Forums » Suggestions

More Cool Weapons, and Ship-Specific Weapons

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Mar 11, 2007 Jim Kirk link
The lesser weapons are barely even used by noobs. Aside from the Plasma HX, lower tier weapons are never used. If there were more degrees for the noobs to progress through, in terms of weaponry, there might be a higher interest in them. Everything in the "not-noob" world is either neuts, flares, gauss, turrets, or swarms. I'm sure someone will argue with that point, saying they once splashed a "non-noob" with an HX, but the point is, we need more weapons, and possibly even ship-specific weapons.

Ship Specific Weapons: weapons that come with the ship that you purchase, and cannot be transferred to another ship. It can be discarded, but can't be transferred simply because of different specifications of the ship the weapon was originally installed in.

This would make it necessary to fly different ships for their weapons.

I suggest making a couple of different weapons, very similar to ones currently in place, but only slightly better in velocity and damage. Both of which are a big deal, and I'm not suggesting to take them lightly.

For example: The TPG Raptor could have a new variant with 4 small weapon slots. Dubbed "Clover" the new variant is a decent fighter, but it's weapons are astonishing. The new ship-specific weapon that I plan to introduce is much like a flechette cannon but more accurate.

The 'UIT mini-gun' with explosive shells. To the pilot's advantage, the gun fires very rapidly, at a high velocity, and does below average damage per shot, but is a spray and pray gun that doesn't require too much praying. When targeted by a Clover Raptor, many pilots come close just to see the new weaponry in action. But by then it's too late. Unlike other weapons, the max range on the mini-gun is around 2000m, but is most useful around 800 to 400m.

To the disadvantage of the pilot, the gun has a minimum range for it's explosive shells (300m), and a maximum range (1000m). Anything within that radius will sustain only a small fraction of the damage that would normally befall them if they were in the gun's range. Also, the gun is an ammo-based gun, not energy. Though a small amount of energy is used to fire the gun, you won't see the bar dip too much simply because it's a waste of ammo to hold it down because the gun tends to vibrate and get much less accurate when fired in long machine-gun-like bursts. Most pilots 'tap' their triggers to maintain precision.

The Raptor is the only ship that can equip this weapon. though a lesser tier mini-gun with worse damage, velocity, and range can be equipped to other ships. Also a non-explosive version with more ammo capacity could be introduced.
Mar 11, 2007 Shapenaji link
400-800m? if its useful at that range, no one will use other ships... people don't move much angularly at that range...
Mar 11, 2007 zamzx zik link
Think again...One splash from a rag can easily take out a raptor, and more agile ships like the rev c could dodge the raptor LoS.

I like it.
Mar 12, 2007 Jim Kirk link
That's exactly my point zamzx zik, the Raptor is one of those 'all-around' fighters that gets lost in the mix simply because it is not particularly good at anything. Adding to only its weaponry might just make it a more usable ship.

The dubbed 'Clover' variant, came to me because it only had two ports, but 4 wings. The Hornet has 2 wings but 4 ports... hmmmm.

I also like the X-wing kind of idea Star Wars had. The 'X' shape you see when four guns fire isn't copyrighted or anything, yet so few games take advantage of this kind of firing array. I feel like this game could.
Mar 12, 2007 Jim Kirk link
Another cool weapon that doesn't necessarily have to be ship-specific, Is a Remote Mine Launcher.
Step 1:
You launch mines (they can 'stick' to other ships)
Step 2:
You detonate mines (within 3000m range)

Simple as that.
Mar 13, 2007 Jim Kirk link
*Charged Bubble Cannon*

Basically, you charge your shot, and it unleashes a bubble proportional to the size of how much energy you used.

For example, you charge a shot via a heavy battery. 550 max charge * .1[conversion to size of shot] = 55m diameter.

Obviously, the shot is like a big buger, and does the same damage no matter how big it is.

I was thinking different variations could cause different amounts of damage, and possibly more time to charge.

I think this should be made to be a large port weapon.
Mar 14, 2007 Jim Kirk link
Beam Weapons

Same as the post below, but no auto lock-on, and a lot stronger because they are harder to use.
Mar 15, 2007 Jim Kirk link
Auto-Locking Beam Weapons

Okay, just like the mining beam, except further differences obviously.

Damage gets proggressively worse the closer you get, but the shot must be 'locked-on' in order to fire, and it charges as well.

So here's the step by step process:
1) Target Enemy (or good guy you want to gank)

2) Hold down [FIRE] key

3) Charging begins, you can let go while charging to de-charge, but your energy bar will have lost that amount of energy, so it's better to just shoot anyway...

4) While Charging, the lock-on procedure begins, it starts by having very big cross-hairs, then gets smaller as the lock is intensified. (Locking-on is not all automatic, you must hold your targeting reticule on the target for 2 whole seconds before firing sequence is initiated

5) Fire Laser Beam pitchoo pitchooo; the beam makes cool noises and really hurts...

