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Vehicle Weaponry


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So I was looking at the awesome cannon and laser turret models that was shared recently then i started wondering, what kind of weaponry will we be messing with. Luckily in the realm of sci-fi there are many types to choose from. There is traditional bullets,lasers (which have been confirmed), rail guns, missiles and rockets, plasma launchers, charged particle cannons, lightning cannons, drones, and much much more, but the question i have is, will we have access to many of these different weapon types or will we only have a select few to choose from.

 

Now if we do have access to a bunch of weapon types, the question is how will they be different from each other?

 

  • Will traditional bullet based weaponry have a higher rate of fire than rail-guns, and will rail-guns have higher damage per round than traditional bullet based weaponry. 
  • Will a laser be a long range low-yet constant damage the doesn't require ammo but drains the user's power. Will a lightning cannon be similar but is short range and can arc to other nearby targets.
  • Does being in atmosphere have an effect on these weapons, like a guided missile with fins would do much better on a planet than in space because of aerodynamics, or a plasma launcher would hurl faster projectiles in space due to lack of drag.
  • Will some be better at precisely penetrating several layers of armor with little collateral damage, and will some leave large gashes on the surface.
  • Will there be weapons that don't shoot at all but instead you mount to the front of your ship or buggy that would be perfect for ramming.
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Will there be friendly fire? 

 

GOD I HOPE SO! 

also +1 for adding bullets that get depleted. 

this is a feature I loved in RF online : Arrows

 

I was a ranger and I had to buy arrows for my bow, you different types of elements that you could combine with the arrows.

Fire damage 

Poison 

Wind 

etc.. and depending on the mob you had to pick which to use. 

It also had a big impact on crafting.

 

The shop arrows where pods of 200 arrows, the crafted ones where 500/1k a pod etc...

Ah RF online <3

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concerning ammunition i remember anarchy online, where you bought 100 ammo per click and they could be stacked up to 50k, the rate high level weapons used ammo was like 10 per second or something alike.

In the end everyone used a clickbot just to buy ammo, there was even one created for that sole purpose :D

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Hi everyone,

There will be several weapon categories. The exact number of categories remains a matter of discussion.

This is a factor that could be influenced by the roadmap and when we reach each milestone.

Some weapon categories can be part of the Kickstarter campaign.

It is also planned to have ammunitions for weapons :)

 

Best Regards,

Nyzaltar.

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If I can't have cyborg dragons shooting laser beams out of their eyes, I will be sorely disappointed. Disappointed in you Nyz...

There is a game like that for free on Steam right now. It's called Time of Dragons.

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I started a thread that discusses war and battles and has a section on weaponry here https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/281-diversity-of-battles-and-wars/.

 

Nyz's comments on the topic:

 

NQ-Nyzaltar, on 03 Jun 2015 - 4:42 PM, said:

We are thinking about weapon families, with each type of weapon very efficient in some cases and not very efficient in others. Right now we plan to have at least 4 different types of damage, but it might still change in the future.

 

@Semigod I also talk about friendly fire in that thread and get a response from Nyz if you're interested.

 

Anyway, I'm glad you started this thread, because it's good to put ideas out.  My opinion is that the more types of damage and types of weaponry there are, the better.

 

Damage Types

 

My ideas for damage types are:

Kinetic - objects with mass and velocity colliding with you;
Thermal-heat

Thermal-cold?
Radiative -  radioactivity, this might be from a radioactive source, or a weapon that fires a particle beam of gamma rays, or a radioactive chain reaction (I.e. a nuclear explosion)
Explosive - any kind of explosive force
Electromagnetic - affecting electronic equipment and power sources only

 

Weapon Families

 

Chemically Propelled Projectiles (i.e. "normal" guns)
Main advantages: relatively small, you can fit a lot on your vehicle; doesn't require a power source; can run right through energy shielding; space to ground potential? If so, highly inaccurate
Main disadvantages: poor performance all around; needs ammo; comparatively limited range
Hard counter: Armour

