Ideas for New Weapons/Equipment

[KingArthur]

I'm Currently Piloting a Starmaster.I have a Banshee Cannon/Fusion Laser.I carry as Equipment:Mantis Drive,Anti Missle System,Sheild Array Recharger,Cannon Heatsink,Cannon Relay System,Shield Boost X5,Repair C3 and a Tractor Beam.Once I find a Stealth Feild Generator I'll be Set as Far as Equipment and Weapons.I'd like to Put Forth the Following Ideas for Additional Tech:

1) a DRAGON Rotary Cannon-y:40 c:180 r:640 This Cannon would have an Effective Yeild of 320 in the Samr Time a Phantom Yeilded 220 of Particle Energy.This would be a GATLING Type Weapon with an extremely High Cyclic Rate of Fire.......DOWNSIDE: It Would Require the Use of BOTH the PARTICLE CANNON AND BEAM WEAPON SLOTS on Any Ship.You Would Not Be Able to Carry a Beam Weapon with this Cannon.I would place the Cost for this Weapon in the 1.8-2M Range.
2) a DMT (Dark Matter Torpedo) y:6800 v:1250 r:2100-This Weapon would Fit Between a Exodus Missle and a Fulcrum Torpedo.It would Contain a Micro Shield Generator Making it Invunerable to Detonation by Part/Beam Weapon Fire EXCEPT from a DRAGON(3.5 Sec Sustained Duration Fire)
DOWNSIDE:To Load this Weapon it would Require TWO HARDPOINTS.you Would be able to mount Other Missles with this Torp(Unlike EXCAL).I would Place the Cost fro This Weapon in the 250K Range Per Unit.This would be a Great Weapon for Destroying Capitol Ships.
3)Aux Power Generators (Equipment) A1 thru 5.Each Unit would Increase a Ships Overall Power Output by 10% per Unit eg:A1=10%,A2=20%,etc to a MAX of 50%(A5).Power would be Distributed with the Ships General Power Generation as Set By the Pilot.(More Sheild or More Weapon/Engine Power).I would Place the Cost in the 180K thru 1.2M Range.
4)a CO2 PULSE LASER y:105.This Weapon would NOT Produce a Sustained Laser Beam but would Fire More Like a PART.CANNON.It would send a Short Beam....Delay(Approx.1.5Sec)...then Fire Again.DOWNSIDE:You Could NOT Mount this Weapon with either a PHANTOM or BANSHEE Cannon and you would need a MAMMOTH or STARMASTER FRAME.(EXCEED POWER CONDUIT SPECIFICATIONS....as a Displayed Reason should you attempt to Mount it With the Above Cannons or Frames.)I Would Place the Cost for this weapon in the 1.2M Range.
5)Designation of Crew/CM/Weapon Slots in Ship Config as SECONDARY EQUIPMENT SLOTS.This would Allow you to Designate CREW/CM/MISSLE HARDPOINTS as EXTRA EQUIP SLOTS.Instead of Left Click in Ship Config to Add/Remove Hardpoints/Slots you would RIGHT CLICK and the Box would turn Orange,Indicating Sec.Equip.Slot.ALL ASSEMBLY RULES WOULD APPLY.You would Simply be Able to have more than 8 Peices of Equipment if You're willing to Give Up Room for Crew/CM/Missle.

I Think Implementing these Suggestions Could Improve Gameplay,especially in Combat Situations,Allowing You to Enter HOSTILE SYSTEMS With More Confidence.

[Edited on 5-6-2011 by InkedMike]

[Edited on 5-6-2011 by InkedMike]

[Edited on 5-10-2011 by InkedMike]

[Ravenfeeder]

I reckon that you'd be taken to bits with a weapon, such as the Dragon, 40 yield, and a range of 640!!!

It's not hard to take down a cap ship with the present equipment.

I already enter hostile systems with confidence, as will you, when you gain more experience.

[Avenger]

Same here, I enter hostile systems all the time just for the fun of it.

And I use a class 2 particle cannon and blow up capital ships with it while reading a magazine.

To be totally honest the combat in Mercenary is far easier then in I-War or Freespace, in those games you will be unable to beat 20+ foes without any form of backup and in Freespace you are unable to destroy a capital ship by yourself, you will need backup and more important, more targets for the capital ship and pray that you are not a target yourself so you can deliver your torpedoes.

EDIT: I also see that it's a call out to make civilian ships more of a combat ship, if you really want to fight, use a military frame and see how that goes.

[Edited on 5-7-2011 by Avenger]

[Maarschalk]

These are some great Ideas, and Vice has been working hard to strike a perfect balance for years with the Starwraith game Series thinking about similar ways to make the game interresting. Once you gain more experience with the game you will learn and notice that many and or all off your Ideas have been implemented one way or another.........It is always good though to hear other players perspective....

