Exclusively large modules for large ships

[Crimson Kaim]

I keep it short here.

Large ships are nothing more than larger fighters and fill the role of a giant sponge with hitpoints. Their firepower is average at best compared to their seize and value.
Being exclusively for hanger ships and only class 5 and upwards I came up with the following modules that are exclsuively for larger vessels:



1. Frameshift Drive Disruptor Field Emitter

As the name suggests, it creates a sphere where ALL FSDs will not charge until a ship leaves the mass lock range of the ship emitting the field. This is applied to own wing members and any other FSD as well, including the FSD of the ship creating the sphere. Consumes SYS capacity over time so it is only possible to establish a field for a short amount of time. (I'd say up to 10-15 seconds with 4 pips to SYS and G5 charge enhanced). The field needs to build up (similar to shields .. or the ECM) before it has an effect. It should take 5 seconds to to establish the sphrere and 10 additional seconds to grow it to its max range of the ship's MLF.

Starting class: 7
Maximum class: 8

Higher classes and higher ratings increase energy efficiency and reduce build up time.



2. Backup Shield Charger

Same as a SCB ... just for shields that are offline. Uses SYS capacity to quickly recharge broken shields. This removes the urgent need to wake out as soon as a large vessel's shields are offline. As soon as the shields are online or when the charge up is interrupted (by running out of SYS energy) the charger needs to cool down in terms of rebooting. The boot time should be around 2-3 minutes. Adds heat to the ship during recharge.

Starting class: 6
Maximum class: 8

Higher classes and rating increase MJ restored per energy and second while increasing thermal load.



3. Artificial Mass Field

Creates a sphere inside the MLF range of a ship. Pulls all objects towards that ship while slowing itself down. Drains WEP Capacity over time. Lower mass ships are affected the most whereas higher mass ships can eventually escape it.
Gravity force increases over time the longer the field can be kept up. As soon as there is no energy left to hold the sphere it will decay (not instantly shut down). During the decay it is not possible to rebuild the field/sphere. While it decays the pulling force reduces over time until it is fully decayed. Generates a small amount of heat when building up.

Starting class: 6
Maximum class: 7

Higher class and rating increase maximum pulling force and energy efficiency.



4. Backup Battery

Provides a small amount of MW in case the powerplant malfunctions. Consumes energy (ammunition) as long as it automatically discharges. Energy consumption is determined by energy discharged which is tied to the powerplant's maximum output and currently used output (module priorities). Can also be used to overcome FSD disrupting effects.

Starting class: 6
Maximum class: 8

Higher class and rating increase maximum energy capacity and maximum MW discharged per time unit.



5. Enhanced cooling unit

Drains SYS capacity to drastically cool down a ship. Has a maximum thermal load capacity (similar to your own ship's capacity) which, when exceeded, disables the cooling unit and it can no longer cool down the ship until the heat has been radiated through the heat vents.

Starting class: 6
Maximum class: 7



6. Mobile Field Factory

With the upcoming introduction of repair limpets I thought it would be useful to have a module capable of producing these.
Can produce a wide variety of ship equipment/ammunition such as weapon ammunition AFMU ammunition, limpets or SRVs/Fighters. Consumes various materials from asteorid belts and planetary mining fragments (iron, palladium, titanium, etc.)

Starting class: 6
Maximum class: 8

Higher class and rating reduces construction time and increases factory capacity (can construct/produce multiple things at once instead of only a single product).



7. Shield Interference Emitter

Drains a small amount of WEP capacity to create a field that disables shield healing of all types in its radius, including wingmates and own shields. Shields that are affected can not be recharged by SCBs or healing beams or recharged by the affected ship in general. Does not affect the rebuild process of broken shields.
Produces a small amount of heat when active.

Starting class: 7
Maximum class: 8

Higher class and rating increase energy efficiency and increase thermal load as well as maximum range.



8. Shock Wave Emitter

Uses WEP capacity to create a shockwave damaging and pushing away ALL ships in its radius. Damage falloff starts at 1000 meters. Can be charged for higher burst damage and pushing force. The higher the charge the more heat it will add up (heat is added during charge up process). Owm ship is not affected.

Starting class: 6
Maximum class: 8

Higher class and rating will increase damage, pushing force and thermal load.





Discuss below or add your own ideas

 

[Lucius-Darcia]

I keep it short here.