 

EM Propelled Projectiles (i.e. railguns, note these wouldn't do EM damage)
Main advantages: powerful; energy shielding can't stop them; space to ground as above
Main disadvantages: needs a lot of energy; needs a lot of ammo
Hard counter: Heavy armour

 

Missiles (i.e. guided explosives)
Main advantages: Chase down their targets (aiming not an issue); can break armour and not stopped by shielding; no energy source needed;
Main disadvantages: Relatively slow rate of fire; needs ammo; space missiles and in atmosphere missiles separate
Hard counter: point defense systems

 

Particle beams (e.g. lasers, phasors, particle cannons)
Main advantages: no ammo, continuous beam; high concentrated damage; very accurate, can pinpoint target systems; excellent range; space to ground and ground to space capabilities
Main disadvantages: needs energy source
Hard counter: energy shielding

 

Plasma Weapons
Main advantages: Very high damage potential, can go through energy shielding and armour quite quickly; good range; space to ground and ground to space capabilities
Main disadvantages: needs ammo, needs a lot of energy, very big, needs a lot of space
Hard counter: none, but if you're mounting these on your vehicle then it will have some glaring vulnerabilities

 

Bombs (3 kinds: droppable, plantable timed, plantable remote)
Main advantages: good damage potential; can go through point defense, armour and shielding; can explode inside a target, space to ground capability
Main disadvantages: droppable difficult to aim, plantable needs infiltration and can be diffused
Hard counter: none but the disadvantages should be enough

 

Mines (essentially plantable bombs that are proximity triggered)
Main advantages: same as bombs but also difficult to detect
Main disadvantages: static, once planted can't be moved;
Hard counter: mine sweepers; anything that can sweep mines should have virtually no offensive or defensive capability

Cloaking devices: not a damage dealing weapon but still a weapon nonetheless. If your ship mounts one of these then it would have had to sacrifice virtually all other forms of defense; I.e cloaked ship = glass cannon. Only work in space, maybe
Hard counter: scanners; as the antithesis of cloaking devices, vehicles that mount these will have had to sacrifice virtually all of their offensive capability

 

Electromagnetic pulse (EMP)
Main advantages: damages electronic equipment and energy sources within a limited radius, fires through energy shielding and armour
Main disadvantages: knocks out your own electronic equipment too; useless against non-electronic equipment
Hard counter: heavy metal encasements

 

Each of the headings above would be a family of weapons, and each would possibly have a family of ammo if ammo is required.

 

Regarding damage types, which Nyzaltar mentions there, I think they should be very careful about allowing weapon families to have variations that include any damage type.  So my opinion is that all missiles, bombs and mines should be around 80% explosive damage, the other 20% can vary depending on the missiles you have loaded.  All projectiles should do around 90% kinetic damage.  Plasma weapons should do a combination of thermal and kinetic damage.  And particle beam weapons should only be able to do thermal and radiative damage.  My reasoning here is to keep the hard counters to these weapons consistent while also avoiding a situation where all weapons become essentially the same.  If you have these kinds of strict limitations on damage types that can be dealt by each weapon family, and damage types that can be blocked by defenses, then there are always counters, there is always rock/paper/scissors and tough decisions to be made.  If you have an extremely powerful armada of spaceships with nothing but shields and projectile weapons, you will be totally owned by a smaller force that did its homework and built ships with armour and missiles.

 

So a quick addendum on defenses:

 

Armour: absorbs mainly kinetic damage, plus a little explosive
Energy Shields: absorbs thermal and radiative damage
Point defense: shoots down missiles
Cloaking device: renders its bearer invisible
Scanners: can detect cloaked vehicles
Mine sweepers: can detect and diffuse mines

 

Oh and by the way I love the ramming idea. I was watching The Expanse the other day and a ship fired a small pots hard into an enemy ship, embedding itself into the hull. The pod was packed with a boarding crew.  Pretty sure they would all have been crushed by the impact but, well, you know, science fiction and stuff.

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