Hey, so I recently came to the realization that this game remind me so much of both Freespace and Mechwarrior (and of course minecraft due to its world handling system, but that's pretty unspoken it's so obvious) and upon thinking of this, I realized a few things that'd add some fun twists to the current battle system, especially seeing the large diversity of missile type weapons vs others. Here we go.
Note: I will probably reference Antimatter Cannons as lasers, since I personally don't believe antimatter to be a scientifically sound idea for weapons, since they have a low explosive potency and are borderline impossible to contain, since any contact with normal matter causes them to explode. Makes converting energy into them confusing, and means that most times they would airburst on stuff like random dust particles and couldn't be used on anything with an atmosphere (such as planets) as air particles would cause detonation.
But that's why it's science FICTION I guess. /Nerd.
-Flares/Decoys: Okay so we have heat seeker and lock on missiles currently in use in the game, and as absolutely nonsensical as heat-seeker's targeting tends to be, once they hit home they make the target sorry. Much like realistic fights with aircraft, what if we had flare system we could deploy in spaceships, or some other form of decoy (say, small drones or something) that has probably a VERY high level of power consumption, long reloads, and maybe not even 100% successful vs say, lock on missiles, but moreso heat-seekers. Possibly auto activated.
-Charge-up Lasers: kinda like the old charge up (bombast beams, if I recall) lasers from mechwarrior, it'd be a laser you activate once to begin a charging process, then again for firing. Probably could imagine a cooldown period so you're inclined to aim well. The charging period would probably also be quite energy consuming and block grouping would affect the max charge level. Probably have the charge power when released affect the ensuing cooldown period as well as maybe a blast radius on impact.
-Channeled weapons: probably something in the form of a laser beam or flamethrower, maybe even like a plasma field or something, sky's the limit. If it was a laser type of weapon, it would obviously still not be instant hit, since that'd be OP as hell, but rather a delay in the beam with high rate of fire, intensity and energy consumption probably affected by grouping, and the weapons would generally have high energy consumption and short range in exchange for that continuous rate of fire, more like a last resort weapon at close range.
-Released explosives: or something comparable to a mine, the block you place itself would likely release itself either behind you or in the opposite direction of your current velocity, heck, maybe even directional based on its placement. The block itself is the released charge, and the charges may not be the powerful in themselves. This makes each unit placed a one shot charge, but if someone is tailing you it gives them incentive to maybe pursue a new course of action. The charges would probably have high drop rates from pirates and other loot sources to compensate for being highly expendable, and probably even susceptible to weapons/salvage ray hits for either defusing or premature detonation. This is pretty open-ended so it could even be an alternate to flares.
-Coordinate-lock siege pods: kind of like missiles, except they would be longer range, obviously low frequency fire and perhaps a level of inaccuracy or potential fail rate for balancing, likely countered by flares. This would add some usage for a long range siege weapon, but would be virtually useless in ship-to-ship combat and probably require high groupings to be effective, posing the threat of long-range larger "siege ships" that would probably be less combat capable but useful in faction fights.
-Burst "auxiliary" thrusters: Short, high energy consumption, probably cooldown penalized thrusters you could use for quick dodging maneuvers or even a quick speed-boost. This could add a new layer of dynamic movement or possibly better handling for larger ships, but not on a constant basis.
-Strayfire missile pods: Kind of like freefire missile pods in that you point them at your target's general direction and fire, except these would likely be smaller, lower firepower, and fire in larger groups of tiny missiles instead of one massive payload, they would also likely fly in a very random flight path making them hard to use consistently or against a particular point, but better for random barrages or keeping enemies on their toes.
-Repeater Antimatter Cannons: Essentially rapid fire lasers, these would be very much like AMC's except with the balancing re-arranged for less range, less damage, and inevitably higher fire rate. These would probably not be affected by grouping and would have overall lower DPS, but in exchange for being rapid fire spam cannons you could use to suppress your enemies. Bonus points for making these compatible with older weapon CPU's since it'd let you fire larger and smaller lasers simultaneously, adding variety. By not affected by grouping, I mean they would be actually incapable of grouping, so they'd just fire individually.
-Directional block usage: Currently thrusters, lasers, missiles, SD cockpits, and some other things I'm sure, currently can be directionally oriented, but it does nothing for the function. Engines might be outragously complex to do along with some weapons maybe posing weird balancing issues or just being wonky, but at the very least I'd prefer if you could have the orientation of SD cockpits and maybe some others affect their function. Was pretty disappointed when I couldn't have a rearview camera on ships, since it's pretty helpful if you think about it. I don't know.
