Another time for a round of ideas I had, this time for weapons.
Basically, the idea is to let nearly every aspect of weapon systems be changeable. What this means in particular? Well, let's look at some weapons:
Missile LaunchersParameters:
- Calibre (No research)
- Speed imparted on launch (Research: Railgun Maximum MJ Per Ton)
- Internal Magazine Capacity
- Fire rate from internal magazine (The higher this is, the more space a missile takes up when in the internal mag, reducable by research)
- Transfer rate from magazine to internal magazine (the actual rate being the worse of magazine transfer rate and this; improvable by research)
- Fire in order or the missile can be chosen. (Chosable missiles results in more space required for the internal launchers)
So, what design possibilities does that leave us?
No-Bells FAC launcherCalibre whatever it is, without much speed imparted to save weight, six missiles, fire rate of two seconds per missile, no transfer rate and not choosable missiles.
The launcher can shoot the missiles in twelve seconds in order. No bells and whistles, just close to the target, fire the missiles and burn as hard as possible to get out of enemy range.
Revolver FAC launcherCalibre whatever it is, without much speed imparted to save weight, six missiles, fire rate of two seconds per missile, no transfer rate and choosable missiles.
The launcher can shoot the missiles in twelve seconds, and can choose the missile to actually shoot on-the-fly. That allows it to, for example, take four ASMs, one anti-FAC missile and one EW missile.
Capital Ship LauncherCalibre whatever it is, much speed imparted, no missiles in internal magazine, fire rate of p.ex. ten seconds per missile, transfer rate of ten seconds per missile and separately fired missiles.
This launcher is more single-purpose: Deliver the most punch you can as fast as you can, and be able to launch all available ordinance as fast as you can. It requires special magazines to keep up the firing rate (which will require more tonnage per missile), but that can well be worth it.
Energy WeaponsThis only looks at energy weapons from their similarities, of course, Railguns and Lasers and... will have additional design aspects.
- Fire rate (Can be increased by tech, or mass invested)
- Internal Capacitor storage (Can be increased by tech and mass invested)
- Capacitor reload rate (Can be increased by tech and mass invested)
So, the tonnage is didived in the weapon itself, the capacitors, the connections from capacitor to weapon and the connections from reactor to capacitor. One question remaining is whether the fire rate can be set under one second (Either all shots at once, or p.ex. 0.5 = two shots per second). The rest assumes the second case.
Let's chose lasers as an example.
PD LaserFire rate as small as possible, 0.2 seconds (five shots per second); internal capacitor storage for ten shots, capacitor reload rate small, maybe completely full after ten seconds. Very, very small calibre.
The final fire laser cluster. Equipped to deal with big salvoes it can lose ten shots in two seconds, allowing it to destroy up to ten missiles nearly at once. After being drained it can fire either one shot per second, or wait ten seconds to be full again and any variation.
FAC LaserFire rate one second; internal capacitor storage for ten shots; Capacitor reload rate very small, maybe a minute per shot.
This laser is designed as main armament for a FAC class ship. It is able to fire a high-calibre weapon ten times, within ten seconds, hopefully shattering the oponent. After the attack, the FAC has to break off and reload for ten minutes from undersized power plants. The tactics probably would be to attack from the front, accelerate as hard as possible, shoot ten times during the fly-by and then deccelerate again and accelerate in the other direction to attack again.
Capital Ship LaserFire rate is two seconds; internal capacitor storage for one shot; capacitor reload rate two seconds.
Feeding directly from the power plant, this massive laser is thought for capital ships that can be sure that the opponent can survive several shots. Sustained fire is possible, and the power plant needs to be equipped for this.
Anyway, that's my thoughts on that. Basically, Newtonian Aurora and Pulsar especially are for me "Give the player as much possibility to change parameters as possible." Thanks for reading.
Edit: And forgot: I may crunch some numbers for better examples, some time next week or so.