Buffing the Lamplighter

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JohnBWatson
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It's been established that the Lamplighter's become less useful over time, to the point where even stock weapons vastly outperform it. At present, it is pitiful against capital ships of its region, with the projectiles typically being shot down and doing little damage even when they do hit. The range is too low to allow it to be used tactically, and the DPS is not high enough to compensate for this. Ultimately, it's not particularly good for dogfights against gunships, destroying capital ships, or taking out stations, making it a mediocre weapon whose initial niche of being able to kill the ICS has since been filled by virtually every weapon in the later half of the game, up to and including the Penitent Cannon.

When discussing possible improvements, it's a good idea to take into consideration its role in the plot, in order to both improve immersion and make it more intuitive to use correctly. Decker claims that the Fleet intends to mount Lamplighters on their Aquila cruisers(presumably replacing or supporting the NAMI heavy on a central turret), meaning it should be suitable for that role. It should also work as if it's designed to be used against the Ares. Given the description of the NAMI Heavy's missiles, this implies that it should be effective against the Deimos and Phobos, as well as Ares stations.

Given that it is roughly as difficult to acquire as the Ares Plasma Archcannon, it should be roughly equal to it in usefulness. This should take into account the effect of the howitzer loader, as no similar enhancement device exists for the Lamplighter, as well as the fact that the APA's range allows its users to bypass the defensive turrets of capital ships and destroy most stations with impunity.
Last edited by JohnBWatson on Tue Jan 05, 2016 7:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Xephyr
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If you take the stance that the Commonwealth is on the losing side of the war, it's actually pretty fitting that the lamplighter would suck :lol: .
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JohnBWatson
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Xephyr wrote:If you take the stance that the Commonwealth is on the losing side of the war, it's actually pretty fitting that the lamplighter would suck :lol: .
The huge fanfare surrounding its development and completion would be pretty depressing if it was really supposed to be worse than the stuff it's intended to replace. :P
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Atarlost
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An ondamagearmor script that spawns a small explosion or, if damage is greater than armor (ie. any internal structural damage would be done), an explosion proportional in size to the ship hit (with a very high cap).
Literally is the new Figuratively
JohnBWatson
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Atarlost wrote:An ondamagearmor script that spawns a small explosion or, if damage is greater than armor (ie. any internal structural damage would be done), an explosion proportional in size to the ship hit (with a very high cap).
That would work well for a quest weapon, being both unique and useful. Naturally, it would be good for killing Phoboses and anything else that relies on internal HP, and the explosion that would occur on gunship death would make it decent against swarms of gunships. It'd also complement an Aquila's standard weaponry well.
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Quick and dirty tweak: Add passthrough="50" to match Katana Star Cannon, and maybe extend lifetime to let Lamplighter bombard or snipe at targets. Decker mentions outfitting Aquilas with Lamplighters after you install yours.
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JohnBWatson
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PM wrote:Quick and dirty tweak: Add passthrough="50" to match Katana Star Cannon, and maybe extend lifetime to let Lamplighter bombard or snipe at targets.
That'd be worth a shot. Is there a way to code them so that they explode after they fail to pass through a target?
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JohnBWatson wrote:Is there a way to code them so that they explode after they fail to pass through a target?
 There is an <OnDestroyShot> event now that could probably make that work.
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JohnBWatson
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AssumedPseudonym wrote:
JohnBWatson wrote:Is there a way to code them so that they explode after they fail to pass through a target?
 There is an <OnDestroyShot> event now that could probably make that work.
Cool. I can definitely see that working well as a weapon.
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Why not add particle effect and high WMD to LLC? And the Dragon Slaver's QL cannon should be considered as well. Why shouldn't it be possible that the CW shaped it round the QL cannon? That could be the source of their AntiMatter tech.
JohnBWatson
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TheLoneWolf wrote:Why not add particle effect
You mean like the Ferian Plasma Cannon has? That would make it an entirely different weapon, for better or for worse. I think that also might make it too powerful against internals, and perhaps a bit overspecialized due to particle and passthrough weapons generally not being the best against gunships.
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JohnBWatson wrote:
TheLoneWolf wrote:Why not add particle effect
You mean like the Ferian Plasma Cannon has?
The FPC has a spread effect as well. I meant like the APA. So amountOfContactedProjectile is directly propotional to damageInflicted. Reworking the weapon could do the trick.
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TheLoneWolf wrote: The FPC has a spread effect as well. I meant like the APA. So amountOfContactedProjectile is directly propotional to damageInflicted. Reworking the weapon could do the trick.
Like the 1.7 APA? Not sure how it would work for such a small projectile, and using the same mechanic as the Ares counterpart might feel like a bit of a cop-out to players.
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TheLoneWolf
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JohnBWatson wrote:
TheLoneWolf wrote: The FPC has a spread effect as well. I meant like the APA. So amountOfContactedProjectile is directly propotional to damageInflicted. Reworking the weapon could do the trick.
Like the 1.7 APA? Not sure how it would work for such a small projectile, and using the same mechanic as the Ares counterpart might feel like a bit of a cop-out to players.
Yup. Like 1.7 APA. We can try to develop a mechanic like it was explained earlier. Instead of using onDestroyShot, we can use a hit measuring function coupled with onHit. If 75% or more hits, it causes a small shockwave explosion. Small, as the size of a Drake. The shock can be thermo, and not much good against shields (to keep things fair). This could produce a good useful weapon that can be useful against compartments and swarms. It would make sense, as the Ares have nukes and they mostly come in swarms. So the commonwealth decide to work on the swarms.

Also it would disinguish LLC and Quailong.

The projectile can be made slower with a mid range imho. Just to prevent sniping with a range weapon.
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