I originally had this idea in response to
a new missile project on the Modding forum. Upon reflection, I doubt this can be player-modded into existence at present so I'm posting it here in expanded form.
The Concept:
A missile-type weapon that, in place of an explosive payload of any kind, instead mounts a low-ammo, limited-duration version of a starship weapon.
Said missile would wait until it reaches a certain (fixed) distance from the enemy, then starts firing the weapon at the target unit at that instant, and continues for a certain (again, fixed) number of shots until the missile is hit by enemy PD systems or it exhausts its onboard miniature power reactor / ammo magazine and it is then removed from play. The distance at which it opens fire is not player-alterable; it's a hardwired property of the missile itself and is not changeable.
The Background:
Lore-wise, I propose that these alternative missile techs serve as a partial means for "fighting by proxy" in a certain sense. What with the somewhat short-term unpredictable but generally downward trend for the Sector's tech base, this could be explained as a means to help insure the longevity & survival of starships & skilled personnel which are
far more expensive & difficult to replace in the wake of losing a hotly-contested battle than secondary fire-delivery systems such as fighter wings or conventional missiles themselves. I don't intend these new missiles to totally overturn the nature of Starfarer combat. But I do believe that the existing publicly-accessible lore would be well served by introducing additional means of protecting the
significant investment that even a single flight-ready frigate can represent in absolute terms.
The Tactical Workflow:
Player selects a suitable target, fires the special missile, it flies until it reaches its factory-set trigger boundary, and the embarked weapon in its nosecone mount fires at the same exact rate as its shipboard version would. If the missile gets smoked by enemy PD before the supply of shots / energy beam duration is safely away, too bad; that's part of the whole dynamic of this system. But once the missile uses up its warshots, it basically self-destructs and has no further effect on the battle. It cannot be recovered and serviced for a second use.
"
Under The Hood":
No new weapons are required to be added to the existing game system. Even this sneaky new missile itself technically isn't a weapon
per se; rather, it's a new
delivery method for existing weapons. It's likely that the majority of the coding required for this proposal would concern the unusual new targeting dynamic, since this is a two-stage device that's a distant parallel to the MIRV missiles.
I also picture the embarked weapon as
no more accurate than the same weapon mounted aboard a ship, but (in some cases) possibly
slightly less accurate for balance purposes.
The embarked weapon aboard such a missile will depend on its size. A small version might include (for example) a Railgun or an IR Pulse Laser, both with a limited duration of fire once they reach the triggering distance to target. At the other end of the scale the large version of this missile might offer different models, each of which could fire (roughly) 4 to 8 Hellbore Cannon rounds, or two Plasma Torpedoes, or 12 seconds' worth of Storm Needler flechettes in a continuous stream before running dry.
I'm of the mind that some of the more unusual weapons in Starfarer would be better candidates for such use than those which are just straightforward, max DPS with no frills. The Ion Cannon immediately came to mind -- its indirect way of hurting the enemy would be cool to see employed in this way. Same for Graviton Beam! Several of the various burst-damage / area-of-effect weapons could also be of use here. Feel free to suggest some others!
Of course there should also be
a few variants in each size class which really are all about just delivering a curb-side beatdown for a few seconds. How about a "Tachyon Pulse" large version? [-runs for cover from brick-throwing mob-] That
might not be as far-fetched as it may sound at first.
Meshing With Starfarer:
The resulting family of missiles is quite distinct from an indefinitely reloadable / repairable fighter wing. This beast delivers much more hurt in a brief span of time, but it's a single-use deal and then it's inert. It seems most effective when trying to generate enough firepower momentum to steamroller an enemy when you're timing the start of your decisive charge into close-in knife-fighting range. It's also obviously something that is likely too hard to handle or too expensive in a single-ship fight, but is a force multiplier once you have several combat-capable ships under your direction. As with the remainder of combat in this game, it's up to the player to decide when to unleash this brief but dazzling wave of tactical surprise. I like the way that this builds upon the already existing battle dynamics which have already distinguished Starfarer from other games out there.
Keeping The Genie In The Bottle:
The balance mechanism I concentrated on the most is keeping the so-called triggering distance for the missile not much farther from the target than a modest distance beyond typical PD systems' range. This gives it a chance to fire at least a partial volley before enemy PD aboard the targeted unit has a chance to burn it down. It's important not to allow the missile to fire with impunity from very long ranges, but also not from such short ranges that this missile system is almost always destroyed by a much cheaper PD gun before it can ever deploy its unique "cargo". The range in question will depend on exactly what internal weapon that missile is built to accept.
Any given version of such a missile would only have a single weapon as its payload. The bigger the missile, the larger the embarked weapon. Naturally multiple different versions would be desirable, all with the appropriate price-tag and missiles-per-launcher limits.
Since each missile is a highly temporary buff to the launching ship's peak output of pain, and it has a nontrivial chance of indeed getting that job done, various deployment-control checks and balances will be required. I foresee this proposed new weapon being most useful for fleets that are commanded by missile-loving admirals who want to stack the deck a bit in their favor, or for risk-averse commodores in charge of expensive hard-to-replace ships. This radical new method of temporarily projecting starship-grade weapons fire
at a distance from the firing ship itself adds an interesting & unpredictable new set of tactical options to the game. It brings a new layer to combat which can help insure a blazing win for your attack strategy, or allow you to survive retreat from a System Defense Fleet in order to fight another day.
In Closing:
I find it likely that such an unusual ordnance system will help distinguish Starfarer from other games competing for people's minds and dollars. It's an added dimension of tactical space combat that I've never seen executed before in a game. The willingness that Alex & Co. have shown in giving Starfarer such a varied & unexpected feature-set is what encouraged me to flesh out my modding idea into a request for an official version of my concept -- "
missile chess" !