Phaser Lance mechanics change

cmdrskyfaller

As seen in 'All Good Things' TNG episode the Phaser lance is not exactly a cannon that has a long reload timer.


Granted, in STO it was made so early in the game since back then it was the high damage potential weapon... but I think it can be done better, differently.


Suggestion:


Change the Lance into a 45 second weapon ability.

Give it the equivalent damage of 'beam overload 4'.

The Lance fires 6 pulses which all together add up to the 'beam overload 4' damage.

Lance firing sequence lasts 1.5x that of regular beam array animation firing cycle.

Very narrow arc (10 degrees).


What this does is give a high damage beam attack to a ship that has no lt cmdr+ tactical station and it can fire it at more opportunities than it currently does.

The current saucer separation+shotgun lance can be changed to the battle section of the ship gaining wider angle for the lance shot (no more shotgun..that was absurd really)..from 10 degrees to 45 degrees.

This angle change allows the ship to maneuver and not interrupt the 6 pulses as the ship fires which may happen if it was limited to just 10 degrees.

autumnturning

Only adjustment I'd make to that suggestion would be that since 10 degrees is a tiny tiny arc that the Phaser Lance be something that can be "cued" to auto attack (once) when a $Target enters the 10 degree arc. That way you can "set and forget" the Phaser Lance such that you decide you're going to fire it and then simply need to maneuver your ship so as to line up the shot. If you have to line up first and THEN shoot second, with such a tiny arc, you're liable to make it a more frustrating experience than absolutely necessary methinks.

rmy1081

I just want a shorter cool down. It's 4 ish mins on the lance and 1 min on the javelin.

projectfrontier

cmdrskyfaller wrote: »

As seen in 'All Good Things' TNG episode the Phaser lance is not exactly a cannon that has a long reload timer.


Granted, in STO it was made so early in the game since back then it was the high damage potential weapon... but I think it can be done better, differently.


Suggestion:


Change the Lance into a 45 second weapon ability.

Give it the equivalent damage of 'beam overload 4'.

The Lance fires 6 pulses which all together add up to the 'beam overload 4' damage.

Lance firing sequence lasts 1.5x that of regular beam array animation firing cycle.

Very narrow arc (10 degrees).


What this does is give a high damage beam attack to a ship that has no lt cmdr+ tactical station and it can fire it at more opportunities than it currently does.

The current saucer separation+shotgun lance can be changed to the battle section of the ship gaining wider angle for the lance shot (no more shotgun..that was absurd really)..from 10 degrees to 45 degrees.

This angle change allows the ship to maneuver and not interrupt the 6 pulses as the ship fires which may happen if it was limited to just 10 degrees.

Your thread is probably going to be merged with mine (see here).

QUESTION - is your lance idea a toggle power or a weapon item?

QUESTION - BO4?

cmdrskyfaller

if by toggle power mean like it is now (a built in ability of the ship hull) then yes. The thing is part of the ship design it should never be a console or a weapon taking up a slot.

BO4 in damage. Think how damage scales up between BO1 to 3... the lance would be like a 'BO4'

monkeybone13

cmdrskyfaller wrote: »

As seen in 'All Good Things' TNG episode the Phaser lance is not exactly a cannon that has a long reload timer.


Granted, in STO it was made so early in the game since back then it was the high damage potential weapon... but I think it can be done better, differently.


Suggestion:


Change the Lance into a 45 second weapon ability.

Give it the equivalent damage of 'beam overload 4'.

The Lance fires 6 pulses which all together add up to the 'beam overload 4' damage.

Lance firing sequence lasts 1.5x that of regular beam array animation firing cycle.

Very narrow arc (10 degrees).


What this does is give a high damage beam attack to a ship that has no lt cmdr+ tactical station and it can fire it at more opportunities than it currently does.

The current saucer separation+shotgun lance can be changed to the battle section of the ship gaining wider angle for the lance shot (no more shotgun..that was absurd really)..from 10 degrees to 45 degrees.

This angle change allows the ship to maneuver and not interrupt the 6 pulses as the ship fires which may happen if it was limited to just 10 degrees.

Are you insane? The 45 degree arc it already has is bad enough. That's half the arc of most torpedo launchers.

The ship doesn't turn fast enough for 10 degrees to be workable.

There are a lot of complaints about the lance being too inaccurate. My theory is that the enemy will move just out of the firing arc when it starts to fire, thus making it miss.

If anything they should increase the arc to 90 degrees.

10 degree arc........might as well just remove the damn lance entirely since that would make it completely miss every single time, that is if you can even get your ship turned enough to start it's firing cycle. When an enemy moves out of the firing arc, it will stop firing at it. You'd be lucky to get 1 pulse off. It would force players to resort to using a tractor beam to keep an enemy in pace so they could even use it.

ghyudt

So, basically you wanna make it similar to what the chimera destroyer has.

cmdrskyfaller

ghyudt wrote: »

So, basically you wanna make it similar to what the chimera destroyer has.

but single target on narrow arc. Basically if you combined all 3 of the phaser lotus beams into 1 beam and fired it forward yeah. BO4 essentially.

The multiple pulses are mentioned merely to match the lore of the phaser lance. The only time this weapon had on-screen it fired about 5 consecutive shots that popped the KDF cruiser.