Lance Weapons--More Variety than the Dreadnought?

takeshi6

Hello.

We all know the Galaxy-X Dreadnought's Claim to Fame in this Game: The Spinal Phaser Lance. Furthermore, in the Hive Space STF, the two Unimatrix Ships also have Lance Weapons (Plasma, unless I miss my guess).

No matter what variant, however, Lance Weapons are the most powerful weapons in this game. Even the Bio-Neural Warheads and Hargh'Peng Torpedoes don't come anywhere close.

My question is, why let the Galaxy-X Dreadnought have all the fun? Why can't we outfit Lance Weapons onto other ships?

I came up with one idea for how to do this, which can be found here, but I would like to know if anyone else has any other ideas.

So, here are the rules:

1. No matter how they are acquired, Lance Weapons must be endgame items, and can only be equipped on Cruisers (Fed) or Battle Cruisers (Klink)
2. Lance Weapons can be of any Energy Weapon Damage Type (Phaser, Disruptor, Plasma, Tetryon, Polaron, or Antiproton), with the player deciding which Lance Weapon to use on their ship

I look forward to hearing everyone's ideas, and I hope that Cryptic will implement one of those ideas if possible.

hypl

Number 3 is a flat out pointless and annoying rule. I don't think anyone in their right minds would put ANYTHING on their ship that could not be removed, especially if it takes up an important slot.

Other than that, It'd be nice for cruisers to have their own lance-like weapon, since they are large enough and have enough power to support such a thing.

takeshi6

hypl wrote: »

Number 3 is a flat out pointless and annoying rule. I don't think anyone in their right minds would put ANYTHING on their ship that could not be removed, especially if it takes up an important slot.

Other than that, It'd be nice for cruisers to have their own lance-like weapon, since they are large enough and have enough power to support such a thing.

Well, Rule 3 was because I remember someone from the previous thread saying that ships were built around the Lance Weapon, so removing them would not really be feasible.

Perhaps I could adjust Rule 3 to say that you COULD remove a Lance Weapon, but only by paying a hefty fee of either EC or Dilithium?

hypl

No, it should not cost anything period. It shouldn't even be a rule. Just as anyone can swap out consoles, devices, torpedoes, mines, or energy weapons on their ships with relative ease, the same should apply to lance weapons.

The focus on balancing this weapon type should be in its statistics and mechanics, and not with some annoying maintenance fee.

takeshi6

hypl wrote: »

No, it should not cost anything period. It shouldn't even be a rule. Just as anyone can swap out torpedo or energy weapons on their ships with relative ease, the same should apply to lance weapons.

The focus on balancing this weapon type should be in its statistics and mechanics, and not with some annoying maintenance fee.

All right, fine, Rule 3 has been removed.

Just for the record, though, here is the post that caused me to add Rule 3 in the first place, with minor modifications made to fix grammar/spelling errors which were in the original:

kyeto13 wrote:

There is also the fact that the Phaser lance, in canon and in game, is said to be built into the super structure of the Galaxy-X. This isn't some console your engineer can strap into your EPS system down in Engineering. They build the ship around this phaser...

Taking that into account was why I thought it should be difficult (if not impossible) to remove a Lance Weapon after it had been installed, which is why I added Rule 3 in the first place.

takeshi6

Anyway, does anyone have any ideas for how to allow Lance Weapons to be available for more ships than just the Dreadnought Cruiser? :cool:

starkaos

When I think of the Lance Weapons, I think of those massive weapons in certain animes that deal immense damage to tons of ships and takes forever to recharge. The planet destroying laser on the Death Star from Star Wars also applies to it. So it should be only slotted on frontal weapon slots and have a 3 minute recharge time and 45 degree firing arc. These values can change slightly depending on type of lance weapon. The only ship restriction this device should have is the size of the ship should make sense. Players should not be able to equip this weapon on a Runabout or Defiant. Using up a weapon slot with a huge cooldown should make this weapon balanced enough.

takeshi6

starkaos wrote: »

When I think of the Lance Weapons, I think of those massive weapons in certain animes that deal immense damage to tons of ships and takes forever to recharge.

I think of about the same thing, though I think a bit more broadly. :cool:

centersolace

Oh god no! Don't take the one thing that makes my ship somewhat useful away!!!!

warpangel

takeshi6 wrote: »

Taking that into account was why I thought it should be difficult (if not impossible) to remove a Lance Weapon after it had been installed, which is why I added Rule 3 in the first place.

For something to be built into the ship, it has to be built into the ship. You can't just add it later and say its built into the ship now. Either something is in the ship when it's made and can't be changed (Galaxy-X lance) or it's replaceable (normal weapons).

mb52

If you plan to take away the Gal-X's main unique feature and give it to everything else, how do you plan to modify the Gal-X to make it useful/competitive again? As it is right now, the Gal-X isn't that great of a ship. The lance is just a neat weapon, that you hardly get any use of.