[xingbing1]

Actually, I think he's got some good ideas. The DMT (maybe with a different name though) and the aux. power gens especially seemed good.

[Avenger]

I find the DMT overpowered, it's even faster then most missiles we have in the game at this time.

As for energy, I never had any problems with energy so far, well, the military frames lacked energy before the big update but that is fixed now.
A civil frame with weapon ops never had any energy issues to begin with.

[DaveK]

The CO2 pulse laser brings up a thought! I know that the beam weapons are linked to the range of the particle weapon they are with, but what about their overall damage rate/minute? How fast do they inflict damage?

For example a refractor beam is rated at Y=10;
a flarebeam is also Y=10, but its cyclic rate is 120/minute giving total damage of 1200/minute.

How long does the refractor have to fire to achieve 1200 damage points?

The CO2 pulse with a re-fire time of 1.5 seconds fires at a rate of 40/minute and with a yield of 105 would have a damage rating of 4200/minute. where does this put it in the list of beam weapons?

[Avenger]

The beam laser fires at the same rate as your particle cannon.

I use a Fusion Laser and a Ice Spear + a Cannon Heatsink so both fire at a high rate dealing a lot of damage in a short time.

EDIT: To be totally honest however I would rather trade my Fusion Laser for a 2nd Ice Spear then any of the above mentioned upgrades/changes.

And I still find it a call for better civil frames since nowhere in his post does he mention military frames, only ways to boost civil frames, even asking to swap crewmembers for more equipment/hardpoints to exceed the current limit.

[Edited on 5-8-2011 by Avenger]

[DaveK]

said it before - will say it again; whichever type of ship is seen as being inferior will have a support group asking for some form of enhancement; civ was seen as better then mil so Vice was persuaded to upgrade mil; now mil is seen as better than civ and this is the second attempt at upgrading civ! I love it

But I also love reading about people's ideas for new or modified weapons - I still would love the ability to launch 4 lots of 2 or 2 lots of 4 excals at a time, (as well as all 8 - depending on the target! :P:P:P

back to the CO2 pulse - particles all cycle at 90 or 100 or 120 so a coil would amass 3600 - 4800 damage points/minute depending on the cycle rate of its partner particle weapon with an asking price a heck of a lot cheaper than the CO2 pulse suggested price!



[Edited on 8-5-2011 by DaveK]

[Edited on 8-5-2011 by DaveK]

[Edited on 8-5-2011 by DaveK]

[MiaZ]

The DMT might just make me even more crazy ; )

I have thought of a weapon type like a mass-driver
requiring you to carry ore or metal in your cargo bay.

It could maybe be somewhere between a class 2 and 3 cannon.
Just a touch better then an icespear but you would have to keep an eye on your ammo use.


But over all I think weapons are balanced quite well at the moment as it is.


.

[DaveK]

As I understand it, that's what the "kinetics" are - the Eclipse and the Banshee - which is why they fling you around so much

[Avenger]

Not completely since they have unlimited ammo.

[Dave S]

I have thought of a weapon type like a mass-driver
requiring you to carry ore or metal in your cargo bay.

It could maybe be somewhere between a class 2 and 3 cannon.
Just a touch better then an icespear but you would have to keep an eye on your ammo use.
.

That would be an interesting dynamic:)

Just remember that a civilian ship is not designed from the keel out for combat like a military ship is. You can pimp out a civilian ship to fill a combat role, but it will always be weaker.

And Avenger is right when he said that capital hips are weak. We have in fact asked for the capital ships in one or two of the combat zones bee really beefed up to present more of a challenge.

I definitely don't envy Vice in trying to constantly strike a balance with respect to combat in this game. That is no easy feat.

[DaveK]

perfect balance; I don't get blown up - I blow hostiles up from long range with a few shots . . . only joking! :P:P:P:P:P

[soulsacrifice]

There are a couple of weapon ideas I was thinking off a while ago and I though I may as well add them to this thread to see what people think. I don't think it would affect the balance much if at all, but would give players more variety when choosing weapons/tactics.

i) remote mines: you release them just as you do with proximity mines but the second time you press fire they explode. The mine would show up on your HUD but it would only show up on the enemys HUD only when the enemy was within range, so at a range of about 500 or less. The amount of damage would depend on distance but if you were at the 500 zone you may be able to survive, albeit with a heavily damaged ship. I think the proximity mines in the game are overpowered and these remote mines would require more skill to use to get a kill and it would make a nice change from just using missiles all the time.

ii) drones: These would be fired just as a missile but they would be able to perform basic maneuvers to avoid enemys shooting them down and could be combined with any other type of laser or particle based weapons (so depending on what you combine it with that will be the weapon the drone attacks your target with). The drone could also be used as a decoy because it would show up on the enemys HUD as having all the same data as the players ship. You would have to rely on visual recognition/patterns of movement to determine which was the enemy ship and which was the drone. You would be able to recall the drone and use it again if it is not destroyed.

