Doing something useful with the Twin Plasma Cannon!

[Lestradae]

Dear CommOonity,

I have a suggestion for a meaningful change to the Twin Plasma Cannon I debated a bit with Kaks and Screet.

Why not make them into something with really heavy weapons strength (say, 200?) while keeping the usual 5 kms of (non-instantenous) plasma range, make them buyable at TL 15 (ingame) worlds or stations only and at a pricetag of say ~100.000 Cr?

That way, there would be a meaningful weapon more powerful than the military laser (it could be termed the "Plasma Accelerator") without being vastly overpowered due to its much lower range and speed - a real, but slow and more expensive/scarce alternative to the military laser.

How-To?

Just change the core game's internal entry for the Twin Plasma Cannons!

I think only one or two oxps are using them at all, and they use them as a sidenote for one ship or so. Nothing has been done with the Twin Plasma Cannon in the core game at all as far as I know.

That way, you would only have to:

* Rename it ("Twin Plasma Cannon" to "Plasma Accelerator")
* Give it a new TL (15 ingame instead of 3)
* Reprice it (Higher up as it should cost more if its better - my suggestion about 100.000 Cr instead of 200 Cr)
* Give it a new weapons energy (my suggestion would be 200 - the military laser has 26 or so I think, but compare the ranges - 30km (ML) : 5km (TPC) and the military laser hits instantanously while the TPC hits with plasma speed

That's it. The first three things can actually be done via oxp (I have played around with that option already) but the weapons energy cannot.

This way, all you would have to do would be to change three numbers (price, TL and weapons energy) and one name (TPC -> PA) and that's it.

I hereby put the whole suggestion up onto the boards for discussion.



L

[KZ9999]

I'm totally in favour of a mega weapon for the capital class ships and stations.

Personally I also think that it should consume some cargo space, say 40-60 tons per emplacement, which is in keeping for such a massive weapon. We don't want foe coming after us flying a Adder fitted with a plasma accelerator cannon. (It's silly, but I won't put it past the computer generating such combo.)

It's also in keeping with the 'future history' of the Elite series. It was the ultimate weapon of EFE2 but it could only be fitted to ships like the Boa because it took up so much space.

Another thought occurs to me.
There still should be a pop-gun weapon that could be fitted to small swarm ships. While a single hit does little damage, a few dozen hits could still kill you. (Like the death of a thousand cuts.) Call it a Construction Laser that would be fitted to industrial ships like the Transporter or Worm. One of the hardest fights I ever had in a computer game was when I was attacked by dozen high speed drones each fitted with a low powered laser. While I tried to line up one of the bast', four or five would hit me from different directions. My shields were stripped after five group volleys, while I had only killed one of them. Adding such a game event would certainly add a major adrenaline rush to Oolite.

[Disembodied]

I think anything that pushes out the envelope needs to be playtested. Of course, the beauty of the OXPs is that anyone who doesn't like or want something, doesn't have to have it, but if it's going to be something more than just shoving up some numbers ever higher, we'd have to see how it works. The distance-balancing idea is a good one, but thinking about it a bit, I'd be tempted to put a military laser on my nose and hang a plasma accelerator on my tail. Fly in, frying away, then flip over and retreat while working the rear screen, blowing the bejezus out of whatever was left behind – particularly if it was an auto-aiming turret. Even if it consumed a hefty chunk of cargo space it would still be a hugely über weapon combination.

I think the only way to avoid this, and to give players a meaningful choice to make, would be to make lasers and plasma accelerators incompatible on a single ship (or at least on a player ship). Make them either/or. A best of both worlds situation is always a no-brainer, but if you had to sacrifice long-range advantage in order to be able to fling gouts of plasma all over the place at close range, then there's a real decision to make: are you a sniper or a slugger?

[bacontube]

I'm always in favor of new weaponry. And yeah, I am loving the oxp addon way of doing things in this game. It's honestly the best system I've ever seen for a game like this. Brilliant really.

