Forums » Suggestions

Warming up weapons.

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Dec 29, 2008 Phish link
@ SuperMegaMynt
Yeah, and lasers would hit instantly, burn a hole through the ship, possibly even slice it in half, and use a rather large amount of energy. So they're not lasers, and since they can't slice a ship in half, we can assume they're less powerful, and use less energy. Therefore I still believe they'd show an energy spike when powering up, and when shooting, and in the time between, rest. As for the Widowmaker, I was under the assumption that the point of it was so that you could use it with nothing else, since that is what Inc has said.

Anyways, I do like the idea of the two display bars, and the cool down. That would make the whole "salvo" thing much more realistic. Maybe as it has been mentioned the power cells dedicate a certain amount of the power to different parts of the ship, and that second bar is the amount given to the weapons. Similarly you could have engine overloads, and such.
Jan 01, 2009 Aticephyr link
I know this idea would take a long time to implement, but nevertheless I'd like to poke the devs for their reactions to the idea. Just wondering if I'm barking up the wrong tree, or if this might make it to product in a year or so. No hurry of course; I know you're busy.

on a side note, happy new year! :)
Jan 04, 2009 Liath link
Also, something else to think about, is ECM Dunno how the game could implement this, or even if it would... but current fighters have a variety of devices to scramble their signal, and maek them harder to lock on to.

Also... as for lasers. Weapon grade lasers *do* take time to "warm up". Some even have to build a charge before firing, as the discharge rate of the laser is higher than any amount we could generate reasonably. Normally you have to charge a bank of capacitors that can store quite a bit of power, and once the laser is ready to fire, and you want to, you close the circuit and the laser pulls the cap's charge to fire the laser. You get a steady cohesive beam based on how many capacitors you have storing up energy, then as the caps discharge the beam degrades and destabilizes until cohesion is lost. Then you repeat the charge/sustain/fire cycle. The charge cycle is also true of gauss cannons as well, as they use electromagnets to propel the projectile, and the magnets need to be super-powerful, so a high yield, quick discharge capacitor is used. (The gauss cannon idea I know as fact as I have mini rifle versions that work in my house, but they have.... issues).
Feb 28, 2009 SuperMegaMynt link
Not all add ons are weapon based, either. If certain equipment until now removed from the player's hands due to balancing reasons, such as shields, or cloaking devices required 20 Power Grid to put online, then you clearly couldn't have them online, and have operational weapons at the same time, yet still having the option of choosing which equipment to have warmed up while in flight is valuable, and interesting.
Mar 03, 2009 thesupermadman link
To be honest, I don't see what's wrong with the current energy use: if the weapons aren't shooting, then they probably aren't using energy, as it is a sudden burst of energy that would actually heat and propel (or maybe even create) the slug out of the guns. That's what the energy system currently does.

I don't like the idea of turning weapons on or off, just as a signal for other ships. If a pirate gets 300M away from you then powers on their weapons, it's not likely you're going to be able to get away on time.

Finally, combat is complex enough with the constant manoeuvring, taking aim, checking energy, checking missile capacity...
Mar 03, 2009 Aticephyr link
The energy system would not really affect combat complexity too much, as for the most part it deals with pre-combat. You're right about a pirate getting 300m away from you though – but that's true in any scenario: the key is to not let the pirate get that close.

This system ties together ideas of stealth and "body language" of ships (another form of communication). This idea does not diss the current system, but rather suggests a path to make it more intricate, with more interactive gameplay as a result.

Of course, this is on the "when everything else on the soon(tm) platter is out of the way" list...
Apr 03, 2010 Alloh link
+1

VO's weapons certainly uses a capacitor. It accumulates enough energy, Amperes, drained from power cell. And it can release all that energy at once, on a narrow peak __/\__.

Also, dealing with positrons, neutrons, etc. you do affect the space around it, inducing quantic flutuations detectable from far. And the heat signature from all this concentrated energy should be visible from far.

So it makes sense so be able to detect if a ship have its weapons "loaded and hot" or disabled.

+1+1

Makes a lot of sense also the already suggested requirement for some zones have weapons "cold", like border guards, NFZ or deny docking with weapons hot.
Apr 03, 2010 Spedy link
Arg! Thread from more than a year ago!

The original idea was good, but we really don't need zombie threads...
Apr 03, 2010 Dr. Lecter link
It's so nice of Alloh to state things that have already been said in the thread at least three times, but this time in mangled English.
Apr 04, 2010 Whytee link
hehe
Apr 04, 2010 ladron link
Alloh, how is your "translating all of the text in VO to Portuguese" project coming along? Seems to me like you're taking too many breaks.
Apr 04, 2010 ArAel link
Hey he used the search function... and read this before just adding a new version.