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Avalon Torpedo Tube (Large Port)
Ammo - Up to 5 Warheads
Rate of Fire - 3 seconds
Mass - 1500 kg
Grid - 3

Avalon Torpedo Rack (Small Port)
Ammo - 1 Warhead
Mass - 300 kg
Grid - 3

Avalon Torpedo (Missile Variant)
Velocity - 50 m/s
Splash - 250m
Damage - 15,000
Detonation - 5m proximity
Maneuverability - Very Low
Fuel Life - 50 seconds
Mass - 1000 kg per torpedo
Energy - 100 per torpedo
Grid - 1 per torpedo


Avalon Torpedo (Bomb Variant)
Velocity - 0 m/s (Like a rocket with no velocity)
Splash - 250m
Damage - 15,000
Detonation - Contact
Mass - 750 kg per Bomb
Energy - 75
Grid - 1 per bomb

This is still probably a good bit ahead of the current mechanics in VO since it would require making ship mass and grid usage dependent on the number of warheads loaded.

The tubes / racks would be able to mount either missile or bomb variants of the torpedo, even a mix of the two in the case of the tube.

The tubes and racks come empty, the warheads would need to be bought separately.

Grid usage should be larger.

Bomb variant damage should be higher than torpedo.

I picked this grid use since it would allow a single ship to mount up to 2 fully loaded tubes + 1 loaded rack or 3 racks + 2 tubes with one avalon in each.

It would make a division between dive bombers, with lots of racks / slightly filled tubes, and heavy bombers, with fully loaded tubes. Not to mention that the hornet would probably gain a proper assault role as a dive bomber.

The bomb variant has no velocity, so does this mean it will just sit there hovering like a mine?
Also, the missile variant shouldnt be a homing missile.

The bomb variant acts like a rocket in that its velocity is its launch velocity + ships velocity, since it has a launch velocity of zero it has the same speed and direction of the ship at time of launch, which will make for some very difficult aiming.

The missile variant is guided so there is a an appreciable difference between the two other than simply a 50m/s exit velocity. Also to make the extra work towards an "upgraded" torpedo worth it since you'd know the guided ones have a much higher chance of impacting the target.

I think we're waiting more on the devs to make capships able to target torpedoes than we are on new torpedo variants being designed.

we're not waiting for anything. It's the devs who insist that they need them to be targetable before they are ingame.

I still don't see why avalons aren't simply made into a 'ship'.

Good point zamzx. The "Ship" would just be tiny and pop out of thin air (or space) underneath the firing ship.

I want the Avalon's back. I miss them.
I agree however that they should be detained until new Capital-classes become player controlled.

Iry has made some really smart suggestions and I agree that it would require player controlled capships to be allowed before they were reintroduced into the game.

As it currently stands people CAN control individual turrets on capital ships and that would negate the destructive power of the avalons to some degree but until such time as the AI is fully capable of destroying a % of incoming avalons it is not suitable.

I have been working on a proposal to counter the warheads but as momerath stated to me in a similar discussion about weapons one thing that needs to be taken into account is latency and in this case it would be regarding how player controlled ships would destroy these incoming warhead.

"The bomb variant acts like a rocket in that its velocity is its launch velocity + ships velocity, since it has a launch velocity of zero it has the same speed and direction of the ship at time of launch, which will make for some very difficult aiming."
This would require people to actually learn how to target the ship they are attacking and take into account velocity and other variables like bombing training in real life does.
While this would be impractical for solo players or people who are new to the game I think this opens up a novel situation within the game where guilds could be formed for a simple purpose of training people that might not already be aligned to a guild in bombing practices.
Also having this sort of velocity imparted to a warhead would make it easier as far as I can see for the devs to manage issues surrounding latency since it would be traveling much slower depening on the ship that launched it.
To be honest I think that this weapon would require the introduction of a specific ship or ship variant that has the required ports as well as the thrust to weight and maximum thrust that would allow the weapon to be lobbed in but still interceptable which i assume is the main reason why they currently arent active within the game at the moment.

"I still don't see why avalons aren't simply made into a 'ship'."

I am unsure what you mean by this but if you mean you designate it an id similar to the transponder ids that mark each ship and give it its name, that in my humble opinion would be asking for major issues to spawn.
How would you process the ID tags would it be a constant from 1-infinity or would they reset when the sector didnt have active players in it allowing the ids to reset from 1?
*considering I have 0 clue how they process the Transponder ID's currently it was only a thought*

Anubis, that's jargon.

By 'ship' I mean making the avalons (And I'm fairly certain they can do this already) a "soild" As in, can be targeted/take damage. Actually, as a work-around, you might be able to copypasta the proximity code, and make it so any wep that does X amount of damage that crosses within 5m of avalon causes the avalon to explode.

Or you could simply just make an avalon a solid object, which wouldn't take all that much time, seeing as they aren't very complex objects to start with.

The biggest problem would be the lack of point defense weaponry on a capital ship. Indeed, there are no weapons other than gauss cannons on one right now. Add a few gatling cannons to capital ships, then we talk. (not turrets, I think that a turret on a turret would make little sense.)