[Screet]

Another thought occurs to me.
There still should be a pop-gun weapon that could be fitted to small swarm ships. While a single hit does little damage, a few dozen hits could still kill you. (Like the death of a thousand cuts.) Call it a Construction Laser that would be fitted to industrial ships like the Transporter or Worm. One of the hardest fights I ever had in a computer game was when I was attacked by dozen high speed drones each fitted with a low powered laser. While I tried to line up one of the bast', four or five would hit me from different directions. My shields were stripped after five group volleys, while I had only killed one of them. Adding such a game event would certainly add a major adrenaline rush to Oolite.

Just press "up" during witchspace countdown

If you want to be able to do the same thing, install Thargoids captured Thargons to your ship....yesterday they finished a police Mamba within a few seconds while I was busy with my turrets against the station

Screet

[overmage]

I think anything that pushes out the envelope needs to be playtested. Of course, the beauty of the OXPs is that anyone who doesn't like or want something, doesn't have to have it, but if it's going to be something more than just shoving up some numbers ever higher, we'd have to see how it works. The distance-balancing idea is a good one, but thinking about it a bit, I'd be tempted to put a military laser on my nose and hang a plasma accelerator on my tail. Fly in, frying away, then flip over and retreat while working the rear screen, blowing the bejezus out of whatever was left behind – particularly if it was an auto-aiming turret. Even if it consumed a hefty chunk of cargo space it would still be a hugely über weapon combination.

I think the only way to avoid this, and to give players a meaningful choice to make, would be to make lasers and plasma accelerators incompatible on a single ship (or at least on a player ship). Make them either/or. A best of both worlds situation is always a no-brainer, but if you had to sacrifice long-range advantage in order to be able to fling gouts of plasma all over the place at close range, then there's a real decision to make: are you a sniper or a slugger?

if anybody remembers Mutabilis;

[spoiler]the Imp Courier's plasma accelerator took so much power that the ship didn't have a rear laser.[/spoiler]

so we actually have precedence for this sorta thing.

How about; plasma accelerator takes up all four laser slots. Done and solved.

[Disembodied]

Good point about Mutabilis! Drew knows his stuff ... One forward-mounted short-range megaweapon and nothing else (except for missiles) would make things interesting. How would the laser/weapon temperature work? Does a plasma accelerator heat up, and if so, how fast?

[overmage]

Yes it does and it heats up as quickly as a mil laser. Pew pew.

[CptnEcho]

I'm looking forward to the Space Battleship Yamato OXP (if it already exists, then two thumbs up) and equipment like "Shock Cannons" and the "Wave-Motion Gun" along with other goodies.

Soon the spaceways will be filled with Lazer beams, missiles, Q-Bombs, E-bombs, plasma energy, photon torpedoes, disruptors beams, tharglets, fighters, bombers, large naval gunnery and their Thargoid counterparts.

[drew]

Good point about Mutabilis! Drew knows his stuff ... One forward-mounted short-range megaweapon and nothing else (except for missiles) would make things interesting. How would the laser/weapon temperature work? Does a plasma accelerator heat up, and if so, how fast?

Hi all! Thought I'd add my £0.02 here!

As you will doubtless recall SQ and M were sort of 'linked' books between Elite>Oolite>FE2/FFE, hence the appearance of the plasma accelerator in M. I'd always worked with the premise that these three games did exist in the same universe.

I'd had in mind that the plasma gun on the Imperial Courier was a prototype of the 'Small Plasma Accelerator' available in FE2/FFE and widely available in the FFE timeframe.

As mentioned above, it's a massively bulky piece of kit. Zerz decided to remove 4 military lasers in favour of the SPA - arguably a tactical error!

I'd also made the assumption that the weapon had a long recharge rate (bit like the mining laser) - this isn't the same as FE2/FFE, but I put that down to it being a prototype. Visually I had the Homeworld style plasma cannons in mind.

However, Zerz had pinched the SPA from the 'future' along with the more advanced witchspace drives that broke the 7LY limit. I've no objection to an SPA being available in Oolite, but I could argue its too 'advanced' for the Oolite time period.

Another use it if you choose OXP? Sounds cool though!

Cheers,

Drew.