Forums » Suggestions

Non-lethal weapons

Nov 08, 2005 mgl_mouser link
I've been thinking about non-lethal weapons for a while and wondered how much use we could find to those.

To design a weapon, you usually need some intent or purposes and after thinking about it, did find a couple of them.

In the civilian use:

- noob target training
- pirate deterent
- ganker buster
- event arbitrator tool

and perhaps even has some tactical advantage:

- scout ship
- forward intel ship

and perhaps even military wich you can imagine by looking at the following list of proposed non-lethal weapons...

Name: Nano Paint
Dammage: none
Type: ammunition
Energy:10
Mass: 500kg?
Effect: Fires stream of nanite-encrusted color pigments. Partially obstruct vision by covering canopy. Dissolves over time: 10s/cumulated shots. Nanite-encrusted pigments dont survive WH jumps thus clearing view.
Net effect: darkens "victim's" hud display by 10%/shot, complicating navigation .

Name: Electromagnetic Burst
Dammage: none
Type: Energy
Energy: 200
Mass: 500kg?
Effect: Blast a strong magnetic energy wave at the target ship making some instruments erratic for a short period.
Net effect: Randomly disables or confuses one of the HUD features of target: radar, auto-aim; selected target

Name: Electromagnetic Burst Mk2
Dammage: none
Type: Energy
Energy: 250
Mass: 600kg?
Effect: Blast a strong magnetic energy wave at the target ship making flight instruments erratic for a short period.
Net effect: Randomly triggers either trusters or turbo booster of target for ~5 seconds.

(Also known as EBOB: "Electronic Bug-Off Button")

More ideas? Comments?
Nov 08, 2005 LostCommander link
I would have to think about it more to give a more in-depth answer, but in short they (non-lethal weapons) sound great.
Nov 08, 2005 roguelazer link
Mmm. Perhaps with some nice effects, no? I seem to remember Incarnate posting a link to an effect.jpg some months ago. Does that sort of thing work yet?
Nov 08, 2005 Lord Q link
YES NON LEATHAL WEAPONS ROCK

i'd like to add to the list:

a railgun, that instead of doing damage after 10 sucessfull hits increments a counter on your character info.

a beam weapon with a range of 50m that doesn't do any damage but when it hits a ship that ship glows for a set amont of time (say 30 seconds)
Nov 08, 2005 exDragon link
Another idea is a probe that disables radar for a short period of time. This could effect the entire sector or certain range.

A probe that take you of the map of everybody else and puts itself on the map instead. Once the probe is destroyed your visible on the radar again.( This probe could have a time limit or be infinite). One advantage with this is that your enemy can't tell when you lauch it unless they are looking at you.
Nov 08, 2005 Cunjo link
EMP weapons should also drain power of vessels within it's range... empty the battery of both the one firing it and being hit with it.
Nov 08, 2005 vIsitor link
Lord Q:

Just make the mining beams have a glow effect on non-asteroid targets. I seem to recall that at one point somebody used mining beams to 'count coup' against their opponents instead of killing them (the idea was that he gott close enough to do enough damage, but intead tagged the ship with his beams)
Nov 12, 2005 roguelazer link
Nov 12, 2005 Lord Q link
"I seem to recall that at one point somebody used mining beams to 'count coup' against their opponents instead of killing them"

that would be me