David

Corvus Anti-Capital Ship Specialty Bomber

Cost: 750,000c
Level Required for Purchase: 6/6/6/0/0
Armor: 30,000
Cargo: 1
Add on Ports: None
Mass: 18,000 kg
Length: tbd depending on design, suggest around 19m
Thrust: 590
Spin Torque: 11Nm
Max Non-turbo speed: 65 m/s
Max Turbo speed: 190m/s
Turbo Energy: 50/s

Built-In Weapon: Thales Torpedo
Splash Radius: 50m
Damage: 40,000
Detonation: Proximity (10m)
Velocity: 90m/s
Ammo: 5
Lifetime: 360s
Energy to fire: 499
Reload Cost: 20,000 per torpedo

Other Weapon Characteristics:
Guided: Yes
Guidance Level: Very Low (Maximum turn speed = 1 degree/s)
Guidance Deactivated when host ship is destroyed.
Detonation Effects: Temporary Gravity Well Formation at point of detonation, visualized as purple spherical glow emanating from point of detonation
Gravity Well Strength: 39,200,000 Kilonewtons
Gravity Well Duration: 1 second
Friendly Fire Protection: None
Self Fire Protection: None (meaning you can kill yourself with it)

Cannot launch against hive targets due to unique sensitivity in the internal detonation system to Hive energy signatures; consequently this weapon cannot be used against other non-hive targets if a Hive NPC is within targeting range. Upon the first attempt to fire, a safety system will block deployment for 5 seconds and print a message saying "SAFETY OVERRIDE: CANNOT LAUNCH DUE TO HIVE PROXIMITY". Any subsequent firing attempt will override the safety system and result in detonation of a single munition at the central point of the ship's current location (destroying the ship and creating a momentary gravity well). The safety override will reset once all Hive NPCs are outside target range.

Description and Proposal:

Specialty Bomber with built-in, non-modifiable, non-dropping addon weapon capable of dropping shields and bringing to halt a full-speed moving capital ship weighing up to 4,000,000 kg.

Purpose for introduction to the game: We lack a highly specialized, highly effective anti-capitol ship class. Up until now we have relied upon lackluster anti-capitol ship countermeasures that are very easy to evade, particularly if the capitol ship is turbo-ing away. This suggestion would introduce a ultra-high cost ship that is only (and very) effective at aiding in capitol ship hunting.

The torpedo idea is pretty cool. You've reminded me of a few weapons I was going to suggest but forgot about.

I'd be interested in hearing from Incarnate how hard such an interlocking system on weapons launch would be to implement.

I do see a slight problem with the weapon in a tactical sense. With a speed of 90m/s it'd still be REALLY hard to hit a fleeing capship with it.

With a maximum ship speed of 190m/s that only gives you a 50 m/s closing speed in a direct stern chase. If I am interpreting your intentions for the ship itself correctly, it would be about the size, with similar handling characteristics to a Ragnarok MK3, albeit with a lower top speed. I do not see any indication of turbo thrust, which could change it's acceleration curve drastically.

With armor enough to take 2 cap rail hits, or 9 cap gauss hits, I have my doubts as to it's ability to survive the approach long enough to get into a useful firing position. Furthermore, the launching ship still needs to survive until pretty close to the moment of impact, presumably to provide tracking data to the weapon.

I would suggest making the weapon inherit the parent ships velocity.

This would allow for a maximum closure speed against a Trident or Goliath of 140m/s if it were kept at 90m/s launch velocity. This might make it OP, and may have to be reduced to a launch velocity of maybe 35m/s, giving a maximum closure speed of 85m/s. This might be enough time for someone to try and shoot it down with a shield turret, a weapon which I believe is under utilized due to it's limitations.

I think the idea behind the speed stats are to make it so that it can't run away from fighters (so fighter escort for capital ships will be effective), but then with the Gravity Well on the missiles it can cripple un-escorted capships.

I would like to see it in the game to give it a whirl. Suspect tweaking will be needed - but in principle low levels of guidance on missiles like this will work really well. The gravity well is a new mechanic we have to playtest to see how it goes.

Love the name.

1+

I wanted something that would make capship owners crap their pants when they saw it enter the sector; something that would remove the current near-certainty of an easy escape without more skillful and interesting interventions than just putting your foot on the gas and letting your auto-turret plugin spam missiles.

