'Tesla' Pattern Gauss Cannon Mk IV
Fires electro-conductive superheated hydrogen plasma bolts

Required Licenses
9/9/6/-/-

Damage: 1000
Velocity 195m/s
Energy: 35/blast
Delay: 0.4s
Grid Usage: 8
Mass: 1000kg
Volume (as cargo): 1cu
Power Cell Drain: 20
Good auto-targetting

ZX-Cannon housing with inverted P27-T plasma cells in 'Tesla' pattern

Notes
Intended as a Gauss III side-grade that sacrifices damage and uses slightly more energy per shot to deliver power drain.

This is a flanking weapon that gives rewards for successfully hitting a target in quick succession and proper management of your power-cell in group combat situations.

It may require a little more power drain to make up for the downsides i've added in place I am not sure if 20 is the right number perhaps 25 would be better but I think it's something that needs to be tested extensively over time. You may think it is nitpicking but when it comes to weapon and ship stats 1 point can make a massive difference.

I tentatively suggest Valent Robotics as the manufacturer, with admire or greater standing.

Should fire a bright blue ball distinct from its purple cousin to signify weapon drain. Perhaps with some lightning-style effect on hit.

+1 looks awesome

This is kind of OP. The PowerCell Blaster is already kind of OP, but it makes up for it by occupying a weapon port doing ZERO damage, and firing low velocity shots that are hard to land hits with.

I'd say cut the energy drain down to 10 considering there's not much of a loss of damage output compared to Gauss MkIII.

It's clearly superior to a Mark II, the licenses are higher than the Mark III that kinda takes care of the fact that it's better than a Mark II.

Anyway, i'm operating under the assumption that the PowerCell Blaster is underpowered, even so the math stands for itself; the PCB drains 50 power per 10 energy, this drains 40 over two shots for an extra 10 energy than the Mark III, so it's a lower drain rate and it's lower than power-cell recharge on every other powercell.

I originally had it at 10, then 12, then I thought about it and at those numbers it isn't going to make a squat of difference on the power drain front even if you land all shots. You're looking at 40-50 drain maximum for a whole powercell load of them which is only one second of a fast/uc charge recharging on the target ship.

We want to at least have a scenario where the power drain is conceivably going to make up for the damage and power per shot nerf compared to the mark III, otherwise I don't see it ever being picked up seriously.

ARF: The Gauss MkII is a newb weapon. You should be comparing it against the MkIII, whose stats are exactly the same as the proposed weapon except for having 1200 damage, 30e/blast, and no drain effect.

I don't think this is OP. In fact, I'm not sure if I'd even bother using such a thing. It does significantly less damage per energy than Gauss MkIII (28.6 d/e vs. the MkIII's 40 d/e). I don't think 20 drain is worth that, but it's hard for me to to tell without trying one out.

damn, missed the rin seal of approval i knew i should have made it 25 drain per shot

Well, it doesn't get the club of disapproval either. It might be just what is needed to crack through a prom's gat-spam.

It might be just what is needed to crack through a prom's gat-spam. Doubt it. FC/UC batteries recharge 50/sec and gatling only needs 12 energy to fire. What this does do is make it a lot harder to turbo out of a gank.

I originally had it at 10, then 12, then I thought about it and at those numbers it isn't going to make a squat of difference on the power drain front even if you land all shots.
It only takes a single hit to prevent an infiniturbo wormhole-jump...

I forgot a 'I' there in my prior post. It was supposed to say MkIII, since that's what this was compared to. Fixed!

"It only takes a single hit to prevent an infiniturbo wormhole-jump..."

20e drain only costs you 0.4 seconds per hit. Yes, that adds up if you take lots of hits, but this is gauss we're talking about. If you're taking lots of hits, you're already dead.

Give this thing a 50% absorption of the energy it drains, and I'll give you that seal. Make it 75% and I'll throw in a ball for him as well.

I like the general concept of this idea, so +1 to that. I'll let you guys argue over the stats

oh look another new weapon suggestion.... I think this ups the tally to 4,563,345 weapons suggestions. thanks for your contribution TRS, we really were in need of another one.

Give this thing a 50% absorption of the energy it drains, and I'll give you that seal.

I'm not sure this particular mechanic is in the toolbox.

20e drain only costs you 0.4 seconds per hit.
That's 0.4 seconds where you have to kill the turbo and slow down. For a slower ship like a Behemoth, being able to hit a wormhole at full turbo is one of the only ways to escape a lighter, faster ship.

I don't think a weapon that does a lot of armor damage should also drain energy.

I don't think a weapon that does a lot of armor damage should also drain energy.

The current implementation of the PCB is not very useful. Using the mechanic in hybrid weapon setups is where it gets interesting. If you have some sort of ideological belief that power drain should never be coupled with damage well i'm just going to have to disagree. It sounds like you envision a vendetta full of boring weapons.

There's a reason that ships can have multiple ports. If you want do armor damage and energy drain at the same time, then fly a ship with at least two ports.

But if that was the sole guiding principle behind weapon balance then why does the sunflare exist at all? It's a combo weapon between concussion and damage mechanics; this is the energy drain/damage equivalent.

+1 to this

ARF, this is in no way overpowered. It does less damage than the MKIII and drains a miniscule amount of energy with each shot. And, it's not too likely you'll hit with guass anyway, since distance control is better. ;)

+1 to OP.

+1 to OP.

You like the suggestion? or you think its overpowered?

The current implementation of the PCB is not very useful.
Used it against any players yet? NPCs don't count. We've already determined that they cheat and jump without using energy...