Projectile weapons?

[Ironwatsas]

[8:44:15 AM] ironwatsas: Also, do you think it would be possible to script an old fasioned projectile weapon?
[8:44:27 AM] ironwatsas: It would need ammo, but go through shields
[8:44:34 AM] ironwatsas: with a high refire rate
[8:44:41 AM] ironwatsas: And limited accuracy
[8:47:04 AM] Blackstarr: lol

That about sums it up. My idea is to add a new class of projectile based weapons to suppliment laser based weapons, and would have benefits and drawbacks all the same. Given, I'm not a scripter and am not knowlagable about the nuts-and-bolts of modding FL, but if someone wants to pick this up, go ahead.

My reasoning is this; Projectiles would have the advantages of requiring negligable energy from a ship's power core and (possibly) bypassing shields to some degree, though this might not work, as shields do deflect microasteroids, and wouldn't treat bullets diffrently. Plus, there's the issue of PVP whores spamming them and scripting this in the first place.

Another advantage is that they would have a much higher refire rate then even photon based weapons, as they are based on more refined technology and knowhow. And, in space, there would be negligable gravity or atmosphere to slow them down when they fire. Basically, they would be designed for rapidly supressing smaller targets (lots of small, fast, solid objects hitting a ship at once will cause a LOT of havok and confusion on the reciving end)

However, projectiles would have drawbacks. Chielfy, that they would require large amounts of ammunition to fire, have a risk of jamming, and would hav to contend with modern spacecraft armor which is by design meant to resist microasteroids and debris hitting at astronomical velocities. High Explosive ammo would partially solve the latter problem, but conventional explosives wouldn't even detonate on impact (they'd just be vaporised by the sheer force of impact at these velocities), however, this is based on the types of explosives availabe on earth today, so advances in technology would probably solve the latter issue.

My idea is that some of the factions would recive new projectile based weapons (in the form of multi-barrel repeating cannons, or 'metal storm' style stacked projectile weapons, and possibly some kind of crystal shard firing weapon for the Nomads/Wilde/Phantoms). These weapons would require ammunition to fire, which would be their chief limiting factor. And would be able to bypass shields, if it can be scripted and if balance dosen't suffer because of it (perhaps the ammunition would have an electromagnetic charge to pass through?). They would probably be available only to poorer factions or from Zoners, and their ammunition would be a bit harder to obtain.

My question is wether anyone would be intrested in seeing these ingame, if someone wants to script it. Could it even BE scripted in FL? I'd say it would add a bit more veriety to the types of weapons available and maybe have some RP benefits as well.

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All that begins must end.

[Enko]

In short, Mass Drivers?

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[Ironwatsas]

Pretty much. Something that would use either explosives, compressed plasma, or magnets to accellerate a solid projectile at something.

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All that begins must end.

[Linkus]

You shoot at the enemy who has shields, it will always hit the shields and not the hull. Shield passing mass drivers etc are not possible unfortunately.
Of course, would be happy if someone proved me wrong.

The projectile weaponry idea on it's own is good however you won't be able to make the refire too extreme. Gatling gun style weaponry is always popular and would be easy to do. High refire (not too high), high projectile spread and multiple barrels on the turret.

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Facilitating the rise of robotics since 0 A.D.

[Panzer]

Actually, even typical autocannons would work provided the propellant would be mixed with oxygen - needed for the explosion to take place.

And yeah... I'd love those to show up.


However - there's One extremely nasty llimitation - the hardcode of ammo limit. 50 in 1.0 and 70 nowdays. There would be a way of "getting rid" of it - namely by removing the ammo quantity limitation and instilling a cargo space lilitation regarding ammo. Then - The player could chose between taking 200 extra rounds or another few cannonballs. Also - I doubt it would be possible to code a weapon ignoring the shields. I'm not sure, but that thing smells like hardcode. And even IF it can be coded... I think that gun would make normal enegy guns obsolete... Why bother shield busters, accurate gun mixes and cwap if you can have something that gues for the hull outright? And I doubt the ammo limitations would deterr people from abusing the new weapons...

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[Emon]

Simply give a missile a 750 m/s projectile speed, remove all the tracking, maybe increase the firing speed to 1.0 or 2.0, cut the damage a bit, and you've got a decent projectile weapon.

More cannon than gatling gun, but still enough to be interesting.


In hindsight - just remove the tracking and increase the speed to energy weapon speeds. Maybe cut the damage by 25% and keep the refire rate the same as missiles. Increasing the refire rate would just be lethal once people got used to these.

[El Nino]

You can make guns use ammo, but you cannot make anything bypass shields... so it could be used after the shields are depleated, do considerable damage to the hull, while almost none to armor... Ammo could be increased from 70 to 1000 perhaps, then you could in theory, kill someone with 1000 nova torpedos and profit considerably...

It's not very FL'ish to have projectile guns, I don't see how it could be more efficient than blasting pure energy at your target... Such weapon would only be usable if it would hit often and hard... and thus would be a super weapon...

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[sovereign]

Idea- no ammo, decent refire, highish speed, significantly lower damage, but little to no energy cost. Workable with balance?

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[Armageddon]

Well there may be a way possible to make this work which should improve RP. while being in the realm of possibility.

As Panz said remove ammo restrictions, and it is possible to make some ammo take up more cargo than others. e.g. Nova takes 10 cargo, Javelin 1.

Give the gun ammo a 0.01 cargo space a unit. that way even a starflea can carry 2500 rounds.

my suggestion for stats be

10:00 Refire (thats a slight improvement)
SHield damage a shot 1 (make the gun so little effective against shields that it becomes 1damage a shot)
Hull Damage 250
Range 900 (out of sync with all other weapons making it hard to fire another weapon and these at the same time.
Speed 950 (covers distance to max range in under a second...)
Barrager type projectile.

as i say i would prefer something more in the region of 32:00 refire and barely any damage but that would lag the server... Anyways these would become the hull busters of the game if implemented.

My 2 cents

[Lunaphase]

Idea, Good. Balance issues, bad. however... why not add modern style cannons? destroyers tend to mount autocannons and such, i see no reason why they wouldent work. quite frankly a weapon with more hull dmg WOULD help negate the mk8 cap armor whoring, and not make those ships stupidly powerful. as a reverse, almost no sheild dmg. it would make strategy become important. Also, perhaps a slow rotating heavy cannon would do as well, but be almost impossible to hit fighters with. Kinetic weapons anyone?

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