Warheads as a system buff

[BJammin]

Hey, how's this for an idea:

Pretty simple. Slave a collection of warheads to a computer/group of systems to give them a boost in power, damage, efficiency, etc. at no extra power cost.

* >>>> BUT <<<< *

The warheads will violently explode if damaged in combat. Everyone likes the idea of hitting a ship's critical systems and causing havoc to ensue. This could provide a means for a non-power-consuming and non-lag-causing way to buff your ships's systems, while adding the extra challenge of protecting your systems more heavily while also making combat more interesting. And if it isn't warheads, there's always the, "just add in a new block" solution.

Or it could all be bullshit. Just an idea at this point though, so what do you think?

 

[hinkhenk]

I do not like the idea, i rather use warheads as nukes i can shoot at people instead.
It would make little sense to have a warhead to boost power this way.
The warheads are hard to implement as a physical torpedo, but not impossible, having them as a subsystem, no thank you.

 

[sayerulz]

Oh yea, this makes a lot of sense. I'm going to go jam a stick of dynamite into my computer so that it runs better.

 

[Valck]

Oh yea, this makes a lot of sense. I'm going to go jam a stick of dynamite into my computer so that it runs better.

For the sake of a better analogy, people do stick water cooling equipment inside their computers so they can overclock them more, despite water and electricity generally being a bad combination. If they're not careful and it "gets hit", it leaks... with catastrophic results.

I like the general idea.

 

[Dire Venom]

I quite like this, +1.

For large weapons with a 1:1 ratio you would need a lot of explosives, hit that and the whole ship goes kaboom.

Also good for carrier based bombers

 

[Mortiferum]

Sure, let me think of a hyper meta way to play this now.

I will separate the warhead from my ship, and place it directly above or behind me at extreme distances. Before the Warhead is damaged, I can alpha strike someone, (or even more, if they dont notice me) while by the time the warhead is shot off, my ship will just operate normally again because it is put on a 30m pole right behind my ship, with void space in between. :/

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Otherwise, nice idea. :D

It is like having a magazine or power core you have to place properly.

 

[Tunk]

Or alternatively, placed in a advanced armour containment vessel with some headspace.
Which funny enough gets more efficient the larger it is while dealing minimal damage if the warheads explode.

Either way players will make it into basically a free uber boost.

 

[faiyde]

I really like this idea but would like to make a few suggestions.

Firstly it should probably boost blocks touching/near it instead, to avoid people just separating them from the rest of the ship. (as others have mentioned that would be a big problem)

But I think it should also be a new block, rather than a warhead. Warheads would however be good crafting component for it.

 

[Rixxan]

I really do like this idea... as one who already builds with warheads on my own ships. I put warheads in my ship by core areas, knowing that if enemy fire gets to that area the ship is already gone beyond repair to begin with. Though I'd stave off of making it a new block. It takes a lot of work to make a new block, and there is only a finite number of blocks that the game can support, so if an argument can be made to combine it with Warhead I say go for it personally.

 

[hinkhenk]

For the sake of a better analogy, people do stick water cooling equipment inside their computers so they can overclock them more, despite water and electricity generally being a bad combination. If they're not careful and it "gets hit", it leaks... with catastrophic results.

I like the general idea.

Well this is not realy the same thing, at all.
It's better to comparte it between analog signals with digital ones. Does not match.

 

[BJammin]

Sure, let me think of a hyper meta way to play this now.

I will separate the warhead from my ship, and place it directly above or behind me at extreme distances. Before the Warhead is damaged, I can alpha strike someone, (or even more, if they dont notice me) while by the time the warhead is shot off, my ship will just operate normally again because it is put on a 30m pole right behind my ship, with void space in between. :/

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Otherwise, nice idea. :D

It is like having a magazine or power core you have to place properly.

Yeah, I thought about this afterwards. Simple solution(s) would be to:

a.) Require adjacent placement of warheads (or new analogue block) to the system you wish to buff

or

b.) Make the actual system blocks themselves become explosive when having warheads slaved to them

Though don't get me wrong, having a game mechanic that can be easily abused is definitely something I would not want added to the game.
Currently, if you want to buff any kind of system, the only kind of trade-off you'll encounter is ludicrous power draws. I thought having an alternate way of buffing systems (but with an equal/more dangerous trade-off) would be nice.

 

[Lecic]

As many others have stated, it would be incredibly easy to gain a massive boost for really no negative effects, even in the event it gets hit and blows up. I'm going to say no.

 

[Az14el]

First to drop shields and dump a crapton of punch on enemy armor still generally sets the pace of a fight
This would be a lot less risky an idea on some ship types that are already quite powerful for that reason, they put the big holes in you first (and yeah, warheads wrapped with adv armor would do precisely nothing when detonated without being buffed, and everyone gets mad about warheads being buffed..)