Large ships are nothing more than larger fighters and fill the role of a giant sponge with hitpoints. Their firepower is average at best compared to their seize and value.
Being exclusively for hanger ships and only class 5 and upwards I came up with the following modules that are exclsuively for larger vessels:



1. Frameshift Drive Disruptor Field Emitter

As the name suggests, it creates a sphere where ALL FSDs will not charge until a ship leaves the mass lock range of the ship emitting the field. This is applied to own wing members and any other FSD as well, including the FSD of the ship creating the sphere. Consumes SYS capacity over time so it is only possible to establish a field for a short amount of time. (I'd say up to 10-15 seconds with 4 pips to SYS and G5 charge enhanced). The field needs to build up (similar to shields .. or the ECM) before it has an effect. It should take 5 seconds to to establish the sphrere and 10 additional seconds to grow it to its max range of the ship's MLF.

Starting class: 7
Maximum class: 8

Higher classes and higher ratings increase energy efficiency and reduce build up time.



2. Backup Shield Charger

Same as a SCB ... just for shields that are offline. Uses SYS capacity to quickly recharge broken shields. This removes the urgent need to wake out as soon as a large vessel's shields are offline. As soon as the shields are online or when the charge up is interrupted (by running out of SYS energy) the charger needs to cool down in terms of rebooting. The boot time should be around 2-3 minutes. Adds heat to the ship during recharge.

Starting class: 6
Maximum class: 8

Higher classes and rating increase MJ restored per energy and second while increasing thermal load.



3. Artificial Mass Field

Creates a sphere inside the MLF range of a ship. Pulls all objects towards that ship while slowing itself down. Drains WEP Capacity over time. Lower mass ships are affected the most whereas higher mass ships can eventually escape it.
Gravity force increases over time the longer the field can be kept up. As soon as there is no energy left to hold the sphere it will decay (not instantly shut down). During the decay it is not possible to rebuild the field/sphere. While it decays the pulling force reduces over time until it is fully decayed. Generates a small amount of heat when building up.

Starting class: 6
Maximum class: 7

Higher class and rating increase maximum pulling force and energy efficiency.



4. Backup Battery

Provides a small amount of MW in case the powerplant malfunctions. Consumes energy (ammunition) as long as it automatically discharges. Energy consumption is determined by energy discharged which is tied to the powerplant's maximum output and currently used output (module priorities). Can also be used to overcome FSD disrupting effects.

Starting class: 6
Maximum class: 8

Higher class and rating increase maximum energy capacity and maximum MW discharged per time unit.



5. Enhanced cooling unit

Drains SYS capacity to drastically cool down a ship. Has a maximum thermal load capacity (similar to your own ship's capacity) which, when exceeded, disables the cooling unit and it can no longer cool down the ship until the heat has been radiated through the heat vents.

Starting class: 6
Maximum class: 7



6. Mobile Field Factory

With the upcoming introduction of repair limpets I thought it would be useful to have a module capable of producing these.
Can produce a wide variety of ship equipment/ammunition such as weapon ammunition AFMU ammunition, limpets or SRVs/Fighters. Consumes various materials from asteorid belts and planetary mining fragments (iron, palladium, titanium, etc.)

Starting class: 6
Maximum class: 8

Higher class and rating reduces construction time and increases factory capacity (can construct/produce multiple things at once instead of only a single product).



7. Shield Interference Emitter

Drains a small amount of WEP capacity to create a field that disables shield healing of all types in its radius, including wingmates and own shields. Shields that are affected can not be recharged by SCBs or healing beams or recharged by the affected ship in general. Does not affect the rebuild process of broken shields.
Produces a small amount of heat when active.

Starting class: 7
Maximum class: 8

Higher class and rating increase energy efficiency and increase thermal load as well as maximum range.



8. Shock Wave Emitter

Uses WEP capacity to create a shockwave damaging and pushing away ALL ships in its radius. Damage falloff starts at 1000 meters. Can be charged for higher burst damage and pushing force. The higher the charge the more heat it will add up (heat is added during charge up process). Owm ship is not affected.

Starting class: 6
Maximum class: 8

Higher class and rating will increase damage, pushing force and thermal load.





Discuss below or add your own ideas

I like these ideas, especially the battery. I was always expecting that such large ships should have something like a back-up generator or just the possibility to fit an additional powerplant to get moar power.

 

[vampireuk]

I keep it short here.

