Potentially terrible idea: Have absolutely no missile slots on the Command Ship and generally limited firepower, but give it Quantum Disruptor (like on the Harbinger). No missiles to fully exploit the one-second vulnerability gap it can create, but with others in its fleet, especially those with a good chunk of missile slots themselves (like a Gryphon, or a Conquest), can make massive holes with that opening.
Also would have a secondary function as a sort of anti-Phase cap, since Quantum Disruptor can pull them out of Phase. It'd be nice to have an anti-phase ship that isn't itself a phase ship.
The only thing I don't particularly like about this (and was a problem with my original ship system idea) is that I don't think it would be particularly fun to be able to create an opening for allied ships that a.) may or may not be there, b.) may or may not have an AI that recognizes the opening and/or, c.) have a capital-grade ship be almost completely reliant on support to get kills.
We'll probably not agree on this case; that sort of ship sounds both unique and fun for me. Given that I often play with fairly sizeable battle sizes (and wouldn't really deploy capital-grade ships if the opposing fleet was trivially small), A and C aren't really a problem for me. (On B, think you have the order flipped here, AI seems trigger-happy enough that you can kinda pick "when" to disrupt such that their outgoing fire has the greatest effect. The time frame is a bit narrow for the ships to fire
after the disruption, in general)
While I'm fine with the big lone front-liner type of gameplay for a short while, I much prefer supporting roles. There's not many Starsector ships that do that. Monitor, kinda-sorta, if you consider Fortress Shield trolling as a support role at least. Pure carriers? Eh, slightly closer than lineships, but fighters are more like very long-ranged weapons than support, especially Bombers.
Basically, yeah, I realize you don't care too much for support roles. As such, you will not find a more support-oriented ship to be fun for yourself. However, consider that most of roster is already well-stocked with ships well-suited for frontline non-support playstyles of all sorts of variations. In Capitals alone, there's the Onslaught, Paragon, Legion, Conquest and Odyssey. Maybe the Pirate and LP Capitals count too, if you're fine with low-end converted logistics warships.
If the goal was to make a ship that was fun for FooF, it'd be a failure, yes. But I don't think the goal should be to have
every ship be enjoyable for
every person, and I don't think that's actually achievable anyways. More important, I think, is that every player have at least some ships that appeal to their playstyle. As such, I believe that the game as a whole would benefit more from a support-oriented ship than another frontline duel-oriented "racehorse", if that makes sense.
If we're spending the credits, logistics, and DP to field a capital (especially with the new fleet-weightings next patch), I think it should stand to reason that an expensive ship that can create openings like that ought to also be able to capitalize on them: i.e. it isn't terribly undergunned relative to its equal weight in DP. If we had a command ship of 40 DP, I'm not saying it should be the equivalent of a Conquest in firepower but it should have other attributes that make it roughly equivalent. Also remember that if a capital ship has a Quantum Disrupter-esque system, it doesn't have a mobility system, defensive system, fighter system, etc. It's going to be a sitting duck in most circumstances so a Quantum Disruptor, in addition to its own firepower, needs to give it some kind edge over the other capitals that can turtle up, burn drive/maneuvering jet out, etc. A ship with that kind of system will have to be either naturally tough, naturally fast, or naturally hard-hitting so it can punch its way out. Otherwise, it would simply be too vulnerable and not "worth it" to field.
I was attempting to be conservative in my suggestion. The reason I prefaced it with "potentially a terrible idea" is because giving another ship the Quantum Disruptor ship system comes with a lot of implications.
(I'm thinking of a fairly swift battlecruiser with at least 2 Large Mounts + smaller guns, if it helps.)
Specifically, this part:
Also remember that if a capital ship has a Quantum Disrupter-esque system, it doesn't have a mobility system, defensive system, fighter system, etc. It's going to be a sitting duck in most circumstances so a Quantum Disruptor, in addition to its own firepower, needs to give it some kind edge over the other capitals that can turtle up, burn drive/maneuvering jet out, etc.
I think you're severely under-estimating the utility of the Quantum Disruptor here. It isn't a mobility system, it's an
anti-mobility system. In the right circumstances it
is a defensive system. In the right circumstances it's
also an offensive system.
Onslaught burn driving straight at you? *zap*, burn drive's gone and you can quickly slink away. Two Onslaughts burn-driving towards you? *zap* the further one and help your fleet eat at the poor Battleship you've stranded. Conquest or a cruiser with Maneuvering/Plasma Jets trying to run away? *Zap*, they just lost their ship system and you'll have them in your sights for quite a bit longer.
Got something with Accelerated Ammo Feeders or High Energy Focus with their sights on you? *zap*, they not only lost their focus, but you have a second of breathing room (in addition to no-shield striking room). The Time-Shifting ability ship (or ships, in modded) going berserk? Same thing.
Fully-shielding paragon getting on your nerves, or really any large ship with huge shield arcs? *zap*, they're now not only completely vulnerable for a full second, they have to spend quite a bit of time to get their shields back up, and will be vulnerable to anything on the flanks in the meantime. Notice an air wing going for a bombing run? *Zap* the target just before the missiles reach the shields. Same thing, but the target just activated a damper field? It matters not, *zap* the field away.
Quantum Disruptor is potentially an extremely flexible and powerful ship system. That's why I specifically said no to missiles, and why I thinkthe weapons should be kept conservative on the first draft if the "cap with Disruptor" thing is to be pursued: being able to force
its own Reaper Torpedos or Hurricane MIRV (or even "just" a Tachyon Lance burst) seems unlikely to be balanced.