To make a weapon that only works at long range have the speed be around 450m/s and have the projectial spawn 500m in front of the fireer.

and it doesn't have to travel the first 500m?!

Good idea, Rendiv!

2 more possibilities:

A weapon with *no* autoaim that has reasonably high damage, abysmal firepower, and excellent speed/range. Poor firepower will keep this weapon from being useful in a close up dogfight, but the high damage/range/speed will make it effective as a long range sniper weapon. (Hmm, sounds just like the railgun, doesn't it? Except the rail has terrible range/speed for a sniper weapon)

Idea #2 is reminiscent of the "Doctor Device" weapon from Ender's Game:

Molecular Displacement Device; creates an explosion a certain distance away from the firing ship. Hmmm.... this actually might be a good capital ship weapon. I think I'll go post it in Roguelazer's cap ship weapons thread.

Um. What's the diff between firepower and damage?

Okay, this is what I mean by damage and firepower:
firepower = damage*fire rate
damage = destructive capability of a single round

i.e. a gauss cannon has high damage, low firepower, whereas a tachyon blaster has low damage, high firepower.

euhm not to suggest for it being unbalanced.

But if people shoot you from for instance 550m you are instantly hit, no possible evasive action possible. If you made it so that you can shoot it from any range but that it will only arm itself after a certain time has passed. for instance something travels at 450m/s, then it should arm itself after there had passed 1.2 secs after shooting it. this way you have at least got a chance of a possible dodge.

tsss, just letting things appear from out of nowhere, we arent wizards you know, and you cant juust create energy at a certain place, you need to have an indication of the energy amassing itself at that place.

PS, I just thought about a cool graphics feat, when you are arming your charged cannon, couldnt you let the ship glow when it was fully armed ? and let it glow harder in steps when it is charging itself and reach its maximum glowing effect when fully loaded ?

would be cool :D, timewasting but cool :D

cheers

Phaserlight: That random explosion thing is what I was going for in my Spiralling artillery missile thingy with infinite proximity. I just thought the spirals would make the explosions more random and add cool vapor trails around the battlefield to boot.

Before making new weapons I suggest just fixing the railgun. More velocity and better range, more damage. If possible, its use as a melee weapon can be prevented by designing it so that its damage increases as the round flies farther from the ship. That way, anything less that a certain distance will take light damage making the rail nothing more than a power chugging tachyon with a slow as molasses fire rate at close or medium range. But as you get farther and farther away the round will do more and more damage. The round will also have to fly very fast, leave a radar signature, and emit a very distinctive sound when fired. Not the beeping of homers, but something different telling you to move fast. The round also needs to be a tad bigger since hitting something that far away with such a puny bullet is impossible due to the fact that the slightest change in direction of the victim will couse the projectile to miss by a mile.

The Idea is how to make a decent long range weapon that doesn't work up close

/me has never seen a sniper shoot somebody with a cannonball :D, you have artillery for that

cheers

Rene: "But if people shoot you from for instance 550m you are instantly hit, no possible evasive action possible. If you made it so that you can shoot it from any range but that it will only arm itself after a certain time has passed."

I think you misunderstand my idea. I'm not suggesting that this would be some sort of "magic invisible rocket" with any sort of proximity detonation. Nor would it be invisible or impossible to dodge.

For a more thourough explanation of how/why this weapon would work, check the bottom of this thread:

http://vendetta.guildsoftware.com/?action=msgboard&thread=2311&page=1

Ok Im in DC rightnow, attempting to get this damned internet to work, can you tell me the basic principle in THIS threead?

Phaser, my reply was more directed towards this:

<snip>
2003-08-13 13:10:14 Daon Rendiv
To make a weapon that only works at long range have the speed be around 450m/s and have the projectial spawn 500m in front of the fireer.
</snip>

So if im shooting from 550m and it spawns itself 500 m before me, it will be an instant hit. AND I dont want instant hits without me getting a notion from where they come or without the possibility to attempt a dodge.

Why am I saying that, 1 reason, and 1 reason alone. It would be just like a rocketram and who knows how many people want it fixed "pretty much I think :D".

If you cant avoiod it, then there is no fun in it.

cheers

PS: edited by me

Yes it would be near instant hit, like a real sniper weapon.

Then again balance is the order of the day and clearly states that the weapon we make must be much worse than the (close range) weapons so anything realistic is out of the question.

I like that idea, Renegade. The idea I had also works as a long range only weapon, but in a different way. The Molecular Displacement Device works by using a triangulation of hyperspace particles to warp matter onto a locus already occupied by matter. The resulting physical paradox creates a large explosion in which matter is converted into energy with 100% effeciency. What this means practically is that this device creates a near instantaneous explosion a certain distance away from the ship, most likely specified by the gunner. The weapon must be charged up, and the magnitude of the explosion is related to the length of time it was charged. This would probably be an experimental cap ship turret weapon, and would not be used on fighter class ships.

As for a super-fast rail gun, true you would not have enough time to see it coming in order to dodge it, but without auto-aim it would still require a lot of skill to aim, even at 500m. Also, at close ranges it would not be a good weapon to have on board since it would have a very low firepower and you would end up getting spanked by enemy flares and gauss. Shoot, move, and avoid large firefights. That's the sniper's creed.

