Weapon and Defense module thoughts

[Galacticruler]

In the game I've noticed that all weapons must get past shields to get at a hull or other module, this is a logical error to me, as shields are only meant to stop high-energy, high speed particles(Photons, X-rays, gamma rays, ect...)



So to change this I suggest:

• Armor modules: Provides the same protection as shields, but stops high mass projectiles such as mass driver slugs, but not beams or missiles(Armor can degrade if not repaired)
• ECM, PDLs, Counter missiles, and Chaff: Provides defense against missiles in a variety of ways
  
  ECM: Jams a missile's targeting computer and makes it lose all targets.(Low energy cost, hard to overwhelm, costly, and leaves live warheads lying around)
• PDLs: Targets one missile and vaporizes it with a high-energy laser.(High energy cost, overwhelmed easily by swarms of missiles, moderate weight, requires CPU like AMCs and Missiles, costly)
• Chaff: Makes missiles that target heat see thousands of targets and go haywire.(No energy cost, long reload, low weight)
• Counter Missiles: Sends a missile at an incoming missile.(No energy cost, moderate base reload(lowers like normal missiles), heavy, costly)

[*]A new kind of shield: Fluid Shields

• 
  The current shields are what I'd consider solid shields, as in, they eat energy and produce ship-wide coverage.
• Fluid Shields don't cover the whole ship, just the area that a laser is about to intersect.
  
  Pros: Lower energy cost, higher average damage resistance, less required
• Cons: can be overwhelmed by many incoming lasers(Can't keep up or spreads too thin), costly, does not stack like normal sheilds(more in one spot =/= better), requires shields CPU

[*]Mass Drivers: Like the AMCs, but fires solid slugs of metal that can be blocked by armor(Does not use energy, very slow reload(slower than an individual missile array), higher mass, ignores shields and missile defense, slow projectile, requires weapons CPU.)
[*]Lasers: More like the salvage beam, but does damage instead of stealing parts(high energy cost, no reload, low mass, can be stopped by fluid or solid shields, requires weapons CPU)
[*]Pulse Lasers: Basically an AMC(Blocked by shields, fires in one direction only, less damage, high ROF, almost no mass)


These are some of my thoughts ad suggestions, I'd like some ideas of your's too!

EDIT:

All inspiration taken from Galactic Civilizatons II, MoO II and a few other games

 

[Comr4de]

That is how I see combat modules in starmades future, and I would really appreciate more than one kind of weapon

 

[Traxie21]

Yes please!

Also, did you take some insperation from VoidHunters for this? I\'ve never seen \"Mass Drivers\" anywhere else.

 

[ImperialDonut]

I think you might find my topic interesting, its a long read, but I think it fits nicely with your suggestions.

http://star-made.org/content/advanced-combat-proposal-tid

 

[Stakhanov]

None of this helps smaller ships fight bigger ships. Quite the opposite , in fact.

 

[Alviss]

Mass Driver is literally everywhere, you use it when you shoot a gun. My earliest seeing of this word was Master of Orion 2. lol

 

[Galacticruler]

Actually, this could help exponentially, think about it currently, Missiles and AMCs are bound to shields in a never ending war of bigger and more powerful weapons and shields to counter.

Add my suggestions to the equation and suddenly a fighter armed with pulse lasers can take down larger, less shielded craft that focused on armor or ECM instead of shields.



The power drain on some of these prevents super-capitals from being 85% weapons, 5% power modules and 10% engines as they require more power with each adjacent weapon(not the case with some).



Mass Drivers would be ineffective against fighters at any range other than point-blank range as they move rather slow for capital - fighter swarm engaments.

Missiles would become effective against everything, but would be the easiest to counter.

Beams would have serious drawbacks such as draining the power you deperatley need for the shields and PDLs but would ravage unshielded craft and bases.



Also, speaking of starbases, as they don\'t move, they would be able to support insane ammounts of defenses and weapons, but at that cost of speed; not moving at all makes you a juicy target for mass drivers and missiles, beams also, but those are still effective versus moving targets so long as they are in your FOV.

 

[Ixalite]

+1

 

[Galacticruler]

Thank you Ixalite.

 

[SharpX]

Yes please, faster missiles and add countermeasures.

 

[Visitor]

Hm, I am ambivalent toward some these suggestions, though a few do seem promising. Some things certainly be useful in the game - like some anti-missile measure, but I am not really sure that providing several different ways of electronic warfare is necessary especially as a workaround for the current system being problematic - if one thing won\'t be balanced the mess will still be there. But anyway, add in chaff/energy burst disabling lock/detonating missiles, maybe ability for turrets to target them too and that should be it. I certainly wouldn\'t want chance-based laser shots or whatever which take out such for the player.

Missiles being faster - there should just be noticeable difference in speed when you adjust it through percentage of power distribution.

I am highly against armor modules too. We already have an armor, the kind that exists and is the only really reasonable and logical armor - it\'s called the hull. Now, it needs to be balanced.

While variety is a spice of life, I also am not sure of adding one different type of shield just to make the current one obsolete for some - again, newly added weapons.

Lots of shield ideas, balancing points (how what damage things would deal) and the like are already being discussed here: http://star-made.org/content/wall-suggested-changesmodifications. Galacticruler linked people from there to here, so I believe it going the other way as well is not uncalled for (especially since some ideas for there arguing for balance through adjustments rather than adding new stuff I\'d see more eagerly).