Salvager as a weapon

[Lone_Puppy]

Schine/schema,

Can we have the salvager converted to a weapon?
That way, you can apply a number of useful features and add it to the weapons processing.

• Acid damage beams
• Combo's with other weapons/effects
• Salvager chambers
• Eat into ships, stations, whatever once shields are taken down whether derelict or not.
  • Useful if you only have salvager beams as a means of defense/attack
  • On that note, sad we no longer have shield draining computers/modules :-(

I understand it's not considered a weapon, but anything is eventually weaponized out of necessity. You see this in most sci-fi and other shows. I often find it strange and doesn't make a lot of sense that I can't use it to rip apart an unshielded ship/station.

 

[MacThule]

If salvagers were completely useless against shields and had a debuff against block armor it should be fine. I don't think that would/should allow a salvager to "defend itself" with its mining array, but it would eliminate the weirdness of not being able to salvage a ship unless it's overheating.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

If salvagers were completely useless against shields and had a debuff against block armor it should be fine. I don't think that would/should allow a salvager to "defend itself" with its mining array, but it would eliminate the weirdness of not being able to salvage a ship unless it's overheating.

Yeah, that's one thing I found weird. I have to pummel a ship in order to harvest it. And then it's pretty much worthless.
Would save a lot of time. Which is something I don't get a lot of to play.

 

[OfficialCoding]

Salvager as a weapon is highly OP since it doesn't use much power. A salvage waffle would become the ultimate weapon.

 

[MacThule]

Salvager as a weapon is highly OP since it doesn't use much power. A salvage waffle would become the ultimate weapon.

Salvage waffle would be scary unless it didn't affect shields and was weak v. Armor on non-overheating ships.

Speaking of salvager power draw, hasn't it gone up? It feels almost oppressive lately, but it could just be the lower baseline of reactor output...

 

[aceface]

i dont like the idea of something used for salvage being used as a weapon

 

[Cluwne]

Lasers's a laser, whether it is used as weapon to melt ship hulls, or for cutting space rocks into smaller pieces for easy processing.
The way salvage beam works makes me think it's some sort of atomizer+tractor beam combo - energy beam weakens molecular bonds while the tractor beam sucks up the resulting sludge, before compressing it into compact blocks for easy handling and transportation.

Turn off the tractor beam and overclock the atomizer, and you have an impromptu disintegrator weapon. Humans have been weaponizing tools for as long as tools existed. A handy farmer's knife became a deadly weapon in the hands of a ninja. And, similarly, mining tool can become a devastating weapon against unshielded or very lightly-shielded enemy.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Humans have been weaponizing tools for as long as tools existed

My thoughts exactly.
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Salvage waffle would be scary unless it didn't affect shields and was weak v. Armor on non-overheating ships.

Agreed! This is what I was thinking to.

 

[jayman38]

For damage, I'd recommend taking the normal weapon damage/energy use ratio and applying that damage ratio to a salvage beam against powered-and/or-piloted blocks, and dividing that damage again by 10 for shield damage. That, with the salvage beam's short range, would make it suitably weak versus real weapons, with smaller salvage arrays being utterly incapable of doing any damage at all.

This would heavily encourage disabling power sources, so that "salvaging" can upgrade from sub-weapon capability to mining capability.

The short range of the salvage beam would put anyone who uses it as a weapon in a dangerous spot, so I think this is a fun idea overall.