So, this is my first mod ever, for any game. It just adds a single weapon, the titular Graviton Blaster. It adds it to the list of weapons that the Tri-Tachyon supply fleet can deliver to the station. Also, I fixed the bug where the station never gets new ships, since it was a simple enough fix. It probably doesn't interact nicely with other mods, so let me know if something needs to be changed.
Latest version: 1.01. Compatible with Starfarer .52a
See attached files to download.
Feel free to add it to any compilation mods or give it schnazzy new graphics (I basically copy-pasted the Heavy Blaster .wpn file and changed the name). You don't even have to give me credit, but it would be preferred.
So, I wanted a weapon useful for long-ish range bombardment that wasn't a tachyon lance. I also noticed that there's only one energy weapon designed for use on shields, and it's a beam weapon. =/ I also really love Heavy blasters. Thus, the Graviton Blaster was born. I originally just modified the game files, but I decided to put it into a form that I could share with all of you.
It's slightly more efficient than the Pulse Laser against shields, does more dps than the graviton beam (and slightly more than Hypervelocity Driver), does EMP damage, and has a long range, but it's garbage against armor, has lower dps than the Heavy blaster (even against shields), has fairly demanding flux requirements, and has a high OP cost. Its main draw is its range, dps against shields, fairly high per-shot damage, and the EMP damage. See attached picture for details (ignore the name I gave the picture, I derped a bit there).
I tried to make it balanced, but I haven't tested it enough to make certain I achieved that. I do know that it's great against Hounds and Lashers, though, so it's potentially unbalanced. I really don't want to reduce its range, though.
Feedback would be appreciated.
EDIT: So, near as I can tell, the weapon itself doesn't seem overpowered, but the AI behaves incredibly sub-optimally against it. Enemy frigates and destroyers try to keep their distance from it, which plays right into the weapon's strengths. It admirably performs its goal of smashing shields at long distance and takes forever to work its way through armor, which means it takes forever to actually kill anything by itself... so, it's actually working as intended, surprisingly. Unfortunately, because enemy ships keep their distance, you're given all the time you need and it just turns into a grind if you lack better weapons for cracking armor.
Ideally, the enemy AI would just ignore most of the damage, rush in, and try to fly under the guns if it's faced with a lone ship with Graviton blasters, but it doesn't. I'll try reducing the EMP damage and/or projectile speed and see what kind of effect that has. I may even... reduce the range. =/ I'd lower the OP to compensate, though.
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