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Building Weapons


Thundergunner42

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  So I'm not sure if this is where to put this post but I'm going to put it here anyway. I also put this in building but I'm pretty sure it goes here. So this post is about building different weapons. In it I will talk about how to do this, why I think it's important, and what it could bring to the gameplay of the game. Please give your feedback in the comments. And if the devs have already talked about this or somebody made a post like this already, sorry, I didn't see it.

     So a weapon building system would work like this in my mind. So take a Star Wars DH-17 Blaster Pistol. How I think this would work is kind of like the star ship building system but instead there's an item or block called the weapon work bench. You would interact with it and a flat space would pop up or something I don't know. But your avatar or, not your actual avatar, your perspective would shrink down so it is in scale with the gun. The DH-17 is a blaster so it would have some type of power cell. So you could pick the power cell and put it there, then put the wires and stuff to the barrel and then make the grip, and I hope you get where this is going. Or if you were building a turbolaser ( And I'm not saying it has to be a turbolaser, just pick a big stationary gun) it would be in your normal perspective but bigger wires, power cells, barrels, stuff like that. Or if you were building something like a gun with bullets you could designate where the new clip goes in or if the devs want even make your own reload animation.

     I think this type of thing is necessary because of the need for diversity. If the devs make some, say, 50 cal machine guns, and some others then the types of weaponry are limited. If your flying your ship and you see another ship with power cannons then you will probably know how to counter those. Now you might be thinking "What if there are to many guns and different weapons." Well the same can be said for ships and fighters and stuff. Your going to be able to build your own ship so there's going to be thousands of different fighters and battleships and stuff. + if somebody makes a good model ship then mass produces it then there will be less ships. Same can be said for the weapons system. If somebody make a good gun not to big and has all these other good quality's then bam it could be massed produced and lots of people could use it. That would bring the amount of weapons down.

     I think the gameplay would be a lot more interesting and bring a lot of interesting times when say you come across enemy pirates while escorting a goods transport ship and they're using a weapon that you haven't seen before. That could be interesting. Or if you and a bunch of people want to build a Death Star. Their not going to put a Death Star superlaser in the game but with this you can build you own. Post in the comments what you think about this.

 

By: Thundergunner42

​P.S. This took 3 hours to recherché and write so please have mercy on me

 

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First off, welcome to the forums. That is a hefty first post where most just say "hi".

 

As for the comments, yes I would love a customizable weapon system, but I wonder why people always stop at weapons. Why not expand the system to be able to customize a whole lot more?

 

Let's have a quick look at potential customization weapons systems that could be implemented:

 

1) The whole hog. In this implementation, everything can be changed. From the look and feel of the weapon, to whether it spouts fire, plasma or lasers. Special components can be added or removed to make each weapon unique and handle differently. Effectively a weapon is another voxel construct. But this system has some drawbacks: it is costly to develop components and balance them and also there is the cost of just viewing the many different creations.

 

2) Limited visual customization. A bit less freedom than the first option but still has a bunch of components that could be added to a weapon to upgrade it and give the element a slightly different look. This requires less runtime processing but requires more models to be created up front and, again, the components need balancing.

 

3) Scripting with no visual changes. 1 element to rule them all. And functionality can be changed via scripting. This option may not be as visually appealing but it may be much more powerful than the first two "pre-set" options. The downside of this is developing the scripting API and it also has a much high bar for entry: not everyone will be able to DU it.

 

DU is going with 3. Maybe later further visual customizations can be made to elements and avatar items in general, but I only see this being implemented after release, if at all.

 

Side note: There is no scripting planned for avatar worn/held items AFAIK, so having any sort of player driven customization for these would be a big plus, though again it is not core functionality.

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Didn't jc mention in the rsvp meet up something like this? Could be wrong though...

 

Anyway, I'd love to see that but I doubt we'll see it soon because they'd have to balance every element of the weapon with care instead of just balancing one element (=the gun).

 

And no, nq won't allow a death star weapon, and they certainly won't allow players to build such a weapon with the idea you had there. Such weapons are just bad balancing and only make up for bad gameplay.

 

Btw: welcome to the forum

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Welcome to the forums!

To clarify what @Lethys said, it will be possible to build a structure as large as the Deathstar, but it will not be possible for it to function like it does in the movies. In other words, weapons of that scale will not be possible in Dual Universe.

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Welcome to the forums!

 

To clarify what @Lethys said, it will be possible to build a structure as large as the Deathstar, but it will not be possible for it to function like it does in the movies. In other words, weapons of that scale will not be possible in Dual Universe.

That's why I said "death star weapon". Didn't think that was unclear :) but ty for clarifying that

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Welcome to the forums!

