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The Quake 2 BFG10K was a fascinating megaweapon in its time. It performed damage in a number of ways, including direct contact damage, explosive damage, and two unusual forms of damage involving not only energy beams projected from the BFG projectile (not the gun), but also a special dual-line-of-sight explosive-like damage.
I want to propose a change to Starmade's Pulse weapon to make it a distance weapon, and borrowing the energy beam damage mechanic from the BFG10K.
Similar to my prior suggestion to simply make the pulse a projectile that moves away from the weapon block at speed, I would like to add "projectile beams" to my suggestion.
As the pulse sphere travels, it is constantly draining until it reaches 0 energy at maximum range (range changes with beam secondary or pulse secondary) and disappears. Therefore, it works best as a close-range weapon, but still has reach, like the other weapons, so it is no longer just a dull melee weapon in a game full of long-distance combat.
The pulse should travel relatively slowly, like a missile, allowing maneuverable ships to outrun it, and allow less maneuverable ships to deploy defensive measures before the pulse travels into range.
As a secondary effect, add beam effects to the traveling pulse sphere in the following manner. Draw an invisible bounding box around the pulse at some range, such at 100.5 blocks from center of the pulse to the center of each face of the bounding box, giving the sphere an attack radius of approximately 201 blocks. This might not be the final radius, and it should be configurable on the server side. Draw an additional, narrow bounding box, centered farther forward, allowing a very narrow area directly ahead of the sphere, for a more realistic distant-forward range. Within these two bounding boxes, search for other entities within those boxes. When found, select up to 10 or so random blocks within those bounding boxes as targets. Beams are then fired directly from the pulse projectile center at those targets. Intervening blocks can intercept the beam. That way, the original target block(s) might not receive damage, and intervening blocks won't be "magically" avoided.
As the beams fire, they will reduce the core pulse sphere's energy store. They are fired at the target from the pulse sphere just like an ordinary beam. The damage done could be something like 1% of the total sphere power store, or 1000 damage, whichever is less, rounded up to the nearest full integer, so that extremely small pulse arrays do at least -some- damage instead of none, and so that excess damage is not wasted on single blocks. Speaking of which, these beams should not pierce or punch, but simply attack (and probably destroy, if the pulse is powerful enough) the block that is hit (remember, it may not be the beam's "target block" if another block is in the way.)
Notice the damage beams attacking individual enemies, briefly radiating from the central plasma ball, prior to the squishy final detonation.
With each successful beam attack, the pulse's maximum range is greatly reduced. Once it's internal energy store reaches zero, it disappears. So drones or other entities could draw fire from the pulse and reduce its range, simply by being near the path of the projectile. The beams should attack any entity, friend or enemy, similar to swarm missiles, making this a mass-damage weapon. More careful use will yield better results, giving this weapon a great player-skill effect, making it more fun for players. New random beam targets should be selected every couple of seconds.
When the pulse "hits" a target with energy left over from beam attacks, it disappears and the normal pulse attack occurs at the point of impact, with the energy remaining in the pulse. (If beams have drained the pulse of most of its energy, this direct pulse attack may be extremely weak.)
Secondary Effects Ideas:
Secondary effects should only alter the main pulse behavior; the beams should not be altered by secondary effects, to avoid unbalanced effects. The effects should be mostly what one expects from a given secondary.
Cannon: Faster fire rate, damage per pulse reduced, beams can attack missiles. Great flak gun for defense. (Maybe reduce range a bit? But then attackers can attack from maximum range with no opportunity to fire.)
Beam: extended range, up to double, but no additional damage, faster pulse projectile
Missile: Multiple reduced-energy "shotgun" pulses would make the most sense in the current secondary effect lineup, but maybe missile secondary could do something special. Additional ideas welcome.
Pulse: Slower fire rate, slower projectile, longer range (50%?), more energy in the projectile.
Timing and Damage:
With the basic weapon, 5 damage points per second is the standard. Extended delays are not fun, so I suggest allowing the weapon to fire at least every 8 seconds. 8 seconds yields a 40-energy projectile on a one-block weapon, dropping 1 energy point for every 1/40th of a sector's width that it travels.
