First off, since this is my first post I shall say that I love this game, it's an imerrsive character experience for me, and it's nice to see that as a design priority in a game when so many RPG's aren't about Roleplaying, they're just about stat maxing etc. I love that I only have a little viper and that I mean very little, it means that I can think about the little things more. 10/10 Frontier, new to the series, I suspect I will be here for a very long time.
I've actually only got into combat recently, as I participated in the Lugh crisis (and made the 12 million bracket, the first time I've seen money like that
)
It was fun, but one thing that struck me though is that the combat can be quite bland in many ways. The combat really stands up on the pressure of interacting with the interface while going through the "lock on, strafe run, turn/evasive, repeat. Targeting subsystems, power and hardpoint management etc. gives you this great "YEAH I'M A SPACEMAN!" feeling, but ultimately it's pew pew bang bang and the occaisional boom. I know what I'm up against and if I run into a player in a python I know he's gonna have bigger guns than I can fit on my Viper (soon to be Vulture). So it's turn tail and run. I think this is a shame because the whole rock paper scissors mechanic with weaponry could be much more developed. This is for me a minor criticism, as I like trading and exploring and just generally flying around the galaxy more than anything else. Sometimes I just pop a few systems over to read Galnet in Imperial space instead of Federal etc (I know, I'm a bit sad)
That said, I think there's so much potential for tactical nuance in outfitting. Many of the subsystems you can buy aren't straight up better because you have to account for mass, power management and so on. But with weapons it is, as I said, a slightly advanced Rock Paper Scissors model.
One way of changing this up would be ammunition types, and perhaps amplification/focusing arrays for lasers.
Essentially my point is that the basic weapon types could be modular. I'm not going to say much more on the "theory" side of things. I'm just gonna bang my short list of suggestions down.
Kinetic Weaponry
This is the obvious place to start, you could implement ammunition variety without bending the science at all. You can buy a huge variety of different rounds for modern day weaponry.
A few suggestions follow:
-Armor piercing for multicannons, cannons and railguns. Flechette for Frag cannons: Higher system damage (especially for railguns) but lower generic hull damage (just putting holes through the ship but not actually damaging the chassis that much if you dont hit something vital.) Perhaps massive canopy damage?. Very ineffective against shields perhaps? I'm sure you can justify that somehow since shields are kind of spacemagic already. They would still require precision but if you're good at hitting systems these are the rounds for you. "Captain, If we can put an armor piercing railgun round through that Anaconda's port thruster we can get out of here while he restarts his engines!"
-High dispersal slugs for the cannons: Slugs that do less structural damage overall, and very little system damage but disperse kinetic energy through the hull, affecting steering. This would give you an edge over the eagle as it's a small light ship for example, but very nimble. So if you can score a good hit you can screw his flight pattern and get the edge even if you're in a lumbering transport ship. Generally redundant against larger ships however.
Energy Weapons
-Overcharged lasers: Much higher heat output and energy consumption (so less firing time), but considerably increased damage output against the hull. Not necessarily more effective against shields.
-Focusing: Higher system/hull damage but compromises shield damage.
-Slow burning plasma accellerators: essentially a "sticky" plasma (I know that superheated gas can't be sticky as such) that doesn't explode on impact, but begins eating through the hull and deteriorating systems over time.
-Disruptor beams: Causes system malfunctions but little damage, perhaps quite effective against shields because it interferes with electromagnetic fields. Again very useful on a cargo barge for a quick escape
Explosives (This is where the room for variety really opens up I think)
Torpedo variety: This is the weapon that is most in need of spicing up I think, especially because it's a whole hardpoint for a single shot. But it's also the weapon that seems to have the most options, in fact it was my disappointment in the torpedoes that brought me here because they have great potential to be a tactical focal point in a ships arsenal. Obviously you could apply
-Disruptive/EMP torpedo: Another "can't win this, better get out of here weapon." Takes a considerable chunk out of shields and disables the ship (in a similar manner to the reboot/repair function) for a few seconds, you can get your distance and get out of dodge. Perhaps disables the ship for much longer if there are no shields to interfere
-High explosive: Essentially what we have now, maybe disrupts steering considerably as well compared to the vanilla torpedo
-Stealth: Doesn't get a "missle incoming" warning and resistant to point defense. Doesn't appear on sensors.
-Thermonuclear payload: This perhaps should be reserved for a Class 4 torpedo mount, but would be a Hail Mary weapon. Perhaps even illegal? And of course ludicrously expensive. Also, not an ICBM 5 Megaton nuke, a small 1 kiloton payload with a 500 metre blast radius. Fun to use against a capitol ship but produces an enormous EMP, likely interfering with the users systems. Radiations effects on shields? Draws the attention of the systems security etc
These are just a few, I have a few other ideas but some of them are a bit silly and I want to see if anyone else submits anything.
The idea of illegal weaponry is particularly cool in my eye as well. Radioactive or experimental/unpredictable weaponry could put a big price on your head, and as I said, draw the attention of the authorities. Perhaps even get the corporate/criminal underground you bought it from in hot water for a bit of intrigue.
