Now that the Anti-Guardian Zone Resistance engineering is a thing, other kind of engineering for the "vanilla" Guardian weapons could be considered. Could start at G1 and perhaps later add more grades if needed. I am considering blueprints from closest analogue Human weapons.
Plasma Charger
Analogue: Plasma Accelerator.
The most irrelevant weapon, as much as I love it. It's most in need of an upgrade. I think Focused would be the perfect blueprint for it and I'd go straight for G2. Armour Piercing +60%. The main problem of the weapon is that it can't beat bigger interceptors' hardness. Range, both maximum and damage falloff +52%. The bad damage falloff range is another big problem. Adding to maximum range is not necessary, but could be interesting, making it sort of an artillery weapon, not that occasional hits beyond falloff range do much against the 'Goid regeneration. Lastly, Shot Speed +52%, which would make it easier to hit with the weapon. Not good enough to hit hearts reliably, but I think PC is not for that.
With these mods a Large Plasma Charger would have AP 152, Range 1520/4560 m and Shot Speed 1824 m/s. AP 128 for medium and 104 for small. Hmm, maybe it would be better to start at G1 with plasma as well.
Shard Cannon
Analogue: Fragment Cannon
The large variant has a niche with its fast burst damage and with the zone resistance has found some purpose as Orthus hunter. I don't have a solid idea for this weapon, so I present some alternatives.
Double Shot because it's unique and leans into the burst damage concept.
Rapid Fire also for burst damage, but mainly for faster reload time.
Sturdy would be an interesting one. It increases Armour Piercing and reduces Thermal Load somewhat.
Gauss Cannon
Analogue: Rail Gun
Already a great AX weapon that doesn't need an upgrade. However, for fairness sake I will consider a possible G1 enhancement. Something that wouldn't make it too OP. Probably High Capacity. The supposed weakness of the weapon is its low ammo capacity, but experts already circumvent this by synthing ammo, so adding 29 shots wouldn't be too groundbreaking.
Then there's also other Guardian modules. I think they should all at least have the Anti-Guardian Zone Resistance. Maybe even the module reinforcement, even though it never has had any sort of engineering before. Here's some quick thoughts of other kind of engineering a few of them might use.
Guardian Hybrid Power Plant: I think I remember some mention on the lore of Guardian technology being enviromentally friendly, but their power plant is quite inefficient. Basically like G4 Overcharged without the integrity loss. I would go for Low Emissions to reflect deeper understanding gained for Guardian power technology.
Guardian Hybrid Power Distributor: These kind of already are like Charge Enhanced, Super Conduits, but worse and with the 4% overcharge perk. The only thing I might add is the 3 "focused" engineering and I'm not 100% sure about that.
Hull Reinforcement: I'm sure what people would want for them is Heavy Duty. Maybe 2 grades of that might be OK if it also increased power draw a lot.
Plasma Charger
Analogue: Plasma Accelerator.
The most irrelevant weapon, as much as I love it. It's most in need of an upgrade. I think Focused would be the perfect blueprint for it and I'd go straight for G2. Armour Piercing +60%. The main problem of the weapon is that it can't beat bigger interceptors' hardness. Range, both maximum and damage falloff +52%. The bad damage falloff range is another big problem. Adding to maximum range is not necessary, but could be interesting, making it sort of an artillery weapon, not that occasional hits beyond falloff range do much against the 'Goid regeneration. Lastly, Shot Speed +52%, which would make it easier to hit with the weapon. Not good enough to hit hearts reliably, but I think PC is not for that.
With these mods a Large Plasma Charger would have AP 152, Range 1520/4560 m and Shot Speed 1824 m/s. AP 128 for medium and 104 for small. Hmm, maybe it would be better to start at G1 with plasma as well.
Shard Cannon
Analogue: Fragment Cannon
The large variant has a niche with its fast burst damage and with the zone resistance has found some purpose as Orthus hunter. I don't have a solid idea for this weapon, so I present some alternatives.
Double Shot because it's unique and leans into the burst damage concept.
Rapid Fire also for burst damage, but mainly for faster reload time.
Sturdy would be an interesting one. It increases Armour Piercing and reduces Thermal Load somewhat.
Gauss Cannon
Analogue: Rail Gun
Already a great AX weapon that doesn't need an upgrade. However, for fairness sake I will consider a possible G1 enhancement. Something that wouldn't make it too OP. Probably High Capacity. The supposed weakness of the weapon is its low ammo capacity, but experts already circumvent this by synthing ammo, so adding 29 shots wouldn't be too groundbreaking.
Then there's also other Guardian modules. I think they should all at least have the Anti-Guardian Zone Resistance. Maybe even the module reinforcement, even though it never has had any sort of engineering before. Here's some quick thoughts of other kind of engineering a few of them might use.
Guardian Hybrid Power Plant: I think I remember some mention on the lore of Guardian technology being enviromentally friendly, but their power plant is quite inefficient. Basically like G4 Overcharged without the integrity loss. I would go for Low Emissions to reflect deeper understanding gained for Guardian power technology.
Guardian Hybrid Power Distributor: These kind of already are like Charge Enhanced, Super Conduits, but worse and with the 4% overcharge perk. The only thing I might add is the 3 "focused" engineering and I'm not 100% sure about that.
Hull Reinforcement: I'm sure what people would want for them is Heavy Duty. Maybe 2 grades of that might be OK if it also increased power draw a lot.
