EDIT: I just noticed that there was already a post on the same theme... However I don't feel that bad because it was a year ago... and now I want to see what people think about it since we are starting to get a more prescise idea of what the game is gonna look like...
Hello there,
So I recently started to take a look at From the Depth, and they had a turret system that looked really cool!
Basically, to make a gun you have many components wich act like "blocs".
You have to actually place them on your ship, facing the right way so they do what you want these to do:
for example, the loading system of a shell is basically ammo inserters facing a rack,
the number of block of rack you have aligned determines the ammo clip, or buffer your gun has,
and the number of loader on the side (wich can for example load a shell of 100mm caliber in a few seconds...)
determines the ammo loading rate you have, and you can synchronise your gun firerate to be able to acheive a constant firering...
Again, the caliber of the gun, the length of the barrel, the barrel type ,
the number of barrels (you can make a gatling gun) all of these and much more can be customized, there are no identical guns...
(Even though I know that DU isn't going to simulate the projectiles, that wont come in the way, you can compute the statistics of a weapon and apply them in combat)
and they have a similar mechanic for missiles wich are composed of "compartements" wich can be used as propelant, seeking, explosive charge, fins, ...
and the longer the missile, the less agile it gets, the more reload time you get.... and the more space it actually takes in the ship...
This way you can't met two exacte same misiles, and that would allow much more diverse defending methods
They didn't used this system for propulsion, however, that's not a bad idea either, I'm already seeing different types of fuel injectors, mixing chambers, combustion chambers... That would of course be a lot of work,
however if this ever become a thing, I already see people asking each other's confing, and actual skills in engine manufacturing...
perhaps some part will require a better prescision, and can't be made everywhere... Some parts could end up being really rare... and others easy to make...
anyway I'm really tired, I got exams tomorow so there probably are a lots of mistakes, and beeing French doesn't help...
Thank you for your consideration!