Interested to see what response this gets (if any) it may have been discussed already, in which case I apologize for bringing up a dead issue.
I've actually only got into combat recently, as I participated in the Lugh crisis (and made the 12 million bracket, the first time I've seen money like that
)It was fun, but one thing that struck me though is that the combat can be quite bland in many ways. The combat really stands up on the pressure of interacting with the interface while going through the "lock on, strafe run, turn/evasive, repeat. Targeting subsystems, power and hardpoint management etc. gives you this great "YEAH I'M A SPACEMAN!" feeling, but ultimately it's pew pew bang bang and the occaisional boom. I know what I'm up against and if I run into a player in a python I know he's gonna have bigger guns than I can fit on my Viper (soon to be Vulture). So it's turn tail and run. I think this is a shame because the whole rock paper scissors mechanic with weaponry could be much more developed. This is for me a minor criticism, as I like trading and exploring and just generally flying around the galaxy more than anything else. Sometimes I just pop a few systems over to read Galnet in Imperial space instead of Federal etc (I know, I'm a bit sad)
That said, I think there's so much potential for tactical nuance in outfitting. Many of the subsystems you can buy aren't straight up better because you have to account for mass, power management and so on. But with weapons it is, as I said, a slightly advanced Rock Paper Scissors model.
One way of changing this up would be ammunition types, and perhaps amplification/focusing arrays for lasers.
Essentially my point is that the basic weapon types could be modular. I'm not going to say much more on the "theory" side of things. I'm just gonna bang my short list of suggestions down.
Kinetic Weaponry
This is the obvious place to start, you could implement ammunition variety without bending the science at all. You can buy a huge variety of different rounds for modern day weaponry.
A few suggestions follow:
-Armor piercing for multicannons, cannons and railguns. Flechette for Frag cannons: Higher system damage (especially for railguns) but lower generic hull damage (just putting holes through the ship but not actually damaging the chassis that much if you dont hit something vital.) Perhaps massive canopy damage?. Very ineffective against shields perhaps? I'm sure you can justify that somehow since shields are kind of spacemagic already. They would still require precision but if you're good at hitting systems these are the rounds for you. "Captain, If we can put an armor piercing railgun round through that Anaconda's port thruster we can get out of here while he restarts his engines!"
-High dispersal slugs for the cannons: Slugs that do less structural damage overall, and very little system damage but disperse kinetic energy through the hull, affecting steering. This would give you an edge over the eagle as it's a small light ship for example, but very nimble. So if you can score a good hit you can screw his flight pattern and get the edge even if you're in a lumbering transport ship. Generally redundant against larger ships however.
Energy Weapons
-Overcharged lasers: Much higher heat output and energy consumption (so less firing time), but considerably increased damage output against the hull. Not necessarily more effective against shields.
-Focusing: Higher system/hull damage but compromises shield damage.
-Slow burning plasma accellerators: essentially a "sticky" plasma (I know that superheated gas can't be sticky as such) that doesn't explode on impact, but begins eating through the hull and deteriorating systems over time.
-Disruptor beams: Causes system malfunctions but little damage, perhaps quite effective against shields because it interferes with electromagnetic fields. Again very useful on a cargo barge for a quick escape
Explosives (This is where the room for variety really opens up I think)
Torpedo variety: This is the weapon that is most in need of spicing up I think, especially because it's a whole hardpoint for a single shot. But it's also the weapon that seems to have the most options, in fact it was my disappointment in the torpedoes that brought me here because they have great potential to be a tactical focal point in a ships arsenal. Obviously you could apply
-Disruptive/EMP torpedo: Another "can't win this, better get out of here weapon." Takes a considerable chunk out of shields and disables the ship (in a similar manner to the reboot/repair function) for a few seconds, you can get your distance and get out of dodge. Perhaps disables the ship for much longer if there are no shields to interfere
-High explosive: Essentially what we have now, maybe disrupts steering considerably as well compared to the vanilla torpedo
-Stealth: Doesn't get a "missle incoming" warning and resistant to point defense. Doesn't appear on sensors.
-Thermonuclear payload: This perhaps should be reserved for a Class 4 torpedo mount, but would be a Hail Mary weapon. Perhaps even illegal? And of course ludicrously expensive. Also, not an ICBM 5 Megaton nuke, a small 1 kiloton payload with a 500 metre blast radius. Fun to use against a capitol ship but produces an enormous EMP, likely interfering with the users systems. Radiations effects on shields? Draws the attention of the systems security etc
These are just a few, I have a few other ideas but some of them are a bit silly and I want to see if anyone else submits anything.
The idea of illegal weaponry is particularly cool in my eye as well. Radioactive or experimental/unpredictable weaponry could put a big price on your head, and as I said, draw the attention of the authorities. Perhaps even get the corporate/criminal underground you bought it from in hot water for a bit of intrigue.
Interested to see what response this gets (if any) it may have been discussed already, in which case I apologize for bringing up a dead issue.
