An Idea for Another Cruiser Weapon - Mini-Mortar

[Sprolf]

For battleships, we have the Mortar and the Heavy Mortar.
The Mortars are roughly half as strong as the Heavy Mortar, take roughly half as much energy, and have less range than the Heavy Mortar.

This pairing works well if you want to choose between closer combat and sniping when flying a battleship, and gives you actually quite a bit of flexibility between loadouts for different kinds of battleship roles.




Now, cruisers have two roles:
Kiting battleships - that is, sniping them from afar and keeping a roughly 4k distance between each other.
Destroying gunboats - this is really self explanatory.

The Light Mortar works great for the first role. It's powerful (for a cruiser) and has a stupendously long range - 4k! It's really the mainstay sniping weapon. Missiles (with 5k range) are really only useful to pick components off of the Battleship due to the pesky explosion/hitbox issue we're all so very familiar with.


For fighting gunboats, however, the Light Mortar isn't ideal.
It drains the slim majority of a cruiser's energy - no cruiser can dual-fire. (Well, battlecruisers... but that's not really the point. They're so big that their application is different.) This is somewhat bothersome when coupled with the Cruiser's other energy-hungry weapons (not including primary turrets.) Razors are especially draining - which is why few use them, I think. If you're fighting smaller ships, and you miss, you're quite inconvenienced when it comes to energy.




I was chatting today, and in jest I proposed splitting the Light Mortar in half so that the BHG Destroyer could be symmetrical - as you all must know, I prefer all my ships' loadouts to be symmetrical. (Bombers I can deal with, anything else... no.) It would be to the Light Mortar like the Mortar is to the Heavy Mortar.

And now, in this thread, I'm seriously suggesting a Mini-Mortar.



Light Mortar:
Hull Damage: 150,000
Shield Damage: 75,000
Range: 4,020 m
Projectile Speed: 600 m/s
Refire Rate: 0.25
Energy Usage: 1,000,000

Mini-Mortar:
Hull Damage: 75,000
Shield Damage: 37,500
Range: 3,510 m
Projectile Speed: 600 m/s
Refire Rate: 0.25
Energy Usage: 500,000



This would enable diversification of Cruiser loadouts and roles in a way similar to that of the way you can extensively modify Battleships - Cruisers are a little stuck into their role right now, it would seem. More weapons would certainly open up more flexibility in this area, and might make them more effective in combat.

Specifically, the Mini-mortar would be useful against smaller ships, as missing with one would not be a major loss of energy - but then again, it wouldn't be a major hit if you did land it on an enemy. Or, if you prefer dual-firing smaller mortars and then falling back to one for a quick Mini-Mortar-blow where you wouldn't have enough energy to shoot a full Light Mortar, this would work admirably, as the Heavy Mortar / Mortar relation works with battleships.



So...
Does anyone like this idea? Anyone hate it?
Tenacity, resident cruiser guru, do you like it?

Martin, your expert input?


Anyone have a similar, but better idea?
Post here and tell, but don't forget to vote back up there!

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[reavengitair]

Just a few suggestions to change the stats: I'm not really all for having just "lighter light motars". The current difference between the Motar and Heavy Motar are pretty much that the motar has less range, but more damage if you fire 2 - uses more energy if you fire 2...

Perhaps altering the stats so there is a difference between firing 2 light light motars compared to firing 1 light motar. I think that a double light light motar should do slightly more damage, with slightly more energy usage.

[Sprolf]

I crunched the numbers...
And the Saronsen didn't believe me, did the math, and found I was right.
I also did them again.

You're... rightish... It's not exactly half, but it comes out to be nearly the same... there isn't a very appreciable difference between the damage given / energy used between a HM and 2 M.


For the purposes of this thread, I simplified things and said "half," because that's really what it is, realistically.

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[Sprolf]

Sorry for the double post, but here's the stats.



THE NUMBERS:
(And I thought I was done with math for a month...)

Total Energy Compared to Total Damage
Mortar: 2,450,000 / 365,000
Heavy: 4,650,000 / 680,000
2 Mortars: 4,900,000 / 730,000

Energy/Damage:
Mortar: 6.71/1
Heavy: 6.83/1
2 Mortars: 6.71/1

Damage/Second:
Mortar: 91,250 D/S
Heavy: 170,000 D/S
2 Mortars: 182,500 D/S

(Damage/Second)/Energy :
Mortar: 26.84
Heavy: 27.35
2 Mortars: 26.84



So:
Double Mortars - a bit more damage, but less efficient when compared with a Heavy Mortar.
Keep in mind that the double mortars come with a range decrease.

You can see that this evens about to equal about half and half, give or take some range or single firing perks associated with each group.

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[Tenacity]

Instead of trying to add a new weapon, how about we work with what we have? I.e. turn the piece of crap cruiser razor into something worth mounting. I dont care if it gets a speed bonus to be an anti-fighter/bomber weapon, or gets a damage/efficiency/range bonus to be a gunboat killer, but something needs to be done with it.

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[Sprolf]

Speaking of which, mortars should really get a better model.
Like the Razor model with a solid barrel.

They're the most powerful weapons in the game, and yet the Razors are the ones that really stand out and look imposing on a ship.

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[Tenacity]

Yea, that bugs me to no end.

I also hate the 'asymmetrical' turret models, like the mortars and solaris turrets. Looks stupid having them swapped opposite directions on each side of the ship. Center the barrel plz -_-

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[Sprolf]

That as well!

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[Akura]

Yea, that bugs me to no end.

I also hate the 'asymmetrical' turret models, like the mortars and solaris turrets. Looks stupid having them swapped opposite directions on each side of the ship. Center the barrel plz -_-

Oh god yes!


And the Razors need fixing, AND the Mini mortar is a good idea.

[Mounteblanc]

While we're at it, could the Mini razor receive a new model as well? That thing is hideous, no matter how awesome it is.

I like the idea. But there are some cruisers that can dual-fire Light Mortars (Rheinland, Corsair, Hessian, and others methinks).

Cruisers need more definition. This could help to do that.

Oh, and is there any reason for this being in General Discussion?