Large ships are nothing more than larger fighters and fill the role of a giant sponge with hitpoints. Their firepower is average at best compared to their seize and value.
Being exclusively for hanger ships and only class 5 and upwards I came up with the following modules that are exclsuively for larger vessels:



1. Frameshift Drive Disruptor Field Emitter

As the name suggests, it creates a sphere where ALL FSDs will not charge until a ship leaves the mass lock range of the ship emitting the field. This is applied to own wing members and any other FSD as well, including the FSD of the ship creating the sphere. Consumes SYS capacity over time so it is only possible to establish a field for a short amount of time. (I'd say up to 10-15 seconds with 4 pips to SYS and G5 charge enhanced). The field needs to build up (similar to shields .. or the ECM) before it has an effect. It should take 5 seconds to to establish the sphrere and 10 additional seconds to grow it to its max range of the ship's MLF.

So not content with larger ships being able to masslock smaller ships you now want to remove the only option for slow traders to escape by high waking? I think large combat ships have enough advantages already.

 

[Lucius-Darcia]

So not content with larger ships being able to masslock smaller ships you now want to remove the only option for slow traders to escape by high waking? I think large combat ships have enough advantages already.

There exist only 1 trade ship that is slower than the big 3 in combat 5dd loadout....the Type-9

 

[vampireuk]

There exist only 1 trade ship that is slower than the big 3 in combat 5dd loadout....the Type-9

He has also handily included a module that would draw ships closer to the ship with said module, not to mention that trade ships are not fast enough to escape the masslock range of a ship in time to jump let alone the idea of blocking them from charging their fsd. It seems to be a want list for gankers.

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

Good Ideas in the OP. Have some rep and some more ideas.

Auxiliary powerplant: Coexists with main reactor in a spare module bay and similarly consumes fuel, but is hardwired to a system, wep / sys / eng to circumvent power distributor limitations.
sizes 5-8 - added heat and fuel consumption vs constant 4pips output to allocated system.

Aux Capacitor - reconfigure SCB mega capacitors to be wired in to your power distribution grid as auxiliary capacitors to augment the charge capacity (capacity not recharge rate) of the powerdistributor, would be SCB charge size / 3 with aux capacity going to each system
sizes 5-8 - limited use at replensihing damaged but not broken shields, nerfed power capacity compared to shield cell banks

fuel scoop bridge - links two fuelscoops in paralell like SLI does with graphics cards
only available on 3A or greater fuel scoops, and the bridge costs as much as the pair of scoops it is linking

tractor beam cargo scoop - works like collector limpets ie collects cargo, but uses the a focused beam of the ships mass lock factor's gravitational pull canisters / mats towards the scoop
TBA

Interdiction tether disruptor - switches off the shields and uses all the sheilds forcefield energy to attempt to disrupt the tether.
Not certain to work every time, but a stronger shield means more energy is available to the disruptor making more success more likely, regardless of shield size the disruptor requires pilot input to be effective, risk of ending up interdicted anyways but arriving in slow space without shields.

 

[Crimson Kaim]

So not content with larger ships being able to masslock smaller ships you now want to remove the only option for slow traders to escape by high waking? I think large combat ships have enough advantages already.

Considering the normal trader vs ganker scenario, the ganker wouldn't need any additional equipment. Fully engineered vessels melt traders in seconds, faster than the FSD can charge a low wake when not masslocked. Only more experienced traders will use special equipment to make them harder to catch but this is insanely rare. If I would like to, I could kill any trader with ease in any given large ship considering its equiped to my desires.
The larger modules are more against larger vessels that are similar powerful equiped. For example an imperial Cutter with its insane shields. Or a federal Corvette versus an Anaconda that has more firepower. Or general mass encounters like CZs, RESs or wing fights.
Sacrificing a large module slot for one of these would make it worthy instead of just equipping yet another SCB.

 

[Crimson Kaim]

Good Ideas in the OP. Have some rep and some more ideas.

Auxiliary powerplant: Coexists with main reactor in a spare module bay and similarly consumes fuel, but is hardwired to a system, wep / sys / eng to circumvent power distributor limitations.
sizes 5-8 - added heat and fuel consumption vs constant 4pips output to allocated system.

Aux Capacitor - reconfigure SCB mega capacitors to be wired in to your power distribution grid as auxiliary capacitors to augment the charge capacity (capacity not recharge rate) of the powerdistributor, would be SCB charge size / 3 with aux capacity going to each system
sizes 5-8 - limited use at replensihing damaged but not broken shields, nerfed power capacity compared to shield cell banks

fuel scoop bridge - links two fuelscoops in paralell like SLI does with graphics cards
only available on 3A or greater fuel scoops, and the bridge costs as much as the pair of scoops it is linking

tractor beam cargo scoop - works like collector limpets ie collects cargo, but uses the a focused beam of the ships mass lock factor's gravitational pull canisters / mats towards the scoop
TBA

Interdiction tether disruptor - switches off the shields and uses all the sheilds forcefield energy to attempt to disrupt the tether.
Not certain to work every time, but a stronger shield means more energy is available to the disruptor making more success more likely, regardless of shield size the disruptor requires pilot input to be effective, risk of ending up interdicted anyways but arriving in slow space without shields.