While the damage is scary, and enough to knock out the shields, the biggest threat is the "freeze" effect the gravity pull would have. Currently with PCBs being used there is still the availability of normal thrust even if the battery cell is depleted, which allows capships to inch their way to safety. Less so with this.

Might need some additional counter for Deneb battles (like perhaps making AI prioritize the David as a target, or something else), as Medium and higher battles could be swiftly decided with a couple people on one side flying these.

Also, introducing some kind of additional randomly roving Hive explorers that are really no threat to anyone else (think along the lines of an observer) that adds another element of uncertainty in the effectiveness might be interesting.

I'm not against the idea in principal, I just worry that the weapon will not be effective enough. My concern is that it will act just like every other homing missile out there, flying at it's set speed without regard to the launching craft's velocity.

Oh yeah, sorry --- the intent is for it to inherit the ships velocity like the avalons currently do.

I figured a maximum velocity of 280m/s would be sufficient.

280 I think would be OP on a homing weapon. 225 would I think be better. Also I kinda wonder what Incarnate will have to say about a homing missile going 280 from a development standpoint. I'm thinking of the issues with leviathans shooting through rocks and such.

Well 280 is the maximum velocity, achievable only once the piloting ship reaches its own maximum velocity -- something that is not guaranteed given it has zero defenses other than armor. I would venture to guess that in actual use maximum velocity wouldn't happen all the time. Avalons themselves can currently go something like 255. What's another 25 m/s?

The extra boost is to enable the David the potential to pose a threat to capships that have already turned tail are well on their way to "safety".

I thought they fixed the collision issues with leviathan shots?

I believe the Leviathan shots no longer make it out of the roids, but if you free cam into one, you can see some appear to make it part way into them. Those rocks are exceptionally large. I don't know if they truly 'fixed' the issue, or if they simply lessened the effect enough that it is only not an issue in that narrowly defined case of very large rocks.

I think the shots from the Levi went 240m/s, though I'm not sure where I'm remembering that number from.

Either way, I think it would be helpful to hear from Incarnate if such a weapon would be likely to work properly.

+1 to more anti capship weaponry.

-1 as you might expect.

Why should there be a ship/weapon brought into the game with that much fire power where a single pilot could take out a Cap ship. especially a Trident. It might be ok if it would work with stopping the Goli as described as it is a weaker vessel.

There are already enough ships/weapons in the game to cripple a Dent and they usually require more than one player to destroy the Dent. Why bring something else into game just so you can solo a Dent and/or scare one when you enter the sector. I thought the game was set up to encourage multiple pilots to work together for some of the higher goals.

The suggested ship cannot solo a trident M

This ship basically a rag with a special guided avalon torp
In my opinion
Its a good idea, despite as a goli pilot I and others would be really scared seeing such torp in the tail of the ship, flying crazy fast, whacking shields instantly and stopping it, leaving no time to escape, uneless the host ship killed and the torp misses before hitting.

It can crack a dent with one torp, cracking anything bigger still requires stacking the torps, in case of this with five torps is a ton of damage, and able to crack probably any ship in game (well this is only will be true if we get bigger ships to build. This torp will be extremly useful against massive ships). Guidance will help a lot in hitting the target.

So

+1

NC-Crusader, you didn't read the suggestion correctly.

This ship as suggested has none of the weapon slots a Ragnarok usually has. Its only weapon is the proposed specialty weapon which only has a damage potential of 200000.
As such it is completely incapable of taking out a Goliath or a Trident on its own - meaning it is the very definition of a ship that would encourage multiple pilots to work together.

+1 "as you might expect"

+1

Sounds like an elaborate solution to a niche problem. Nerf auto-turret plugins and Make VO great again

+1 even tho I have a goli ... space is dangerous and yes not everyone has auto turrets nerf them

err... auto-turrets plugin is actually slower than "cycling" between turrets pressing keys binded to the relative command.

but...

what does "autoturreting" have to do with the OP?

PS: not everyone uses targetless.... nerf it.

+1
The idea of specific role ships is interesting
I'd like to see an energy version
Torpedoes are cool af so add +1

oh hell yeah!