Shrike's Mines & Missiles ++

[gunship256]

That might be a bit too effective for what it takes to get it, if you're using the current dual turbolaser recipe.

The XML description says that it requires two dual turbolasers. If I remember right, that's a total of eight damaged turbolasers, the cost of fabricating two dual turbolasers, plus the cost of fabricating this device.

[Song]

That might be a bit too effective for what it takes to get it, if you're using the current dual turbolaser recipe.

The XML description says that it requires two dual turbolasers. If I remember right, that's a total of eight damaged turbolasers, the cost of fabricating two dual turbolasers, plus the cost of fabricating this device.

Exactly, and from actually making that....it's too complex and annoying. And expensive...probably. I need to look at it numerically, but I think it works out as a waste of time.

So I'm removing the dual turbolaser recipe, and putting in a slightly easier version of this guns recipe in to replace it.

I can get that many damaged lasers in a single system of Korolov missions, and for a weapon more powerful than the X - Ray laser that's somewhat too easy.

Actually, the unenhanced version (the one in the screenshot has the firerate boost from a ROM) is pretty much exactly the same numerically as an X-ray laser. In practice it handles a little differently because of rounding. It's superior at base busting and against internals, but worse against resistant armor.

[gunship256]

Exactly, and from actually making that....it's too complex and annoying. And expensive...probably. I need to look at it numerically, but I think it works out as a waste of time.

It's actually something I would go for just to have a good midgame basebuster. I made a similar turbolaser (level 6) with a higher cost, weight, energy use, and fire rate, and it's great against everything except the Ventari.

The lancer cannon is effective for every enemy except the Dwarg (not a small exception), but its range is so large that it annoys friendlies that off the radar.

The annoying thing about fabricating the quad turbolaser for me would probably be the amount of space eight damaged turbolasers would take up in a small ship, given how rare Tinker stations can be in some games. But for an effective weapon, it might be worth it.

[Kourtious]

Instead of quad, octo, and etc; how about a laser that can overheat?

A Turbo-laser or any laser can be modified to fire at as superior fire rate at Tinkers. The tinkers would remove most safety modules off the laser, then add specific items to make the laser fire FAST. However upon completion, the tinkers will the tell the player to be "cautious" about overheating the laser cannon.

To make the laser worth getting(I assume it would be expensive and time consuming), the laser should have some special qualities. For example, the ability to fire at any target in a 45 degree angle. Thus making the laser a "swivel" cannon.

[Song]

Instead of quad, octo, and etc; how about a laser that can overheat?

A Turbo-laser or any laser can be modified to fire at as superior fire rate at Tinkers. The tinkers would remove most safety modules off the laser, then add specific items to make the laser fire FAST. However upon completion, the tinkers will the tell the player to be "cautious" about overheating the laser cannon.

To make the laser worth getting(I assume it would be expensive and time consuming), the laser should have some special qualities. For example, the ability to fire at any target in a 45 degree angle. Thus making the laser a "swivel" cannon.

Overheat is a broken mechanic, and I'm not adding it to any more weapons until it's fixed.

[PM]

Overheat is a broken mechanic, and I'm not adding it to any more weapons until it's fixed.

Broken because the consequences of overheating (i.e., weapon damage) are too punishing for everyone. AI cannot control themselves and will overheat and break the weapon. Punishment for overheating should be like various arcade games; that is, no firing weapon until weapon completely cools down (like in Atari's Red Baron or Capcom's AvP).

[gunship256]

Overheat is a broken mechanic, and I'm not adding it to any more weapons until it's fixed.

Broken because the consequences of overheating (i.e., weapon damage) are too punishing for everyone. AI cannot control themselves and will overheat and break the weapon. Punishment for overheating should be like various arcade games; that is, no firing weapon until weapon completely cools down (like in Atari's Red Baron or Capcom's AvP).

If an overheated weapon got ionized instead of breaking, that's a consequence I could live with more easily.

[Song]

I'm starting to look at upgrading the Kiloton cannon. This gun is super old, and was at one stage one of the most feared NPC guns in the game. Power creep has rendered it......somewhat less effective than that now. It's also not that pretty. Not sure what I'll do yet, but I should be able to do something. I'd like to make sniping Ranx dreadnoughts at range as terrifying as it once was.

...well...maybe not *that* much.

I'm also thinking about finally taking a look at Lamplighter. That's going to be an interesting one. Not sure how I'll upgrade it..... maybe take advantage of the newly de-suckified radius fragment system....because I don't just want to make it "QAC but better". That's what the original was, and while it was good before power-creep set in......it was never a very exciting gun.

