Return to “Suggestions”

Post

Weapon Types

#1
I'm trying to write up an exhaustive list of weapons that people would like to see in the game, so far this is what I have.

i. Ship-to-ship weapons
  1. Energy Weapons
    A) Beam laser (higher damage as beam is sustained)
    B) Pulse lases (good point defence, high rate of fire)
  2. Projectile cannons
    A) Artillery (high mass, low rate of fire, long range)
    B) Mini-gun (good point defence, low mass, extreme rate of fire, short range)
    C) Flechette cannon (fires a cone of medium mass projectiles, high damage, short range, medium rate of fire)
    D) Flak cannon (fires small projectiles with proximity blast, low damage, short range, high rate of fire, only useful against fighters)
  3. Magnetic weapons
    A) Rail-gun (fires large projectiles at extreme velocity, high hull damage, long range, low rate of fire)
    B) Gauss needler (requires more space than a rail-gun, smaller projectiles at a lower velocity, medium range, medium rate of fire, more precise, able to puncture enemy armor)
  4. Missiles
    A) Torpedo (short-range, large payload, guided)
    B) Cruise (long-range, small payload, guided)
    C) Rocket pod (seperates into many smaller missiles, unguided, hard to reload, may be used to saturate an area)
    D) Rocket (high fire rate, unguided like the pod variant, easier to reload, well suited to targets with a large cross-section)
    E) Swarmer (like a rocket pod but with guided missiles, the inclusion of a guidance system means reduced payload, effective against fighter clusters)
    F) Light missile (short range, small payload, guided, great tracking, useful against smaller ships)
  5. Miscellaneous
    A) Plasma caster (high hull damage, DOT effect, short range, medium rate of fire)
    B) Particle beam (medium shield damage, medium hull damage, medium range)
    C) Drone (very small un-manned craft about 1/2 the size of a fighter, can only function near host ship, size allows for great manueverability, but they lack space to implement shielding)
ii. Weapon mounting systems
  1. Fixed mount - takes less space and power
  2. Swivel mount - able to track 30°- 45°of motion on a predesignated axis, requires less space and power than a turret, but more than a fixed mount
  3. Turret mount - the turret itself takes space and power on top of the weapon requirements
  4. Spine mount - a weapon running the length of the ship, extremely high damage, range, and power consumption, requires the ship to be facing the target
iii. "Stationary" in space
  1. Mines - homing over variable distances based on build, variable payload typically explosive, possibly EMP, usually drop in batches
  2. Stationary weapon platform - able to rotate on its axis to fire at moving targets, many different sized turrets, possibly platforms with multiple small-medium sized weapons that track as one ie. a dual small beam laser platform
Please feel free to give me any feedback about current items, or items you would like to see added.
Last edited by NikoDG on Thu Jan 10, 2013 8:28 pm, edited 17 times in total.
Post

Re: Weapon Types

#3
Ah, thanks for that :)

Though to be fair the only thread in there that lists possible weapons has a fairly short list, I'm hoping to make a large and fairly comprehensive one. Also, that thread hadn't been posted in since late November. No one likes a necro ;)

Edit: I did add some weapons from those posts though.
Post

Re: Weapon Types

#5
@ NikoDG

I have to agree that there had been no good thread about weapons in general, yet.
Filter and include the useful bits from the "Weapons" thread and I can just lock the other one. =)


I created one for Missiles and Weapon statistics but they are far more specific.
In "Weapon statistics" I think I covered most mechanics - I just didn't attach names to them. =)
Once you have the mechanics to work with, it's relatively easy to attach some label to it.


PS: With long lists and multiple levels like in your OP, the LIST feature can often improve readability.
You can do numbered, a-b-c, or simple bullets.
Sometime you just need a double line-feed to space it out. The system is a bit screwy.


PPS: I find your "Rocket" definition confusing. In milspeak a rocket is a self-propelled, unguided warhead, typically launched in larger quantities to saturate an area.
There is no "I" in Tea. That would be gross.
Post

Re: Weapon Types

#7
I don't know a term other than missile or torpedo for a guided warhead.
Heavy missiles are often called torpedoes in space games but it's a pretty arbitrary distinction.

ATGM, ATGW, or just ATM are used to designate missiles that are designed for use against - but not limited to - armoured vehicles.
While it's theoretically possible to use a Hellfire against an aircraft (and there is one recorded instance of this actually being successful), it's generally a bonehead idea. =)

Cruise missiles are a different beast because unlike missiles, they don't necessarily need to see or track their target. They follow a pre-programmed course to a very distant target. In a space game, a CM could attack a station in the next sector.

If you're a game designer, you can make up your own cool acronyms based on how the missile operates ingame. =)
There is no "I" in Tea. That would be gross.
Post

Re: Weapon Types

#8
Perhaps one more category

basicly a weapon for fighters vs fighters or drones.


for clarity lets call it a space gernade. :idea:

basicly you just nudge it out the back
if the figher with a mechanical launcher,
it would be fairly low yield, just enought to
take out a pursuing drone.
it would have a 5 second fuse, but also a proximity fuse.
expensive versions might also have a electromagnet
set on a 2-3 second delay for a slight homing capability.
"A sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
- Arthur C. Clarke
Post

Re: Weapon Types

#9
Honestly in any space combat game, has anybody ever had any success using mine or grenade-like weapons? I certainly haven't and I steer well clear of them.

