Organic Weapons

[Prophet]

One thing I wish we had were some Bio weapons. I think they would be a great late game addition (possibly post Heretic?)

Fungal Cannon
Fires globs of gene spliced fungi that attach themselves to the hull of your ship. This particular variety has been bred to 'feed' on armour.
Initial damage is 1 point and every 10-50 clicks it doubles unless the player has 'barrel of fungicide' Similar to radiation but actually does damage.
I imagine this to be a sort of 'poison' like status effect.

Energy Leech
If the Leeches hit the player they begin to drain the reactor, say each one sucks 1mw of power. Obviously not too bad until you hit a gang of ships with fast fire Leech cannons.

BioMass Missiles
These are more like 'space bees'. Homing missiles that will puncture, and remain stuck to your ship, adding their mass to you and slowing you down.

The ships and stations could be 'organic lifeforms' (whales, sharks,insects) with no shields but near impenetrable armour. If they can survive in space then the skin must be strong and have a quick regen. They would also have melee weapons (not sure if this is possible) Imagine a fast moving large space creature with a giant horn that can ram the player. Damage would be dealt based on speed, similar to a trireme. This would be near suicide for a player to go blasting into a stronghold surrounded by ramming creatures.

Just a few ideas for discussion...

[F50]

They would also have melee weapons (not sure if this is possible) Imagine a fast moving large space creature with a giant horn that can ram the player. Damage would be dealt based on speed, similar to a trireme. This would be near suicide for a player to go blasting into a stronghold surrounded by ramming creatures.

I really oughta make a mod so that the dwarg raiders and ferrians have a weak melee to prevent the situation where the player is sitting in open space with a mass of them surrounding the playership but not getting damaged.

Wait a minute...If I give the weapon fire the penetration attribute, then I will be able to make them able to kill planet-sitters and people who like to sit in front of bases quite elegantly. If I should give various ships (and the playership) such a weapon...

It needn't be very strong at all , just give it to everyone so that you are vulnerable to swarming.

[Branden]

Well, I sort of like that idea; the bio weapons at least. I am not to fond of the whole whale, shark, and insect thing though... I mean who cares if their skin is thick? What would water dwelling creatures such as whales and shark use to breath? Maybe a pod of genetically altered or evolved whales in a big "fish tank" like ship? Well those are just my ideas/thoughts on the matter... but I really do like the bio weapon ideas the missiles, energy leech, and fungal cannon are neat ideas.

[Prophet]

I admit, the creature ships are kinda stupid. Just kinda threw that in as a justification for Bio Weapons.
I had a few more questions reguarding 'status effects'

Is it possible to have a weapon trigger effects like the roms/thanograms?
Could I have one of my weapon slots used as a 'shields down' cyber attack weapon? It wouldn't do any other damage and probably have a high power consumption as well as a capacitor or require special 'power sources' per use but would be excellent as a capital ship weapon.

Primary weapon - Dual Omni Tev9s
Secondary - Shield Down Cyber attack
Missiles - Tracking Fragmentation Missiles

Just thinking of different ways to challenge the player rather than being a "whose got the bigger gun" kind of fight. Pushing into the strategic combat in mid-late game and force the player to consider the overall effectiveness of each component of their ship.

Ok, I'm off topic. Now to summarize.
Is it possible to create a 'weapon/device' that could reproduce the cyber attacks or other status effects?

[Darth Saber]

The "prophet" wrote about the creation of bioships and bioweapons.

I read a book by Timothy Zahn called "War Horse" that deals with a similar topic. In case none of you have ever heard of Zahn, he writes Star Wars novels, as well as other sci-fi novels. Anyhow, if you take a look at the "Newts In Space" mod (found on Xelerus) you will find that they use the following weapons: acid breath; acid flame; and newt spike ball. The first two are dark acid weapons and the last is kinetic; however, the names imply biological weapons. Also the armor of the newts themselves is listed as "a segment of newt skin" which one can use as armour in their own ships as well as turning them into boots, if you have the "newt skin factory." The newt is at least in description and in picture, a biological ship.

So "Prophet," your idea is not so far fetched as it might have seemed t first. There are several epidodes in the Star Trek genre and the Star Trek Themes (i.e. NXT Gen.; Deep Space 9; and Voyager) that deal with biological ships. Whose to say what is out there; all of space has not yet been explored.

"Space, the Final Frontier" - Star Trek"