Noooo,

My point was that I really wouldnt want that for balancing sake. I just let you know on whose post I was commenting about and why I didnt want it.

I dont like getting shot without any possible information about who did it.

cheers

PS: Ill edit my post to make it more readable.

Here: A weapon that is totally useless at short range:

-Pcc (Particle collector cannon)
Port:Large

Range: 5000m

Energy: 550e

Speed: 700

Damage: Base=1 max=8000

Autoaim: 0

Splash radius: 5m

Special(s):

Damage increases by X multiplied by 1.5 every 100m, where X is the current damage(i.e. dmg is 300, for the next step multiply by 1.5)

Explodes when reaches 5000m for a splash radius of 50m

It seems unreasonable(to me) to have a weapon that
A: goes fast
B: Spawns in the middle of nowhere
and C: has no *real* drawbacks for using it at it's minimum range

Its a good Idea, but I dont think it has been executed in the best way possible

Humpy, make that a very large (cap ship only) weapon and I think you have a winner. However, before you critique my weapon idea, please read the full explanation found in this thread:

http://vendetta.guildsoftware.com/?action=msgboard&thread=2311&page=1

"A: goes fast"

Actually, the Dr. Device doesn't "go" anywhere. It beams matter through hyperspace onto a specific location. Boom. Weapon velocity in this case is not applicable. However, this weapon must be charged for *at least* two seconds before it can fire and for a maximum of ten seconds. The charge rate is not very energy effecient so most cap ships would probably only get off one or two shots before needing to draw power away from other systems (such as shields or engines). Therefore it would not be practical to use this as a primary fire weapon, only as more of a suprise ace up the sleeve.

"B: Spawns in the middle of nowhere"

If you read the full explanation of this weapon, you will find that while this weapon does not require line of sight, it does not "spawn in the middle of nowhere." The explosion can only take place somewhere within the turret's hemisphere of fire, and only after the hyperspace beams fire between 0.2 - 1.0 seconds. Enemy gunners would have to lead targets by up to a full second, which can be difficult when it comes to fighters (doubly so when you must input range as well as bearing). Also, all ships would know exactly where the shot came from since these hyperspace beams would be visible for the duration that they fire.

"and C: has no *real* drawbacks for using it at it's minimum range"

Ah, but you are overlooking one key point. Most energy weapons (like your pcc cannon) are effectively projectile weapons that require line of sight to fire. Therefore, if a target at close range gets in the way of the shot, they get hit. This is why in most cases the closer the range the more effective energy weapons are.

However, the Dr. Device is just as effective at 500m as it is at 2.5km. It will not hit a target that gets in the way of the beams, and the explosion always takes place after one second, regardless of range. Now as stated above, this weapon is not particularly energy effecient and does not have high firepower. Therefore, the *huge* drawback for using this weapon at 500m as opposed to 2.5km is that you will get pummeled by the opposing ship's primary weapons, and you would have been much better off equipping one yourself. As I said, this weapon is more of an "ace up the sleeve" than an effective cap ship primary weapon.

Again, if you really want to discuss this weapon, please post here:

http://vendetta.guildsoftware.com/?action=msgboard&thread=2311&page=1

Since that is where I put the original idea in the first place.

my citicisim wasnt directed at you, it was directed at this:
<Snippit>
Daon Rendiv

Yes it would be near instant hit, like a real sniper weapon.

Then again balance is the order of the day and clearly states that the weapon we make must be much worse than the (close range) weapons so anything realistic is out of the question.

I think that having the rail gun be a 2 hit kill weapon is a good idea. Think about it, in counter-strike, there is the awp that will kill you in one hit anywhere. To account for this factor there is the fact that you can move and duck behind stuff. Since there isn't always this factor in vendetta you could change it so it would be a two hit kill. Remember, using rail guns now, you have to have the small redicle inside your aiming circle. Once there it will turn yellow and you can fire. For a weapon like this it could be set so the redicle has to almost be directly in the center of the aiming circle. It would not be terribly hard not get hit and then again it could. But remember again, in counter-strike, a good awper can basically waste anyone. The only way to beet an aweper is to beat them at their own weapon times. Make the rail gun an expensive weapon. and people won't want to risk getting killed and thus won't use it. This will prevent it from being used by everyone. When i say expensive i meen like 100-200k. The rail gun need to be fast, deadly, and very damaging to be used. Some can say the AWP is an unfair weapon. But people still play Counter-Strike. Evidently it's just a matter of opinion and not fairness. People don't like to get beat. And when their just plane, not good enough, they try to find excuses for their poor playing abilities. I'm not sure about this "Spawning 500m in front of the ship" thing, but i believe that if it was speed up to 1000 m/s, it's damage increased to 5000k, it's energy removed, it's ammo decreased to 10, it turned into a large weapon, and it's price increased to 100k, it would be a very well balanced and useful weapon.
-----------------------------------------------------
Rail Gun- Large Weapon
Price---100,000cr
Speed---1000m/s
Damage---5000
Ammo Capacity---10 Rds

That Looks good to me, How about you?