I like these ideas though I would never want to add more C5 modules because C5 would be OP then as they are the maximum class of HRPs/MRPs and the minimum class of the new internals. Having a clear border betwee nC5s and C6s adds some balance and would make larger ships more exclusive in their role vs mediums and small vessels.

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

I picked the nominal sizes for those modules as you were looking for things for things to be unique to big ships, to give them more of an identity rather than merely being a larger spec numbered clone of the smaller ships. Feel free to tweak the nuances and details of the ideas, it'd be interesting to see what you can come up with

 

[Robert Maynard]

There exist only 1 trade ship that is slower than the big 3 in combat 5dd loadout....the Type-9

If a Class 7 FSD Disruptor was fitted to a Clipper I'd expect that it'd be able to keep up with most traders....

 

[vampireuk]

Considering the normal trader vs ganker scenario, the ganker wouldn't need any additional equipment. Fully engineered vessels melt traders in seconds, faster than the FSD can charge a low wake when not masslocked. Only more experienced traders will use special equipment to make them harder to catch but this is insanely rare. If I would like to, I could kill any trader with ease in any given large ship considering its equiped to my desires.
The larger modules are more against larger vessels that are similar powerful equiped. For example an imperial Cutter with its insane shields. Or a federal Corvette versus an Anaconda that has more firepower. Or general mass encounters like CZs, RESs or wing fights.
Sacrificing a large module slot for one of these would make it worthy instead of just equipping yet another SCB.

I said high wake, where we can jump away without the masslock penalty. It is the only defence we traders in large slow ships have. When high waking away we can quickly escape what would be a quick death for us, you want the ability to stop ships escaping entirely. Where exactly is the balance in a large ship that can masslock any other ship, drag that ship close to it, prevent it recharging its shields and stopping it from charging its FSD?

 

[Crimson Kaim]

I said high wake, where we can jump away without the masslock penalty. It is the only defence we traders in large slow ships have. When high waking away we can quickly escape what would be a quick death for us, you want the ability to stop ships escaping entirely. Where exactly is the balance in a large ship that can masslock any other ship, drag that ship close to it, prevent it recharging its shields and stopping it from charging its FSD?

There are already FSD disrupting missiles and ion disrupting mines which prevent you from jumping. These are easy to hit vs larger targets for example a T9 or an Anaconda. This is more than enough time to kill the target.
That said, these modules are of higher class and sacrifice many resources (larger SCBs/fuel scoops/cargo capacity/etc.) to get access to something Elite doesn't feature yet: area of effect control. Currently it is only one ship targetting another target ... a single asteorid, a single ship, a single body. More advanced scanners and combat equipment would allow for more coop and MMO content to be featured instead of just a semi-multiplayer system.

Long story short: it wouldn't make any difference. FSD disruptors and ion disruptors exist already. Traders are easy prey and on top of that traders usually lack the experience in PvP or combat in general, making them even easier to kill. I am not someone who does that but I don't mind them getting blown up either. It's nature, survival of the fittest and I will not interrupt the lion chasing the zebra, I just watch.
These modules do not increase the threat for traders as this threat has already reached its maximum. A proper crime and punishment system which hopefully will add some threat to the ingame terrorists as well is on its way, thus decreasing threat for traders.

Ultimately the main goal is to add area of effect modules for all kinds of gameplay.

Take a look at these that came to my mind a couple of days ago:

1. Advanced prospector scanner

Charges a scanner, draining SYS power to scan any asteorid in its radius, enabling targeting and showing its material contents in the contacts tab.

Starting class: 6
Maximum class: 8

Higher class and rating increase energy efficiency and radius



2. Advanced stellar body surface scanner

Automatically scans all stellar bodies discovered by the advanced discovery scanner at once. Scanning takes longer than targetting a single stellar body. Scan time is tied to seize and distance of stellar body.

Starting class: 5
Maximum class: 6

Higher class and rating increases scan range (up to INF) and decreases scan time.

 

[space voyager]

I do think that both small and large ships could have much larger niche roles to play where those are your only options. Medium ships could do all ok but not have access to those niches. However that is realized.