 

To clarify what @Lethys said, it will be possible to build a structure as large as the Deathstar, but it will not be possible for it to function like it does in the movies. In other words, weapons of that scale will not be possible in Dual Universe.

I do hope they dont limit it to tiny little weapons. Like avorion, you can have a ship thats 10km long, but your weapons still only have a range of 10k.

 

There needs to be something equlivant to the dooms day weapons in eve. not planet cracker, but fleet destroyers. They just come at an enormpus cost, both to build and operate.

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I do hope they dont limit it to tiny little weapons. Like avorion, you can have a ship thats 10km long, but your weapons still only have a range of 10k.

 

There needs to be something equlivant to the dooms day weapons in eve. not planet cracker, but fleet destroyers. They just come at an enormpus cost, both to build and operate.

I have to agree, the only problem is, it's not very easy to balance these kinds of weapons. As soon as an organization gets their hands on one of them, it could mean they hold all the power in the game.

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I have to agree, the only problem is, it's not very easy to balance these kinds of weapons. As soon as an organization gets their hands on one of them, it could mean they hold all the power in the game.

We can look at eve for this. Sure it gives them some power, but nothing that cant be delt with with a bunch of other ships. And eventually they become common and sometimes a liability.

 

You could make the same argument against the first person to make a gun vs a fist.

 

Remember it isnt just magically making it. It takes resources which is time and effort, as well as upkeep.

What materials are required per shot, or energy based, how much fuel? If NQ doesn't add in a DD equivalent weapon the players will try their hardest to created on within the game. Look at all the railgun designs in SE that were made when rockets were more likely to kill you over the enemy.

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I don't think we would need a whole new interface dedicated to making weaponry, just as much as you need to build a ship. Also, real weaponry should be used(No handwavium-powered lasers that aren't actually lasers), with real properties, which will limit superweapons. For example, we have the Stephen-Boltzmann Law, which states that Radiant Exitance(in Watts/Area) = material emissivity * Stephen-Boltzmann Constant* Temparture^4. More powerful weapons emit more heat and the area of the radiators needed to dissipate the heat goes up by the 4th power of the temperature, so the radiators are going to get real big real fast and become a very easy target. 

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  • 1 month later...

I would say the best example of scalable and customization weapons to use would be Starmade. From The Depths is also good, so nice post ADFormers.

 

I do not think JC meant there would not be any big or heavy weaponry that kicked one hell of a punch, and could scale up to a Death Star construct; However I do believe what was stated, was that there wouldn't be anything overpowering or game breaking. Destroying stars and planets from afar kinda seems like it would be just that, considering if I recall right, NQ does not want anybody to be sitting there wondering what the hell happened to the 1,000 hours somebody just invested into a planet. You know, no rug ripped out from under you without you ever knowing why or what happened.

 

I do believe a degree of customization and as I said, scalability, is critical here though. If we can build ships as vast and limitless with the absolutely breathtakingly amazing voxel tools that this game seems to have; I do see the need to be able to make a gigantic cannon that runs the length of the ship, or specialized phasers; Maybe something like in Star Trek with different energy types; Being able to conceal weapons better; Broadsides; Or just any number of customization that do not simply break the game. So you are onto something here Thundergunner42, it's a thought I feel the same way about.

 

Having everybody running around with the same pre-made weaponry on these massively different starships, just seems... Meh.

 

Anyways, keeping this topic going, like the shields, I love my guns. Have a great day everybody!

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for the record, if i can build one of my SE railguns here, i will. IN fact i would love to have elements that work together to build our own custom weapons like a SE railgun, with different drawbacks, advantages, and designs by the community.

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7 minutes ago, BliitzTheFox said:

for the record, if i can build one of my SE railguns here, i will. IN fact i would love to have elements that work together to build our own custom weapons like a SE railgun, with different drawbacks, advantages, and designs by the community.

That's what I thought as well, but I guess NQ needs to balance the PREMADE weapons before going into modular weapon design.

 

Just make them act as "Weapon Constructs", with their own niche of Core Units, able to be RC'd from the safety of a control room. The cosntruct rules will sort this out afterwards.

Huge weapon? Turns slowlly. Turning slowlly, it can't turn fast enough to put a target in its crosshairs for logn enough to "lock" a hit. And sicne it's voxel made, one lucky hit can snap it.

But NQ should take care of balancing the differnet types of damage first (laser, plasma, ballsitic). If they nail down how those mechnaics behave, they can easily make custom-made modular turrets happen.

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Now you're all detecting why I think this is a need; I would love to make a pulse cannon; Something that sends out a shock wave, or just any amount of other things; Like a cannon that goes the length of the ship, and has quite the distance.

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