Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Vandala]

The suggestion of having a ship designed around a weapon has come up time and again but I think I have a solution for it that should not take all that much work on the developers part and will add some extra possibilities for the modders.

I suggest an new type of weapon mount, I'll call it "LOCKED" for now. Along with a partner variable called "weaponID". Both of these are to be used in the "weaponSlots" section of any ".ship" file.

The new "LOCKED" mount type will have the unique effect of not showing up in the refit screen which will make it impossible for the player to change the weapon. You could if you want also give it extra hitpoints akin to the "HARDPOINT" type, maybe even more so. Its rotation speed could also be slower perhaps, I expect this kind of weapon will usual be rather large compared to the craft it is mounted on. Then again the weapons used for this type of mount will likely be unique and rotation speed could simply be governed by the weapons statistics.

The new "weaponID" variable will need to be given a weapon ID, which is of course the weapon given to the "LOCKED" mount.

It would look like this:

   "weaponSlots": [
        {
            "angle": 0,
            "arc": 5,
            "id": "WS 001",
            "locations": [
                34,
                -6
            ],
            "mount": "LOCKED",
            "size": "MEDIUM",
            "type": "BALLISTIC"
            "weaponID": "chaingun"
        },
    ],

First of all it will give what modders have bin asking for, a way of giving a ship a permanent weapon that players can't change which will allow modders to design ships around specific unique weapons.

Second it should work very will with all the AI calculations the game already makes during combat, seeing as it is a weapon mount the computer should have no problem with it. Becuase it is a weapon mount the weapon on it will be usable in the weapon groups we already have and would act no different then any other weapon and would be controlled in the very same way.

However I can see three problem with this suggestion.
The latest weapon loss after battle feature of the game. Seeing as this is still a weapon mount it will be subjected to the same loss chance if a ship with it is destroyed in battle but gets repaired afterward. The "LOCKED" weapon mount type will need to be exempted from this aspect of the game.

New ships for sale at stations don't come with weapons (at least not initially), which is a problem because players can't add (or even buy) the unique weapons used for the "LOCKED" mount. So ships with "LOCKED" mounts will always have to spawn with this weapons already in place.

The weapons used for this type of mount will most likely (though not exclusively) be unique weapons that should not appear on other ships. The problem is that they could still show up as loot after a battle right now. It would be vital to have weapons placed on "LOCKED" mounts be exempted from this rule.

EXTRA NOTE: The mount should display the picture of the weapon as it normally does I think. This allows for the possibility of rotation movement for the weapon should it ever be necessary, which is not out of the question.

[K-64]

It would also need to be included with the Hull variant of ships when your buying them new

[Upgradecap]

I like it. I like it alot.

[Vandala]

It would also need to be included with the Hull variant of ships when your buying them new

Ah crap I forgot about that, that could be a problem.

Thanks for mentioning it.

[hadesian]

It would also need to be included with the Hull variant of ships when your buying them new

Ah crap I forgot about that, that could be a problem.

Thanks for mentioning it.

Consider that a fair few of the weapons to be locked onto a hull might cost around 100K credits like the Hadron Accelerator... we suddenly get very big costs...

...but I don't see that as a problem.

[Vandala]

Consider that a fair few of the weapons to be locked onto a hull might cost around 100K credits like the Hadron Accelerator... we suddenly get very big costs...

...but I don't see that as a problem.

It's not the cost that's the problem, its the inability to access the mount to place a weapon on it that's the problem.

[K-64]

Hmm, saying that, I think the weapons themselves would need a new variable of LOCKED, just so you can't have your fancy big ship nuking cannon of doom being toted on other ships like it's a plastic toy

[Vandala]

Hmm, saying that, I think the weapons themselves would need a new variable of LOCKED, just so you can't have your fancy big ship nuking cannon of doom being toted on other ships like it's a plastic toy

Good call, the could be captured after a battle. Which must be avoided.

EDIT: But not on the weapon otherwise you'll get other problems. I think.

[hadesian]

Hmm, saying that, I think the weapons themselves would need a new variable of LOCKED, just so you can't have your fancy big ship nuking cannon of doom being toted on other ships like it's a plastic toy

Good call, the could be captured after a battle. Which must be avoided.

But...

What if they cut it out with enough accuracy to not damage any systems and then severely jury rigged the thing onto another ship?

[Vandala]

But...

What if they cut it out with enough accuracy to not damage any systems and then severely jury rigged the thing onto another ship?

That's not something we have to worry about, we don't have to deal with every silly little exception people can come up with. I'm only worried about game breaking problems.

[K-64]

Plus the other ship's powergrid and/or ammo storage wouldn't be equipped to deal with such weapons.

[Catra]

so

whats wrong with just making it a system? it would avoid all this unecessary hassle of making it a weapon hardpoint....

[K-64]

Because systems, to me, are unique things that give a ship that extra edge to win a fight, without an additional barrel. Not much point in making something that looks like a weapon, aims like a weapon and fires like a weapon into something that isn't a weapon

[Vandala]

so

whats wrong with just making it a system? it would avoid all this unecessary hassle of making it a weapon hardpoint....

I think this way its less of a hassle to implement. I'm only guessing at it but I think if you have it be a weapon mount it gets incorporated with all its associated game features automatically. Which is something a ship system doesn't have. I don't know how much more of a hassle it will be to have a ship system act as a weapon mount, it would probably not take much but it would not only bring similar problems with it but also new ones.

You see, if you make it a ship system but under the hood you have it act like a weapon mount then you get all the associated problems with it, we've already found three of them. But on top of that you would also get problems like how to correctly use the weapon, since you can't select it in a weapon group it will never display a weapon range. I'm approaching it from this angle because I think this shows some promise at least and it allows us to more easily see the problems that it brings with it.

[Reshy]

It would make sense if they were to ever introduce a ship that was basically a giant gun.




It also weapons on top of LOCK slots shouldn't be subject to random loss/random find/hull only as they'd be part of the ship and not a modular piece that could be removed.