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Idea - Change to space weapon ranges
berniestompa
Member Posts: 34 Arc User
Couldn't find a forum for ideas and such so here goes.
My biggest gripe in space combat has always been the range of weapons. 10km is an extremely close range in star trek. In fact the Picard maneuver can only realy work from a distance of 1 light second, approximately 300k km distance.
Whilst this would be more realistic from a canon perspective I am not suggesting Cryptic up the range to 300km.
What I am suggesting is a slight increase but not across the board. I believe that torpedos should have extreme ranges, they can be fired, and sustain, at warp speeds. Beam arrays should be the next longest followed by banks and then cannons. Maybe something along the lines of 30km for torps, 25km beams, 20km banks and 10km cannon.
I think that this would bring up some interesting tactics in PvP and would allow, support ships to stay at the back. I can also see a distinct benefit in PvE side of things.
If this is coupled with a tweak to each of the weapons so that they have trouble targetting closer ships ie, Beams have higher chance to hit targets at 10km, this could be a very interesting change to the game.
Any case, if any one would like to chime in, discuss.
Regards,
My biggest gripe in space combat has always been the range of weapons. 10km is an extremely close range in star trek. In fact the Picard maneuver can only realy work from a distance of 1 light second, approximately 300k km distance.
Whilst this would be more realistic from a canon perspective I am not suggesting Cryptic up the range to 300km.
What I am suggesting is a slight increase but not across the board. I believe that torpedos should have extreme ranges, they can be fired, and sustain, at warp speeds. Beam arrays should be the next longest followed by banks and then cannons. Maybe something along the lines of 30km for torps, 25km beams, 20km banks and 10km cannon.
I think that this would bring up some interesting tactics in PvP and would allow, support ships to stay at the back. I can also see a distinct benefit in PvE side of things.
If this is coupled with a tweak to each of the weapons so that they have trouble targetting closer ships ie, Beams have higher chance to hit targets at 10km, this could be a very interesting change to the game.
Any case, if any one would like to chime in, discuss.
Regards,
Post edited by berniestompa on
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Comments
The current range limit of 10 km is only part of the situation.
DHC's experience a dropoff in DPS after 2 km from target, and beams from 4km
10 km is not just the maximum targetable range, but also the point at which you may as well be
shooting blanks.
If you get an increase in range, I'd be looking for an increase in speed, to be able to close to optimum DPS range in shorter time.
Make torpedo launched at the suggested 30km more easier to dodge/miss than those fired at 10.
Beam banks does more damage close up.
Well I would think that the drop off in damage/hit chance should be alot less than wha you are suggesting. However, the skills that are already in place to make you harder to hit should be looked at.
I do think that projectiles should be much easier to hit with at longer range. At longer ranges the projectile has more time to make adjustments to its course, where as close in this time would be decreased dramatically.
The direct counter to this being that the farther away a projectile, the more time it's target has to dodge. Again harder to do from closer in.
And unless you have the damage and accuracy drop-off that are extreme like that, this game will soon become just cruisers using BAs and TBRs, or sci torp boats doing the same thing, only with maxed out Aux, since torps don't use weapons power. Imagine a FRSV using TBR1, 2, and 3 armed with 3 purple proj weapons officers and transphasics/quantums. You will never even come close to touching that. Ever. Completely removing the ability to use DHCs and any other weapon with range shorter than that.
They may have talked about weapons having thousands of kilometers' range in ST, but we still see the ships fighting in visual range all the time. This is because shooting into empty space is boring.
In the Armada games, Steamrunners are long range siege ships.
So give them one fore weapon slot where if the player equip a torpedo there, it will gain higher accuracy when snipping a target, but it will have a longer cool down time for 'recalculating targeting sensor.'
i also think the distances are too much, cut cannons down to 6 km, beams 10, torps 15...like that combat stays within a less than 18 km radius
the 10 km for cannons feel strange anyway, when the shots start to follow the target
at a maximum range of only 6, that wouldn't happen too much. Also escorts would allways need to be in the deadly zone of an NPC (ESTFs) and therefore need a tank/healer to back them up.
PS: further an speed increase for all torpedos would be needed...otherwise you may windup overtaking each and every torpedo you fired.
I like the idea of range reduction for cannons.
I also think this would be an opportunity to look at how the weapon beams/energy/projectiles travel. Torpedoes track targets, so do phasers (i think, seeing as they don't really have a travel time they're that fast). But one of my main graphical gripes with the game is when you launch a cannon volley, the target is moved using photonic shockwave or whatever, and the cannon shots follow. They should travel in a straight line, and if your target moves, well then they dodge them. Meaning that from far away, cannons should be completely useless.
I can see this adding a massive dynamic to the game, and therefore could see why the devs wouldn't look at it, it would be a drastic undertaking.
Just my 2 pence
Torpedoes have tracking devices so they should always be more accurate that cannons.
For cannons I'd personally limit the range based on the arc, so dual and dual heavy cannons would have more range than single cannons and turrets.
Personally I'd rather see cannons fire "realistically"; instead of hit or miss essentially being decided in advance, the accuracy would determine how well the cannon can lead (aim ahead of) its target. So while cannons may still have a good max range they wouldn't be as effective at extreme range since they'd miss more often if the enemy changes direction. Maybe with a small damage buff to compensate if it proves too big a change. Abilities like scatter shot would function as normal.
Ranges could be a great way to differentiate some ships; for example, there is a ton of discussion about the Dreadnought Cruiser, but if ranges were involved then a boost to weapon range could make a big difference to its offensive capabilities.
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