[PM]

Lamplighter seemed to be designed as a "boring but practical" weapon with efficient and high damage (back in the day) that cannot be resisted (by Iocrym).

I made a Lamplighter knockoff (Dragonslayer) in one of my mods. It was meant to be a faster but weaker Lamplighter. Eventually, I made my Lamplighter clone like the main gun in R-Type. It charges up for more power when the weapon is idle for a few seconds. At max power, the powered-up shot does lots of damage in a wide radius. (This is when I wanted a feature that lets me set power within capacitor directly; may or may not have posted a ticket requesting this feature.) Now that 1.6 has mostly fixed the radius bug, radius effect is very strong.

Point is radius damage is powerful... unless you sit inside the middle of a big object (like Luminous). Then you see how the radius bug was "fixed".

[JohnBWatson]

My proposal for the Lamplighter is to base its stats on what we know about it from the game. It's somewhat power - intensive, at 200MW, its description calls it the most powerful human - made weapon, and Decker claims it was designed for the Aquila. Assuming he means that he intends to replace the NAMI Heavy rather than the turrets, it should thus excel at dealing WMD damage from a reasonably safe range and quickly destroying groups of gunships, as the launcher did. Therefore, I would suggest an AOE effect, an increased range(Perhaps slightly lower than that of the Flenser, and mildly increased damage and firerate, and increased WMD rating. This is the most time - consuming weapon to obtain in the vanilla game thus far, and its power ought to reflect that. Given that its role would make it most useful in short bursts, it could be made unique by having it utilize a capacitor mechanic that decreases its DPS as it continues to fire, starting out high and falling to a less spectacular level during prolonged fire.

[Song]

I've more or less fixed the Kiloton Cannon. It's still a not-very-good gun, but it's at least passable now.

-Increased failsafe to 15, added CanHitSource to secondary fragments (this should make no difference at all, but I'm sure it's possible to kill yourself if you *really* try hard)
-Fragment count reduced to 24 (from 48), radius of effect significantly reduced.
-Damage per fragment substantially increased (from 1d8+1 to 2d10+4).
-Ammo effects moved to the ammunition item
-Descriptions for both guns reworked so they don't say what the automatic text above them says.


This means it can actually penetrate armor now, and is rather dangerous to the player. It's still woefully obsolete against what the Ranx DN is likely to fight in-universe...but I just worked that into the description.

[Song]

-Added radius fragments to lamplighter and lamplighter prototype
-Added snAntimatterGun to lamplighter prototype
-Increased damage of both weapons
-Increased shot HP to ludicrous levels to get around the same bug that makes the stock QAC (even more) useless

Known issues: High shot HP (140 for the prototype, 150 for the actual thing) are necessary to make the shots actually *hit things* without being shot down by passing blowflies. However, this does have the side effect of making them absurdly good at blocking incoming fire. I'll be trying to tone things down...but there isn't a sweet spot until George fixes that bug.

[JohnBWatson]

This means it can actually penetrate armor now, and is rather dangerous to the player. It's still woefully obsolete against what the Ranx DN is likely to fight in-universe...but I just worked that into the description.

As I understand it, the KT is designed for clearing out Teraton infestations first and foremost, and to fend off the Commonwealth Fleet secondly, and then to strike at the Ringers whenever they are able to do so. As long as it's got good range and WMD, I think it can serve the role reasonably well.

Also, any ideas on the LL's visual effects? I could see those rings Wolfy(Was it him?) figured out how to make working well there.

[Song]

The kiloton cannon doesn't have any lore or purpose besides "blow things up" (seriously, look at the description...it's old enough that it's now entirely obsolete due to the new automatic display of attributes). However, it's always been the primary weapon of the Ranx DN. The only issue is that at that level, the very low per-fragment damage means it has issues doing damage to high level armors. Downside being that by increasing that damage, the ludicrous fragment count (even when I've halved it) makes it somewhat overpowered. Which is pretty much what it used to be....this was one of the single most dangerous guns in the game to be shot at with, back in the day.

[JohnBWatson]

The kiloton cannon doesn't have any lore or purpose besides "blow things up" (seriously, look at the description...it's old enough that it's now entirely obsolete due to the new automatic display of attributes). However, it's always been the primary weapon of the Ranx DN. The only issue is that at that level, the very low per-fragment damage means it has issues doing damage to high level armors. Downside being that by increasing that damage, the ludicrous fragment count (even when I've halved it) makes it somewhat overpowered. Which is pretty much what it used to be....this was one of the single most dangerous guns in the game to be shot at with, back in the day.

I remember the old gun, and honestly I thought it was fantastic. Making it closer to that seems pretty good.

My reasoning for what it's intended to fight is simply based on what factions are nearby that they are said not to like.