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[FooF]

It dawned on me the other day that there is really only 1 small Energy weapon that deals hard flux, the IR Pulse Laser. The AM Blaster and Ion Cannon also do but their roles are substantially different (strike and EMP, respectively), which leaves the small Energy mount as a beam of some sort. I presume this is by design but I'm also hopeful that another small Energy weapon will be able to deal hard flux.

There a million mods now and many have filled this gap in the vanilla small Energy line-up but...I haven't played them all. A few of the suggestions that follow may be eerily similar to current mod weapons and if they are, it just means great minds think alike...right?

Energy "Mortar"

I love the design philosophy of the Mortar: cheap, flux efficient, and reasonably powerful but with the trade-off that the shot speed is dang slow. While the IR Pulse would be accurate and efficient, this weapon would hit relatively hard but have poor accuracy. Perhaps the projectile itself would "wiggle" a little on its course, move slowly, or have terrible recoil but whatever the case, something in the ballpark of:

Damage: 200/shot, 167 DPS
Flux: 175/shot, 146 flux/sec
RoF: 50/minute
Range: 500
OP Cost: 4

At full range, it's going to miss (which is why the IR Pulse still has a niche) but if you get up close or aim pretty well, you get a solid energy weapon. It would be near-useless if you tried to use it with IPDAI, unlike Tac Lasers or even the IR Pulse. Its above average damage/shot gives it some armor penetrating power that the energy weapon line-up across the board lacks.

Burst Maser

A modified Burst PD Laser, the Burst Maser fires 3 short maser bursts in quick succession. Unlike traditional beams, it inflicts hard flux though at the expense of range. Accuracy is perfect but turret speed is quite slow. Ammo regeneration falls behind full-fire functionality so it will lag in prolonged engagements however initial ammunition stores allow for a fair amount of sustained fire before reaching this point.

Damage: 75x3, 225 DPS (113 when out of ammo), Energy
Flux: 80/shot, 240 flux/sec (120/sec)
RoF: 180/minute (90/minute)
Ammo: 12
Ammo Regen: 3-shot magazine every 2 seconds
Range: 500
OP Cost: 5

More accurate and slightly harder hitting than the IR Pulse, the Burst Maser is a little less efficient and suffers from halving its DPS after 8 seconds of sustained fire. Expanded Magazines would likely solve any sustained fire issues. Very slow turret speed would preclude it from being paired with IPDAI or a s a general anti-fighter platform. It would not be particularly well-suited for anti-armor duties but more so than the IR Pulse is currently. As it is a beam weapon, Advanced Optics would increase its range by 200 su but it would make the turret speed abysmally slow. The flux profile is a bit on the high side for smaller vessels but the extra killing speed may be worth it.

Graviton Burst

Nearly identical to the above idea except it does Kinetic damage. Damage reduced to 50x3 (150 DPS sustained, 75 when out of ammo), everything else stays the same. This weapon would be far more efficient at taking down shields than the IR Pulse (300 DPS) but be quite useless against armor. It would still have sustained fire issues, poor turret speed, and 500 range.

Light Nova Cannon

This energy shotgun fires volleys of very fast, albeit inaccurate and low-damage, energy flechettes over a broad cone. Individual projectiles are extremely weak (25 damage) but are likewise very flux efficient. Oddly, the weapon has above-average range but accuracy is terrible at the extreme end. At close range, it is effective against shields but most armor will be able to shrug it off. Due to its slow rate of fire and low damage, it's not great at anti-fighter/missile duty but it can spray an area to soften up light targets.

DPS: 25x10, 208 DPS, Energy
Flux: 15x10, 125 flux/sec
RoF: 50 volleys/minute
Range: 600
OP Cost: 5

Anyway, I hope we see some sort of small Energy weapon in the future that deals hard flux, whatever that may be. Feedback and other ideas welcome.

[Death_Silence_66]

I like the idea but some of these don't quite fit the vanilla feel. Something like a mini heavy blaster would be better IMO.

[Alex]

Just wanted to chime in - I really like these. Not sure how many more weapons I want to add to vanilla in general, but yeah, this is good  stuff in general - conservative, nothing too crazy, and fills some specific niches.