These are of course, just random suggestions; as I read it, these poor forums are flooded with suggestions more and less frivolous than mine, so pick and choose, ignore, whatever. Thought I'd just contribute some ideas for the game that really struck my fancy.
Sincerely, ~WCCC
Note: I will probably reference Antimatter Cannons as lasers, since I personally don't believe antimatter to be a scientifically sound idea for weapons, since they have a low explosive potency and are borderline impossible to contain, since any contact with normal matter causes them to explode. Makes converting energy into them confusing, and means that most times they would airburst on stuff like random dust particles and couldn't be used on anything with an atmosphere (such as planets) as air particles would cause detonation.
But that's why it's science FICTION I guess. /Nerd.
-Flares/Decoys: Okay so we have heat seeker and lock on missiles currently in use in the game, and as absolutely nonsensical as heat-seeker's targeting tends to be, once they hit home they make the target sorry. Much like realistic fights with aircraft, what if we had flare system we could deploy in spaceships, or some other form of decoy (say, small drones or something) that has probably a VERY high level of power consumption, long reloads, and maybe not even 100% successful vs say, lock on missiles, but moreso heat-seekers. Possibly auto activated.
-Charge-up Lasers: kinda like the old charge up (bombast beams, if I recall) lasers from mechwarrior, it'd be a laser you activate once to begin a charging process, then again for firing. Probably could imagine a cooldown period so you're inclined to aim well. The charging period would probably also be quite energy consuming and block grouping would affect the max charge level. Probably have the charge power when released affect the ensuing cooldown period as well as maybe a blast radius on impact.
-Channeled weapons: probably something in the form of a laser beam or flamethrower, maybe even like a plasma field or something, sky's the limit. If it was a laser type of weapon, it would obviously still not be instant hit, since that'd be OP as hell, but rather a delay in the beam with high rate of fire, intensity and energy consumption probably affected by grouping, and the weapons would generally have high energy consumption and short range in exchange for that continuous rate of fire, more like a last resort weapon at close range.
-Released explosives: or something comparable to a mine, the block you place itself would likely release itself either behind you or in the opposite direction of your current velocity, heck, maybe even directional based on its placement. The block itself is the released charge, and the charges may not be the powerful in themselves. This makes each unit placed a one shot charge, but if someone is tailing you it gives them incentive to maybe pursue a new course of action. The charges would probably have high drop rates from pirates and other loot sources to compensate for being highly expendable, and probably even susceptible to weapons/salvage ray hits for either defusing or premature detonation. This is pretty open-ended so it could even be an alternate to flares.
-Coordinate-lock siege pods: kind of like missiles, except they would be longer range, obviously low frequency fire and perhaps a level of inaccuracy or potential fail rate for balancing, likely countered by flares. This would add some usage for a long range siege weapon, but would be virtually useless in ship-to-ship combat and probably require high groupings to be effective, posing the threat of long-range larger "siege ships" that would probably be less combat capable but useful in faction fights.
-Burst "auxiliary" thrusters: Short, high energy consumption, probably cooldown penalized thrusters you could use for quick dodging maneuvers or even a quick speed-boost. This could add a new layer of dynamic movement or possibly better handling for larger ships, but not on a constant basis.
-Strayfire missile pods: Kind of like freefire missile pods in that you point them at your target's general direction and fire, except these would likely be smaller, lower firepower, and fire in larger groups of tiny missiles instead of one massive payload, they would also likely fly in a very random flight path making them hard to use consistently or against a particular point, but better for random barrages or keeping enemies on their toes.
-Repeater Antimatter Cannons: Essentially rapid fire lasers, these would be very much like AMC's except with the balancing re-arranged for less range, less damage, and inevitably higher fire rate. These would probably not be affected by grouping and would have overall lower DPS, but in exchange for being rapid fire spam cannons you could use to suppress your enemies. Bonus points for making these compatible with older weapon CPU's since it'd let you fire larger and smaller lasers simultaneously, adding variety. By not affected by grouping, I mean they would be actually incapable of grouping, so they'd just fire individually.
-Directional block usage: Currently thrusters, lasers, missiles, SD cockpits, and some other things I'm sure, currently can be directionally oriented, but it does nothing for the function. Engines might be outragously complex to do along with some weapons maybe posing weird balancing issues or just being wonky, but at the very least I'd prefer if you could have the orientation of SD cockpits and maybe some others affect their function. Was pretty disappointed when I couldn't have a rearview camera on ships, since it's pretty helpful if you think about it. I don't know.
These are of course, just random suggestions; as I read it, these poor forums are flooded with suggestions more and less frivolous than mine, so pick and choose, ignore, whatever. Thought I'd just contribute some ideas for the game that really struck my fancy.
Sincerely, ~WCCC