, and moves about five times faster. Will be good for turrets.
Basic Laser cannon - Fires a continuous beam of damage that hits shields or individual blocks, much like an antimatter cannon. Behaves much like a reversed AstroTechnoBeam - the more cannon blocks you have in an array, the more sets of 20 damage it does per second.
Tier III:
Tracking Torpedo - Same as a basic torpedo, but will home in on a ship's selected target. Unlike SD-BB missiles, you would not have to wait for this to lock on, all you do is select a target and fire.
Heat-seeking Torpedo - Same as a basic torpedo, but targets the same way as an SD-KB missile.
Basic Plasma Cannon - Essentially the same as an AMC, but with a very small area of effect. The AOE increases along with the range, etc. when more cannon blocks are added.
High-Power Torpedo - Another dumb-fire torpedo, but with more damage and a larger AOE than the basic torpedo.
High-Power Laser Cannon - Same as a laser cannon (Continuous beam of damage), but with more base damage.
Tier IV: (These are becoming very powerful now)
High-Focus Plasma Cannon - A cannon with no AOE, but drills through multiple blocks, and does multiples of base damage to shields. This block drill amount/shield damage multiplier increases with the nmber of cannons in an array.
Shield-Breaker Torpedo - A dumb-fire torpedo which, on impact, does no damage to blocks, but does massive damage to a ship's shields.
Splitting Torpedo - A Tracking Torpedo which splits into seven seperate torpedos just before impact. An absolutely devastating weapon.
Chain Torpedo - A heat-seeking torpedo which, on impact, not only does damage to whatever it impacted, but also sends out three additional heat-seeking torpedos which find new targets and hit them, continuing the chain reaction. Good for taking out large groups of fighters.
Blast Laser - A High-Power Laser which does a small amount of AOE damage when it destroys a block directly.
Tier V: (The most powerful weapons of all, ridiculously expensive, reserved for only the richest factions)
Pulse Disruptor Cannon - Essentially the same as a basic plasma cannon, but with a much larger AOE and much higher base damage per shot.
EMP Torpedo - A dumb-fire torpedo which, on impact, disables a ship's weapons for X number of seconds. It does not matter whether this torpedo impacts shields or hull. This number depends on how many cannons are in the array.
Planetcracker Torpedo or MOAT (Mother of All Torpedoes) - A dumb-fire torpedo with a ridiculous amount of damage and absolutely massive blast radius.
Acid Torpedo - A dumb-fire torpedo which, on impact, does X amount of damage to a random block on the outside/outer hull of the ship it hits every 1/2 second for 10 seconds. X is determined by the number of cannon blocks in the array. This effect behaves much like the ship being in a sun sector.
SD Overload Torpedo - Does no block damage, but on impact to shields, disables a ship's shields for a short period of time. This period of time is capped at five seconds. The period of time is determined by the number of cannon blocks in the array.
Black Hole Torpedo: Creates a powerful, spherical gravity well centered around the point of impact. The amount of time the well lasts for depends on the number of cannon blocks in the array. Can hold an enemy ship in place long enough for the ship that fired it to get away.
Infrared Hybrid Laser - Again, a laser with a continuous beam of damage and a small AOE when a block is destroyed, but this one is impossible to detect when fired. It has no visual effect, it just does the damage.
Transphasic Torpedo - Perhaps the king of all anti-capital-ship weapons. This torpedo behaves like a splitting torpedo, but shields only have a 1 in 6 chance of stopping it. This means that, most of the time, 5-6 torpedos WILL break through the ship's shields every time it is hit by Transphasics. (This weapon is based off of the Transphasic Torpedoes from the Star Trek: Voyager episode, Endgame. If you haven't seen it, go watch it, you'll know what I'm talking about afterward.)
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There are also new shield and armor blocks that I am proposing, that could counter these highly powerful weapons. If a ship had multiple different types of shields, the shields would be placed in layers. The order of layering would be controlled by the player.
Shields:
Antiplasmatic Shields: Vastly reduce any kind of damage from a plasma cannon, HF plasma cannon, or Pulse Disruptor Cannon. Very, very weak against any other type of weapon, though, and are easily knocked down by a basic AMC array.
Polyphasic Shields: These have a better chance of blocking a Transphasic Torpedo than other types of shielding. The exact chance depends on the number of shield blocks. Chance of blocking a TPT is capped at 19/20. However, any other kind of weapon will pass right through these shields; they ONLY block Transphasic Torpedoes.
Faraday Shields: When installed, these will massively reduce the effect of EMP torpedoes, but will not negate the effect entirely. Other weapons pass straight through these.
Shield Surge Protector: Although not a direct shield emitter/disperser, the number of these installed will decrease the chance of an SD Overload Torpedo knocking down the ship's shields. With enough of these, one could render Overload Torpedos totally useless.
Armor:
Advanced Armor: Essentially doubly hardened hull. Has very high health and armor points.
Reactive Armor: When hit by a torpedo, this armor will be consumed within whatever the blast radius of said torpedo is, but will stop the torpedo from doing any further damage to the ship.
Deflection Armor: Has very low health, but when hit, has a 25% chance of reflecting whatever hit it straight back toward the point in space where it came from. Block is consumed when it reflects a hit.
Solar Armor: Behaves the same as hardened hull, but also protects any blocks behind it from the Sun's radiation. Gives the "wearer" a definite advantage when fighting in sun sectors.
Photovoltaic Armor: Same as solar armor, but also generates a small amount of power when in a sun sector.
Optical Feedback Armor: When hit by any kind of a laser, does a small amount of damage to a few random blocks within the laser cannon array.
Polyphasic Armor: Same as Advanced Armor, but greatly reduces damage from Transphasic Torpedoes.
Antigravity Armor: Same as hardened hull, but pushes other ships away. NOTE: Does NOT affect torpedoes.
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There are also a few more miscellaneous blocks that I have thought of which don't fit into any of these categories.
Miscellaneous:
Tachyon Sensor: Has a 75% chance of detecting cloaked/jammed ships when active. Consumes quite a bit of power, although this is a fixed amount, and does NOT scale with ship's mass.
Tachyon Supressor: Reduces chance of being detected by a ship's Tachyon Sensor while cloaked/jammed. Consumes about 1/4 the power of a jammer per 10 blocks. Chance of being detected decreases as number of Tachyon Supressor blocks increases, all the way down to zero with 150 supressor blocks.
Advanced Coil Thruster - Has about five times the power per block of a standard thruster, and costs a good bit more.
Maneuvering Thruster - Increases turning speed. Especially useful for large ships.
Advanced Maneuvering Thruster - Same effect as maneuvering thruster, but five times as powerful. Also costs a good bit more.
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If these new systems were implemented, it would add so much to shipbuilding - It would force builders to make decisions about what to protect against more than what else, and would force builders to create ships with specific purposes - If invading a faction base that has lots and lots of lasers, then use Optical Feedback Armor. If facing fighters equipped with Transphasic Torpedoes, use Polyphasic Shields and Armor. If you have been having an issue with EMP torpedoes, install Faraday Shields. This system should be balanced to where a ship physically can't include everything - builders have to decide what and what not to equip their ships with. Any feedback is appreciated.
