Weapon size classes

[Petrus]

Adding weapon size classes could help distinguish the player ship choices more, and add some depth to the game. This would allow adding variation to the militaristic nature of a ship besides just "number of weapons possible" and possibly a new ship class. I'm suggesting 3 classes of weapons (heavy, medium, and light). A light weapon could go in any slot, a medium only in medium or heavy, and heavy only in heavy.

An example of this would be:

Wulfen: 2 heavy weapons slots, 2 light weapon slot. 3 device slots
Sapphire: 1 heavy weapon slot, 2 medium weapon slot, 1 light weapon slot, 5 device slots
Freighter: 1 heavy weapon slot, 1 medium weapon slot, 6 device slots

So the freighter would still have more devices (and armor capabilities) than either of the two others, the sapphire would have more devices available than the Wulfen, more weapon capability than the freighter (that wouldn't be subverted by having to use a device slot for an extra weapon), but less armor capability than either, and the Wulfen would be able to load up a terrifying array of weaponry but only have 3 device slots.

It would also allow a new type of "rare" weapon... a weapon that does damage type or amount disproportionate to its size class (a medium weapon that does damage like a howitzer like some kind of railgun perhaps).

It would also be nice to allow the player to keep around some of the dinky, light weapons without penalizing him by losing a premium device/weapons slot to something like an x-ray laser toward the endgame.

I know I expanded the number of total devices for the ships but I assume there will be more devices out in future builds anyway.

[Yugi]

Yeah, this would be pretty handy.

[F50]

neat, that would also allow for small weapons that have a disproportionate level for its damage (ie, damage of a particle beam weapon, but level V instead of IV). Also, that would probably make devices have these sizes as well (ie, patch spider = light, patcher arm = medum, Iocrym veil = heavy).

[OddBob]

How about a slot-independant system?

So, for example, the freighter has a weapons bay of size 4, the wolfen size 10, the sapphire 7.

A small weapon is size 1, medium 2, heavy 3. Have as many degrees as you want.
So a freighter could have four lasers (1,1,1,1), or a kiloton and a laser(3,1), or two flesners(2,2).

Some ships can't carry more than a certain amount of weapons, or weapons of a certain size. So a freighter is capped at size three, and can't install a size 4 even though it has 4 space. The wolfen has 10, but can only have 5 weapons (can't install ten lasers).

This would work especially well for devices, so a hypothetical auto-refueller (something you'd never waste a slot on now) is something like .2 size.

[Betelgeuse]

Rember any new system would have to allow each kind of ship to be fun throughout the game. We don't want another limitation like the max reactor size. (for new people the game used to have a max reactor size for smaller ships, it made them very limited late game)

[Petrus]

It's not a limitation so much as an expansion of the capability of the sapphire and wulfen that doesn't unbalance the game too much since it mainly allows more variation and all ships would still only get 1 heavy weapon. The "total weapon space per ship" and device size class ideas are good too. It'd be nice to let the player have more dinky devices and weapons to have fun with and customize their ship with. It also opens the door to way more random cool loot that isn't as good as a shield or transpace jumpdrive, but is still fun to play around with and takes, say, 1/4 the space.

Also, it allows more "fun" devices and weapons that otherwise would never get used.

[F50]

one thing though, the freigher should have a weapons bay of size 3, and should be able to mount heavy weapons too, but only 2 weapons. Although this works good for weapons, It works better for devices because some of them are cheap and would never be installed later into the game (solar panels, for instance).

Something to watch out for is balancing this, especially for the wolfen (it still shouldn't be able to equip much for devices, just a shield, and a cargohold (or jumpdrive or whatever) was all I could do without infringing on 3 large weapons)

[Petrus]

I'm still a fan of this one, and even more of Oddbob's multislot weapons system.

[Betelgeuse]

a multislot system will be in the next version. When that comes out we can make a mod to see how well it works.

[evilbob]

wait! will I have to update all the weapons in my mod with slot spesifications?
and even then, will my mod work?

[Betelgeuse]

I would guess it would default to one if no number of slots is given.

[george moromisato]

I would guess it would default to one if no number of slots is given.

Betelgeuse is right: if you don't specify the deviceSlots attribute, it defaults to "1"

I didn't want to change all my device definitions either!

BTW, in general I am going to try to keep compatibility with previous extensions.

[Betelgeuse]

I will give you a cookie if you can make it so I can make it default to whatever I want (such as 2 or 10). Would make making a half slot mod so much easier otherwise that mod would be incompatable with all the other mods.

[evilbob]

will deviceslots=0 work? I'm already planning a mod for this, using a system similar to the quantum cpu, with ship enhancments in these "program" devices that take up 0 device slots.

also, is it possible to make it so that stations won't install a device if you don't have a certain device installed, without changing all the station code?

[Betelgeuse]

will deviceslots=0 work? I'm already planning a mod for this, using a system similar to the quantum cpu, with ship enhancments in these "program" devices that take up 0 device slots.

Yep you will be able to do that. The patch spider will use no slots in the next version.

hmm not that I know of the best you can do without changing dockscreens is not being useable without the extra device