And that isn't an offensive weapon because?

Reverse the situation. The trader is trying to get away from the pirate, but the pirate hits him with an EMP missile and the result is that the trader 1) doesn't have power to turbo, 2) doesn't have power to fire its weapons and 3) doesn't have power to jump out of the sector. Now the pirate proceeds to disect the trader with dual tachyon's or gausses, or simply falls upon the suddenly decelerating trader and rocket rams him.

Also, consider how the flat 'drains the battery completely' rule might work with bigger and bigger ships. A Ragnarok has 14,000 hull points, but it has the same power as a Centurian that has 6,500. This weapon is going to do alot more damage proportionately to a big ship compared to other weapons than it does to a small ship if it bypasses h.p. completely, and because big ships are less able to dodge weapons this would penalize them in particular. I'd be very hesistant to add a weapon which effected the balance between ship classes so directly. And what about big batteries or multiple batteries? Does it completely drain even a battery with 10,000+ power in it? Even if it doesn't, if a capital ship gets hit by 10 or 20 of these things is it now completely helpless?

Here's one way to handle the same idea:

"56) Flash Missiles: Small slot rocket with EMP warhead causes screen and radar to be disrupted for a brief moment, and the target loses 200 battery power – (or equivalent damage if no power is available). Increasingly less effect as target hull points increases. (Multiply power loss by 6000/target’s hull points).
57) Leach Mines: As flash missiles, but a proximity mine. Uses the small slot."

As it is now, all weapons are really offencive weapons. Even mines are used very offencivly. We need something that can be a defencive tool against pirates. My idea:

EMP homer-
This missle has a large prox range, like 60 or so. IT also turns really fast, and travels at about 60 m/s. It does no damage, so it;s not an offencive weapon. What it does is when it goes off, it compleatly drains your battery. Compleatly. This allows the trader extra time to flee, and if used right, can gain you valuble seconds when warping. However, if you get in teh splash range, your own batt is drained.


EMP mine- Once again, large splash, large prox.. Does no dmg, but drains your batt.

I like that.

But then we have the problem of the prometheus... again...

I feel that the only way to have an increase in a ships defensive capabilities is to provide gizmos that allow you to detect/avoid/flee from combat. For example, Celeb's flash missile could is good because it disrupts screen and radar. Speed-boosting gizmos, improved FF detection, radar-stealth gizmos, visual cloaks, holograms, "running silent", etc all help a ship play more defensively.

See the gizmos thread for more... the wish list is over a hundred items long... and I have to believe that the devs will introduce at least some of them.

Theres no weapon that cannot be used for offense. I think its already hard enough to engage people running from fights.

Well, I think a missile like the Mag Pulse (from XWA) would be pretty good. In case you don't know, it is a weapon that disables the target's ability to fire, and fire only, nothing else, for 15 seconds.

because it's a homer, the trader cant be it while fleeing, unless he does something stupid like turning to fight.


And right now, we dont have any batts with 10000 energy, so we'll worry about them when we do. Untill then, dont bother.