6) You still have to hold the reticule on the target to hit it. Also, once it's locked on, the level of lock determines how long you can fire for without losing lock (a bonus time if you will, for when you miss but bring the reticule back to it again).
Mar 15, 2007 Jim Kirk link
Wow, seriously no one has any ideas of their own...
I was kind of expecting a lot of posts and conversations on these issues.
Mar 16, 2007 bojansplash link
Late 2004./early 2005. VO capships had beam turrets effective at 1000m range with like 5000 points damage per shot. They were devastating.
3 hits killed almost every ship in VO except rags and proms. It was fun during capship wars, we usually had only 3 nation caps in Sedina b8 and lag was not that bad.
Devs replaced them later with cap gattling turrets. Bad move imho since gatts increased laggyness.
As capship weapons, beam cannons/turrets sound fine. Putting them on fighters would, imho, have a bad impact on pvp.
There were threads about beam weapons before but I dont want to be accused of thread necromancy so try finding them yourself.
Mar 16, 2007 mr_spuck link
nah .. the other way around the first cappies had those fast gts and they got replaced with beams.

I dunno .. didn't people bitch because those beams were too effective? And wasn't that one of the reasons why those cap fights stopped?
I didn't play much during the time so I can't really say much about lag. I thought it's mostly caused by the number of turrets not the guns. cause they are basically separate ships glued to the hull.
Mar 16, 2007 Jim Kirk link
Well, for the beam weapons, I was thinking more along the lines of them being bad, not bad ass. The point really is that the beam weapons will bridge the gap for lazy people like leeyun. The people who don't get really into the whole twitch-style gameplay, but would still like to fight and stuff.

I'm not saying that they would be good with the beam weapons necessarily, but they might have enough fun with them to eventually move on to better weapons.

You know how I was saying that 'noob' weapons were barely ever used...

Well I was thinking, why not have a gun, that is easy to use, but not that great damage wise or range wise.

Bear in mind, these beam weapons, while supposedly good on lag, will be pretty nice additions to our current weapon selection, as they should not be better than a decent neut2 pilot.
Mar 18, 2007 CrazySpence link
boo beams

unless they fire straight ahead a1k0n had a beam weapon like that in the good ol days

I think we should have a Salvo cannon for fighters

It takes 2 L ports Yes 2! and it fires a long range explosive round that detonates to proximity but moves relatively slow compared to other weapons. The main goal of this gun is for capship assaults but hey, if some fighters should get in the way why not blow them up too! Technically that could be a last ditch defensive startegy I suppose where all the fighters of an HAC throw themselves into the salvo fires path to save their burning carrier...hmm

The goal of this (and the original goal of the avalon torp) is to give the heavy ships their own specific purpose no one else can have.

P.S bring back the avalon too. allow it to only be fired at **targeted** capital ships to eliminate station bombings
Mar 18, 2007 SuperMegaMynt link
A beam weapon is a gun that fires *very* many times a second, at a *very* fast velocity. Essentially, it's a gun which can't be dodged. If you can't see how this would be overpowered, or even fundamentally change the face of combat in VO as we know it, then I suggest you spend some time in Deneb. I'll try to explain. I dog fought with another light fighter pilot for several minutes once. We were both using Neuts, and light ships, and taking passes at eachother we hit very rarely. We both had an accuracy rate of less than 5%, I'm sure. Now, the reason why it took so long is because we both took paths of minimal risk. We flew in ways that minimilized our chance of getting hit, while still having *some* chance of landing a hit.

A beam weapon would eliminate the risk portion of combat. Right now it's impossible to land a hit without putting yourself in the line of fire as well. It's a game of predicting when that window of opportunity is going to be open, and firing precisely at that moment. If you time it right, you get a hit. If you don't, you miss. Beam weapons would always hit. They'd be rapid fire rail guns, the best of both worlds. One could fly completely defensively, never getting hit, and use the beam gun's superior speed to get the kind of angles where beams can hit, and neutrons can't.

Maybe if they weighed lots, and maybe if they were very short ranged (50m?), they could find a balanced place in combat. I'm not exaggerating when I say that even at 1/5 the damage of a neutron blaster, and 1/2 the range, they would be monstrously overpowered.
Mar 18, 2007 Dr. Lecter link
You're forgetting (except for CS) that beam weapons need not act like mining beams.

See, e.g., http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/15587
Mar 18, 2007 moldyman link
I like CS' avalon suggestion.
Mar 18, 2007 Dr. Lecter link
Except that use of an Avalon to take out a mass of enemy fighters (say Serco 2 defending Serco 1's SCP which is surrounded by 3-4 ITAN during BP) is not exactly exploitive. In an ideal-FF free-world, this would obliterate Serco 1 as well... but whatever.

Maybe just make it so that you have to have *a* ship targeted? Except that would allow for abuse of the current FF approach to allow station nuking where one party sits at the dock and provides a target for the bomber.
Mar 18, 2007 Jim Kirk link
I agree with lecter.

If it is targetable, you should be able to fire a nuke at it.

Shooting a station, however, should automatically send out the fighters and such, and there should be a faction standing loss for that station's faction. Also, I think that the station guards (once someone nukes the station) sould be constantly scanning for the perpetrator for up to 6 hours after they attacked the station. The guards should also be re-inforced with Aerna Seekers and stuff too, during the "High-Alert" Time.

Also, anyone who doesn't proceed to the station immediately for that time should be warned that if they don't dock within a certain amount of time, they will receive a warning shot. Then after like 1 more minute they will unload on your ass.
Mar 18, 2007 Dr. Lecter link
Disabling Avalon launch ability in station sectors would be the best solution, I think. Not sure how easily implementable such a feature is, however.
Mar 18, 2007 Jim Kirk link
Well I made my suggestion based on the future pretense that player created stations become a reality, and that you could nuke eachother's stations etc.