Oberlus wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2019 4:42 pm
LienRag wrote: ↑Wed Jun 12, 2019 11:58 pmFor nitpicking: having point-blank weapons doing (depending of the relative combat orders) from zero to 4 times the same damage as they do in the current proposal (the one Ophiuchus mentioned) looks to me like a difference.
Sorry, a difference to what?
It's just nitpicking, but between the current proposal and my formation combat mechanics, a point-blank ship would either win (do four rounds of damage) or lose (do zero round of damage) depending of the initial position and orders received, so I can't say that it's the same mechanic, though I do admit that Ophiuchus's is a way to abstract it to some extent.
I think that's exactly Geoff's idea.
Oh, so apparently I brought nothing new here. Or maybe if Geoff's noisiness didn't affect ships before battle did I bring the reverse concept of what I thought I brought? Because I think both noisinesses are interesting and should be implemented, the one that lowers the base stealth of a ship AND the one that further reduces its stealth the more it uses its weapons in combat.
Oberlus wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2019 4:42 pmSomething similar (without the asteroid belt requirement) is in the weapons proposal: mass drivers. But I'm not sure about weapons that could be useless (because of hard requirements) depending on the system you are. A bonus from the requirement could good, though. Same for your Gas Masers (another nice idea).
Well, with the fluff I gave, they'll be useless outside their source of power...
And I think that's a simpler way that giving just a bonus, it shows clearly where they are supposed to fight.
I can understand how powerful weapons that work only around one's planets could turn into spammable orbital defense ships (and I agree that we don't want that), but it seems that to avoid this it's better to limit the boni from player-owned structures (Asteroid Processors and so on) than to allow these weapons to fight efficiently outside of Gas Giants/Asteroids/whatever: this way they'll be nearly as efficient on offense than on defense, fleet that use them should just be wary of not being caught flat-footed.
That makes Orbital Mirrors as I called them maybe a not-so-good idea actually - I'll let you decide about it.
(and again for nitpicking, aren't mass drivers a sort of gauss gun? I always thought of them that way.
Asteroid slingers are different in that they sling much more massive - let's say the size of a car - projectiles, and should as such make more damage to big hulls when this distinction will be implemented)
I don't know how the backend work but such weapons should definitely have their boni strictly depend on the system where they do fight, not begin able to carry them to other systems (even with waning effects like Solarweb).
I very much like the concept of Solarweb by the way, and Void Themes may use weapons with Black Holes boni perhaps?
It would be boring to have each theme have a similar mechanism to benefit from some specific Star type but if the design is different enough it's still an idea to pursue imho (the way Organic War Adaption works is in itself a way of differentiating Organic Hulls that allows for other Themes location-specific boni that would still be original).
Do we have weapons that are jammed by Galactical events (Ion Cloud, Nebulae, things like that)? That sure would be nice to be able to mount a surprise counterattack on a temporarily crippled bully (yes I know that some already disable shields and that's already a nice mechanism)...
Or maybe some that benefit from them? I'm sure in some of the weirdest Themes or side Themes there's a way to imagine wacky things...
Even maybe have one Theme that has its most effective weapons location-or-event-dependant? Going that theme will mean more powerful weapons but absolutely non-versatile ones, so a very specific playstyle.
By the way, I think that the Themes which are the most efficient for military production should be also the least efficient for Supply/Influence mechanisms: not only would it play on the narrative that "violence doesn't solve everything" but it should bring more intelligent strategies as one would have to choose between being able to wreak havoc to enemy fleet and worlds or being able to manage the wide Empire that his fleet are able to create.
A difference could also be made between Themes more suited for Space combat and those more suited for Ground combat...