I want to propose a change to Starmade's Pulse weapon to make it a distance weapon, and borrowing the energy beam damage mechanic from the BFG10K.
Similar to my prior suggestion to simply make the pulse a projectile that moves away from the weapon block at speed, I would like to add "projectile beams" to my suggestion.
As the pulse sphere travels, it is constantly draining until it reaches 0 energy at maximum range (range changes with beam secondary or pulse secondary) and disappears. Therefore, it works best as a close-range weapon, but still has reach, like the other weapons, so it is no longer just a dull melee weapon in a game full of long-distance combat.
The pulse should travel relatively slowly, like a missile, allowing maneuverable ships to outrun it, and allow less maneuverable ships to deploy defensive measures before the pulse travels into range.
As a secondary effect, add beam effects to the traveling pulse sphere in the following manner. Draw an invisible bounding box around the pulse at some range, such at 100.5 blocks from center of the pulse to the center of each face of the bounding box, giving the sphere an attack radius of approximately 201 blocks. This might not be the final radius, and it should be configurable on the server side. Draw an additional, narrow bounding box, centered farther forward, allowing a very narrow area directly ahead of the sphere, for a more realistic distant-forward range. Within these two bounding boxes, search for other entities within those boxes. When found, select up to 10 or so random blocks within those bounding boxes as targets. Beams are then fired directly from the pulse projectile center at those targets. Intervening blocks can intercept the beam. That way, the original target block(s) might not receive damage, and intervening blocks won't be "magically" avoided.
As the beams fire, they will reduce the core pulse sphere's energy store. They are fired at the target from the pulse sphere just like an ordinary beam. The damage done could be something like 1% of the total sphere power store, or 1000 damage, whichever is less, rounded up to the nearest full integer, so that extremely small pulse arrays do at least -some- damage instead of none, and so that excess damage is not wasted on single blocks. Speaking of which, these beams should not pierce or punch, but simply attack (and probably destroy, if the pulse is powerful enough) the block that is hit (remember, it may not be the beam's "target block" if another block is in the way.)
Notice the damage beams attacking individual enemies, briefly radiating from the central plasma ball, prior to the squishy final detonation.
With each successful beam attack, the pulse's maximum range is greatly reduced. Once it's internal energy store reaches zero, it disappears. So drones or other entities could draw fire from the pulse and reduce its range, simply by being near the path of the projectile. The beams should attack any entity, friend or enemy, similar to swarm missiles, making this a mass-damage weapon. More careful use will yield better results, giving this weapon a great player-skill effect, making it more fun for players. New random beam targets should be selected every couple of seconds.
When the pulse "hits" a target with energy left over from beam attacks, it disappears and the normal pulse attack occurs at the point of impact, with the energy remaining in the pulse. (If beams have drained the pulse of most of its energy, this direct pulse attack may be extremely weak.)
Secondary Effects Ideas:
Secondary effects should only alter the main pulse behavior; the beams should not be altered by secondary effects, to avoid unbalanced effects. The effects should be mostly what one expects from a given secondary.
Cannon: Faster fire rate, damage per pulse reduced, beams can attack missiles. Great flak gun for defense. (Maybe reduce range a bit? But then attackers can attack from maximum range with no opportunity to fire.)
Beam: extended range, up to double, but no additional damage, faster pulse projectile
Missile: Multiple reduced-energy "shotgun" pulses would make the most sense in the current secondary effect lineup, but maybe missile secondary could do something special. Additional ideas welcome.
Pulse: Slower fire rate, slower projectile, longer range (50%?), more energy in the projectile.
Timing and Damage:
With the basic weapon, 5 damage points per second is the standard. Extended delays are not fun, so I suggest allowing the weapon to fire at least every 8 seconds. 8 seconds yields a 40-energy projectile on a one-block weapon, dropping 1 energy point for every 1/40th of a sector's width that it travels.