Kind of have 3 ideas based on a secondary weapon idea, which is basically a fulcrum torpedo minus the "end game, massive area effect" of that weapon.
1)
I was curious about the addition of a missile you can craft or buy for as much money as a disruptor...basically it would be like the old fulcrum torpedoes of mercenary...BUT
There'd be some differences so that it wouldn't break multiplayer, AI ship engagements, or make contracts "too easy" against capital ships / fleets.
It could basically be a disruptor (maybe a few tweaks from the animation, sound, and missile flare "green maybe", or the same) but instead of causing a HUGE area effect of damage, it could be more focused (like an implosion thing, I'm not sure about the actual description of how it would work). Effecting just the capital ship and passing through shields, with 1 or 2 or them being able to destroy one.
It could take 4/8 weapon slots to equip it as its a big missile (and for game balance so you can't take out 8 capital ships in theory), travel relatively slowly (slower than a typical low grade missile so that interception is possible, more on that further in this post), take time to launch like the disruptor and be unguided (like the disruptor, with a larger range limitation), requiring aiming well to ensure a hit. The explosion would severely damage capital ships.
As far as building it, using some pretty exotic materials as an explosive like antimatter, or even an actual fulcrum drive as the explosive for it would be pretty cool...and expensive / time consuming, which is half of the point.
2)
The whole point was I was attempting to do some contracts involved with taking out capital ships, it was getting tedious...and I thought that maybe if you had a secondary that is really expensive or hard to craft, you could still make "some money" off the contract and quickly take out the capital ship provided you aren't shot down....
3)
also thought it'd be pretty cool if there was some kind of "cruise missile intercept" mission from a carrier as well as a contract, or from a CITY, where you intercept bombers equipped with this "Exocet", and can even SHOOT them DOWN before it hits the Carrier / Ship / City. In that case, making it SLOW, and TARGET-ABLE for normal missiles would be important, but like the meteor contract I feel it'd be pretty enjoyable as there would be a sense of urgency. As far as carriers being "explodable, and elimated from your universe / profile", it'd be a pretty cool consequence...and thus should be a pretty high paying / risky mission. This mission could easily apply to battleships / escort missions too, but the contract with whatever you are defending should explicitly state to "expect to intercept these cruise missiles". Obviously the "destroy this capital ship" mission wouldn't need updating as you could buy the missile, and if AI want to "target" it that would be cool (but definitely not as required).
Kinda went down this road a long time ago, but that was more involving multiplayer, this is definitely a more single player oriented weapon....of course if someone was "in or near" the ship / explosion they should be damaged severely...but being as it can't "lock on" like the disruptor,..and is super slow with a "smaller" radius of effect (but an intense one) it wouldn't have use in a conflict with enemies spread out over a big area.
The potential of its use against stations would also be cool, maybe not "as damaging", and the ability for AI to target it with weapons / missiles to shoot it down would make it not always the best option to use when there's multiple turrets setup. The idea of contracts with it with actual consequences in your universe, such as "that City/Carrier/Station"...well you failed, it's gone now (unless you load previous save of course) would be pretty damn cool so long as the cash reward for taking a risky contract exists.
Like the asteroid impact contract, the impending "doom" factor is pretty cool and I think would be a great addition for this "half-new half-old" secondary weapon.
Think this is a possibility?...and not too much work?
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