I think VO is a bit short on weapons suitable for engaging a running combat ship. I'd like to see more weapons suitable for this purpose; they wouldn't be well-suited for close-in combat, but ideal for stopping runners.

As a jumping-off point:

Interceptor rocket light/heavy
Speed: 140/160m/s
Damage: 1500/2000
Proximity fuse: 60/80m
Blast radius: 100/130m
Arming delay: 1.5s (210/240m with 0 closing speed)
Ammo: 14
Mass: 700/1100kg
Delay: 1.0/0.7s

Undecided on grid... probably either 4 or 8.

Edit: mass/delay/grid

How about just making the WH jump points ships make shootable, and a ship attempting to enter an unstable WH gets destroyed?

Could you, umm... clarify?

And zak.wilson... you forgot weight, firing delay, and grid. You also forgot the impact it would have in multi-fighter dogfights.

Sure, a ship jumping out forms a huge blue thing. If that gets shot at a ship could either blow up right away or after the blue thing's HP went down to 0. Since it's a large blue thing it is easy to aim for, and therefore should make running harder, if it is easy enough to "kill".

Or you could just... shoot the pilot...

+1 shanktank

-3 OP. That weapon is far too overpowered.

-1

If you don't like the specs, suggest changes. I'm more interested in the concept than any implementation specifics.

I do not like the concept.

You know I like the concept, and proposed something along these lines over a year ago. However, my implementation was a bit imbalanced. Given the long delay that would be required on such devices, it wouldn't have too large an effect on PvP, except to keep some fights within a particular range.

in the end, though... maybe the rail needs some kind of chasing buff (maybe just an "arming" delay of some such with faster speed or damage or some such... not sure how that'd work, but hell, I'm just spitballing here).

edit: I meant to say there would be a new rail variant, rather than buffing/nerfing current rail variants.

-1 to OP; Atice is self-nerfing, so I need not address him.

What the railgun needs is some correction for the low precision in weapon vectors. Incarnate's proposed solution is to add a very slight amount of guidance to the projectile - probably just an arcminute or two so a properly aimed shot doesn't miss due to game engine limitations.

cool.

As for specific pursuit weps... I think what we're really looking for is the concussive rail (high velocity, knocks off course). when's that coming along anyways?

There are a few problems with pursuit weps:
• The current arsenal of pursuit weps (rails) are too heavy with too much drain to do much more than incur a repair bill on a fleeing vessel (unless you catch them right when they start fleeing).
• All proposed pursuit weps also make hunting slow pray just that much easier.

The first problem can be dealt with by dealing less damage and more force. Or possibly by killing the target's turbo or sucking some energy rather than dealing damage. We're never going to come up with a wep that has a fast bolt, can chase (light and non-insane energy drain), is skill-based, and still can do enough damage to stop something -- by definition such a wep is imbalanced. We have to think outside the box on this one. Delayed prox triggers are a nifty idea, but then we run into the second problem...

The second problem is (in my opinion) a bigger one. That's why I liked the idea of concussion-based projectiles, since they will affect an attack fighter far more than a huge trade vessel. Though if all the thing can do is shoot a fast concussive bolt that does little damage... is it that useful for chasing? Even if you used the thing with a partner, the fast attack craft can easily re-orient and turbo away after being hit. There seem too few scenarios where such a projectile would be that useful, to the point where few would arm it.

Thoughts?

Also, lol Lecter. I like how I was self-nerfing... not my post. :p

A weapon that leeches energy or kills the turbo for a few seconds would be great. It would be best if it only affected lighter ships, though I'm not sure of a sane way to accomplish that. Something that leeches energy from the target while giving it back to the pursuer would be perfect.

we could somehow tie time or drain to an inverse relation to mass. someone would have to come up with some good pseudo-science (or pseudo-science sounding) explanation though.

The capacitance of the hull dissipates the effect of the weapon. Cargo could affect it too, so a Greyhound full of samo would be immune, while an empty Greyhound would be affected.

cool. I'm thinking something along the lines of the following:

Port: Small
Speed: 480m/s
Targeting: None
Mass: 500kg
Energy: 35/blast
Delay: 1.3s
Ammo: 20
Range: Same as rail (1500m?)
Grid usage: 8
Requirements: 500 pk badge. Probably sold by some random faction, requiring Admire.
Target's battery drain upon impact: 1000k / Target's Ship Mass. Would drain 200 from a Greyhound, 333 from an X-1, 33 from an Behemoth (any variant). These stats assume no weapons and no battery, and are meant as general figures. Go do your own math for more precise figures.

Balance notes: In order to load this thing, you are giving up at least a quarter of your potential DPS, since this gun can't do any damage. This gun still requires skill to use, and wouldn't be too much of a threat to anyone who isn't running away. It might be used successfully against an energy fighter during combat... but given how quickly battery's regenerate, I submit that a rail would be far more effective. Note: this gun would only be effective against light, non-infiniboost ships.

Thoughts?

Once we flesh out a final design, we can make a new thread (or just keep this one. up to you zak).

I think, perhaps it should also stop regeneration for a short period of time. A Greyhound (or free bus) with fast-charge could continue turboing when drained to zero this way because it has less drain than the power cell's recharge rate.

If drain were allowed to go into the negatives we could accomplish the same thing. But there might need to be UI changes to accommodate such a change, not to mention the change would make the wep far more powerful. Though we might be able to tweak a couple stats (like delay or energy) to compensate for the increase in power.

What kind of regeneration-stopping stats were you thinking of?

I had always envisioned a pursuit weapon differently. It is farcical that heavy and infiturbo ships wouldn't be affected. For stats I had thought of a flare weapon with similar stats to sunnies. I would have 5 rockets per tube that did no damage but would drain all your energy, kill your turbo, have a 20m proximity range, go 95m/s, and probably prevent regeneration for a short time (about 5 seconds?).

Getting 500pks takes is too long a grind to use as a requirement. What if they were manufacturable at conquerable stations? :P