It's a cool idea for getting around the 1d/10e max damage efficiency still

 

[Ixalite]

Sure, let me think of a hyper meta way to play this now.

I will separate the warhead from my ship, and place it directly above or behind me at extreme distances. Before the Warhead is damaged, I can alpha strike someone, (or even more, if they dont notice me) while by the time the warhead is shot off, my ship will just operate normally again because it is put on a 30m pole right behind my ship, with void space in between. :/

----

Otherwise, nice idea. :D

It is like having a magazine or power core you have to place properly.

That is not TOO exploitable, because of the added horrors of having external warheads as a part of your ship. Even if they do not take out your entire ship when they blow, they are just hanging out there, ready for you to accidentally jostle something and BOOM! A simple collision in combat would do the entire damage done by the warheads to your ship's shields and armor. Probably not fatal, but really inconvenient.

I would not trust myself with a ship carrying loads of external warheads, much less an AI.
[doublepost=1470105990,1470105914][/doublepost]

b.) Make the actual system blocks themselves become explosive when having warheads slaved to them

THIS

 

[Lecic]

That is not TOO exploitable, because of the added horrors of having external warheads as a part of your ship. Even if they do not take out your entire ship when they blow, they are just hanging out there, ready for you to accidentally jostle something and BOOM! A simple collision in combat would do the entire damage done by the warheads to your ship's shields and armor. Probably not fatal, but really inconvenient.

I would not trust myself with a ship carrying loads of external warheads, much less an AI.

It would be incredibly easy to make a "balloon" of warheads behind your ship with a few layers of basic hull around it. It wouldn't detonate on collisions, but any damage that destroyed it would take the hull with it.

 

[NaStral]

I like it. Reminds me of the Q36 Explosive Space Modulator.

 

[BJammin]

It would be incredibly easy to make a "balloon" of warheads behind your ship with a few layers of basic hull around it. It wouldn't detonate on collisions, but any damage that destroyed it would take the hull with it.

a.) Require adjacent placement of warheads (or new analogue block) to the system you wish to buff

Like I said, this could be a way to prevent cheat-y placements of blocks such as that. Might not be the ideal solution, but it's a start.

Though I see what you're saying. Any new idea should go over all its possible exploits before being added. Thanks for adding to the discussion.

 

[hinkhenk]

I came to think of something.
I still do not like the idea of ductaping a bomb onto a computer to buff up the computers.

Instead, add "missile" as a type for bobby ai, where the ai wants to seek collision with an enemy you set in the bobby ai, (target selected, missile or astronaut(using the missile option would be useless, so when its sellected as missile, it cannot seek out missiles.)) and now you can fill your ship with warhead missiles, that does a great deal of damage if it hits.

This would be a more interesting concept, and new warhead missile type ships will be made, for real use.

 

[EricBlank]

Using warheads inside your ship to provide bonuses to adjacent blocks sounds good. Assuming the bonuses are worth the risk. As a linked system, I think the above idea of putting a bubble of them outside your ship would undoubtedly be the resulting metagame. If they only provide a bonus based on the blocks they're touching, a bubble outside your ship would provide increased armor HP (if the warheads are allowed to interact with armor blocks), and nothing else.

Consider this: a warhead placed among ship systems will produce a flat bonus to the system types it is touching, for each block it is in contact with. It will generate 50 power production, 200 power capacity, 50 shield capacity, 5 shield-per-second regeneration, or 12 thrust for each power reactor, capacitor, shield capacitor, shield recharger, or thruster adjacent to it. placing one warhead inside a ball of 6 power reactors thus gives you a bonus of 300 e/sec whereas replacing it with another reactor would only have provided 25 e/s. This is assuming you've already reached the energy softcap elsewhere and are trying to fill space with huge blocks of systems. So you are getting a huge bonus from the presence of that warhead, you're trying to stuff it with as many as possible to milk it for what its worth. But if something hits it, suddenly that bonus and the systems around it, not to mention any other warheads nearby, go boom.

Building that systems block inside a sealed advanced armor bulkhead would certainly protect everything outside of it, but still the loss of that systems block if that armor is penetrated can be called a defeat. Suddenly you've lost a large portion of power/shields/thrust/whatever in comparison to its volume. So you could build safe and low-power or risky and pray your shields never drop. Or you built that block deep enough that a clever warhead torpedo or several can't detonate the entire block.

I can see it being useful for small ships as well, where space is at a premium and power lines can't be as long in the first place. Still, quite risky.

 

[Wolverines527]

Im sorry im usually all for a cool idea but i have to say no on this one to easy to exploit