[Dri]

I'd totally use the Energy Mortar and Graviton Burst.

Good stuff; I've wondered for awhile why ballistics were getting so many new weapons but energy (especially small mounts as you mentioned) haven't gotten anywhere near as many new additions over the years.

[DatonKallandor]

I could totally see a small mining tool adapted for combat being a thing that makes sense. Like a Mining Blaster, but for smaller mounts.

[Sy]

more energy assault weapons in general would be very much appreciated. beams and ion weapons help with overall loadout variety, but actual assault loadouts are extremely limited in options.

small slots have it the worst, but excluding the intentionally subpar Mining Blaster, medium energy also has only two options -- with Heavy Blaster being close to just a bigger (= more damaging but also more flux-hungry) version of Pulse Laser. would be nice to have some more choice there, even without adding anything radically new.

Plasma Cannons and Autopulse for large mounts seem fine though, they're both quite different from each other and from weapons of other sizes, without one being clearly superior to the other.

[intrinsic_parity]

I was gonna make the same comment about medium energy weapons. I would even say that if you are trying to outfit AI controlled ships, the heavy blaster is risky/unviable for a lot of smaller ships, leaving only the pulse laser for assault loadouts.

I think a high rof medium energy weapon (like a plasma chain gun or something) would be nice. The low damage/shot would make it worse vs armor so it could be a bit more flux efficient vs. shields without being unbalanced which is definitely an unfilled niche.

I also think the phase lance would be better as a HE weapon. Since it deals soft flux, its really not useful vs shields, so might as well make it fit the niche of a hull/armor damage dealer. It would need some stat rebalance of course. It would actually be a lot like the HE beam weapons from the Blackrock. I really like how those are balanced although maybe a little less DPS to fit with vanilla.

[Megas]

I would like more energy weapons that fire instantly and is not a flux hog.  The problem with pulse lasers, aside from poor shot range, is windup.

I would like an ammoless blaster-like small weapon.

I would like see a rapid-fire IR Pulse Laser in a heavier mount.  Less range but better power, flux efficiency, or OP cost.

Phase Lance is almost pointless.  Range is too short for an assault weapon that cannot hit for hard flux.

[Igncom1]

Phase Lance is almost pointless.  Range is too short for an assault weapon that cannot hit for hard flux.

It does feel amazing however when you slice and dice an opponants armour up, however.

[Megas]

Phase Lance is almost pointless.  Range is too short for an assault weapon that cannot hit for hard flux.

It does feel amazing however when you slice and dice an opponants armour up, however.

Yes, and the weapons that hit for hard flux have an easier job doing it by forcing AI to lower shields more.

[Igncom1]

Phase Lance is almost pointless.  Range is too short for an assault weapon that cannot hit for hard flux.

It does feel amazing however when you slice and dice an opponants armour up, however.

Yes, and the weapons that hit for hard flux have an easier job doing it by forcing AI to lower shields more.

No doubts there!

If anything in my current game I'm giving my self a challenge to try a use HE cannons at all and usually I'll just stack triple anti-flux weapons and stun lock enemies into oblivion.

[Megas]

What I meant is I do not care how the weapons kill as long as they make them dead fast.  Phase Lance is generally sub-optimal for that; usually eclipsed by Pulse Laser.  There are only two times I consider using Phase Lance.  One, ship has Advanced Optics and can combine it with a needler or other 800 range kinetic; or two, ship has Safety Override, but Pulse Laser is too flux hungry and needs something more flux efficient, and has another way to put hard flux shields.

[Igncom1]

What I meant is I do not care how the weapons kill as long as they make them dead fast.  Phase Lance is generally sub-optimal for that; usually eclipsed by Pulse Laser.  There are only two times I consider using Phase Lance.  One, ship has Advanced Optics and can combine it with a needler or other 800 range kinetic; or two, ship has Safety Override, but Pulse Laser is too flux hungry and needs something more flux efficient, and has another way to put hard flux shields.

Yep, Other then the pulse laser and heavy blaster there are few energy weapons I actually like.

Even that kinetic beam weapon is underwhelming in my oppinion, half the time it's shooting at targets that can't be hurt by it's attacks like cruisers and many destroyers.

