New weapon "categories" (wild ideas)

[Thanshin]

These ideas are clearly beyond the scope of a beta, but I'll throw them out there anyway, just for fun.

-- Shock troops pod
A module that upon reaching the preset distance to an enemy ship of the appropiate size, launches a shock troop pod.
The pod moves like a weaponless fighter and can be killed as one. If it isn't killed, as it touches the hull it gets stuck and the marines enter, dealing some kind of damage.
Diversity of number of simultaneous pods, number of shots and pod characteristics.

A possible additional degree of complexity is the ability to design the shock troop pod (mostly, choosing between speed, armor and amount of shock troops).

-- Contact weapons
Extra short range weapons (essentially 0) for cruiser ships. Kind of a battering ram, to penetrate large tanks with mass armour and shields.
Diversity of shield killer, armor killer, etc...

-- Ship decoys
A module that launches fighter decoys; robotic fighter-like ships that simply roam around taking some anti-fighter fire.
Diversity of decoy abilities and rate of fire (should be very high).

-- Remote Shield Recharger Beam
A weapon module, similar to the tractor beam, that helps with the recharging of friendly ships' shields.
Diversity of range, intensity and simultaneous targets (close/weak/many, to help roaming fighters. close/strong/one on frigates, to protect capital ships).

[oddis]

Yeah well, remote ship shield/armor repair units would be awesome. The basic idea is this: 1) remote units repair far more better than local, 2) but you need a friendly ship that has such a unit to be actually successful. Like in EVE. Basically team work - synergy.

[Archduke Astro]

These ideas are clearly beyond the scope of a beta, but I'll throw them out there anyway, just for fun.

-- Shock troops pod
A module that upon reaching the preset distance to an enemy ship of the appropiate size, launches a shock troop pod.
The pod moves like a weaponless fighter and can be killed as one. If it isn't killed, as it touches the hull it gets stuck and the marines enter, dealing some kind of damage.
Diversity of number of simultaneous pods, number of shots and pod characteristics.

I'll second this idea. I think it's quite cool. Deployment via assault shuttle entails some risks, but who wants to live forever?

My own notions have been actually revolving around crashing into (or passing verrrrry close by) enemy ships and deploying space marine boarding parties via thruster-equipped EVA suits. My forum sig makes that pretty clear. :)

My spacegoing leathernecks force the opposing units's airlocks and take the battle into the hallways and compartments of the foe. I'd hope that they can gang up on key items of shipboard equipment and arrange for a little accident involving shaped charges and delicate electronics. "Oops! Was that your last point-defense mount? Sorry, pal; we're soooo clumsy."

[Wraith]

I don't think unseen onboard combat really fits with the game, IMHO.

However, to continue the subject of the thread, I think that to balance such a mechanic, new modules would need to be introduced, such as Security Teams and Security Stations for example. It would remain to be seen if adding any or all of these new Modules would then allow enough other Modules to be fitted to come out with a ship that can still take it to the enemy.

I do recall having a huge amount of fun with Assault Shuttles in Masters of Orion 2, so it can work.

[cliffski]

it would definitely be cool to have a single troopship trying to drift unnoticed through a swarm of fighters to deliver its cargo :D
How about transporters that beam marines over to an enemy ship if their shields are down? like strike-teams tasked with taking out specific modules :D

I have a ton of new things i want to one-day get in the game...

[Thanshin]

How about transporters that beam marines over to an enemy ship if their shields are down? like strike-teams tasked with taking out specific modules :D

Nice idea. The only thing I'd have in mind is to quickly reduce the effect of those "invasions" to a simple effect on modules* to avoid overcomplications.

Also, to balance remote teleport and shuttle delivery of invaders, I'd consider that the teleport my consume a large amount of energy and only work when very close, while the delivery is very cheap to have and can travel for an arbitrary long path (it's up to the player to choose which distance he thinks the shuttles will be able to survive).

One last thing. I'd have the shuttle return with the survivors to the mothership (or the marines beamed back), after the target ship is destroyed; allowing for a second invasion.



*: Like, lose [some random] men on the assault and then permanently disables one module for each ten surviving marines.

[Slow Dog]

How about transporters that beam marines over to an enemy ship if their shields are down?

[Meta Question] Why not just transport armed Nukes?

[Serpent]

We've got nano repair bots.. why can't we have nano destruction bots? Carried on torpedos or fired from railguns that strike the enemy hull and sit there eating armor for breakfast. There would have to be a counter to them, possibly an electroshock component. Or the nano destructors could eventually die out on their own, so if you had nano repair you could conceivably just wait them our if your ship wasn't in mortal danger and you didn't have the shock device.

There could also be nano destructors that land on the hull and head for certain systems to disable them, like engines or weapons, which would take time to power pack up (less to no time if you had the nano system repair)

[Serpent]

I always liked the graviton beams from MOO. If it gets through your shields and hits your armor it does a bit of extra structure damage because of the nasty crunch it does.

[kandalf]

Beaming in of nukes a la Stargate is awesome. And then the lowest level shields would have like a % prevention chance.

However, to truly emulate the destructive power of a nuke inside a ship, limited ammo would be a must so, that nukes would be powerful, but a module only would contain a couple nukes.

[JamesCooper]

Yeah, beaming nukes onboard seems a little crazy. After all, wouldn't that entirely bypass shields and armor? Why use any other weapon? Unless the nukes aren't going to do much damage, which is uncharacteristic of a nuke. Maybe it's reasonable to say you can't beam stuff in past shields (commonly mentioned in ST:TNG), but that still makes instant death as simple as destroying shields.

I'm hesitant about using this idea.

[Warskull]

it would definitely be cool to have a single troopship trying to drift unnoticed through a swarm of fighters to deliver its cargo :D
How about transporters that beam marines over to an enemy ship if their shields are down? like strike-teams tasked with taking out specific modules :D

I have a ton of new things i want to one-day get in the game...

This idea sounds interesting. The concept of high risk, high reward attacks that can target specific modules seems really good.

[Thanshin]

[Meta Question] Why not just transport armed Nukes?

Everybody knows that transporting explosives will make them pop up on the sending side.

The marines can only be transported with swords and knives. Maybe a crossbow.

[tater]

The troops would be useful combined with an abstracted planetary defense/invasion. Then some battles could be on side defending, the other trying to get landing craft to the planet.

[dafrandle]

you realize this isnt the gsb 2 discussion thread right? cliffski (i think) is done modifying gsb