In all of the space combat games that I have played, the optimal attack is to line the enemy up in your sights (they are in front of you) and keep them in your sights, blasting all of the time. If the enemy is behind you (and thus might fly into your mine/grenade) then you're probably Doing It Wrong™. Even then, getting them directly behind you is very difficult (especially when you are looking forwards). Either you need to be guessing their position or you need to 'switch' your viewscreen to rear-view mode, in which case you're flying blind and can't see what you might crash into.

Perhaps some kind of "burst centred on the attacker" weapon might be suitable for taking out mini-drones or small fighters? Sort of like an EMP but not an EMP. It's just a rapidly-expanding sphere of disruption that loses power in a way exponentially linked with its radius.
Nobody suspects a Toreador …
Post

Re: Weapon Types

#10
ToreadorVampire wrote:Honestly in any space combat game, has anybody ever had any success using mine or grenade-like weapons? I certainly haven't and I steer well clear of them.
While I have tried to think of ways to make mines "work" in a space game, I have never seen a good implementation, either.

Minefields are expensive and unreliable in 2D. In 3D they are laughable.
Dropping a single mine? No. Just no.
There is no "I" in Tea. That would be gross.
Post

Re: Weapon Types

#11
ToreadorVampire wrote:Honestly in any space combat game, has anybody ever had any success using mine or grenade-like weapons? I certainly haven't and I steer well clear of them.
I have actually. The only ones I saw that worked well were like massive frag grenades. The Synaptic Bomb from Freespace and the upgraded GTM Piranha from Freespace 2. You fire them, and then you hit the 'fire' key again and they explode into a starburst of smaller explosions. It was actually pretty decent at either scattering tightly packed groups, or dealing decent damage to fighters in an area.

I believe there was also one that was an AOE, the GTM EMP Advance that was an EMP bomb that would momentarily 'stun' the target.

If you outfitted your wingmen with the bombs, they used them fairly effectively too. Even if they weren't strong enough to destroy a ship outright, in the middle of an intense battle, when suddenly the majority of ALL your shields drop by some (rather than just a quandrant of them) you're left struggling to effectively redirect power to the right part of your shield so that you don't get taken out by some other means.

As for rockets in Op's post, I think he was referring to dumbfires (or at least from what I recognize non-guided missiles as). The other type that wasn't mentioned were swarmers. Missiles like the missile pods referenced, but these track. I always liked those, and they gave a great effect if a target happens to get hit or deflects them--a chain of explosions on the tail of the ship as it's moving through space.
Image
Early Spring - 1055: Well, I made it to Boatmurdered, and my initial impressions can be set forth in three words: What. The. F*ck.
Post

Re: Weapon Types

#12
ToreadorVampire wrote:Honestly in any space combat game, has anybody ever had any success using mine or grenade-like weapons? I certainly haven't and I steer well clear of them.

...
Actualy they worked quite well in Freelancer. :idea:

the idea isn't to just drop, one...
drop a dozen, afer all they are cheep.
at the very least it will give you a better combat position.
"A sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
- Arthur C. Clarke
Post

Re: Weapon Types

#13
Lots of good conversation going on here :)

I added the swarmer missile type, and added some information to the mine description. We're starting to see quite a list of missiles, would love to see more projectile/energy type weapons if anyone has any ideas.

Edit: I also added a coil-gun. With my own little spin on it ;)
Last edited by NikoDG on Wed Jan 09, 2013 5:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Post

Re: Weapon Types

#14
NikoDG wrote:I added the swarmer missile type, and added some information to the mine description
Whoa! And colours! Lots of them!

This evening I was with my brother and his GF (scratch that) fiance and we played Descent, the oard game.
My sinister plan of bringing their christmas gift of fruit-in rum (we\re talking pure run mhere) totallt paid off when the dungeon lord master misssed a turn one one of his goblisn, leading to a win for the valiant heroes of can-hold-their liquor.
Considering my elebriated status as moderator of stuff, and stuff, i will stop here. Reagardless of how much fun you may be msiing. Gnight.
There is no "I" in Tea. That would be gross.
Post

Re: Weapon Types

#15
Gazz wrote:Whoa! And colours! Lots of them!

This evening I was with my brother and his GF (scratch that) fiance and we played Descent, the oard game.
My sinister plan of bringing their christmas gift of fruit-in rum (we\re talking pure run mhere) totallt paid off when the dungeon lord master misssed a turn one one of his goblisn, leading to a win for the valiant heroes of can-hold-their liquor.
Considering my elebriated status as moderator of stuff, and stuff, i will stop here. Reagardless of how much fun you may be msiing. Gnight.
Image
{Am not. Well, okay, less than the Dungeon Lord. Who I will meet tomorrow at work. Which will be awesome since I've been immune to hangovers for the last 20 years. Not even a headache. You may hate me now.}
Last edited by NikoDG on Fri Jan 11, 2013 2:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

Online Now

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

cron