[Wyvern]

I also think the phase lance would be better as a HE weapon.

While this is -generally- true, that would also make it completely non-viable as a primary weapon on a wolf.  And for a new player (case study: one person I introduced to Starsector a few months back), a phase lance wolf is the easiest starting frigate due to its point-and-kill nature against low-end pirate ships.

That said, there are several mods with HE burst lasers, and it's not a bad niche to have something for - I just don't want to lose the existing phase lance to get one in vanilla.

* * * * *

Alternatives to IR Pulse & Pulse lasers would be good, though; Heavy Blaster is effectively a large energy weapon pretending to be a medium, and the flux cost makes it hard for the AI to use, so it doesn't really count.  (Incidental thought: what if Guardian PD was made a medium energy weapon?  Keep the stats & OP cost the same, just let it be installed in medium or large slots.)

[FooF]

Part of the reason I brought this up was the lack of direct assault energy weapons, as Sy pointed out, but the small mounts are the most conspicuous.

Energy weapons have long been known to be shorter-ranged, less efficient, and overall less powerful than their ballistic counterparts but what often goes unnoticed is the sheer amount of "utility" weapons there are the energy line-up. There's four that do hefty EMP damage, two that can bypass shields, half a dozen that have 1000 range, kinetic and HE beams, and ridiculously effective PD (albeit in a large mount). Compared to ballistic weapons that have precisely two weapons that have any status-effects at all (HVD and Mjolnir), energy weapons tend to neutralize targets rather than outright destroy them.

However, damage is still king in this game. If you can flux lock a ship, it might as well be EMP'd. If you can cause enough direct damage, you'll knock weapons out, too. Given enough damage, everything eventually falls apart and that's where the Energy line-up just doesn't have enough options. Most of you are right: there's only three (real) options to deal damage with Energy: IR Pulse, Pulse Lasers and Phase Lances. The Heavy Blaster is difficult for cruisers to mount and the Mining Blaster is worse. This leads to every ship feeling same-y after awhile.

Alternatives to IR Pulse & Pulse lasers would be good, though; Heavy Blaster is effectively a large energy weapon pretending to be a medium, and the flux cost makes it hard for the AI to use, so it doesn't really count.  (Incidental thought: what if Guardian PD was made a medium energy weapon?  Keep the stats & OP cost the same, just let it be installed in medium or large slots.)

Guardian PD in medium mount would be kind of ridiculous and it would completely overshadow the Heavy Burst Laser. Guardian's problem is that there are only two vanilla ships that can use it effectively (Odyssey and Astral) because all the other Large Energy mounts have narrow firing arcs. If you put it on a medium mount, it would have to be downscaled (18 OP is really high) and at that point, you might as well just buff the Heavy Burst Laser.

Taking a stab at a medium assault energy weapon:

Plasma Battery

The premise here is not to find the middle ground between the Pulse Laser and the Heavy Blaster because that technically already exists: the Mining Blaster. You could make the flux stats more efficient, give it an extra 100 range and call it a day but I went a different route: make a weaker Medium assault weapon. The Plasma Battery fires long(-ish) range shaped charges of energy relatively accurately and efficiently but suffers from low rate of fire. (I would imagine this to be the same projectile/speed of the Plasma Cannon, just fired one at a time)

Damage: 400, 267 DPS
Flux: 390, 260 Flux/sec
RoF: 40
Range: 700
OP: 11

I view this this as a high-risk/high-reward kind of weapon. You can stay at range and fire for good chunks of damage but overall DPS is less than the other options and if you miss, the efficiency gained from being at range diminishes. The low rate of fire ensures you make every shot count. If you do get in close, you'll find the Pulse Laser and the Heavy Blaster to be much faster killers, though the PB does so more efficiently. A slightly higher OP cost is due to the range advantage and efficiency. The high damage per shot makes it effective versus armor and can spike shields.

Relative to the Pulse Laser, the PB is better against armor and has more range, is about 12% more efficient but is equally less damaging. The Pulse Laser will more steady pressure on anything its firing at. Relative to the Heavy Blaster, it's half the DPS for 1/3 of the flux cost with a bit of a range advantage. If you're going for the kill shot or have the flux to handle it, the HB is superior due to its raw DPS.