[Edited on 10-5-2011 by soulsacrifice]

[DaveK]

recent experience says drones = collateral damage

[DaveK]

I must admit, I have enough problem hitting the opposition when I can see them! - a drone might appear as a blob on the radar, but it has to be very much smaller than the ship that launched it - the ships themselves are hard enough to see with a MkI eyeball until you are close enough to spit at them (or they are close enough to ruin your day) - a drone would be the equivalent of a cloacked ship! (red blob on radar - nothing to see until the hits started on shields) :P

How would you fly your ship and control the drone at the same time?

I know it's probably nit picking to point out, but I always thought that mines are designed to be scattered or laid out in patterns and lie dormant, awaitng for some poor person to stumble on them or get close enough for their proximity fuses to be triggered upon which they explode. Dropping explosives and setting them off when someone goes by is more like IED's as used in Iraq and Afghanistan by the black hats

If mines are too pokey, then perhaps we could ask for them to be toned down a bit or the price raised a lot so they are used more thoughtfully?

Do many people actually use mines in combat?

[soulsacrifice]

I must admit, I have enough problem hitting the opposition when I can see them! - a drone might appear as a blob on the radar, but it has to be very much smaller than the ship that launched it - the ships themselves are hard enough to see with a MkI eyeball until you are close enough to spit at them (or they are close enough to ruin your day) - a drone would be the equivalent of a cloacked ship! (red blob on radar - nothing to see until the hits started on shields) :P

You would be able to see it, it would appear just like you do to your enemies on the hud.

How would you fly your ship and control the drone at the same time?

They would be AI controlled and would attack whatever enemy you have targeted with you hud. (There have been drones in one of the older Evochron games i've played) I think it was in the training when I played the Arvoch Conflict demo possibly an even older one, of course they were just used for training and weren't a weapon or anything like that.

I know it's probably nit picking to point out, but I always thought that mines are designed to be scattered or laid out in patterns and lie dormant, awaitng for some poor person to stumble on them or get close enough for their proximity fuses to be triggered upon which they explode. Dropping explosives and setting them off when someone goes by is more like IED's as used in Iraq and Afghanistan by the black hats

Well no, the current proximity mines only allow you to put one out at a time and they don't stay there if you leave the sector. IEDs stands for improvised explosive device, remote detonation is only one way of exploding them so you could say the same thing about proximity mines - the term really doesn't apply though. My idea is it would open up more strategic options in battles.

If mines are too pokey, then perhaps we could ask for them to be toned down a bit or the price raised a lot so they are used more thoughtfully?

Do many people actually use mines in combat?

I don't use them in combat because they're too easy to kill people, kill indiscriminately (useless if friends are nearby) and often can get you killed if they're set off when you're within the blast radius.


[Edited on 10-5-2011 by soulsacrifice]

[DaveK]

My point is you couldn't see it through the cockpit glass because it would be too small. The drone would look like the hostile ship on the radar because it would be a red dot. Some of us find it hard enough to take out the bad guys when we know they are there - never mind chasing small AI drones aroung. Would the targetting system be able to tell them apart - if not, why not - a small drone and a big ship would have very different radar profiles!

[Flash]

I like the idea of having a gate constructor but so no one would pull a Gorf and litter the universe like he has with stations maybe have them disappear when you leave MP or have a one day lifespan or maybe have them degrade and malfunction after a certain time before they blew themselves up leaving you somewhere in the middle of the two gates

[soulsacrifice]

My point is you couldn't see it through the cockpit glass because it would be too small. The drone would look like the hostile ship on the radar because it would be a red dot. Some of us find it hard enough to take out the bad guys when we know they are there - never mind chasing small AI drones aroung. Would the targetting system be able to tell them apart - if not, why not - a small drone and a big ship would have very different radar profiles!

You would be able to identfy it visually within a certain range, it wouldn't take as much to shoot down as a ship (no shields and much lower hitpoints)but would have better evasion than missiles. You wouldn't have to be chasing them either as the drones purpose would be attacking after it's deployed. Also, it is entirely possible it would contain technology to fool enemy ships sensors, the idea is so it could also be used as a decoy - so for example to deploy when you're damaged to give you time to recover.

[Argamonius]

Perhaps I could add my two cents for a weapon, ive given this all of three secs thought so ....

Star Lance
range : 350

Cycle : 30

yield : 600

* bypasses shield and does direct hull damage

I think a weapon like this will bring cloak strategies into play more, which personally are being neglected.

[Argamonius]

'I got a brand new com-bine har-ves-ter...' -song from Evil Aliens, as the guys mows down aliens

just had to share that.. rofl.